'P-Valley' Episode 2 Review: Corbin gifts Andre 'Autumn package' after trying to broker land deal for casino
If you are fanning yourself after that Episode 2 'finish', 'P-Valley' has you right where it wants you. We get to know a little more about the mysterious Andre who is smitten by the equally mysterious Autumn "Hailey" Night in this episode.
In doing so, we also get to know a little bit more about the town's racial legacy, how the money and power game is stacked in the town and the future that is coming all too soon. First, we get hit by just how large a debt Uncle Clifford has hanging on her head -- $55,000, not counting the change, and not a lot of time to come up with cash. We also find out why Andre Watkins is sniffing around the Pynk night club.
The future of Uncle Clifford and Pynk looks decidedly rocky because Andre is brokering the biggest land deal the town of Chucalissa has ever seen for the fancy 'The Promised Land' Casino and Resort. The landowners are the two legitimate 'White' sons of the late rich Johnny Kyle and his 'illegitimate' mixed-race son, Corbin, forever stuck between the Black and White worlds. Mostly ignored and denigrated throughout his life, Corbin is not willing to let go of the land so easily. While his 'brothers' want to sell and pocket their share of the 6 million, Corbin wants to lease the land to the casino so that he can live on the wealth his father left forever.
Unlike late Sr. Kyle's other two sons who have other sources of wealth, Corbin knows that his share of 6 million won't last very long. As Andre tries to get Corbin to sign off on the cash-only deal at the Pynk club, Autumn gets an earful of what is going down as she gives Andre and Corbin lap dances. Corbin 'gifts' Andre a private session with Autumn to bribe him. He wants Andre to help convince the casino proprietors to agree to a lease-only deal instead of a straight buy-out.
When Autumn divulges this information about a casino coming to town, Uncle Clifford is willing to look the other way and accept her fake "Lakeesha Savage" ID as long as she gets her more "tea". Andre is so smitten with Autumn that he doesn't hesitate to cut short his conversation with his wife back home to respond to Autumn's phone sex offer.
He doesn't know that the phone sex is just Autumn's way to deepen their connection so that she can make him "unseal" his lips more easily. Then comes the scene of Andre fantasizing that burns up the screen before the episode ends. Just like Mercedes' pole dance number in Episode 1, the phone sex scene is guaranteed to get people talking again.
The scene also shows that while there is genuine chemistry between Autumn and Andre, she is not above manipulating him. She is also very smart, giving him free advice on how to park his funds if he accepts kick-backs from Corbin.
Power, race, and money are leveraged in other ways in this episode. Kyle's two White boys are casually racist telling Andre "to pick some cotton" as a souvenir when he comes to get their signature on the land deed. They also resent having to share a penny of their inheritance with their "brother from another mother", and moan about how he spends their father's wealth on strippers and booze.
Corbin himself seems to traumatized from years of being called Kyle's illegitimate son whose mother was a Black maid. It manifests as needing to be whipped by the girls at Pynk, while being handcuffed and wearing a choke collar. It is all sorts of messed up and the women both sympathize with him and enable him for the cash he brings in.
Just like Corbin gets special treatment because he has money, the town's Black mayor turns up at the Pynk's car wash event to get free service because he has power. He threatens Uncle Clifford with some "nuisance" laws, showing that he routinely misuses what little power he has, even in petty ways. Similarly, Mercedes' mother, Patrice, might terrorize and shame Mercedes out of her "booty money" but it is because her own position depends on it.
The church's pastor uses a combination of veiled threats and cheap seduction to make Patrice realize that she needs to get more "offerings" from her daughter if she wants to keep going out on the pulpit. So when Mercedes asks for her 20 grand back from the "church's building fund" so that she can help Uncle Clifford and the club, Patrice narrows her eyes -- there is a big fight brewing on the horizon with these two. Especially since Mercedes will fight for Uncle Clifford, even if she is unable to fight for herself.
'P-Valley' aired at 8 PM ET on Starz.