Being Mary Jane Season 4, Episode 14 Recap: Feeling Friendless

Mary Jane Paul is losing it. Perhaps it’s because Kara is upset or her man is currently across the country. Either way, she’s not doing so hot. This week’s episode opens on Mary Jane searching through Justin Talbot’s townhouse trying to find his passport. She also uses this as an opportunity to search through his stuff. She finds a box in his closet and takes it home to peruse its contents.

For once, Mary Jane’s family is acting more responsibly than she is. Niecy is attempting to make amends after bailing on cosmetology school and she actually sounds like she’s learned her lesson. Meanwhile, Patrick has been organizing Black Lives Matter rallies and is homeboys with Deray McKesson. After Niecy’s altercation with the police, I was wondering when the show was going to get more serious about contemporary issues. We care about Niecy’s baby daddy drama and Mary Jane’s latest conquest, but we also care about police brutality. What other show has that kind of range?

Back in NYC, Mary Jane blows up on the new addition to the team, Dani. This Tomi Lahren caricature made some off-color comments about Justin, and Mary Jane swooped in with her cape flowing in the wind to come to his rescue...and almost lost her job in the process. Mary Jane screamed at this girl and, honestly, she didn’t deserve it. Later on, she says some pretty racist things, but this time it wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t great, but it certainly didn’t warrant this killer speech Mary Jane rattled off:

“Excuse me, Dani. I’m sure a woman with your elite background doesn’t mean to suggest that Justin’s intelligence is attributed to his mother being white because that comment would be incendiary and flat out racist. I’m gonna go ahead and call bullshit. Not that his racial background is any of your concern but both of Justin Talbot’s parents are Black. Contrary to what your narrow mind might believe, white people don’t have a monopoly on unique eye color any more than they do on intelligence, which is a fact that you drive home on a regular basis. So the next time you get the urge to exercise free speech by unclogging that verbal diarrhea factory you call a mouth and spewing your partisan bullshit all over this studio, do us all a favor and shut the hell up, you ill-mannered, overprivileged, undereducated simpleton. Shut up!”

Dang, Mary Jane. You save words like “incendiary” and “verbal diarrhea factory” for when they insult your mom, not your distant boo.

Anyway, as a punishment, Mary Jane is forced to throw a housewarming party and invite the entire Good Day, USA crew, including Dani. She’s stubborn, but PR goddess Aaliyah convinces her. Can I just say how refreshing it is to see two Black women supporting one another on this show?

The next morning, Mary Jane does the unthinkable: apologizes. She addresses the entire room and begs forgiveness for her lack of inclusion. It hurts to watch this. I did admit that Dani’s comment wasn’t bad, but this one hurts for every single time any woman has had to say sorry for sticking up for what’s right.

Later, we remember that even though Mary Jane is down for the cause, she isn’t without her biases. She suggests that Aaliyah doesn’t know anything about racism because she’s too young. That’s basically the same argument as saying someone doesn't understand racism because they have lighter skin or more money. The first step of atonement is watching the music video for Jay-Z’s “The Story of O.J.” The second is to remember that racism attacks any person of color in different ways, no matter what. We gotta stick together.

All episode long, Kara has been avoiding Mary Jane and Mary Jane has been doing sneaky things that will undoubtedly come back to bite her in the butt. Anyone else weirdly on edge while watching this show? To fill Kara’s void, MJ has been hanging out with Ty, the hairstylist. He’s basically her new Mark — a cute, Black, gay voice of reason. She and Ty try to organize Justin’s stuff from that box MJ stole. She finds a weird bag of stockings and a cute card from an ill child Justin helped get surgery. Not sure if the pros outweigh the cons. MJ has gone out of her way to prove that she has intimacy issues and ends up getting rid of the box the next day.

It turns out that Patrick has been hiding all of his Black Lives Matter activism from Niecy. She’s kind of bummed out about it, but they share an honest moment and actually communicate their feelings. I’m so proud. It’s like I raised them myself. After Niecy attends one her father’s speeches at the Atlanta City Council, she goes back to Claudia’s hair salon and gets a job! It turns out that all of her self-pity was kind of just a reflection of how she felt about her father. Now that he’s getting his life together, she feels empowered enough to get hers right.

Dani shows up to MJ’s housewarming with a gaggle of white people, one of whom is wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat. It clashes with Mary Jane’s party theme of “Not Losing Her Mind.” After a gripping conversation in which Dani is shocked that MJ can afford her loft and asks if her real name is something exotic, MJ is caught flipping her off by a photographer paid to capture the camaraderie between the Good Day, USA staff. Picture perfect.

PR goddess Aaliyah offers to get the stubborn photographer a better gig than the ones he’s working now and he deletes the photo. I can’t say enough good things about Aaliyah, but I do miss the days when Mary Jane could solve anything. Now, I’m simultaneously worried and excited for her.

In the middle of her party, Mary Jane receives a text from Kara’s son, Max, who she had been bugging for info on what’s been going on with Kara. He replies that Kara is at the hospital and Mary Jane leaves to find Kara. The two BFFs share a really sweet moment while Kara is distraught. I wonder what this will change about their recent break up. Back home, MJ asks Aaliyah to be her friend which means she might still have her doubts about Kara’s forgiveness.

Finally, MJ sips her morning coffee while trying to resist a rogue envelope from Justin’s box. It clearly doesn’t work. She opens it and it reveals that Justin has over $30 million in the bank. Well, if he’s not rich, can he really be a suitable man for Mary Jane? Go, MJ.