Twenties 2×04 Review: Everything

Twenties season 2 episode 4, ‘Everything’, gave me what I was hoping for. Chuck and Marie finally got the chance to have an honest conversation about their relationship and their possible future.

Whenever a piece of media decides to feature a bisexual character, I tend to be a bit cautious when approaching it. Hollywood’s got a history of portraying problematic bisexual tropes. There’s a lot of content out there that includes bisexual characters, and yet said characters bring nothing to the narrative except for having their bisexuality be used to cause drama.

BET shows like Hit the Floor (James LaRosa) and Boomerang (Lena Waithe) felt like a breath of fresh air to me due to how they handled bisexual representation. So, I’ve been looking forward to seeing how Chuck’s sexuality would be talked about in Twenties (also from Waithe). And having watched ‘Everything’, in my opinion, the writers didn’t disappoint.

The previous episode gave us a lot of details about Chuck’s past and his feelings for his college roommate Chance. Chuck’s been holding off on being honest with himself for a very long time. As a Black queer man, he’s been staying in the closet due to not wanting to be “othered” by society and his parents. He’s also afraid of losing Marie (whom he clearly loves).

‘Everything’ allowed Chuck to put his cards on the table and be honest with Marie by introducing a new character named Reverend Ty Harmon. I do think Reverend Ty being nonbinary played a role in making Chuck feel safe during the conversation. The scene reminded me of how it’s important to give queer and PoC people professional opportunities, especially in counseling and related fields, so they can better help individuals reaching out from similar communities.

I loved how Marie handled Chuck coming out as bisexual to her. We have been seeing her suspicions about Chuck’s sexuality for a while now. Turns out, she always knew he was bisexual but couldn’t figure out how to talk to him about it because Chuck wasn’t ready to address that part of him.

I liked how the writers didn’t use Chuck’s coming out as an excuse to have Marie go crazy and make Chuck into an emotional mess trying to make Marie forgive him for lying to her. Both characters love each other and want to be with each other. However, there’s still a handful of issues they need to address first.

Reverend Ty gave Marie and Chuck a lot to think about. Chuck doesn’t need to feel pressured to quickly figure out his sexual expression. Everyone’s on their own journey. And for some, it can take years before they discover their truth. And there’s nothing wrong with that. The good thing is that Marie’s supportive of Chuck.

Similarly, Marie’s got her own journey. Chuck’s coming out gave her the opportunity to share her opinions, too. Twenties hasn’t been hiding the fact that Marie’s got a couple of crushes on other men.

There were some feelings she would like to explore. As far as I’m concerned, it’s going to be interesting to see Chuck and Marie give a try to exploring their sexual desires with other people before they tie the knot. Now, the entire thing could get very messy and blow up in their faces if certain feelings came into play. So, I have my fingers crossed, that whatever happens, it leads to some well-written character development.

Hattie also got to share her thoughts about her relationship with Ida B. I liked how Hattie talked about how Hollywood (and society, in general) was very different for her and those who looked like Ida B. From colorism to homophobia, there were things only Hattie’s got to deal with because of her appearance even though both she and Ida B were queer WoC. I think the conversation was handled quite well when it came to highlighting how you might not always be aware of the type of obstacles that could be present for another person even when you belong to the same community as them.

While Ida B mentioned wanting to protect Hattie, I agreed with Hattie about how there are some things she needs to handle by herself. Hattie just wants Ida B to be more supportive of her decisions. Also, there are a whole lot of walls around Ida B. Lowering some of them could do Ida B some good.

I’m still not sure if Hattie and Ida B’s relationship can survive for long. Perhaps Twenties will surprise me? Let’s see.

As far as Nia’s concerned, having watched ‘Everything’, I’m not feeling Ben wanting to get closer to her. Ben was quite clear about how he felt he couldn’t grow more with Lauren. And while I appreciate his honesty with Nia, did he have such a conversation with Lauren or does she not know he broke up with her? I just want Nia to be careful and remain on track with nourishing her acting career.

Other thoughts and questions:

• Of course Hattie didn’t read the scripts by the members of Idina’s writing group. I want to root for Hattie, but she doesn’t make it easy.
• Hattie also couldn’t keep her job as a delivery person because she was constantly on her phone and didn’t have the required upper body strength. I wonder if Ida B’s into interacting with Hattie during Hattie’s working hours because she wanted Hattie to remain distracted and lose the job? Hmmm.
• Do you think Chuck will reach out to Chance? I wouldn’t be surprised if he does. Again, involving actual feelings in his exploration phase could turn messy. The same’s true for Marie because her boss does like her quite a lot. Here’s hoping Marie and Chuck remain honest with each other as their arc progress.
• Episode 3 helped Twenties reach a series high with 0.63 million viewers tuning in. It’s awesome to see such a queer-centric show find a good-sized audience. Here’s to hoping we get Twenties greenlit for a third season. Frankly, I would like to see this series exist for at least five seasons. After that, perhaps we can get a continuation called Thirties? Ha!

What did you think of ‘Everything’?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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