NELLA: Previously, on The Other Black Girl...
MAISY: Nella, meet Hazel-May McCall, my new assistant.
- Wait, Burning Heart? This book is literally why I work at Wagner.
- Couple weeks after the book came out, Kendra Rae took her own life.
Broke my heart.
[electricity buzzing] [Kendra Rae screaming]
MALAIKA: Nella, you have to agree that this is mad weird.
You don't trust Hazel either.
- I'm the one you don't wanna fuck with.
NELLA: Richard is using Hazel to, like, recruit Black women
and turn them into pod people.
We just have to uncover it,
and then, we use your platform to go public.
- Bet. Let's get it.
- Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Mr. Jesse Watson.
HAZEL: You wanna know who's in charge?
It's right in front of you.
NELLA: Diana? It's you?
[tires screech] [Malaika screams]
[Nella screams]
[heavy breathing]
- Nella.
- Satan. [panting]
- These are way too tight. - What do you care?
- Just do what she says. Okay? Just take the grease.
- What? What are you-- What, what grease?
What are you talking about? - Nella!
DIANA: You still haven't figured it out?
♪ ominous music plays ♪
You're smarter than that, Nella. [chair scrapes on floor]
[chair clanks]
♪
What do you want, Nella?
- I wanna get the fuck outta here.
- Unfortunately, that's not on the table.
What else?
You wanna be an editor, right?
Because you wanna tell stories about Black people
that'll make the little girl inside of you feel less alone.
That's what you told me.
Well, I'm about to give you all of that.
Next week, when Ascendant announces the release of Jesse Watson's book,
we're going to change the world,
and you're gonna be right next to him
getting all the credit that you deserve.
- Wait, Jesse wrote a book in, like... three days?
- Well, his name will be on it,
but... this book has been worked on for years
by me and some of the greatest minds of our sisterhood.
And it's... it's brilliant.
It's going to change the way Black people feel about ourselves.
We just needed a spokesperson, and you gave him to us.
Someone who famously fought the system for years,
admitted he was wrong,
telling people to seek us out and join us.
And that's just the first step.
You'll have Wagner at your disposal.
People like us will have Wagner,
just like you wanted.
- I don't want it
if it means I can't look myself in the mirror.
- All that pain you feel about compromising,
it's weighing you down, Nella.
And they put it there. You gonna let them drown you?
You gonna let them choose your future?
The pain is what's holdin' us back.
And if we don't have that,
we can be whatever we wanna be.
- But the pain... is part of what makes us who we are.
- Do you hear how miserable that sounds?
[sighs] What do you say?
Are you ready to change your life?
- Diana?
- Yes, dear?
- Fuck you.
- Ladies.
Hazel.
- Shani. Hazel, don't. Please. - Hazel!
NELLA: Shani, don't do this.
Hazel, don't.
Hazel, please!
[taser zapping] [women screaming]
[taser zaps] [Hazel groans, thuds]
- What the fuck?
You look good.
- No, I don't, bitch.
[taser zaps] [Diana yelps, thuds]
- You're... dead.
- You know who I am? [Nella gasps]
- Kendra Rae Phillips. How?
- Come with me. Come on!
♪ tense, eerie theme music playing ♪
♪ upbeat talk show music playing ♪
[audience applauds]
CHELSEA: And we're back with two ladies
who are taking the literary world by storm.
Diana Gordon is the author of the hit new novel, Burning Heart,
and Kendra Rae Phillips is her editor.
And, get this, they grew up together.
AUDIENCE: Aw.
- Ladies, your book is a surprise number one bestseller.
Tell us how it all came together.
- I'd been struggling to tell Evie's story for years.
Kenny crystallized everything for me,
and then, of course, she took my book to Wagner.
- Where Richard Wagner took a chance on two African American women
with no experience.
You two must be so grateful to him.
- We are. He's a great man. [Kendra Rae laughs]
- And things were easy with you two?
I know if I was working with my best friend,
we would be scratching each other's eyes out.
[laughs] [audience laughs]
I am sorry, Marcia. It's true.
