It’s worth noting that Episode 8 of Beauty in Black is only the ending of Part 1. There are another eight episodes to come, more of the story to be told, and while I still can’t fathom what we’ve done to deserve such a thing, this is nonetheless where we are.
At the very least Tyler Perry’s show had the decency to conclude Part 1 with a flurry of developments in a clear turning-point moment, hopefully implying that Part 2 will be a little bit better. But I suspect that’s slightly too ambitious, since how much better can this show be? We’ll see.
In the meantime, let’s unpack the climax.
The Particulars
Beauty in Black revolves around Kimmie, a stripper who was kicked out of the house by her mother at 18 so she wasn’t too much of a temptation for her predatory boyfriend and has since been trapped in a never-ending debt to Jules. To escape her circumstances – and particularly the temperamental Roy, a client she’s saddled with – she applies for a scholarship at Beauty in Black, where Jules is the head of security.
Now, Beauty in Black is a highly successful haircare brand run by Mallory, who comes from humble beginnings but has married into money and is determined to ruthlessly keep hold of her station while maintaining her public image. This image is threatened by various controversies and lawsuits, including some cancer-causing relaxers, and her husband is Roy, Kimmie’s client.
After finding out about Roy’s infidelity through Kimmie, Mallory accidentally runs over a woman on the private road to her mansion. Leaving the body behind, Roy subsequently does the same and tries to hide the evidence. The woman is Ina, the husband of Beauty in Black’s co-owner Norman, the brother of Horace, Jules’s boss. It’s a real family affair.
Speaking of Horace, he’s also grappling with his sexuality, which Kimmie is a confidante in. Kimmie’s best friend Rain is hospitalized due to some dodgy plastic surgery and left to essentially rot in the hospital by the club and the queen bee stripper, Body, who is threatened by Kimmie. There’s a lot going on here.
The Robbery
Kimmie makes a lot of assumptions about Horace, including that he’s in cahoots with Jules and that he deliberately left Rain to die. This compels Kimmie to join in on a scheme with Angel to rob him.
This goes awry when a different group of armed men burst in and try to force Horace to open his safe. He’s able to use a gun to take them all out, but Kimmie and Angel give away that Jules has teamed up with Norman and is running illegal operations without his knowledge.
Kimmie and Angel decide not to touch Horace’s money. They also learn that Rain is still alive after all and has been moved to a nicer hospital. Horace asks Jules if he knows Harold Collins, someone he and Norman knew back in the day, and later calls Harold himself.
Beauty in Black Still | Image via Netflix
Is Charles Dead Or Alive?
When Charles’s distinctive yellow Lambo is shot to bits and blown up on the private road where Mallory and then Roy knocked Ina down, the logical assumption is that Charles is dead. However, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest he’s alive and that it was someone else in the car.
Charles had driven to the strip club to pick someone up and been escorted out inebriated, without his belongings. His car could have quite easily been stolen, and someone else could have been in the driver’s seat. It’s likely that Charles’s fate would have been made very clear otherwise. In classic mystery-thriller fashion, the ambiguity is basically a guarantee that this is a fake-out.
Body Blow
Beauty in Black Part 1 ends with another sudden calamity. When Kimmie and Angel return to the motel after seeing Rain, they find Body there with Kimmie’s little sister, Sylvie, who she has kidnapped and is trying to force into the industry. Body hates Kimmie and is supremely threatened by her, willing to use any angle she can to wound and control her.
But Kimmie isn’t having that. While Sylvie is taken away by Body’s friends, Kimmie crashes a car into Body, which doesn’t quite kill her but leaves her badly wounded. It’s clearly a statement being made and raises the stakes for Part 2, which still has plenty of threads to pick up on.
