So boom. On the last episode, which I did not recap because of Christmas — and I didn’t want to be talking about death on Jesus’s alleged birthday — Ronnie goes to Deen’s house and kills him as Deen’s deaf grandmother watches television in the other room. Deen was changing the batteries in his grandmother’s hearing aid at the time. Ronnie is tactical if nothing else. Why did Ronnie kill Deen? Because Deen told Ronnie that he didn’t want anything to do with him AND challenged Ronnie to a death match after Ronnie threatened him. Well, Ronnie won, fam, Ronnie won. Word gets out that Deen is dead and Unique realizes that Ronnie is a man bold enough to do it. Unique tells Raquel — they were on a dating break, but it’s permanent now — that Ronnie is a bull in a china shop, and Raq is like somebody has to pay for all that broken china. Profound, yo. Profound.
Meanwhile, Ronnie is rolling around New York trying to find a connect or some work and thinks that Unique is lying about his supply. Ronnie even runs up on Kanan, who is moving weed, and tries to bully him out of the truth that Unique is his supplier; he is not. Unique, who is really trying to make a lot of things work at the same time, tries to give Ronnie the Chinese carryout setup from episode four as his shop, but Ronnie doesn’t want it. Ronnie is pissed at the world and especially Unique for sleeping with the enemy — Raquel — and for fumbling all of the territory he left Unique when he went to prison.
Let me just point out here that Ronnie is a special kind of psychopath. The calculated, deliberate manner in which he does everything is intense. He’s a maniacal, creepy, unpredictable, simple man. He moves so carefully that it makes me, a watcher, uncomfortable. Shouts out to Grantham Coleman for the masterful work he’s doing as Ronnie.
On one particular stalker mission for drugs, Ronnie runs up on Raquel’s former connect, Juliana, in Washington Heights, asking, again, for work. She says she doesn’t trust Unique and that Ronnie needs to get rid of him. Ronnie, in one of the few shows of a human side, assures Juliana that Unique is his brother and isn’t going anywhere. Well, Ronnie then tells Unique’s baby mama that Unique and Raq are smashing and all of that goodwill goes out of the window. Unique and Ronnie get into a huge fight where Unique asserts his dominance with fisticuffs — the little brother has become the leader. And then Ronnie beats Unique to death and dumps him in the woods. Let me point out that, before Ronnie and Unique fought, Ronnie took off his glasses and laid them gently on a table. I don’t know if it’s because he’s crazy or because glasses cost a lot of money and he doesn’t have a spare. The fact that it could be both speaks volumes about Ronnie. All I know is in a week, Ronnie took out two Queens drug dealers and who knows what other havoc he’s about to cause. I’m concerned.
Most importantly, RIP Unique, who I was starting to enjoy as a part of Raquel’s story; I can’t imagine what’s about to happen next, but whew, chile.
Southside.
Correction, Jan. 2, 2024: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the relationship between Ronnie and Unique. Ronnie is Unique’s older brother. The story has been updated.
Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio. He writes very Black things, drinks very brown liquors, and is pretty fly for a light guy. His biggest accomplishment to date coincides with his Blackest accomplishment to date in that he received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey after she read one of his pieces (biggest), but he didn’t answer the phone because the caller ID said: “Unknown” (Blackest).
Make sure you check out the Dear Culture podcast every Thursday on theGrio’s Black Podcast Network, where I’ll be hosting some of the Blackest conversations known to humankind. You might not leave the convo with an afro, but you’ll definitely be looking for your Afro Sheen! Listen to Dear Culture on TheGrio’s app; download it here.