[laughter]
- Definitely. I got to work with someone who... means the world to me.
My sister.
AUDIENCE: Aw.
- Kendra Rae?
- We worked really hard.
This book was something I really cared about,
and that's why I'm here today.
- It's not perfect, but what is, right?
- What do you mean, "not perfect?"
- [chuckles] Yes, Diana, what do you mean?
Do you have any regrets?
- No.
- [quietly] Wow.
Okay. Well, I do.
- Kenny, please. It is-- - No, no. I'd rather have made nothing
than watch you lie to yourself.
- And if we would've done your ending, that's exactly what we would've made.
Nothing! [Kendra Rae scoffs]
What's the point of writing a book no one's gonna read?
- Being able to say you kept fighting!
Not doin' whatever dance white people tell you to do.
[crowd clamoring] - Ooh.
- Excuse me?
- I think this experience has taught me a very valuable lesson, Chelsea.
- And, uh, what's, what's that?
- I'd rather never work for the rest of my life
than be Richard Wagner's whore.
[crowd gasps]
[amped-up murmuring]
[mic feedback screeches] ♪ upbeat talk show music plays ♪
CHELSEA: Uh, coming up next, uh, Jazzercise.
Nobody's doing that, right? [chuckles]
After this break.
♪
KENDRA RAE: I was at the peak of my career
and she took everything from me.
Shani found me and told me Diana was after you--
Well, after you fought for my ending, I knew I had to save you.
NELLA: This really the only clothes they had?
- Well, it was that or "I heart guns."
You'll get used to gas station clothes.
If they find you, sometimes you have to run
with... just the Tigger t-shirt on your back.
- So, that's where you've been. Running.
- Richard and Diana tried to force me to sell my soul.
The system will always make you give up a part of yourself to succeed.
Don't you wanna stay true to yourself?
Everything you believe in. To never compromise.
To wake up every day... and think, "I'm free."
♪
Isn't that what you want?
Nella?
Isn't it?
- Yeah.
I want that.
- Proud of you.
Text your friends goodbye, give me your phone,
so I can run over it. - Wait, what?
Don't we have to go and stop Jesse's book?
No, no, no. I-I-I can't just-- I-I have to see my friends.
- You're not gonna like what ya see.
NURSE [over intercom]: Dr. Weber, dial 2422. Dr. Weber, 2422.
- This happened because of me.
- And it'll keep happening until you're in Idaho.
- What?
- I need to talk to Malaika.
Alone.
- Idaho? Wait, what did she mean by--
[indistinct chatter in hallway]
♪ tense music playing ♪
- Where did they go?
- I have my whole crew on it. We will find them.
DIANA: Your crew?
We're trying to catch her,
not get her to follow our wellness Instagram.
- No, we don't even need Nella.
- We just can't have her derail everything.
We'll just do what we did to Shani.
- No!
No, she will come around.
We'll fix it.
I will fix it.
- I know you will.
DIANA: She really doesn't have a choice.
If Nella isn't greased by the end of today,
Hazel is no longer part of our operation.
- I won't let you down.
- I guess we'll see.
♪
- Kendra Rae can't hurt us, Di, she's nothing.
I'll protect you. I always have.
Hey.
Look at everything you are.
Look at everything you have.
We made the right choice.
I'm more sure of it every day.
- I just need a moment.
♪ tense music continues ♪
- Okay.
[sighs]
- No! No.
Absolutely the fuck not. [bed motor whirs]
You, you are not running away-- Can this thing go any faster?
You're not running away.
Where is Owen?
- He's goin' to get ya Milk Duds to calm ya down.
[bed clicks into position]
- So, you're just gonna give up?
- To protect you both.
I mean, what am I supposed to do? Look what they did to you.
Kendra Rae is right, they're too powerful.
- Okay, I know you love her book or whatever, but she is not a hero.
She is just a person who needs to get her nails done.
- At least she's alive.
- She abandoned everyone.
She abandoned you.
She knew what Diana was doin' and she ran away for 35 years.
- Okay, well, we don't know what the world was like for her back then.
