Hi there! In the Season Two opener of Woke, the show based on Keith Knight‘s comix, Keef (Lamorne Morris) learned just how hard it is to be an activist, and Clovis (T. Murph) thought a six-pack was all it took to get a girlfriend. Beware, this recap of Woke Season Two, Episode Two “Free at Last” contains spoilers.
RELATED: Woke Season Premiere Recap: (S0201) A Knight in the Park
“The K-mob”
We open at a bar, where Keef, Ayana (Sasheer Zamata) and Gunther (Blake Anderson) are enjoying some free beer. Apparently, Keef started this thing called Black Friday (not that one) to support Black-owned businesses. Ayana’s a little skeptical of the whole thing, as is her way. I mean, the dude is using his social media clout to lift up other Black people. Is it so bad that the owner of the bar might wanna give him a beer?
While they’re arguing about what Keef’s fans should be called, Clovis joins them, moaning about how he’s still not able to get a girlfriend. As they’re looking at Clovis’s dating profile to lend him a hand, a terrible ad pops up.
The ad features a cartoon version of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr proclaiming, “Thank God WiFi is free at last.” Animated MLK comes to life and asks Keef what’s next? A Malcolm X–Box, a Maya Ange-loubricant? Oh no.
Keef peaces out, saying his fans must know about these shenanigans.
“There’s plenty of room in The Burger Keef Kids’ Club”
Keef live streams to his fans, while Ayana offers words of grudging respect (not to his face, though).
Meanwhile, Clovis still doesn’t get why he’s not getting any matches on dating sites. Gunther offers to pose with him since he’s “weirdly popular with Black women.” Clovis declines.
Then, Gunther passes a plant on a bench. Attached to its pot is a sign that says “I need a home.” Gunther cannot understand why anyone would throw away a perfectly good plant. Who knows? But I’m sure we’ll find out.
Clovis and Ayana arrive at her newspaper, The Bay Arean, and he’s still talking her ear off about his love life. She tries to switch the conversation to her staffing problems — SF is too damn expensive to keep anyone around. It’s true!
RELATED: 18 Black Female TV Characters We Love and Support
Clovis loses interest quickly because he smells something. New Nikes! Ruh-roh. Ayana got new shoes from someone else?! He uses the word cheating, and she insists that’s incorrect terminology. Besides, she says, he’s not the only plugin town. She bought these shoes from a woman named Hype (Marquita Goings).
Well, says Clovis, he’s going to return these shoes to Hype, find Ayana a new pair and sell them back to her for $40 cheaper. Clovis really values customer loyalty.
“Breath feeding”
Back home, Keef is drawing reactions to this MLK-WiFi ad. His fans have varying reactions of their own, from positive to negative. Some are just like, if MLK came back to life, he’d be a zombie. Variety is the spice of life, you know.
In the living room, Clovis is polishing the Nikes, while Gunther polishes the plant pot. Gunther’s shirt is revealing a lot here, y’all, just sayin’. Gunther is relieved when Clovis doesn’t want backup at Hype’s. Not because he’s nervous, but because he doesn’t want to leave his new plant baby at home. That’s troubling.
Keef walks in. The company behind the MLK WiFi ad has contacted him. They want to meet with him and get a better understanding of where they “went wrong 🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿.”
The trio is skeptical, but ultimately think the message is a good thing; Keef got what he wanted in the end. He decides he’s gonna go meet with them, and Gunther says he’ll join him. But first, he’s gotta put the plant down for a nap. Ohhh. Oh no. This is …
Keef doesn’t know what Gunther could possibly add to the conversation, as he is a grown man nursing a plant. Gunther concedes the truth in that statement, then asks if his friends would mind him “breath feeding.” Plants need Co2, which Gunther seems to think comes from our tongues … and our breasts?
Clovis gets to Hype’s. He tells her he doesn’t have an appointment, just a personal code of ethics. It doesn’t matter, by that introduction alone, she knows who he is. Ayana warned her, of course. So, Hype sends him packing.
“Put the first down.”
At Keef’s meeting, the White Marketing Team say they used MLK to grab people’s attention since they are offering free WIFi in “under-serviced areas.”
Keef asks the duo if they even got permission to use MLK’s image. The White Woman Marketer (Emily Dunlop) seems embarrassed that they didn’t, but the White Man Marketer, Dave (Andy Cohen), laughs that it’s not necessary. He goes on to say that Steve Jobs even used the Dalai Lama in an ad campaign years ago. Uh-huh. Keef points out that white people used to do Vaudeville in Black face … would they like to do that too?
Dave argues that he knows *whisper* Black face is bad, but that their ad campaign is not that. Further, their test audience, comprised of their junior executive, Sandeep (Farooq Qureshi), responded positively to the campaign. The camera pans to Sandeep, who blinks “help” to Keef in morse code.
RELATED: Top 5 Independent Comics Publishers
The white marketers are shocked, shocked that Sandeep would feel compelled to lie. The company values his opinion and told him so during their diversity workshop. Keef assures the little whiteboard in front of him that people of color generally don’t feel comfortable speaking out in front of their white coworkers. Oh, and diversity workshops are often ineffective.
Back at the newspaper, Ayana has an array of wines on her desk and is writing an article called “Wokest Wines” when Clovis comes back. She laughs at his limp; she knew Hype would “f*** him up.” Umm, scratch the up.
“I’m talking SEX, all caps!”
Ayana already knew that Hype was into men and women, but she didn’t think Hype’d be into someone like Clovis. He was surprised too; he’d gone over there to expose her as a fraud, but she knew her stuff.
