The show opened with Zadie’s first performance in 20 years, and she unfortunately froze up on stage after she saw her former manager/producer Frank Black, who sexually assaulted her and was ultimately the reason she left the rap game two decades ago. 

After the show, back at Naomi and Eric’s house, Naomi tried to convince Zadie to take Frank down and expose him but Eric argued against that decision considering Frank’s one of the biggest producers in the game. Muffin chimed in saying Frank helped her with her first mixtape and he never tried anything with her, mentioning she never put herself in a position to be in that type of situation. Zadie snapped on Lauren for her insensitive comments and before walking out, told Naomi she doesn’t want to be the face of a sexual assault case. 

Across town, Valeria and her new husband Thomas were in the studio. She was having trouble writing a song about him since they really don’t know each other yet. Valeria asked if he was a serial killer and he was taken aback. He suggested they take a “Love Quiz” that was in the magazine he was reading, and surprisingly, the quiz helped them get a little closer. Valeria even shared a photo of her and her mother with him that she never showed anyone else. 

Meanwhile, Jill was in church seemingly trying to stay on the right track and after the sermon, she went to tell the deacon how good of a service it was, but he slapped her! But we find out, the deacon is her dad. He told her that she needed to apologize to him, and she did. Then they sat down to have a meal together and talked about her sexuality and her mother’s death. Both conversations were awkward to watch.  

The next day, Naomi and Eric were out to lunch and Frank coincidently was also there about to have lunch with an artist. Eric dapped him up and had small talk, but Naomi wasn’t feeling it at all. Later on, she did some research on Frank and found a video of him with an old artist named Hood Honey. After watching their interaction, she believed Frank did the same thing to her so she asked Eric to connect them.

Hood Honey, who’s real name is Leah, met up with Naomi at her house and to Naomi’s surprise, she showed up with her son and knew exactly what Naomi wanted to talk about. 

Leah said that she was so young when she met Frank and was so honored to have the opportunity to work with because of who he was in the game. But explained when the sexual abuse started she didn’t know what to do. After her first album dropped, it flopped and he let her go as an artist. Leah told Naomi that same week, she found out she was pregnant with her son, and knew it was Frank’s. So she approached him to let him know and he ignorantly gave her $2,000 and told her to get rid of it. But she kept the baby, and had been taking care of him as a single mother, adding she’s never heard from Frank since that day. 

Valeria met up with Jill and Lauren and told them how her marriage was failing, but the ladies tried to convince her to stay and work it out because it had only been two weeks. Jill also told the girls about reconnecting with her dad and Valeria was surprised considering she knew her dad’s history of not liking gay people. Valeria encouraged Jill to stand up to her dad and not let him talk to her crazy, but Jill seemed to let the advice go in one ear and out of the other.  

After Naomi’s conversation with Leah, she met up with Zadie again to let her know about what happened. She explained that she wasn’t alone in this and continued to motivate her to tell her story. She even suggested which reporter she thought she should talk to. 

Zadie agreed to talk to the journalist and told her story about the night Frank sexually abused her. She stated that she was just trying to take a nap in the studio and Frank woke her up by unbuttoning her shirt and pants. She explained that after he raped her, she came out of shock and starting beating on him and ran home. A couple of hours later, the police showed up at her house and arrested her for breaking Frank’s jaw. The reporter told Zadie how sorry she was about what happened to her and she responded that she doesn’t need any apologies, she just wants Frank to be held accountable. 

The article came out the next day and was a horrible look for Zadie. The reporter wrote that Zadie was trying to reinvent her rap career and was trying to victimize herself to capitalize on promoting her new music. 

Zadie was livid and confronted Naomi about the article, telling her to stay out of her business moving forward. Zadie told Eric and Naomi she was done rapping and done with Nasty Girl Records. But as she packed up her stuff, Lauren approached her and revealed that Frank actually did assault her and she had proof that could take him down! 

Back at the studio, Valeria and Eric crossed paths, and Valeria vented to him about not ever being in love and her insecurities around loving people altogether. After her rant, she stepped in to kiss Eric, but he didn’t let her. He hugged her and told her that she did deserve love and she should try to work it out with her husband. As they were intimately hugging, Thomas walked in and asked what they were doing.

Valeria told Thomas all the reasons he shouldn’t love her, and argued that she was being immature. He told her that he had second thoughts about their marriage too but he did love her and wanted to be with her. She broke down and finally told him that she loved him too.

Jill went to meet back up with her dad, and found him laid out on the floor. Luckily he was just drunk, so she helped him up. As she was putting him to bed, he opened up to her expressing how proud he was of her, and told her he wished she would come around more often. She started to tear up and laid next to him until he fell asleep. But when he woke up the next morning, he was singing a new tune, being mean to her all over again. He snapped at her for being rebellious and putting him and her mother through so much shame, and Jill went off on him! Before storming out, she let him know that she was proud of the woman she had become and didn’t need him anymore if he wasn’t going to love her for who she was.

Lauren finally showed Zadie her proof, playing a voicemail that Frank left her the night after he raped her. She told Zadie she was sorry for not saying something earlier but she thought it was her fault for drinking too much so she never told anyone what happened to her. They shed tears together and Zadie agreed to continue fighting to get them justice. 

Zadie went back to meet with Naomi the next day and told her she wanted back into Nasty Girl Records and the showcase they were having at the Staples Center. Zadie added that she wanted to perform a new song to tell the world her story from her own mouth. 

The night of the showcase, Frank showed up in the crowd. Zadie performed her new song confidently and was killing it on stage. During the performance, Frank was arrested and escorted out by the police. What we didn’t know was Lauren made a public statement about her experience with Frank before the show that night and 4 other women came forward, which gave the police enough to arrest Frank. The Nasty Bitches and Lauren joined Zadie on stage before the show closed, chanting “I’m not a victim, I’m a victor!”

All the ladies, and Eric, watched the news the following day and saw that Frank was facing an upward of 40 years in prison, as the episode came to a close. 

This was arguably the most powerful episode of Queens this season. Do you agree?