- Exactly. "Back then."
They didn't have phones. They-- [scoffs]
I don't even know if they had cars.
- They had cars.
- Things... are different... for you.
You know their plan.
- It's true.
- And now, you need to stop that Jesse book from ever gettin' published.
- I need... to know that you're safe,
so that I can live with myself.
- You never gonna be able to live with yourself
if that book sees the light of day.
- But what are they gonna do to you?
- They hit me with a car already.
I'm pretty ready for whatever comes next.
Think about the girls comin' up after you.
♪ dramatic music playing ♪
Isn't that the whole reason why you stayed at Wagner?
For the nerdy, little Nellas out there?
They're gonna be just as alone as you were if you don't help them.
Now, go do whatever you want after.
Go run a bed and breakfast with Kendra Rae in Vermont.
But you have to stop that book.
♪
- You're right.
- What's goin' on?
What are we gonna do now?
- Where the fuck are my Milk Duds?
- Okay, so, to stop Jesse's book, how 'bout this?
- If you suggest callin' the motherfuckin' police again--
- How 'bout our congressperson?
- Do you know who that is?
- Mark something.
[Nella groans] [Owen sighs]
- TikTok. Okay? I've been sayin' it all along.
You will get all over the news, and then Oprah would interview you.
- I don't think Oprah interviews people who believe in magic hair grease.
- She used to in the '80s. [knock at door]
- [whispering] Oh, my God. - [whispering] Is it Kendra Rae?
- She said she wouldn't be back for hours.
- You hide. I'll get a knife.
- [whispering] No knives. - I think a knife is a good idea.
[knocking continues]
VERA: Nella?
- Vera?
- Uh. [cat meowing]
Nella, do you have a cat?
[latch clicks open]
- [softly] Surprise. [chuckles]
- What are you doin' here? - I brought garlic knots. [chuckles]
Maisy texted to tell me that you've been placed on leave.
I thought it might be nice to commiserate.
Uh, hello. Malaika! What happened?
- I fell.
- Oh, I'm so sorry. MALAIKA: Hm.
- Uh, okay. [chuckling] This is weird.
Um, I should go. [mutters]
NELLA: Uh, a-actually, wait.
Uh... hypothetically speaking,
if you wanted to keep a book from getting published,
what would you do?
- Bury a sensitivity read that says the writer's a racist.
- Brilliant.
We get the author canceled.
- Girl, how?
- We take his credibility, and then, we turn his followers against him.
- Wait, wait, wait, wait. Who we talkin' about?
- Oh, uh, no one. [laughs]
VERA: Oh. - Thank you so much
for the garlic knots. - Sure. No, sure.
- It was really great-- Bye!
VERA: Bye, bye. Enjoy the knots! NELLA [chuckling]: Yeah, okay.
[door clicks shut]
If Jesse's book gets leaked before Richard and Diana have a chance
to do their little PR spin, and without Jesse's endorsement,
then his followers will completely alienate him.
They'll think he's a total sellout, and they'll boycott the book,
and it'll tank their entire plan. - Okay.
But how do we get the book to then leak it?
- Yeah. You heard Vera, they put you on leave.
Richard probably made sure your badge doesn't work anymore.
- My badge doesn't.
[dialing number, ringback tone]
Hey, Sophie, my fellow Phish Head-- Phish Food?
What, what do, what do we call ourselves?
[elevator dings]
♪ tense music playing ♪
[knock on door]
[TV playing indistinctly]
[knocking persists]
DIANA: Kenny?
I know you're in there.
I can hear Jackée through the door.
[audience on TV laughs]
[TV clicks off]
Hey, you want some of the cheapest wine in New York City?
This is not the way things end for us. I refuse.
♪
[distant siren wails]
- Shit. [sighs]
[computer dings] [Nella sighs]
Uhh.
[computer chimes for correct password] Oh, come on.
- [sighs] We're different, Kenny.
You've always felt everything... so much, and that means pain.
But maybe that doesn't have to be your future.
- What future? I'm gonna get fired.
- Girl, you just need a new attitude.
