Pose season 2, episode 4 recap: Never Knew Love Like This Before

Get ready for the most emotional episode of Pose yet, and grab a tissue box–because you’ll most certainly need it.

Pose gives us a very difficult episode to get through this week. In fact, it’s one of their strongest of the series yet, but also one of the most heartbreaking. It serves the purpose of shedding light on a community that was and continues to be overlooked. When horrible things happen, more often than not, a blind eye is turned to the atrocities that we see presented in Pose. And let’s not forget, while this may be a series, it’s not far off from the truth.

As the episode begins, Pray Tell is living it up in the ballroom as he celebrates the success of Madonna’s “Vogue” and how much pride it has given their community. Before he can speak much further, however, Candy shows up strutting her stuff. Pray Tell isn’t amused and is rather rude towards her, as he often is. The animosity between them doesn’t seem to go away when later she asks him to add a category to the ball and then threatens him when he rejects her. This is a moment he will come to regret later on, unfortunately.

By the time the next ball comes around, it’s revealed that Candy seems to have gone missing. At this point, I’m sad to say that is a common occurrence in Pose and it’s a reality this community faces all too often. After learning that Candy had been trying to make some extra money on the side, Blanca and Lulu head to the motel that Candy frequents with her clients. The first time around there’s not much luck but eventually, Blanca learns that Candy is dead.

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Yes, that’s right. DEAD. She’s found inside of a closet beaten and bruised up, and left behind like discarded trash by whoever committed this horrible act. It’s a bit jarring to think that this all was a reality and I’m sure continues to be for this community. Horrible, just horrible.

Of course, the authorities don’t plan to do anything about it or investigate the murder but Blanca and company are able to get Candy’s body to hold a funeral for her. The funeral is rather emotional to get through because each character that was connected to Candy sees a vision/ghost of her. She essentially has a final conversation with them (her parents, Blanca, Pray Tell, Lulu, Angel), talking about whatever connected them to her.

In memory of her, Pray Tell decides to add the category Candy requested and names it “Candy’s Sweet Refrain”. Hold on a second, I need to grab some tissues. And I’ll need some more after I tell you guys what happens next.

As you know, Blanca began treatment with AZT and has been seeing improvement in her bloodwork. Unfortunately, Pray Tell has been refusing to take anything at all and is trying to use more holistic methods to get rid of his AIDs. After losing Candy unexpectedly, he changes his mind and decides that it’s time to enjoy the life he has, and live it to the fullest, which starts with taking care of himself.

This Pose episode closes with some final, jarring stats that haven’t left my thoughts since I watched the episode.

"More than 1,000 transgender and gender-nonconforming people have been murdered across the globe since 2016."

This isn’t okay. It’s just not.

How are you feeling after this week’s episode? Share your thoughts below, we’d love to hear them.

Pose airs every Tuesday with all-new episodes on FX at 10 PM EST!