Hi! ! Welcome to another recap of Season Two of Woke, the show based on Keith Knight‘s comix. In the previous episode, Keef (Lamorne Morris) started down a path of being a lying liar, and Ayana (Sasheer Zamata) threw a rent party to save The Bay Arean. Keep in mind, this recap of Woke Season Two, Episode Six, “Black Exceptionalism” is exceptionally spoilery.
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“Do you want to be bullet-proof?” / “I think all Black folx would like to be bullet-proof”
We open with Keef meeting Denny (Billy Magnussen), who is his new publicist. He needs one badly after that incident last episode. Luckily Laura (Aimee Garcia) or Denny, I’m not sure, was able to get Darque Noir’s (Nathan Lee Graham) stunt of an episode pulled.
Denny promises Keef infinite power, including access to Oprah.
At the apartment, Clovis (T. Murph) is taking some pix of the shoes he’s got on sale while Ayana pokes fun at him. Then their phones ding, as well as Gunther’s (Blake Anderson). Keef has invited them to a party that he’s throwing in honor of himself, for, as Ayana puts it, “being exceptionally Black.”
When they get to the party, the friends can’t help but notice that Keef’s face is all over the place. In one picture, he “looks like Malcolm Y?” In another, like he’s “had a growth spurt and gotten a gym membership.”
So, also, the mayor is supposed to be at this party and that’s like the number one thing Keef can focus on. Denny tries to distract from that by saying he’s arranged Luna Johnson (Laiyana Zo Davis) to present him his award. She owned Denny a favor. Umm gross. What kinda favor could a 10-year-old Black child owe a grown white man?
“I need you to take a photo with the Jesus of Nazareth African bespoke choir of Oakland”
Denny has insisted Ayana and Laura accompany Keef at the VIP table since both women were fundamental to his success, but then he pulls Keef away to perform honoree duties, leaving Ayana and Laura alone. Keef tells them to bond over how annoying they find him.
Meanwhile, Clovis, Hype (Marquita Goings) and Gunther are seated away in a faraway corner. They’re bemoaning how corporate and shallow the whole thing feels. Gunther excuses himself.
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Man, their table is so far away, Keef’s friends can’t even get the attention of the caterers. So, Clovis decides they’re gonna move, even if it means he’s got to revert to some of his old ways.
Over at the step and repeat, Keef’s cut-out starts talking to him in a terrible Aussie-British accent and tells him not to second-guess himself.
Then, Gunther heads to someplace called the “Area of Refuge,” which is really just a stairwell. He gets locked in with one of the cater waiters (Chase Anderson), who is freaking out about having been there for the last hour. Gunther just lights up a joint.
At their table, Laura looks at the menu and asks Ayana if she’ll be having the “Fettuccini Al Sharpton” or the “Chicken a la Gayle King.” And yes, that is really written on their menus. The chicken comes with a side of “Okra Winfrey.” I can’t. Neither can Laura.
Ayana is surprised; she thought Laura was behind this whole thing. Nope, she just invested in it after Keef and his publicist decided to do it.
“She said she was gonna leave it early, but her little crush showed up.”
Shockingly, Luna has canceled on Keef, ’cause it’s her birthday party or something. Keef tells Denny he better fix this STAT.
Next, Clovis is enjoying a salad when a lady, Dawn (Bethany Geaber) comes up to ask if he’s Dr. Nicolas Haus. Why of course he is! Marvelous! His fan has so many questions about his book.
Back with Ayana and Laura, our two frenemies (soon to be lovers 🤞?) are discussing the fact that Ayana graduated summa cum laude and got into Hastings Law, but turned it down.
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Keef interrupts their bonding time to ask if they know any famous Black activists who could be at his award ceremony ASAP. Ayana pitches Stacey Dash and Laura mentions she once met Candace Owens. Keef regrets getting them to play nice.
Over in the stairwell, Gunther’s having a grand ole time escaping the chaos of the IRL. The cater waiter? Not so much. Just then, another cater waiter, Vicky (Rainy Silva), gets caught in the void with them.
Out in the chaos, Keef tweets some snark about Luna (again, a literal 10-year-old) then deletes it. Also, Twitter is blowing up with rumors about 5G in Keef’s shoes. Denny laughs and says it’s ’cause of Laura’s tech company, Sunlink. And, apparently, Denny was the person who started the Twitter cancelation train? To drum up publicity?
“The most fulfilling aspect of my book is gonna have to be chapter 15 for me, Dawn.”
Oh my, Dawn eats up everything Clovis serves her, even though the Dr. Nicolas Haus book she owns has five fewer chapters than the one Clovis apparently wrote. Dawn promises to read his new s***.
