BEING MARY JANE: THE HUXTABLES HAVE FALLEN (TV)
Summary
One in this drama series about a television news personality and the conflicts in her personal and professional life.
Patrick accidentally walks in on Andre and Mary Jane having sex; they try to explain but Patrick decides that he has seen enough and immediately leaves. Andre knows Patrick already, as he used to promote his club. Mary Jane is quite upset by this development and is extremely frustrated that she must keep her relationship with him a secret. This segues into an argument about Andre’s broken pool light; he quickly jumps into his pool fully clothed and fixes it. This appeases Mary Jane and they resume their romantic interlude. However, she is still haunted by Andre’s proposal and ends up returning the ring, preferring that they would get married in a more overt fashion. The next day, Mary Jane plans a surprise party for Patrick to celebrate his second year of sobriety from cocaine with Tracy, Niecy, and her mother when Patrick walks in and cajoles Mary Jane over her affair, without revealing anything explicit to the others. Mary Jane takes Patrick in private and asks him to stop, but he says he will not, convinced that what Mary Jane is doing is wrong. She offers to bribe him into keeping the affair a secret from their parents, but Patrick admits that he is concerned about her, calling her an “addict;” he is convinced that she has to seek help to deal with her attachment to Andre. Mary Jane, however, does not see it this way and begs Patrick to keep it a secret, and he reluctantly promises to do so.
Kara is presented with a story about a middle-aged woman found dead in her apartment in front of the television after being ignored for three years; the story is old but a documentary is being released about the woman. However, Mary Jane is reluctant to get shoehorned into stories about “obscure female issues” and shows resistance to the story. However, Kara convinces Mary Jane to reconsider. Patrick asks his father if they can call off the party, as he feels as though he does not deserve recognition for “doing what’s expected.” However, his father disagrees and remarks that “every celebration of you is not necessarily for you.” Mary Jane watches footage of the documentary and is emotionally struck, deciding to go forward with the story. Kara gets into an argument with Mark, whom she accuses of avoiding her and shirking his responsibilities. Mary Jane conducts a satellite interview on her show with the documentary filmmaker and with Reverend Jesse Jackson; she frames the story as one of technology easing the proliferation of isolation in everyday lives. Patrick attends his surprise party and receives praise from Tracy and the others, which he sheepishly accepts.
After work, Mark talks to Kara alone and admits that it is difficult for him to adjust to the office after his long previous career. Kara understands, but claims that his show has become boring and tries to figure out how to make his foreign policy programming “sexy” and more amenable to popular culture. He is resistant but she praises his journalistic skills and says they merely need to make him more appealing so that he can reach a wider audience with his serious news stories. This convinces him to be more receptive to her ideas. Mary Jane’s old friend Cynthia comes to visit her at the office, and Mary Jane is surprised to learn that she had plastic surgery to maintain her appearance. Cynthia gives a speech about “economic uncertainty” and “loyalty,” revealing that she had Julian fired. Mary Jane takes an online test to determine whether or not she is an addict; the results note that she is “100% addicted.” Patrick pitches his idea about a “mobile lounge” franchise to his former business partner, who is turned off by the high amount of initial capital and uncertain success of the endeavor. Mary Jane deletes Andre from her phone’s contact list, although doing this is painful for her. She immediately regrets this and tries desperately to recover the number, discovering that it was backed up to the cloud.
She calls Patrick and asks him to come over, saying that she needs someone to talk to. He arrives and she admits that he was correct about his assessment of her “addiction.” She asks him how to deal with the problem and he drives her to their Aunt Toni’s house. She is reluctant to go inside but does so; she is greeted by her aunt and uncle and gets roped in to eating dinner with them and their friends. Later, Aunt Toni asks Patrick how he is doing in private and he says he is fine, and she encourages him to remain sober. Mary Jane is called away to settle a tiff between her young cousins and their friend, and realizes that she has not visited her extended family in a long time and cannot think of a good reason why. Mary Jane and Patrick eventually leave, but she says she does not want to go home yet and so they drive to the site of his old club and reminisce about old times. Patrick advises her to leave Andre alone, but she says she is in love with him. Patrick realizes that Mary Jane is afraid of being alone but says that Andre is “not worth it” to her. She reveals that Andre proposed to her but that she did not say yes. He says she should call him and not Andre if she feels that she is “slipping.” Patrick returns home and ends up snorting a small quantity of cocaine he had hidden on his person. Mary Jane, meanwhile, goes back to sleeping with Andre. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: BET
- DATE: November 30, 1999
- RUNNING TIME: 0:40:37
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 122146
- GENRE: Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: African-American Collection - Drama; Drama
- SERIES RUN: BET - TV series, 2013-2019
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Salim Akil … Executive Producer, Director
- Mara Brock Akil … Executive Producer, Created by
- Jessica Mecklenburg … Supervising Producer
- Claire Brown … Producer
- Beth Tashjian … Associate Producer
- Paul Garnes … Line Producer
- Devon Greggory … Writer
- Gabrielle Union … Cast, Mary Jane Paul
- Lisa Vidal … Cast, Kara Lynch
- Margaret Avery … Cast, Helen Patterson
- Omari Hardwick … Cast, Andre Daniels
- Richard Brooks … Cast, Patrick Patterson
- BJ Britt … Cast, Paul Patterson Jr.
- Raven Goodwin … Cast, Niecy Patterson
- Aaron D. Spears … Cast, Mark Bradley
- Richard Roundtree … Cast, Paul Patterson Sr.
- Kelly Rutherford … Cast, Cynthia Phillips
- Lorraine Toussaint … Cast, Aunt Toni
- Tatom Pender … Cast, Tracy
- Corey James Wright … Cast, Brandon Fuller
- Frances Burnett … Cast, Dana Shultz
- Joshua Mikel … Cast, Julian Slater
- Nadej Bailey … Cast, Kashari
- Lisa Jones … Cast, Samantha Havens
- Adiah Winford … Cast, Tanisha
- Leland L. Jones … Cast, Uncle Ron
- Jesse Jackson … Cast, Himself
- Jayson Warner Smith … Cast, Fred
- Marius Mitchell … Cast, Romero
- Steve Young … Cast, Sawyer
- Darrin Dewitt Hanson … Cast