The weird part, for Clovis anyway, was that after they hooked up, they laid in bed, talking and either spooning or scissoring (he’s not clear on his terminology), for hours. That is not what normally happens when he hooks up.
Ayana thinks maybe it’s because he’s acting cool and less like a tool. And he and Hype have stuff in common. Then, Ayana wants him to help her with her wine review. Too bad Clovis still has other tastes in his mouth.
Oh no! Back at the apartment, Gunther is full-on nesting with the plants he’s found all over the city. He wonders if there are shelters for abandoned plants like there are for stray animals. Keef wonders if all the plants need to be on the breakfast table and if Gunther must water them while Keef’s eating his cereal.
Gunther likens the plant situation to Keef’s WiFi battle — someone had to stand up for the cause. You see, these are plants that people got during the lockdown and then just threw out once they had to stop working from home. Oh, Gunther, be careful, that urge you have? That’s why I have three dogs.
“F*** Dave Up!”
Shockingly, Sifar Media, the company that Keef met with misrepresents their meeting to the media. They issue a press release that on Keef’s recommendation, they’ll be closing their offices for a “racial bias education day.” But the truth is, Keef told them to hire more people of color.
Gunther wants to know what Keef plans to do. He’s not giving them any more free advice to spin to their advantage. Nope, this time he’s gonna “f*** Dave up.” The musical chorus repeating that refrain was a nice touch, show.
When Keef gets to Sifar Media, he comes upon Dave and the company’s majority shareholder, Laura Salgado (Aimee Garcia), who is Latina. She is not pleased that Dave published that press release without Keef’s permission and she pulls her funding. Laura wants to talk with Keef.
RELATED: Geek Girl Authority Crush of the Week: Ella Lopez
Next, Ayana has called Clovis to The Bay Area again. She bestows him with a pair of Nikes, from Hype. He cannot understand why she’d give him a pair of shoes! They’ve already hooked up. Ayana’s like umm duh, she wants to do it again. For all his whining about not meeting women, Clovis doesn’t do second dates. Ayana insists that he’d better not ghost her friend, so he’s gotta call her to say he doesn’t wanna go for round two.
“How much spice can you take?” “Uh, water.”
Laura and Keef are at a taqueria, and she’s super friendly with their waiter. Keef laughs sardonically at her behavior, saying “Yeah, yeah, the fancy venture capitalist takes me to some amazing hole-in-the-wall taqueria, speaks to the owner in Spanish. I see what you’re doing.”
The owner is Laura’s dad. While Keef may have had preconceived notions about Laura, she’s not a trust-fund kid. She worked her butt off, got scholarships, traded stocks — achieved the so-called American dream. Now, she does work she cares about and invests in smaller businesses.
This lunch they’re having is a peace offering. Yes, Laura has cut her ties with Sifar, but she still wants to make things up to Keef. Not that she reads comics or anything. Laura starts talking to him about how unfair it was that Toast & Butter got taken away from him. She knows some people …
Keef stops Laura. He knows what she’s doing! She just wants to shut him up. He takes off, with the tacos and her parents’ restaurant’s plate. Laura is left speechless. Same, same.
Next, Clovis is back at Hype’s door. She answers, with a red licorice piece in her mouth. He’s come to bring her back the shoes, but y’all know what’s actually gonna happen. I mean …
“You have the Queen La-Keefas”
Back in the apartment arboretum, Gunther’s started rescuing “abandoned” plants directly out of the dirt. Keef wants to know what’s wrong with his buddy.
Gunther feels lost. His friends have charged into the new things they have going for them, but Gunther doesn’t know what the next chapter of his life is. Keef tells him that charging ahead isn’t always the best thing, but Gunther recognizes that that’s Keef’s hurt talking.
Even still, Gunther’s gonna re-home some of his plant babies. Except for the rare corpse flower. Keef elects it to go first since apparently, it’s in bloom.
Knock knock! Oh look, it’s Laura at the apartment door! And no, she’s not stalking him; he sort of doxed himself via live stream. Laura again apologizes and asks Keef how she can make the situation right.
Cut to:
“What up, Keef Live Crew?”
Keef gets Laura to live stream with him. She launches into her spiel about her Latinx-owned company, Sunlink, which was working with Sifar to provide affordable WiFi to under-served communities. Laura raises great points about how lack of WiFi access maintains and widens education gaps. She’s here to make a difference, she says.
Keef stops her. If she wants to make a difference, why does she invest in the same things the Silicon Valley tech bros do? Why isn’t she investing back to the folx on the ground?
Then he makes what sounds like a fatal error. He said if he had money like hers, he’d be investing all his money back into the community until it was back down to zero. His fans love it.
But, Laura just asks him how much money he wants for his non-profit. She offers him $250,000 to do … something. Everyone is celebrating, but before they can sign off, Clovis runs in and says, “Guess who just ate p**** for the first time!?”
Then, Laura hands Keef a check and says after he ran out on her, she realized she should buy his voice, not his silence. Interesting. I had not gotten the impression she was trying to silence him. The caveat here? Keef can’t cash the check till he starts the project, so now he’s gotta learn how to do that!
Just like the pilot, I loved the individual moments of this episode and had fun watching it, but the episode’s arcs felt thin. At least for now though, we seem to have settled on what Keef is doing this season. And I do hope that the show finds some sort of continued growth for his friends. It’s nice.
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/melissa-fumero-aimee-garcia-marvel-m-o-d-o-k/
- Geek Girl Authority Crush of the Week: PRINCESS ZELDA - August 13, 2024
- Book Review: KEY LIME SKY - August 11, 2024
- Millennial Misremembers: BILL NYE THE SCIENCE GUY - August 6, 2024