Let me do your hair.
- What? - Yeah. Like we used to.
Cheap chardonnay and braids.
You got to admit, you look like that baby that fell in the well.
- I really do. - Mm. Mm-mm-mm.
NELLA [whispering]: Jesse Watson.
"Radical Power?" Ugh, fuck you.
[laughing]
- I'd do anything for you.
You know that, right?
And you'd do the same for me?
- Of course.
[Diana chuckles] Yes.
- Okay. [Kendra Rae laughs]
♪ ominous music playing ♪
[light buzzing softly]
Ya know... Richard told me he's not gonna fire you.
- Wh-What? You, you talked to Richard?
- Just before I came here.
We made a deal.
- What deal?
- He said he's gonna kill the Chelsea interview.
It's bad for the book, bad for us.
And he'll leave ya alone. You can have your career.
People just will never know what you said.
[muffled] And you and I will be on the same team again.
Doesn't that sound good?
♪ music intensifies ♪
[Kendra Rae scoffs]
[Kendra Rae groans]
[groaning]
[loud scream] [subway car screeches]
[Kendra Rae whimpers]
♪ eerie music playing ♪
- That's great.
♪ I'm Sticking With You by The Velvet Underground playing ♪
♪ And I'm doing the same ♪ - Come on.
♪ Saw you hanging from a tree ♪
♪ And I made believe it was me ♪ [Kendra Rae sighs]
[light buzzing]
♪ tense music playing ♪
[glass shatters] [screams]
♪
[shard scrapes]
♪ tense musical sting ♪
- Don't freak out. - Is it just you?
- Nella, Nella.
- I can take you. I'm already bleeding. - Nella,
I just want you to have everything.
All it takes is just one little compromise.
- Little? This is some Get Out shit!
- I just really wish you could see the bigger picture here.
- Oh, you and Diana's evil bullshit?
- Diana doesn't even know that I'm here.
I am your friend, Nella.
If you can listen to one thing, just listen to that.
You don't understand.
I don't come from anything.
♪ music softens ♪
Diana gave me my way out.
And this, this is a better life.
This is a real life where we can be real friends,
and we can work on projects that we care about.
- And all it costs is our souls. - Girl.
Do you really think white people are out here distracted all fuckin' day
about how furious they are at the world?
Don't you just wanna free your mind from that shit?
- I can't let Jesse's book get out there.
- So, you're just gonna blow your whole life up?
And have nothing?
Just like Kendra Rae.
You really need to forget what little Nella
thinks the world is supposed to look like.
And you need to think about what you want.
Everyone makes sacrifices to get ahead.
Be for real. You've already done it.
You got your foot in the door by goin' to a white school.
You tell Richard Wagner how smart he is.
Vera how insightful she is.
And the thing is, Diana made compromises, too.
And you love Burning Heart.
Changed your life.
And Kendra Rae, she stood her ground.
But for what?
For a book that actually touched you?
Compromising doesn't have to mean giving up your goals.
You just have to play the game.
Because it is the only way that we can win
in a system that is stacked against us.
And this?
This just makes it so it doesn't hurt so much.
Everything you've worked for... is right here.
- What'll I become?
♪
- A person with an easier life.
You just have to give yourself permission.
♪ soft, melancholy music playing ♪
[sharp exhale]
♪
♪ tense music playing ♪
♪ singers humming somberly ♪
[groans]
[voices chattering]
♪ singers hum somberly ♪
[voices chattering]
♪ singers singing ♪
[elevator dings]
♪ soft music playing ♪
RICHARD: And I think I speak for everyone at Wagner.
Well, I know I speak for everyone in Wagner.
I'm Wagner for God's sake, uh, [employees laugh]
but I hope I also speak for everyone at Ascendant Books when I say
next month's launch of Radical Power
will be the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship.
- You are-- Everyone's in the conference room.
- Thank you, Jesse! Come on, everybody. A toast.
- You can't cheers with an empty glass, Dick.
It's bad luck.
- Oh, shit.
♪ music swells ♪
- I'm sorry? What are you doing here?
