20 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

If I were Smitty, I would have kicked Martin out.  I don't know why people on Facebook are so furious with Smitty.

Most of y'all are WAY more understanding than I am.  If MY spouse came home one day after an aborted press conference in a soul food restaurant & revealed she'd killed a dude with a tire iron beside the highway two years ago (and beat yet another guy till he required facial reconstruction) and placed my teenage son & (elderly) daughter in perpetual danger and never got around to mentioning it to me, her ass would be spending the foreseeable future with Grandma & Grandpa too.  From Smitty's point of view, he's got no reason to believe Martin has been honest with him about anything that's happened since 2023.  STD's?  Affairs?  Embezzlement?  For all Smitty knows, Martin's got a whole STASH of additional secrets he ain't got around to divulging yet.  

Today's episode was well-written (in my opinion), but I wish they'd have given Smitty a line like, "What else have you keeping from me, or lying to me about?" to drive the point home.  

We haven't been told what ever happened to the body of Kenny's brother.   I am reminded of Sergeant Voight of the show "Chicago PD", who buries bodies of criminals he has killed.  I assume that Marcel Malone buried Kenny's brother somewhere.

Martin telling the kids the "sanitized version" of what happened.  That's weird but I understand it -- for the time being.  Martin told the kids that he beat up Kenny in defense of Vernon, but Martin omitted telling them that he beat Kenny so bad that he needed plastic surgery and that the face they knew Kenny by was not his original face.  Kenny's death will be "officially" explained as a shooting during a robbery, and Martin thinks that will be the end of it.

I assume Martin and Vernon don't know what happened to the body of Kenny's brother, nor do they want to know.  I appreciate that Martin told Kenny that he'd killed the brother.

But I guess Martin wasn't ready to tell the kids he'd killed someone.  Ideally, Martin would have told Smitty first, long ago, and then Martin and Smitty could have taken the time to discuss privately between the two of them how/what to tell their kids.  But this was happening all at once today, so Martin omitted that he killed someone, even though it was in self defense.  And completely omitted the *existence* of Kenny's brother being there that night.

But we know Jacob is suspicious of the the story behind the unidentified body, whom we the audience know is Kenny.  Jacob will want to do a DNA test on the body to help identify him.  Jacob will eventually learn who he is and that he has a missing brother ... but that could go on for weeks ...

Eventually Martin *will* have to tell the kids that he killed someone.

Edited July 18Jul 18 by janea4old

3 minutes ago, janea4old said:

We haven't been told what ever happened to the body of Kenny's brother.  

Have we been told what happened to the pistol they pulled on Vernon?  I'm figuring the brother's corpse, the gun, Joey, and the possibility of another witness (or rural surveillance camera) could still blow this poorly kept secret up. 

4 minutes ago, Broderick said:

 

Today's episode was well-written (in my opinion)

I thought so too. I thought it was a good cliffhanger as well. I hope Nicole lays into everyone who kept it a secret from her. I hope she doesn't cave and just cry the whole episode.

56 minutes ago, GLATWT88 said:

This is the last I will mention this, because what's done is done and I want to be hopeful that there is a greater vision and story in mind, but I think it was a total missed opportunity to make this night a secret to the audience. We missed an opportunity to explore race and the law in America and really go deep into what that means for black men in particular. This fall out that is happening now could have still happened with the audience in on the secret. We could have witnessed the attack and seen Vernon's struggle with doing what's right and what he felt he needed to do.

In today's episode Vernon said something to the effect of he should have called on his connections (which I made a point of yesterday), but instead he acted in fear. How much more thrilling would it have been to see Vernon call Bill, Elon, and Malone and concoct this whole plot out of fear of what could happen to Martin and himself. Instead we got repetitive conversations and scenes that appeared to be cut short because we were being held off from knowing too much about the secret. 

Also, Kenny shouldn't have been killed off. How brilliant would it have been for Martin to actually out himself. He was riddled with guilt, anxiety, and fear but he still decided to do what is right. We should have had a trial (probably wouldn't because there is no set). This trial should have highlighted all the dynamics that come into play with race, racism, and the legal system. It should have shown why Vernon was scared to do the right thing to begin with. It would have been soapy and it would have been timely.

We should also be shown how the Duprees having status and wealth are privileged but still vulnerable. Vernon's connections and Bill would ultimately get Martin free, but it would demonstrate how even in their privelege, they are still Black in America. Ultimately, this would give Martin a platform as congressman, even if he would have to start small again and build his way up. 

I may have mentioned this yesterday, but while being in on the secret we would understand why Martin was keeping the secret from Smitty. We would also still get to see Nicole spiral after learning something else her family kept from her. Nothing that is happening now would have been lost. 

Perosonally, I think there was such a lack of foresight in telling this story. If the focus was racism and how the law is bias, then this focus on a secret was not the best choice. Unless there was another element of secrecy like Martin having an affair but we don't need another one of those. 

I also agree with you guys that Smitty shouldn't have thrown Martin out. He clearly just heard the trauma that Martin had endured and everything he was dealing with the past two years and he decided that now is the time to kick him out? Martin messed up and he should have told Smitty sooner, but there should have been more of a discussion as @ranger1rg pointed out. 

