WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Pose Season 3, Episode 1, “On the Run,” which aired Sunday on FX.
As Pose Season 3 kicks off, police raid New York City’s kinky Hellfire Club — where Elektra has been working as a dominatrix — and close it down by order of the Big Apple’s new mayor: Borat 2 star Rudy Giuliani. Soon after, Elektra meets up with Blanca at the ball and tells her what happened. Hearing the news, Blanca replies, “Shutting them places down ain’t going to stop people from having sex or keep them safe.” Elektra, for her part, doesn’t care much about keeping people safe, but she’s definitely angry that her primary stream of revenue has been cut off.
The duo encounter Lemar, who has since the end of Pose Season 2 founded the House of Khan, which has gained a reputation for being particularly unruly. A small argument ensues about the balls having started to give out prize money. While Elektra and Blanca argue that ballroom “is about community and family,” Lemar is much more interested in making money. Unhappy with being lectured, though, the hotheaded Lemar tells Blanca to get the House of Evangelista in order, and needles her about Damon’s drinking. This confrontation soon leads to Lemar challenging Blanca on the ballroom floor, though the House of Evangelista’s mother declines.
And on the ballroom floor, the House of Khan proves absolutely fierce, earning raucous praise from all of the judges and winning a trophy and $1000 prize. However, Pray Tell and the other members of the Emcee Council reveal during a meeting at a diner that they aren’t able to actually pay the prize money. This leads to the House of Khan confronting the Emcee Council and starting a food fight.
“On the Run” then jumps to Blanca, who is in bed with a new-ish beau named Christopher. As Blanca gets up to prepare for work, the news on the TV reveals that Pose Season 3 will run in tandem with one of the most notorious criminal trials of all-time: The O.J. Simpson murder case. As Christopher explains, O.J.’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, was recently found murdered. Blanca switches the conversation to say that she’s almost an empty nester, at which point she’ll be able to move in with Christopher.
The action moves to Papi — who later in the episode calls himself Big Papi, not Lil Papi — talking with Angel in his office. Angel tries to confront Papi about not getting enough work. In response, he claims that he’s trying his best. Angel, who is still frustrated with the situation, starts a fight with Papi over him seemingly ignoring her for a fax, though he’s able to smooth things over.
Pose Season 3 then takes a somber turn as a drunk Pray Tell arrives at another funeral for one of his friends. Pray Tell laments the fact that it no longer feels like there’s a cure for HIV on the horizon, and that people are going to keep dying. Pray storms out and claims that he’s retiring from emceeing the balls, as he’s unable to stomach everything that’s happening.
At her job as a nurse’s aide at a hospital, Blanca visits Cubby, who is on the verge of dying from HIV. He laments that Lemar hasn’t visited, and Blanca tries to comfort him by saying that he’s just obsessed with building his new House. Blanca reveals that she’s contacted Cubby’s mother, as part of her job is the contact the family of patients who are dying. Cubby’s mother — who told him that he’d die from HIV when he came out — has actually come to the hospital to visit him. And while Cubby believes that his mother hates him, Blanca convinces him otherwise and to give her a chance to make amends.
In the hospital’s lunchroom, Blanca talks with nurse Judy about what’s going on with Cubby. The conversation soon turns to just what Blanca is going to do when she’s finally an empty nester and her last remaining child — Damon — finally leaves. While Blanca isn’t sure, Judy encourages her friend to become a nurse because of just how good she is with people who are suffering.
When Blanca gets home from work, the infamous car chase in which O.J. Simpson attempted to flee police in a white Ford Bronco begins. She calls over all of her friends to watch, including Ricky and Pray Tell, who are fighting over the latter’s drinking and other bad behavior. Much of the dialogue at the watch party that ensues revolves around race and the O.J. Simpson trial, as well as the treatment of Black people in America.
Damon — who has since started attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings — takes Pray Tell aside and talks to him about his own issues with addiction. While Pray Tell uses the terrible things happening in the world to justify his drinking, Damon tries to tell him that “sobriety is not escaping death. It’s about living life on life’s terms.” However, before they can go any further, Elektra arrives, giving Pray Tell a chance to leave the conversation. Shortly after Elektra arrives, Angel and Lulu come to the party. However, they’re high on marijuana laced with crack.
Angel doesn’t know who O.J. is and so pulls the latter and Pray Tell into a bedroom to smoke a coke-laced joint. Pray Tell refuses the joint, and the entire scene is interrupted by Papi, who arrives with pizza. As they prepare for dinner, Blanca tells Papi that she’s happy the House of Evangelista is all under one roof again. Then, as the car chase ends, Blanca turns off the TV and makes everyone sit down to eat together. As they reminisce about the good times they’ve had, Blanca suggests bringing the House of Evangelista back at the Summer Solstice ball — and they agree.
After dinner, Blanca heads back to Christopher’s apartment, where he’s reading “new research on antiviral drug trials.” After joking about him being a nerd, Blanca discloses that she had a hard time in school due to undiagnosed dyslexia, which is part of the reason that she’s scared to start nursing. Christopher, though, encourages her to pursue her dreams and promises to help her study. Christopher soon says that he wants to introduce Blanca to his parents and, while she’s afraid of being judged by them, she agrees to take that big step. As she’s getting ready, though, Cubby enters the last moments of his life.
The House of Evangelista, Cubby’s mom, Pray Tell, Elektra and Lulu all assemble in his hospital room and reminisce about their dying friend. While Cubby’s mom laments her awful treatment of her son, Elektra comforts her, saying, “Nobody is out here teaching parents how to accept their gay children. You can’t blame yourself for what you didn’t know.” Cubby’s mom then apologizes to her son for letting him go out of her life, and he slips away.
After Cubby dies, Lemar finally arrives to visit and fights with, well, pretty much everyone over his bad behavior. In response, Elektra challenges Lemar to a showdown at the Summer Solstice ball — which is that night — and he accepts. Before the showdown happens, though, Blanca looks into Cubby’s hospital room and sees a devastated Lemar laying in bed holding his fallen brother.
At the ball itself, the House of Evangelista proves victorious and Blanca gives an impassioned speech about the meaning of ballroom and not running from life. She also praises the House of Khan and promises to donate the prize money they’ve just won to charity. Afterwards, the victorious House of Evangelista sits down at a restaurant for dinner with Christopher. And while she doesn’t get to meet his family in “On the Run,” Christopher does get to meet Blanca’s family. Then, as Pose Season 3’s premiere closes, Blanca takes what Christopher and Judy said to heart and fills out an application to go to nursing school at Manhattan Technical College.
Created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Steven Canals, Pose stars Mj Rodriguez as Blanca Rodriguez-Evangelista, Dominique Jackson as Elektra Wintour, Billy Porter as Pray Tell, Indya Moore as Angel Evangelista, Ryan Jamaal Swain as Damon Richards-Evangelista, Hailie Sahar as Lulu Ferocity, Angel Bismark Curiel as Esteban “Lil Papi” Martinez-Evangelista and Dyllón Burnside as Ricky Wintour. New episodes air Sundays on FX.
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