Then, she turns to Hype and asks if she is a doctor, like her husband. Hype corrects her; she is not Mrs. Haus, but the mistress of Haus. The real Dr. Haus shows up and takes his seat, so Clovis and Hype skedaddle. Just gonna ignore the inanity of this storyline.
Also, Hype finds the whole “mistress” thing hot because when you’re poly, everyone’s your partner. She wants to playact some more …
Luna shows up! Keef is shocked, but Denny pulls him aside to rip him a new one. He can’t believe he posted about her, but Keef’s all but I deleted it. Oh my god, Keef.
Denny tells Keef he’d told him he’d handle the situation, and he had, by pulling some strings to get Luna hooked up with her crush in what is a v cute little coupling. Unfortunately, Keef’s messed it all up by dragging her on social, and now she won’t go on stage unless Keef donates $20,000 to her foundation.
Keef doesn’t have any money left. He’s literally spent all of his on this party and expanding to the East Bay. Ugh.
“It takes a pushy b**** to know a pushy b****.”
Meanwhile, Ayana is telling Laura about how she set up her distribution work for the unhoused at The Bay Arean. Laura offers to put Ayana in contact with someone at city hall about a community outreach position. Ayana’s not interested because politics isn’t her thing. Right.
Laura didn’t mean to come off so pushy, it’s just that she really admires Ayana’s work. And then Denny told Laura Keef was leaving The Bay Arean and about her other struggles, so she thought Ayana might be ready to try something else. Whoops. Ayana excuses herself.
Next, Keef is sucking up to Luna, but she says according to the NDA she signed, this is the first time they’ve met. Then, Ayana comes up to tell Keef she’s leaving because she “doesn’t like to do things that affect other people without letting them know.” Keef doesn’t get what she’s saying, not at all subtly, between the lines.
Keef follows her out and asks if she got into a fight with Laura. She asks him why he didn’t tell her he’s pulling his strip. He plays it off, saying it’s not even official, it’s just that Denny thought — Ayana cuts him off, tells him to stop blaming others for his own decisions.
Oh, Keef. His defensiveness turns vicious, and he asks Ayana if she’d rather he’d kept struggling, just ’cause she is. For a second, she’s shocked, and then this exchange happens:
Ayana: You know what, f*** you.
Keef: F*** me? Why? Is it because you’re mad I’m actually out in the world doing stuff, while you’re, I don’t know, writing about it?
Ayana: Are you kidding me? What happened to ‘I wouldn’t be here without you’?
Keef: Well, I wouldn’t. I get it. I would not be here without you. But for how long am I supposed to stay there? Forever? I stayed with The Bay Arean this long out of loyalty.
That was rough. You know, we’re three-quarters of the way through the season now, and it really does just seem to be about The Fall of Keef. What set him up to fail, though? Is this a statement on this particular human, or a comment on modern activism in general?
“This is not activism!”
To that point, Ayana goes up to Keef’s smiling cutout and declares it and KKP’s shoes “not activism,” then she punches it and rips it up while yelling that she’s not an Angry Black Woman, but a Black woman who happens to be angry.
Keef tells her that she may think he’s selfish, but she only ever sees things from her own perspective. Then, he heads back in to get his award and photo with Luna.
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The night’s over and Keef feels all alone, he just wants to find Ayana. He even leaves his award at the venue.
Oh goodness, it seems Gunther’s gone and started a cult (again?). He tells his ever-growing body of converts that taking a breath is the only way to relax. Vicky takes a deep breath and says, “F*** my fiancé.”
Next, Keef enters the Area of Refuge. He wants to know what’s going on. Gunther says he started a religion. Keef doesn’t have time for that; he has calls to make. One of Gunther’s followers warns that there’s no signal in the stairwell.
OH YES, THERE IS. Notifications go off! Tweets about 5G swim around Keef’s head. “F***,” he cries as he takes off his shoes and runs away. Gunther follows.
“Wolfgang F***”
They run into the kitchen where Clovis is going down on Hype. Keef gets out a knife. Turns out, longevity wasn’t the reason for those shoes’ thick soles. There really is 5G in the shoes.
That was a turn I was not expecting. I mean, I know GPS shoes are a thing, but this is a whole ‘nother level of messed up. I want to trust that there’s a point in all of this. As of right now, I’m getting a little depressed — is there any point to activism?
If I could have one more wish fulfilled … I’d really like to see Clovis and Gunther more involved in the season’s overall plot. I mean, as cute as Hype and Clovis are, what was the actual story of their scenes in this episode? As for Gunther … I swear I’ve already watched this storyline?
RELATED: Read all Woke recaps here!
Thanks for joining me as I recap Season Two of Woke, here on Geek Girl Authority!
Season Two of Woke is streaming on Hulu now.
https://www.geekgirlauthority.com/18-black-female-tv-characters-we-love-and-support/
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