After Candy’s (Angelica Ross) untimely death (whew…just typing that hurt) last week, it looks like the writers decided to take a lighter approach this week and turn the spotlight on young love and dreams. Let’s get into it shall we…

The show opens with a newscaster interviewing women in line outside the YMCA for vogue classes. We soon find out that it’s Damon’s (Ryan Swain) classes, the ones that Blanca signed him up for that the newscaster was referring to and the owner of the YMCA is asking Damon to teach another vogue class because classes keep filling up at rapid rates. After class, a talent scout approaches Damon, hands him her business card, and tells him to come audition for Madonna’s “Blonde Ambition” tour that Saturday. Damon goes home and The House of Evangelista celebrates his good news. On the other side of town, we find out that Ricky (Dyllon Burnside) also has an audition for the same tour. We’re then treated to seeing how the mothers of both houses, Evangelista and Wintour celebrate their children’s success. While Blanca (Mj Rodriguez) feels it’s a victory for Damon and their community at large, Elektra (Dominique Jackson) feels it’s a victory for herself and a chance for her to become best friends with Madonna. Both Damon and Ricky get excited at the possibility of their estranged parents seeing them on the tour and being proud of them. Before Damon can audition though, Blanca tells him that he must first talk to Helena (Charlayne Woodard) at the New School of Dance and get her blessing. After class, Damon takes Helena for coffee and talks to her about his opportunity. Helena understands the importance of people like Damon being seen to inspire others and gives him her blessing. In return, she makes him promise to come back to school after the tour to finish getting his degree.

Elektra and Blanca both send their houses out to help Damon and Ricky with makeovers for the auditions. While Ricky gets treated to a tailor, practice with a choreographer and spa treatment, Damon does push-ups with Papi (Angel Curiel) and drugstore waxes with Blanca. At the audition, Damon and Ricky find out they are in the same group and encourage each other before they go in. During the audition we see another dancer giving Damon and Ricky some serious competition. Afterwards, Ricky and Damon exchange kind words, note that at least one out of the three of them will get a callback and they head home to wait by the phone. It isn’t long before we find out that Damon and Ricky receive callbacks. Ricky and his boyfriend, Chris, get into a heated argument over Ricky being more focused on preparing for the callback than getting physical with him. During their spat, Ricky admits that he should have never left Damon for him and leaves.

It’s the final ball before the callbacks and Elektra is prepping her house before the ball. Using the phrase “what would Candy do?”, she pulls Candy’s hammer out of her bag and tells them that if Candy was still alive, she wouldn’t hesitate to use her hammer in an act of hindering Damon’s chances of getting the spot on the tour over Ricky. After some protest from her children, Elektra leaves the hammer on the table and walks out of the room leaving her children to decide who is going to carry out the hit on Damon. During the ball, Lamar (Jason Rodriguez) tells Blanca, Papi, and Angel (Indya Moore) about Elektra’s hit. Blanca, upon hearing that Elektra brought Candy’s actual hammer to the ball, runs to find Elektra before anything bad can happen to Damon. When Blanca goes to get the hammer from Elektra, she reminds her that even in her almost 7-foot state, she is not seen by the world outside of their community. A win, whether it’s for Ricky or Damon will illuminate the entire community. After the ball, Damon and Ricky meet up and Ricky tells Damon that he was better with him, but Damon tells Ricky that he just needs to learn how to stand on his own. The two embrace, but before things can get serious, Damon leaves.

After the callbacks, we find out that neither Damon nor Ricky got the spot on the tour. Before they leave, the talent scout tells them about a chance to audition for a 90’s reboot of the television show Solid Gold. Damon and Ricky both go to the audition and tell the producer that they only have one condition to their employment, the show must take both of them. The producer lets them know that he wanted both of them anyway and Damon and Ricky shoot the pilot. After filming, Ricky admits to Damon that he had the best time spending the day with him and he doesn’t want it to end. Damon agrees but wants to remain just friends with Ricky because they’re both so close to realizing their dreams that they shouldn’t focus on anything else. Ricky apologizes to Damon for messing up in their relationship. He tells him that he doesn’t want anyone else and asks if they can start over, but Damon still wants to keep it as just friends.

Ballroom Highlights

Did anybody else catch Angel and Papi’s flirting at the ball? Something tells me we’ll see more of their story soon.
Does anybody have the contact info to the costume department? I need a pair of Damon’s purple pants in my wardrobe ASAP.
Pray: “Children always wind up paying for the sins of the mother.” He wasn’t lying either, because Ricky definitely won that category.

READ MORE:

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This Is A Ball, Not A Brawl: ‘Pose’ Season 2, Episode 2 Recap

Photo: FX

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