‘Pose’ Season 2 Episode 5 Recap: What Would Candy Do?

Ever since Pose began, Damon’s been doing all he can to make his dance dreams come true

July 17, 2019 - 12:57

Ever since Pose began, Damon’s been doing all he can to make his dance dreams come true. In Episode 5, he’s presented with a new way to level up. After teaching a vogueing class to middle-class white ladies, he’s approached by one of his students with the opportunity of a lifetime: a chance to audition for Madonna’s Blonde Ambition Tour. Now, in reality, some of Madonna’s dancers for the tour were from the ballroom scene, including Luis Camacho and Jose Gutierrez. So Pose writers including this into the story is actually pretty close to what was going on at the time.

Damon ends up telling Blanca the good news, but she has one reservation: he must tell Helena (his dance professor) about the opportunity first. Being the good son and serious dance student that he is, Damond agrees and takes Helena out for coffee and a chat. While she had reservations back when he wanted to go on tour with Ricky last season, this time she’s got a different tune.

“You don’t need a teacher anymore,” she informs him and gives him her blessing to do what he needs to do.

Now, while Damon is invited to audition, Ricky also goes for the audition — at Elektra’s behest. Ricky and Damon end up auditioning together in the same group and within a few days, they both get callbacks for the second round. Damon is obviously living his best life right now, but Ricky? He ends up breaking up with his rebound and seems to finally be realizing how badly he messed up with Damon. Maybe it’s just all the time he’s spending with Damon on these auditions though.

At the only ball of the episode, Elektra hatches a dark scheme. She seems to believe she’ll get to hang out with Madonna if Ricky gets picked for the tour. And so she goes so far as to ask one of her children to hit Damon on the foot with a hammer to make sure he’s out of the running. After all, “what would Candy do?” she asks. Sure, it’s the late Candy’s hammer she’s wielding (you may recall Candy tried to bludgeon Elektra with it at a ball in a previous episode), but would Candy really stoop so low? Who knows.

Fortunately, none of her children take the bait and one of them even tells Blanca about the wicked plot. Blanca, of course, confronts Elektra and manages to talk some sense into her. Damon even ends up winning the trophy that evening, but he ends up offering it to Ricky. They seem to have a moment, but Damon shuts Ricky down.

Eventually, both Ricky and Damon go in for the second round of auditions, but neither gets the gig. It does lead to one good thing, though: the scout that found Damon tells them both about an audition for a reboot of Solid Gold (a TV show that was fairly popular in the 80s). Both boys get the part and do a stellar job. Only time will tell if they continue to dance on Solid Gold or go back to the drawing board.

Final Notes

– Can we get some more Angel and Papi time? Audiences are shipping them hard, and they’re both lovely people with beautiful souls and deserve each other. Let us have nice things, please!

– I am totally unprepared for next episode, where teasers reveal Pray Tell having some health issues in the hospital. Please spare Pray!