- [scoffs] You didn't think you were gonna change the world
without me, did you?
Richard and Diana asked me to come back
to make sure that your brilliant book gets in as many hands as possible.
And I jumped at the chance.
It's a message that I truly and deeply believe in.
Not to mention it's gonna make us all some serious bank.
[all laugh]
- Well, that sounds good to me.
- To Jesse and to Nella Rogers, our newest senior editor.
[group murmurs]
[slight chuckle]
Cheers, everybody.
ALL: Cheers.
[group chatters indistinctly]
- You look great. [chuckles] [Nella chuckles]
I love what you've done with your hair,
and it looks like you've been using a new product.
- Every day. - Mm.
- You were so right.
It just gives me so much... control.
- [chuckles] We lost you for a minute there.
- Sometimes you need a break
from the grind to remember what's important.
- Well, we're happy you're back. - Hm.
- Richard and I left your office empty for you
hoping that you would make the right decision.
- My office?
- Vera's.
It's yours now.
[indistinct office chatter]
And I think you'll find that everything is gonna start
to fall into place for you, Nella.
[Diana chuckles]
♪ tense music playing ♪
- Oh, sorry, one second.
Hey... Hey! Hey, girl.
I'm just--
I just wanted to say, it is so good... that you're here.
I've-- I'm just really glad we can be friends.
- Me too, girl. - Yeah.
Don't it feel good to finally be on the same team?
- Totally... Same team.
- Looks like you finally got everything you wanted.
- Looks like.
- I told you no one was gettin' in our way.
And now,
now we can tell each other everything, girl.
[laughs] We--
Mm. [clears throat]
I am sorry.
I did not mean to act like a 12-year-old.
I was just, um-- I'm just really excited.
- No, I get it.
- Okay. So, you wanna grab lunch?
Or we can get a martini to celebrate.
- Um, yeah. I'm actually... really busy.
- Oh. Oh, sure.
- Maybe tomorrow?
Or the next day?
- Yeah.
Yeah. I get it. [chuckles]
Totally.
Um... congratulations.
- Thanks.
[door clicks shut]
♪
[Jesse groans]
- Yo... this my Uber.
- Oops, my bad. [laughs]
[taser zaps]
♪
[laughs] This shit is fun. [laughing] Okay.
- Please don't talk.
♪ Float by Janelle Monáe ft. Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 playing ♪
♪ No, I'm-- No, I'm not-- No, I'm not the same ♪
♪ No, I'm not the same, no, I'm not the same ♪
♪ No, I'm not the, fuck ♪
♪ No, I'm not the same, uh ♪ [dialing number]
♪ I think I done changed, yeah ♪ [ringback tone]
- I'm in.
Let's burn it down. ♪ Woo, woo, woo ♪
♪ No, I'm not the same, nigga ♪
♪ I think I done changed, nigga, uh ♪
♪ See somethin' not the same, nigga ♪
♪ I used to walk into the room head down ♪
♪ I don't walk, now I float ♪
♪ Float on 'em, I float on 'em, just float ♪
♪ They hangin' on to that Goose down in my coat ♪
♪ Float on 'em, I float on 'em, just float ♪
♪ I don't step, I don't walk, I don't dance, I just ♪
♪ Float, float, float, float ♪
♪ I don't dance, I just ♪
♪ Float, float, mm, float, float, float ♪
♪ Mm, I just float ♪
♪ I'm light as a feather, I'm light as a feather ♪
♪ Yeah, baby, I float ♪
♪ It's hard to look at my resume, hoo ♪
♪ And not find a reason to toast ♪
♪ She throwin' that thang in a circle ♪
♪ Makin' it viral, I might just elope ♪
♪ Say, Listen lil' mama, you like shibari? ♪
♪ Watch while I show you the ropes ♪
♪ I used to let niggas get to me ♪
♪ I used to be my own enemy ♪
♪ Now I done had several epiphanies over some breakfast at Tiffany's ♪
♪ Had to forgive all my frenemies ♪
♪ They are not who they pretend to be ♪