‘She the People’ Part 1 Ending Explained – A Major Cliffhanger Tees Up Season 2

You know when a show is released in two parts – as is the case with Tyler Perry’s She the People – that the “ending” is really the halfway point, which is very much the case with Episode 8, “Standing On Business”. It’s a nice culmination of Antoinette’s character growth until this point rather than a big narrative payoff, but Part 2 isn’t far away, so that’s probably what everyone expected.

There’s plenty of drama going on in the Capitol Building, at the very least, and Governor Harper’s heart attack will hardly smooth things over. I’m not sure on the ethics of saying someone deserves a heart attack, by the way, but all I’m saying is the thought definitely struck me. And it won’t necessarily work out for Antoinette, either. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Since there isn’t a great deal to break down here plot-wise, the meat and potatoes of this finale is what it all means thematically, and it doesn’t take a genius to work out that the principal theme here is change. It’s obviously time for change politically, which Antoinette has realized, bringing in Kelly and steeling herself to fight back against Governor Harper’s nonsense. But it’s worth reiterating that change comes at a cost.

Antoinette’s friends are with her, but her kids aren’t, especially given the whole booty shorts issue. Is the sacrifice worth it? Is delaying the necessary conversations with her family the right thing to do as long as it facilitates the necessary conversations about the pipeline? Is this the right show to be asking these questions about? Probably not.

Jade Novah and Terri J. Vaughn in She the People | Image via Netflix

But the questions are there in the margins nonetheless. With Antoinette and Kelly ready to take over the Capitol’s entire staff and accusations of it being “a race thing” floating around, it’s worth acknowledging the bigger ideas if there’s not much time or space to really dig into them (in much the same way that there isn’t much time and space to feature any meaningful subplots about the supporting characters beyond Antoinette.)

And it’s very much deliberate political commentary that Governor Harper’s whole thing is that Antoinette should just publicly agree with whatever he says, up to and including delivering a pre-written speech. You can tell that the idea of her not doing this hasn’t really crossed his mind; it’s simply how politics works, or at least has worked for so long that it’s difficult to imagine any other way. Harper’s a cartoonish figure in his obvious racism and outdated ideas, but he’s nonetheless symbolic of countless old racists just like him who still walk the corridors of power in Western society. The finale is framed in a way that Antoinette is going up against Harper directly because she’s explicitly countering his claims and opposing his position on the pipeline, but Harper is symptomatic of a larger issue.

Harper and Antoinette’s back and forth on the podium, with the assembled press asking antagonizing questions, is the centrepiece of She the People’s ending, but it’s not strictly about the conflict or the politics but about Antoinette finally standing up for herself. Harper can’t take it, and in his frustration, some worryingly choice language comes out, exposing his true ideology as the “master” of his domain (master! In 2025!).

This would all be a nice moment for Antoinette, and it has the fist-pumping quality of a good finale when she forcefully puts her points across, and when Harper finally hears her. But he steals the attention once again, though not necessarily through any fault of his own. As it turns out, chugging antacid isn’t enough to stave off a heart attack, and Part 1 of She the People ends with Harper collapsing and Antoinette having to consider if she just inadvertently killed the governor.

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