There were so many questions to be answered on the mid-season finale of Being Mary Jane.
We left MJ (Gabrielle Union) smack-dab in the middle of a love triangle. Lee (Chiké Okonkwo), her loving British boyfriend was on the fence about having kids with MJ —after considering having more kids by sperm donation with his ex-girlfriend And Justin (Michael Ealy), MJ’s nemesis turned seemingly genuine career advocate, was lusting after her as well.
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The episode begins with MJ and Lee enjoying dinner at Kara’s (Lisa Vidal) house in honor of her upcoming 40th birthday. Kara reveals she’s planned a fun trip to Martha’s Vineyard for the big day where MJ’s favorite author, Zadie Smith will be. While MJ shies away from meeting another one of her idols (cause we all know how the Ronda thing went), she does oblige to taking the much needed vacation, because work has been hell.
Speaking of, MJ moved on from the segment that never happened with Ronda’s (Valarie Pettiford) return the week before, but Justin has another trick up his sleeve. He’s done some digging and found out that Ronda’s ‘internet bully’ story was fabricated by the victim, which could cost Ronda her anchor job.
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In between all of this, MJ and Lee have a huge argument after she tells him about Justin’s plan. Lee keeps it funky: He’s not sure he wants to be “trapped” into having another kid with someone. As expected, MJ pops off and it appears they are no longer together. But as we all know, Lee doesn’t believe one argument means a relationship is over…
The next day at work, the almost 40-year-old is crying at her desk right before a one-off segment with lead anchor, Aaron. Justin pulls Kara in to coach MJ back to OK. “We should just go home and listen to Adele,” MJ insists. But somehow Kara gets her together, and MJ shines in a ridiculous emoji segment that the higher-ups just happened to be watching.
The win for MJ proves to be the perfect moment for Justin to tell producer, Garrett (Ashton Holmes) about Ronda’s misstep. Justin then heads to MJ’s house-hotel to wait for a response. There, the sexual tension between them is thick as they enjoy drinks waiting on the call from Garrett about the next steps. This is a good place to mention that Justin told MJ he’d been working on this takeover for two months, essentially since he started, because he “realized MJ belonged in that chair not Ronda.”
They get the call.
Garrett tells them that Ronda will be suspended indefinitely and MJ will take her primetime spot alongside Aaron. Soaking it up in the studio, MJ and Justin decide to celebrate by having rough-office sex on the anchor desk. How metaphorical.
What happens next is a snowball effect of good and bad. Because Kara produced Ronda’s ‘internet bully’ segment, she gets suspended as well. Ronda leaves the studio after her suspension with searing words for MJ about the anchor chair, “A drug like that is bound to lead to bad choices.”
Upset, MJ yells at Justin for the mess up and asks if the sex was “a part of his plan”, which feels very TV-ish because in real life no one does that. Nonetheless MJ is a mix of happy and sad, which is further complicated by Lee showing up in her office.
We told you one argument doesn’t mean it’s over to this guy!
He sees Justin lovingly touch MJ’s face before sitting in the big-time anchor chair, and we all know, this is not gonna go down without a fight.
Speaking of fighting for love, Kara goes back to Orlando (Nicholas Gonzalez) after she’s put on suspension. And he, shirtless and all, opens his door/heart to her. We officially love these two.
On an entirely positive note, MJ’s family creates a heartfelt birthday message to her. They challenged themselves to “be better” as a gift to her, and really, themselves. Patrick (Richard Brooks) has become a community activist; Niecy (Raven Goodwin) is back in school and rented a chair at a local beauty shop, and her parents are traveling back to her father’s hometown after years.
We’d say we’re sad to see them leave, but as announced by BET this week, the second half of season four picks up again on July 18— and we’ll definitely be watching.