‘Love During Lockup’ Recap: ‘Daughter-in-law or Mistress?’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Still from ‘Love During Lockup’ Courtesy of WE tv.

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 526 of ‘Love During Lockup’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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Over the course of the past couple of weeks, we’ve talked at length about why the WE tv series, Love During Lockup, is more important than we know. Since it does indeed open our eyes to a world that none of us understand and helps us to learn from the tough experiences that everyone in this series is going through. But while it has been wonderful to glean powerful lessons through the experiences of others, this is at heart a documentary about folks involved with prisoners, and their experiences and emotions and that means… lessons won’t always be present. In fact, sometimes, we are just treated to a slice of life, as evidenced during this week’s episode.

Because ‘Daughter-in-law or Mistress?’ was truly just a slice of life tale. Wherein a bevy of powerful moments took place involving the people we’ve come to know. For instance, this is a story that saw Ayonna deal with some hard surprises as she was bracing for her jail sentence. Since Jamahl spoke to how he was starting to think that they needed to take their time instead of rushing into marriage and oh, that he was also married once under his faith. Granted, a divorce had taken place, but Ayonna was stunned that this wasn’t revealed to her sooner, and that it happened while she was meeting his family no less. Giving rise to a difficult day for her.

Not to mention, there was doubt in the minds of others regarding the stability of their love. Since Shonta came to learn that the risqué photos, she sent to True were denied delivery. A feat made possible by a rule in True’s jail. For if anything overtly lude came through, the mail went into lockdown. But her pics weren’t that bad and that, and a weird answer on True’s part left her to wonder if he was talking to other women, and that another lady sent something of concern, putting her in that doubtful place. Not to mention, Rick had some concerns about his newfound love with Samantha. Largely because she was being quite controlling. To the point where she was demanding he make it known that marriage was forthcoming, even at a high school reunion. Which had him wondering why this was such a hard focus for her.

Which really did make for some powerful slice of life moments, relatable ones in fact, since we too have doubts and worries now and again about the love, we’re in. But while that was all fascinating and moving, truly the centerpiece story of the night was Andrew’s. Because it was so supremely bittersweet. For Andrew arrived in Las Vegas and just… reminded us that chivalry is not dead. Since he set up the apartment for Candice, had everything ready and expressed real love and hope over seeing her, over being with her. And this was so sweet in so many ways, but also stressful and worrisome. Because there were so many unknowns and so much that could have gone wrong, and it was just powerful to watch this guy go the extra mile like this.

If anything, this was just… a perfect slice of life episode. One that was raw and showcased so much emotion and just… took us into a world that we know little of, in a compelling manner. One where you cannot help but feel for these folks, because we have dealt with some variation of their problems. Since we’ve endured bombshells, had suspicions, and we’ve definitely moved mountains for our love. The only difference is, we can talk out those bombshells with the person we care about face to face, we can confront suspicion and garner truth and we can enjoy the spoils of our hard work. But here, that’s just not the case, and that definitely gives one perspective and truly, it will be interesting to see how everyone here handles their stresses and worries as this fascinating season continues along. Until next time.

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