POSE

- Okay, chin up, chin up. - I don't want to see you

going on the floor.

If you look down, you're gonna be on the floor.

Ow, one, two, three, hit it.

Bitch, I'm gonna have to take you to the balls with me.

You are slaying that. No shade.

Good job. Good... great work. Great work, ladies.

Okay, I will see you next week, okay?

Excellent work. Excellent.

Payday.

Ooh. Uh-huh, what you got for me?

What you got for me? Let's see.

Am I gonna buy me a good dinner

today or what?

Just enough for bus fare.

You get paid by the head.

Maybe we can try to put some flyers around

- or something. - Flyers won't put "Vogue" back on the charts.

People have moved on.

We need to cancel next week's class.

It's just not worth it for three students.

I've had some requests about learning the moves

from the "U Can't Touch This" video. Any interest?

Girl, stop. Hammertime?

It's just until the next big thing comes along.

Remember, white folks like to visit,

but they never move in.

- That part. - Mm-hmm.

All right, well, I'll see you.

Who wants

to dine with the ladies at The Plaza?

Because the category is...

Realness.

Bring it like a lady at brunch.

Oh, shit, look at these boozy bitches.

Honey, after having finished snoozing

on fine sheets,

they missed breakfast and they booked a massage at lunch,

and so now they indulge

in an extravagant in-between meal.

Caviar, Bloody Marys, baby.

Brunch is for some alcoholic bitches that ain't got to work.

Yes, baby, this category is informational.

Judges, your scores. Ten, ten, nine,

nine, ten.

Come on and get this trophy

in this cream bobcat fur, bitch.

You better have on that bobcat today.

Uh-huh.

All right, look.

Listen, cut the music for a second.

- Listen, I want to talk to y'all for a second.

I see what you see. The looky-loos

have left the building.

America's obsession with "Vogue" is dead.

Now, I ain't gonna say I told you so,

even though I had told you so.

But I want y'all to remember something...

Ballroom is gonna continue to be ballroom.

We're gonna continue to create

like we always do, and soon enough,

the looky-loos will notice and they'll be back.

I don't want none of y'all getting down on yourselves.

You hear me?

Yes?

All right.

The category is...

Live...

Work...

Pose!

My nerves are still tender about that Frederica business.

- You know what she did? - What?

She told Page Six that all of us protesting

- left hypodermic needles and condoms...

laying around in a gutter in front of my nail salon.

- No, she didn't. - Yes.

It was on the news this morning. And they didn't

necessarily use the words HIV,

but we already know what they were implying.

The world is scared of us, and she's using that to beat me.

Evil but smart.

And you know what?

I heard Lulu was in a bad way, because of Candy,

so I went to check on her.

("Straight Up" by Paula Abdul playing)

Bad way was an understatement.

You look terrible.

I can see right through your skin,

and your eyes look like glass marbles.

I been hearing bad things about you.

What did she say?

She said her dehydrated look came from her asthma inhaler.

- Do you believe her? - I don't know.

But even if she ain't on the pipe,

that girl is falling apart.

And it ain't just her; the boys are straying, too.

Damon's been sleeping until noon

ever since his classes got canceled down at the Y,

and Ricky ain't no better.

- He's always here. - Are they back together?

Nah, I think Damon is through with all that.

All they do is drink wine coolers and watch TV.

Oh, uh-uh, no.

Y'all are not spending another day sitting around,

stinking up my house, doing nothing.

What you expect us to do?

Well, here's a wild thought: get a job, or maybe clean a dish.

I need help keeping this family afloat.

Well, you just don't understand.

I mean, it's just like they got tired

of what we had to offer and just threw us away.

- Damon. - Damn, can't I get at least

a minute just to regroup before you have me

go out there and hurt myself again?

I do understand, Damon. Excuse me.

Get your ass up and do something.

I remember when I first found my way to New York City.

Things were really bad,

- but we survived. - How?

The elders.

When the going gets tough,

it's up to the elders to light the way.

And where are these elders at now?

You looking at 'em right here.

Oh, excuse me? Oh, no, sir. I refuse that title.

Mm-hmm. Being a survivor

is a blessing and a curse.

And we're surviving and we have to help those kids.

Pray has a plan.

What is it?

Those children need a caper.

- Pray, a caper? - Mm. And Daddy got

a little something-something up her sleeve.

You're late.

It's 10:00 in the morning.

School's in session. Have a seat.

What we learning?

Self-respect. Responsibility. Motivation.

The three of y'all have lost y'all way.

Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. We've worked hard.

I mean, it's not our fault that things in our professional life

just didn't work out.

I thought you were a tour dancer. What happened to that?

Callbacks with no hires. That's what happened.

And I'm trying, but I'm just not booking.

So you've hit a bump in the road. Welcome to the world.

Y'all stories don't just have to be about failure.

It needs to be about resilience.

So... me and Pray got a job for you three.

Well, how much does it pay?

'Cause I'm still pulling good tips down at the club.

It pays in experience. It pays in purpose.

ACT UP is looking

to make a statement about safe sex,

and they want to do something that's gonna get on the news.

So Blanca and I have come up with a little caper

with flair.

The three of you are gonna head upstate

and wrap one of those high society dames's country house

in a giant condom.

Are you serious?

What's so funny?

Girl, that's crazy. I mean, whose house?

Frederica Norman's.

I thought I might kill two birds with one stone.

It's an opportunity to highlight her bigotry

and get the message out about condom use.

Yeah, this is crazy.

How we gonna find a condom that's big as a house?

You got a week. Figure it out.

A week? It'll take us three days to put up a lemonade stand.

It's not supposed to be easy.

It's not just about being mad you fell down,

it's about loving you enough to show you the way to get up.

Okay,

so what's on the brainstorming list so far?

Um...

One, buy a thousand condoms and glue 'em together.

Two, use a thousand boxes of plastic wrap

from Key Food to wrap around the house.

That's it?

What's wrong?

I feel so dumb.

I used to be smart.

I did community college and I took accounting classes.

And now...

now I'm just some dumb stripper

who can't do nothing on her own.

- Oh, come here. - I didn't realize

till Candy was gone how much she took care of things.

Mm-mm. You know what?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Listen to me.

The world thinks we're dumb,

'cause we don't have a fancy job

or talk like Masterpiece Theatre.

But I would love to see some of those Harvard types

try to figure our life out.

- They wouldn't last a day. - Mm-mm.

Right now if you still here...

you know, living your life...