Hello and welcome to TV Tuesday! Today I’m going to be talking about the third season of Netflix’s Dear White People.

We start off the new season with so many references where the characters kept saying “just like a third season to a Netflix series” and I thought that was really annoying.

What I really liked about the past two seasons was that each episode featured a different character and this season they got rid of that and so every episode had all the characters.

We start with no one wanting to protest anymore; they are all tired and they know it doesn’t work. But there’s this one character, Al, who wants to still protest and he keeps getting angry that no one cares about his causes.

Sam is really trying to lay low. She’s still processes the death of her father and just trying to get by. She has this documentary she has to make, but she’s also struggling with that too because she doesn’t actually know what she’s making a doc of. Gabe, her boyfriend, hasn’t been too helpful… he’s been dealing with money problems that he’s been hiding from Sam. When Sam eventually finds out, she’s mad that he thought she cared about that, that she was dating him for his money. I’m glad they could work that out because they are cute.

And speaking of cute, Reggie and Joelle! OMG the moment we’ve been waiting for, these two together and they are so swoon-worthy… but not everything is perfect in paradise. Reggie starts to become distant, and it looks like he’s sliding into a depression, but when he finds this mentor who wants help developing his app about mental health, specifically for Black people, he’s in. But it also takes away time from Joelle and she’s getting tired of his flakiness.

They have this weird plot with Rashid trying to get with Joelle because he doesn’t think Reggie is good enough for her, essentially, and Joelle has to put him in his place that he didn’t know what he was talking about. It felt really strange because it came out of nowhere.

Seeing Reggie after he’s been testing the new app, he’s looking better, but his relationship is still suffering, mainly because Reggie has idolized his mentor, Professor Moses, a little too much and Joelle doesn’t think it’s healthy.

Coco is burning the candle on both ends and she’s starting to have panic attacks because she’s put this huge amount of pressure on herself to be the perfect person and to have the perfect life. I think when we meet her mom, it becomes clear that she doesn’t want to become her mother so she’s trying to get as much education as she can to be perfect.

Of course she has a blow out with her mom because her mom embarrasses her on parent’s weekend, but when she apologizes the two reconcile, it’s really sweet. I am curious where Coco’s story is going to go.

Then her roommate is starting to get more story this season. Kelsey is a lesbian and when she meets Brooke who, may or may not be gay, it was interesting to see that story play out.

Well, it’s very short lived as Brooke thought she liked Kelsey like that, but turns out she doesn’t. Kelsey is more hurt by the way Brooke ignored her after instead of saying, no this isn’t for me.

Brooke is such a strange character. Like, I like her because she’s very vocal about what she believes in, but sometimes she doesn’t have the right way of going about things.

What was also really good to see this season was Troy and his father. They are actually getting along, having coffee, laughing, his dad even asks about his jeans! That was hilarious. Apparently his dad was trying to impress a woman and those scenes were so funny. I like that they have finally come to this point.

But Troy’s life isn’t all roses, he’s joined one of the oldest magazines, Prestige, at Winchester, but they are pretty much all white and Troy just wants his voice to be heard… but that is harder said than done. He does a piece for their magazine, and they put him on the cover, but they’ve gone and edited the piece to take everything he wrote out of context. So essentially, they used him as the face of the magazine to show they support Black people… while not supporting Black people. Super infuriating, so Troy bands together to get everyone to walk out… only that doesn’t go as Troy planned. The other two guys who were going to walk out with him end up staying because the head editor has internships and connections they can’t get anywhere else.

So Troy leaves and his sidekick is none other than a white girl named Abigail. She pushes Troy to come up with his own magazine. Now they just need people to help them out. That’s where they ask Lionel who wasn’t into it at first, but I think may be into it.

Lionel has had quite the season. He’s been trying to get over his ex and to find a new boyfriend, but he’s looking in all the wrong places… a sex dungeon is not where you’re going to find a boyfriend… although he does meet someone, so who knows?

While he’s on a quest to fill that void, he’s also on quest with Sam with the narrator and finding the underground organization… which could be bigger than we originally thought. The narrator keeps giving them clues, in which Lionel yells, “this isn’t a Scooby Doo mystery”, so I’m curious where this goes.

I have to say I like how interweaved this narrator plot is into an overall arc to Professor Moses.

So Muffy, another white rich girl, confides to Coco that Professor Moses has sexually assaulted her… Brooke overhears this and tries to get Coco to talk about it. First of all, it’s not Coco’s story to tell, second if Muffy doesn’t want to talk about it, it’s not for Brooke to broadcast.

When rumours start flying people don’t know what to believe. Muffy ends up changing her story after Reggie goes to talk to Moses, saying he believes Moses, that he doesn’t think he did it. When Moses confesses there was a kiss, they bring up the rich, white girl calling out for attention. Reggie goes, he never thought about race, trying to tear the Black man down.

When Joelle tries to talk to Reggie about this, she doesn’t get anywhere because he won’t listen to her. Joelle sides with Muffy, and for women, while Reggie still believes his idol.

Brooke, good old Brooke, tries to get Muffy to talk again, and I know it comes from a good place, she wants to bring awareness. Because Muffy might not be the first person Moses has done this to. Brooke brings this idea to Troy’s new magazine and Troy then goes to Coco to get her opinion on it. In the end Coco tells them to run with the story but leave Muffy’s name out of it.

Then Lionel finds a photo where the narrator and Moses are in a photo together and wheels start to turn.

And Gabe, oh Gabe – since he’s been very strapped for cash he applies for a grant for his film and when he checks the Native American box to ensure it helps him get it… he does get the grant, but he feels awful about taking the money on a lie.

That’s how they’re going to end this season? I wasn’t prepared for the episode to just end, but let’s step back a second.

Al talks to Reggie about the story they’re going to be printing in the magazine about Moses. Between that talk and watching Sam’s documentary gives Reggie the idea to talk to Moses because now he’s starting to doubt Moses. Well, when he confronts Moses he realizes that Muffy was telling the truth.

That’s when he goes back to Joelle to talk to her. They have a good talk because Reggie didn’t realize how Joelle was feeling. Joelle tells him that he was the reason Moses was doing great things, not the other way around. I’m glad to see them work things out.

Then we first find out that Troy’s father knows about the Order and so he talks to Troy about it.

Sam and Lionel continue their hunt and find out that the narrator used to work at the school as a professor, but he’s on a sabbatical… but he’s still living on the campus without anyone knowing, hence all the secrecy. He tells them about Moses and that Muffy isn’t the first, but that the Order is bigger than any of them.

He tells them they must not speak of their encounter or he’ll kill them, but then at the very end Troy goes up to Sam and Lionel and says they need to talk because he knows they know about the Order and how it’s connected to Moses.

AH! I NEED MORE! I’m really glad that there is going to be another season.

I also like that at the very end, they show that Al is joining a Lantix alliance group. I’m excited to see that be incorporated into the show.

This was another solid season that leaves me wanting more, while also bringing up really important topics.