Pose Season 2 Episode 2 Recap: Wintour Is Coming

Everyone’s making power moves on the latest episode of Pose Season 2, and it’s definitely working. Elektra’s moving on up in the world, Blanca’s still fighting the good fight, and even Damon does a little growing up.

Elektra Forms The House of Wintour

We start this episode with some facts: AIDS changed the landscape of sex work in the early 90s. Not only did hand jobs replace blow jobs, but as Elektra finds out, it became way more lucrative to work as a dominatrix versus walking the piers or dancing in booths. Plus as we all know, Elektra could read anyone into the ground, so it’s the perfect new career for her.

Elektra also grows unsurprisingly tired of dining on SlimFast at House Ferocity (though she only joined last episode), so she saves up and decides to walk out and start a new house. Aptly named after Vogue’s Anna Wintour, the new House of Wintour is carefully selected and already winning all the trophies.

Blanca Opens Shop

Blanca ends up quitting her job at the nail salon when her boss won’t let her take the afternoon off to attend a friend’s funeral. Fortunately, she’s been saving up as well and decides to seek out a shop of her own. She ends up making a “handshake” agreement with one Ms. Federica Norman (a real estate mogul and recent divorcée who’s also pretty racist and homophobic, played by Patti LuPone) and finds her rental space.

But when one of Ms. Norman’s people informs her that Blanca is not a cis-woman, she tries to kick her out. Fortunately, Blanca lawyers up and decides to stick around for at least a few months. We’ll have to see how it all turns out there—especially considering the threats Ms. Norman made toward Blanca’s kneecaps.

Damon, Ricky, And The Elephant In The Room

Ricky returns from his tour and Damon is thrilled to have him back. But during the Eros Ball, a guy named Chris comes over to Damon to inform him that he was Ricky’s bunkmate during the tour…and to let him know they’ve been sleeping together this whole time. Damon isn’t having it, and they get into a fight. The fighting continues when Damon confronts Ricky back at the House and everyone finds out they were having unprotected sex.

Blanca, being Mother of the Year and all, decides she’s got to get real with the boys if they’re ever going to stop being foolish. Not only does she give them all a brief 101 on how to properly put on condoms, using a cucumber as her subject, but she also decides to disclose something important: Blanca finally tells all her family that she has AIDS. It’s this moment that truly seems to resonate with everyone in the house, and even prompts Ricky and Damon to go and get re-tested. But while they both turn out to be negative, the damage has been done. Damon asks Ricky to take a break—which honestly is probably for the best.

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A Final Word On Family

The episode ends with a quote by one of the originals of the ballroom scene, one Hector Xtravaganza, and it’s worth repeating here:

“Blood does not family make. Those are relatives. Family are those with whom you share your good, bad, and ugly, and still love one another in the end. Those are the ones you select.”