Episode 05 – Curtis
Okay, the Holidays are gone, so where were we? Oh yeah, the final episode of GET MILLIE BLACK. I was honestly a bit stumped on just what Curtis’ narrative thread would be with Millie up in London. But man, he nailed a great response in light of the whole situation.
But first, let’s get up to speed here. If you remember, Millie was able to not only learn who one of the next trafficking victims was but also to take on her ID and swap places. The adult Jamaican woman was promised great opportunities if she’d trust the handlers to get her to England and into a well-placed home & job. Of course, what actually happens is a life of servitude, enslaved by a company that owns you, blackmails you, and ruins you. We observe just that, but with Millie Black playing the victim. Still, the plucky lady felt for sure she could expose the scheme and save the young boy Romeo, which, you remember, is Millie’s biggest obsession. Exposing the trafficking scheme was just the means to get to her end goal.
To aid her in that quest was her old partner in England (pictured, left), whom she had connected with before to try to get the scoop on Holborn. She compromises her old partner, with her back-handed, unethical practices to achieve her end, once again sabotaging a relationship. Now, let’s tie that into what her Jamaican partner had to say about her. Curtis is back home taking the heat for Black’s unorthodox behavior. She has no jurisdiction in England, yet there is is taking on a case single-handedly leaving Curtis to try to answer for her to their superiors. The precinct bursts into Curtis’s home demanding answers for which he has none. All he gets is exposed as a homosexual which, due to the nature of Jamaican society, finds him shamed & disgraced. Thanks a lot for all that, Millie Black! He says something to the effect that ‘Millie isn’t in the habit of losing people in her life, she is in the habit of using people and then tossing them away when no longer useful.’
Millie Black won’t even focus on that until way after the fact. Curtis taking the heat for her, doesn’t even register. She was burnt and fouled when she lost her brother Orville. There is also the loss of the child Victor from an English case that is, unfortunately, never explained to viewers, but understood as an additional catalyst for her mental mess. Somehow seeking justice for Romeo is the only redeeming thing that can set it all straight. However, by the installment’s end, we learn that it doesn’t make it all right, even though justice was served.
Yes, justice was served, Romeo was found and the ring was broken up. As is par for this series the why & hows of the case are kind of rushed through. It involves Holborn back in the picture briefly, but I’m not sure why. If you recall, Holborn was stabbed by Hibiscus during the standoff between him & Millie that also 
resulted in Janet Fenton’s death. The next thing we know of him, he is found alive by a stranger who took him to a hospital to heal. Okay, why does he still have to be in the equation? After several scenes pass, out of the blue he shows up in London offering Millie assistance in solving her case. What? Why? Then to have him brutally killed by the schemers when they get too close. Again, What & Why?
What finally gets Millie to solve the case & save Romeo is a bit of dark web investigation that she finagles out of an old London contact of hers. Shall we jump the shark a bit again? Millie Black gets justice in the end, but at what cost? When she returns to Jamacia we tabulate her winnings only to see the losses are much greater. She has breached codes of conduct that caused her to lose her job; she uses old London contacts that are now exhausted, she has lost her friendship with Curtis as his narrative makes quite clear, and she up & left Hibiscus one time too many as she is nowhere to be found, not even in The Gully, which is abandoned. You did the just thing by saving Romeo but burned up all your chances with everyone else in your life. Now what, Millie Black? We will never know unless there is a new season in the works.
Now I agree that GET MILLIE BLACK has been a solid show worth the watch, but I do wish some of the plot details associated with the whole trafficking scheme played out in more detail than it did. Find the series in the HBO Hub on the Max site.