These seem to be a bunch of unpopular opinions, but I share them.

Martin taking down two racists really doesn’t satisfy me because it existed in a space of about 10-15 minutes. We got the two racists stepping out of the truck, just enough pointed dialogue to let us know “Oh, they are racist,”  Robin was in danger, and then Batmartin went into action. I already know I’ll be told “They were racists, what more did we need to see of that?” but if this is soap opera, then there is a million more things to see. Had we been privy to exactly what happened that night early on, it would have left so much time to really dig into the things you mentioned. The Duprees are the most powerful family in a predominantly black community, but show me how they’ve still had to fight against bigotry. Introducing Kenny as an explicit racist (and homophobe) and showing us just how low he could go before he’s killed (onscreen) would have made his death so satisfying.

I think of how on “Columbo,” we knew within the first five minutes exactly who murdered who and how. But we still happily spent the other 85 or so minutes invested in how Columbo was going to piece it all together. In soaps, when you keep information from the audience for five months, it’s gotta be BIG. If not, reveal ts early on so that it’s clear that the real buy-in is in how tangled the web gets.

I do want to add though that I’m glad it all landed just right for a good bit of people here (and the audience at large). Not trying to take that away from anyone.

Edited July 18Jul 18 by All My Shadows

25 minutes ago, Broderick said:

Have we been told what happened to the pistol they pulled on Vernon?  I'm figuring the brother's corpse, the gun, Joey, and the possibility of another witness (or rural surveillance camera) could still blow this poorly kept secret up. 

I didn't even realize that Kenny and his brother had a gun until yesterday when I saw the flashback clip slowed down, and then rewatched that scene on PPlus later.   Is the gun new to the viewers' knowledge of the storyline?  I didn't know about it until yesterday's flashback -- was it mentioned before?

So many things for Jacob to investigate, piece by piece, with his dad likely trying to stop him.

Edited July 18Jul 18 by janea4old

Giving away the secret in parts did take away the traditional big reveal and I can see how that might not work for some people. Now an area where inequality could have been tackled was with Smitty having a more black and white view (no pun intended) view of the legal system and not believing that bias would have harmed Martin if he came forward in the first place.

19 minutes ago, janea4old said:

I didn't even realize that Kenny and his brother had a gun until yesterday when I saw the flashback clip slowed down, and then rewatched that scene on PPlus later.   Is the gun new to the viewers' knowledge of the storyline?  I didn't know about it until yesterday's flashback -- was it mentioned before?

Wednesday was the first time I saw the gun.  I had to back-up, because at first I thought Martin had confiscated the pistol from the racists and was beating them with it.  Then I realized he was using the tire iron.  We never really saw what became of the gun.  

After watching that flashback a couple of times, I started wondering who's now got possession of it & if perhaps it's a stolen pistol in a database somewhere.  

3 hours ago, Antoyne said:

I’m personally satisfied two racists thugs got what was coming.

Death and disfigurement?

From what I sae in the flashback Martin went all out on bashing Kenny after he killed the first guy.

And their  first instinct was to cover up the whole thing -exercising their power and privilege to make that happen.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Martin ENDANGERED his family by not telling them about the danger that Kenny could bring. I don't blame Smitty one bit for kicking his arse out. He got off too easy IMO and Samantha can STFU

Surprised Martin was driving a Toyota. Would have thought at least an Audi if not Benz or BMW.

A more prestigious car would have made Martin and Vernon more noticeable and vulnerable.

I think there has been long standing tensions between Smitty and Martin that span back long before the event of two years happened.

I also know that we've seen the ways that Martin has dismissed Smitty, even trying to sabotage a job opportunity for Smitty.  Lord knows what else has happened between them in the past that we didn't see so I think Smitty made the right call asking Martin to move out

8 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Death and disfigurement?

From what I sae in the flashback Martin went all out on bashing Kenny after he killed the first guy.

And their  first instinct was to cover up the whole thing -exercising their power and privilege to make that happen.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Considering they were going to shoot and kill Vernon and Martin yes, they got what was coming to them.

29 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

I think there has been long standing tensions between Smitty and Martin that span back long before the event of two years happened.

I also know that we've seen the ways that Martin has dismissed Smitty, even trying to sabotage a job opportunity for Smitty.  Lord knows what else has happened between them in the past that we didn't see so I think Smitty made the right call asking Martin to move out

I agree completely.

10 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

I thought so too. I thought it was a good cliffhanger as well. I hope Nicole lays into everyone who kept it a secret from her. I hope she doesn't cave and just cry the whole episode.

I absolutely don't understand the reasoning for leaving Nicole out. She's Martin's mother and a therapist. She had every right to know what was going on with her kid.

Wow. You all are going in. LOL!!! I can't wait to catch up reading.

 

I did want to say now that the board is back that I LOVE yesterday's episode. It really flew by which surprised me. And Nicole as the cliffhanger (not to mention those great Vanessa/Nicole scenes) was the chef's kiss.

 

Can't wait for today.

12 hours ago, Broderick said:

Today's episode was well-written (in my opinion)

You're not alone on that.