The Chi Recap: Emmett and Kiesha’s Housewarming Party Ends on a Dark Note
People brought gifts of all kinds to Kiesha and Emmett’s housewarming party on this week’s The Chi. But there are two, in particular, that I can’t stop thinking about now that the episode is over.
The first: Nuck’s apology to Kiesha, which comes three seasons too late. Longtime viewers will recall that, at the start of Season 3, Kiesha was waiting for Nuck to pick her up at a bus station when she was kidnapped. She was held hostage and raped by a man named Omari; she later gave birth to his child, whom she named Ronnie.
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But here we are in Season 6, and this is the first time Nuck sees fit to say he’s sorry that he wasn’t on time to come get her the night she was taken? And the mea culpa comes almost as an afterthought, while he’s a guest at her party? To Kiesha’s credit, she asks what took him so long to say anything. But she also chooses to forgive him, which a) is kind of her, and b) makes me feel like she is doing well in terms of moving on from the incredibly traumatic incident.
The other gift in question seems like it will setting up very bad things for some of our favorite South Side (and now West Side!) residents. After Douda arrives at the shindig — with nearly everyone stopping what they’re doing to watch him and his squad walk in — he asks Emmett to open his housewarming present in private. When Emmett does, he’s surprised to see that there’s a gun inside the box. “I don’t need this,” Emmett says, citing the fact that kids live in the house. But Otis turns that reasoning against him: “Every man should be able to protect his family,” the older man says. Emmett wonders who would want to hurt him or his family, and Douda breezily says that that type of threat comes with the territory. Once it’s clear that Emmett has no choice but to accept the weapon, he practices drawing it a few times in the mirror, then tucks it into a bedside table for (kinda) safekeeping.
Unbeknownst to Emmett, Darnell finds the gun and takes it, then confronts Otis as he leaves the house. “I was just making sure that your son had protection,” the former mayor says. “The only think he needs protection from is you,” an angry Darnell replies. Then he calls Douda a “fake-ass Billy Dee Williams” (ha!) and warns him that if any ill fate befalls Emmett or his family, “I’ll kill you myself. Don’t let this earpiece fool you.” Throughout, Otis seems amused and not at all threatened.
Later, Emmett lies to Kiesha about what he and Otis were discussing, and she lies to him about what she and Nuck were discussing. Weren’t these two just talking about improving their communication skills? Then he checks the nightstand and freaks the heck out when he can’t find the gun, but he still doesn’t tell her what’s going on. That side-eye she gives him? DESERVED.
Elsewhere in the episode:
* As Emmett moves out of his old apartment, he and Tiffany reflect on how they’re both happy now with other people. It’s one of the few scenes these two have had where they’re not yelling at each other, and it’s so nice!
* Jamal warns Lynnae that Bakari being one of Douda’s employees is a bad thing, and he warns her not to get caught up in her boyfriend’s potential legal problems. She later confronts Bakari about it, saying she doesn’t want to be with someone who does what he does, and he reminds her that he had the job when they met. He later brings her Cheetos and Trolli gummies as an apology, and she tells him that Jamal wants to meet him.
* Rob makes some inquiries about Q’s death but doesn’t get much information.
* Tiff doesn’t like it when Emmett — prompted by Kiesha — asks her to watch her language around E.J., because his teachers reported him saying “bitch” at school. Tiffany gets offended — “You do what you want in your house, I’ll do what I want in mine” — but then later has Rob turn the radio when she realizes that her son is listening intently to the rap and hip-hop that’s playing.
* Nearly everyone dances to V.I.C.’s “Wobble” (because, honestly, who can sit still when that song comes on?), and when Emmett realizes Kevin is staring at Maisha, he figures out that there’s something going on there. “We’re still figuring things out right now,” Kevin says.
Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!
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