'The Haves and the Have Nots' Season 7 Episode 13 Review: Who is Alissa, what are her plans with Benny?
Spoilers for 'The Haves and the Have Nots' Season 7 Episode 13 'Fine Together'
With the second half of its Season 7 premiering just last week, fans of Tyler Perry's hit soap opera were left more than just confused. A whole slew of new characters marching in the riches and splurges of the Cryers and their many indiscretions just didn't seem right. Neither could we register who they were to begin with. Would they fit into the world of the haves? Were they accomplices of the have nots?
Questions galore about what these characters could mean for the show's original characters and their future on the series — the most prominent those about this random woman Alissa who appeared out of nowhere. Episodes 11 and 12 — the double episode midseason premiere — saw Alissa trying to get real close to Derek David, to the point where she uses pity and sympathy to get close to him and shed her modesty right then and there outside David's house. While David isn't all that squeaky clean a character, that he has suspicions around this woman comes off as alarming — raising concerns around the gullible Benjamin aka Benny Young relying on Alissa's help in Episode 13 to get ahead in his vendetta.
Titled 'Fine Together', Episode 13 kicks off with some good old banter between the now incarcerated matriarchs — Mama Rose and Katherine Cryer. Talking about Kathryn's son Wyatt, the Malone kingpin dishes on Wyatt Cryer's latest woes where he slit his wrist in custody and was subsequently hospitalized. The episode also sees Wyatt break out of hospital custody and break into the Cryer mansion, but that's a development expected to unfold in much more vivid detail in the next episode. At the end of the episode, the cops interrogate his dad Jim Cryer about the CCTV footage showing the suspect breaking into his house, and while he claims to not be able to identify the person, he does call David immediately after to seek his help ensuring Wyatt's safety.
But before all of that can be explored, there's this very interesting and somewhat second-hand embarrassing subplot going on with the new woman in town — Alissa. She had arrived at David's house in the midseason premiere claiming to be Erica's friend, offering more than just a shoulder to cry on. A thirst trap personified, there isn't a single scene where Alissa is present and not desperately craving for sex. It doesn't matter where or when, let alone who she just wants to get laid with. David, suspicious of this sudden ooze of generosity from a total stranger, drags her to his ex Veronica's house, who in the meantime has been trying to squeeze a visiting Benny into her bedroom.
Veronica is cold as ever as David accuses she had sent the 'hooker' Alissa to spy on him or whatever, furthering the belief that the characters on this show are either smoking some supreme bud or just hooked on crack. It's difficult to keep things this twisted and entertaining, and while due nod goes to the writers for weaving new hilarity from thin air and for Angelica Robinson to be the cutthroat ice queen she is as Veronica, one can't quite the shrug what transpires next between Benny and Alissa. Having newly found out about Derek David raping his mother Hanna, the thirst for vengeance in Benny is stronger than Alissa's for sex with men in power. So he offers a desperate Alissa, who's stranded at Veronica's home, a ride after she promises to help him regarding whatever information he is trying to dig out.
Alissa claims she is one of Candace's 'girls', claiming Benny's sister used to be her pimp, thus earning Benny's trust or alliance if you will the same way she had tried to weasel into David's life claiming to be Erica's friend. There is a pattern one can't deny and although she takes him to a friend of hers who can probably give Benny all the dirt he seeks, how easily the dominoes are falling in Benny's favor only pricks into mind that perhaps David was right in not trusting the woman-out-of-the-blue at all.
Veronica's harsh words ("Oh, this is pathetic" and "Bye li'l s**t") prove Alissa is most definitely not her pawn; or was it just a facade they are fronting for a bigger plan? Alissa's desperation getting shaded in the form of Benny telling her "think about not being so thirsty all the time" is testimony to the two of them not having a mutual agenda either. Then who is she working for? And what part will she play in the tumbling down of empires? Too many questions and Benny's blind reliance clearly doesn't the answer convincing enough.
'The Haves and the Have Nots' airs on Tuesdays at 8/7c only on OWN.