Oh, you didn’t disappoint.
Certain hours of TV shows are game changers for the whole show, and Step Up: High Water Season 3 Episode 5 was one of them.
Despite taking place mainly in the courtroom, some significant things happened.
Some people are just unlucky. Sage has been fortunate for part of his life, but misfortune started following him when the luck ran out. He can’t seem to catch a break. He is on trial for a murder he didn’t commit, and the evidence keeps piling up against him despite that fact.
We haven’t checked in on the Angel-Odalie situation, but if Odalie’s interaction with Marquise was any signifier, she still has not gotten over Angel. It must hurt her to see Angel living her best life right across the hall while she suffers in solitude.
Poppy, Poppy, Poppy!
I sympathize with her situation. She upended her whole life for a man with eyes for someone else. People make these huge decisions without thinking about the potential consequences. She restructured her entire life around that man.
Rigo: Oh my god, damn will you stop it? There’s nothing going on with Collette.
Poppy: It doesn’t feel like nothing Rigo.
Rigo: Look I may need Collette right now but I can’t do this without you. I won’t.
When in a relationship, it is easy to get caught up in it such that someone loses their autonomy. Poppy is such one case. She saw Rigo as her way out when she quit Sage’s tour and was kicked out by her mother.
Speaking of Sage’s tour, Poppy thinks she has it rough right now. Wait until he’s out and back on the horse. Factually speaking, Sage will get out. It might have seemed improbable a while ago, but because he is innocent and Collette’s revelation towards the episode end, he will walk out scot-free.
Sage is the kind of person who rewards loyalty. Even more significant when the royalty is for himself. Poppy was disloyal when she quit the tour. When Sage’s out, Rigo’s little bubble will burst, effectively ending it for Rigo, Poppy, and Marquise.
There is no way Sage will let any of them back on tour after the hell he’s been through because of Rigo’s actions.
Bad times are coming for Poppy.
Erin didn’t disappoint. There is no one as dangerous as someone with political aspirations. If she nabs Sage, that’s guaranteed to win her some votes from that quarter. Nothing sounds better than, “I will ensure that they all face the law, no matter how famous they are. See what I did with Sage?”
Her politics aside, she is a good prosecutor, and if she focused her energy on actual bad people, the streets of Atlanta would be much safer.
Reporter: So you think he did it?
Erin: That’s what I’m here to prove.
Nothing is more challenging to counter than a well-crafted narrative around the motive for murder. Motives don’t require hard evidence, just circumstantial evidence, and Erin brings in the oldest of them all: a rivalry between two men over a woman.
As it stands right now, Sage is done. Every witness called on the stand, including Sage, digs a deeper hole. The little outburst he had on the stand doesn’t help his case.
Get the fuck out of my face, bitch! I don’t got no time to kill nobody. I’m a fucking celebrity.
Sage
The hearing made a lot of things clear.
For starters, Rigo has always been in love with Collette. It is a realization that she should have kept in mind Poppy’s part. The way Rigo gaslights her is too common in relationships. She put too many expectations on this man.
Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.
Sage and East-O came up in the same city. Both were talented artists, but their strengths lay in different areas. Sage was great with the vocal part of it. East-O was a great producer. Fans value the face of the operation, and those behind the scenes barely get recognized.
Apart from Collette, their talent and Sage’s narcissism were a point of conflict for both. It was a rivalry that broke banks long into their adulthood.
This is the same thing happening with Rigo and Marquise. Both are talented in different areas of music. Rigo treats Marquise as his sidekick because he doesn’t have fame. But Rigo would be nowhere without Marquise’s lines.
If Rigo doesn’t do right by Marquise (and I don’t mean small royalty checks), if they make it ten or fifteen years down the line, it will be Sage and East-O all over again.
Another thing the hearing revealed was that Sage will always look out for himself. Someone might claim that he did what needed to be done to get himself out of that fix, and fair enough. But the question remains: at what cost?
At the cost of breaking the heart of your fiancée, effectively driving her into the arms of another man? At the cost of ripping her heart apart in public like that?
We also learned why Angel has been on the run. She was part of a gang. I’m very invested in how her story turns out at this point.
Christina Milian has been on the balance because, after Naya Rivera, she had huge shoes to fill. I’m happy to report that she fits in quite nicely. Her vocals were on point in this episode, and I hope they give her more screen time as a singer.
Noticeably, Tal was lacking in this episode and had less screen time previously. I would like to see more of Tal and where life has him at this point.
Are we ready to see what happens between Odalie and Angel now that Marquise is out of the picture?
I think ‘Rigos’s testimony hurt Sage the most. Not only did it paint him as murderous, but it also stole his fiancée. It was honest and from the heart, which made it very believable.
I would love to know which one you think hurt him the most. Collette’s? His? Rigo’s? Whom do you believe Collette will reveal as East-O’s killer?
Are you ready for the tour to get back on track?
Let us know in the comment section.
Catch new episodes of Step: Up High Water Sundays at 10 pm ET on Starz.
Denis Kimathi is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.
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