Anacostia Season 3 - Episode 8 "The Power of Goodbye" Recap

The eighth episode of season 3 opens with the local cult leader thanking god for delivering a mysterious answer to his prayers and doing his best to ignore his emotionally needy wife Madison. Madison settled into a marriage of convenience since the love of her life happens to be gay and marrying Sean.

Anacostia is the brain child of Anthony Anderson (not that one) and is set in the titular subdivision of Washington, DC. Already in its third season, the show has had onscreen scandals like people getting run down by cars, all kinds of cheating, and an incestuous serial killer duo. If you haven’t caught up with season 3 — there’s a wedding being planned (between Anderson’s character Sean and his fiancé Julian), a cult is snaking its way through town, and dueling pimps fighting for control of the city’s lucrative prostitution business.

The 8th episode of season 3 opens with the local cult leader thanking god for delivering a mysterious answer to his prayers and doing his best to ignore his emotionally needy wife Madison. Madison settled into a marriage of convenience since the love of her life happens to be gay and marrying Sean.

Sean hangs out with his best friends Mia and Salina. Chatting about how horrible they were in high school to crazy Madison and evil Nancy, whom was once run down by Salina on a drunken bender. Then it segues into Sean’s insecurity about Julian and their upcoming nuptials. There’s also some bi-erasure tossed around by the three leads, though I’m not sure it was intentional.

Speaking of crazy Madison and evil Nancy, the latter had a showdown in a warehouse with the former and her cult cronies. There were insults and accusations flung back and forth, and a mention of skimming donations made to the church. It’s always nice when they let Nancy stop being apologetic and dig into her inner bitch.

In a tense moment that built up into what could’ve been a throw down at the local barbershop, Julian and his friend Drake argued over whether or not a gay slur is equal to a racial slur in an acknowledgment of intersectionality.

Dominique, the pimp, plotted with Nancy to bring down head pimp Alexis, as played by Martha Byrne of As the World Turns fame.

After a hilarious fight in a river at a DC park, Sean came home to find Julian angry and was dragged out of his house and thrown out the door because he’d macked on another man. Anthony Anderson let out the trademark tears that won him the Indie Soap Award for lead actor a couple years back.

And the episode ended with the reveal of just who it is plotting against Mia and several other residents of Anacostia in a truly shocking twist.