P-Valley Season 1, Episode 2 recap: A new casino shakes things up in the south

P-Valley Season 1, Episode 2 recap: A new casino shakes things up in the south.

Finally, another new episode of P-Valley and I’m finding myself really sad this show is weekly and not available at once to binge! The second installment opens up inside the magical Paradise Room with neon blue lighting, Mercedes briefly introduced it last week.

Inside is a BDSM enthusiast’s dream, apparently. We see a man shackled to a giant cloud bed as Keyshawn and Mercedes antagonize him the way mistresses do. Also a side note, nice to see the nudity on this show is equal opportunity.

Meanwhile, Hailey is busy giving a lap dance to another client, but can’t help herself from trying to peer into the room across the way. Diamond stands guard in front of the door and notices Hailey’s distracted eyes. He tells her to straighten up and focus on what she’s doing.

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Beyond the title credits (which are fantastic) P-Valley is in the middle of Fantasy Fridays. Corbin says his goodbyes to Clifford and Keyshawn with whatever marks he sustained from the two bleeding through his white shirt.

Clifford tells Miss Autumn Night she needs to get her ID and paperwork started if she wants to keep working there.

She starts getting mouthy, assuming that the antics in the Paradise Room are prostitution. Clifford doesn’t take kindly to the suggestion and demands she hand over ID soon or she’s out.

In the changing rooms, the other girls wonder why Autumn doesn’t get dressed out there with the rest of them. Does she have something to hide? Sort of. She takes to the bathroom stalls to change clothes and take a swig from a mini bottle of vodka, it also looks like she has a  gun in her bag.

Clifford and her co-worker Big L are busy stressing out over money. L is particularly concerned as he has an arrest record and can’t get hired anywhere else if the club goes under. Clifford tries to reassure them that everything will be fine, especially with a big “Soap Down” event coming up that should bring in plenty of money. L doesn’t look convinced. Also, they have a giant tray of Oxycontin in the fridge, apparently for a client coming down from Houston.

As if Clifford doesn’t have enough problems being more than $55,000 in the red, Lil Murda pays her a visit by creeping into his car after work. He’s pissed because Mercedes didn’t play his music last week despite him paying Clifford a pretty penny to make it happen.

However, The Pynk manager says the rapper isn’t quite ready for the big time yet. We also learn they did not wind up hooking up, despite the rapper being willing. Clifford turned him down.

Cut to Mercedes taking a jog through her neighborhood with her dog, seemingly for exercise but most likely to pay a visit to the hot shirtless guy doing work on his car. Mane is on house arrest but promises Mercedes that he’ll be down at the club to see her last dance, no matter what.

At home, she declines a call from her mother, who leaves her a nasty voicemail from the church office before getting cut off short by Pastor Gilfield, who she seems to have an attraction to. He wants to know where Mercedes’ latest “contribution” is since she blew off her mother that morning. Like Clifford, the church is hurting for money. If they want to get accepted for a loan, they need at least 20% of the down payment.

Autumn visits a payphone near her apartment to check on the status of three people. One of them, Lakeisha Savage, is dead, with her body having been identified, but the name she seems most nervous to ask about — a Montavius Hill — is “still out there” somewhere. News she does not sound happy to hear.

Still, it would seem Lakeisha I.D. is about to come in handy for her.

Jump to the photographer we met last week, Andre. He’s looking through his recent photographs for a presentation on the Promised Land Casino and Resort. It would appear he or his employer is looking to construct on top of P-Valley, or in the neighboring area. While he deletes some photos, he does add a picture of Autumn to his gallery folder.

Later, he goes to meet his clients at a classic Southern estate house with fields of cotton. The owners are two white-bread racist idiots, but they’re all in on the deal for the Promised Land Casino, along with their “brother from another mother” Corbin! But Corbin doesn’t show up in time to sign the contractual papers Andre needs.

He offers to find Corbin himself and wonders where he’ll be, both men point to a billboard for The Pynk.

Speaking of which, all the ladies are attending the Soap Down. Mercedes and Autumn get assigned to clean an important client’s Escalade, but then Mercedes leaves Autumn alone inside as it gets hosed down. The car winds are soaked with soap and water, which triggers a PTSD episode for Autumn. She has a full-blown panic attack as she rushes to get out of the car.

Also worth noting for Mercedes, she promises her girls (the dance team) that she’s buying a new gym for them, which couldn’t come faster since men love to drive by and holler at the underage teens.

First, she blames Mercedes for locking her inside, but it’s pointed out that there was just a child lock on the doors. Then Clifford asks Mercedes to take her home.

That night, Autumn discovers that her phone is finally working again after putting it in rice. Se looks at some photos of her and who I assume is her daughter, along with one of her beside a man that could be Montavius.

Later, she goes to a nearby laundromat and uses a computer there to transfer $9,000 from Lakeisha’s account into her own.

Back at the club later, Clifford gets a surprising helping hand from Lil Murda, who helps her make wings in a different way after his cook up and quits since the manager cannot afford to give him a raise. It’s a nice change of pace for Clifford to get to enjoy herself for a minute while the world crashes down around her.

How does the second episode of P-Valley end?

At The Pynk, Andre comes by to meet up with Corbin, who offers him a pricey kickback. Instead of cashing in on the offer, Andre uses it to pay for an hour with Autumn in the Champagne Room. Things get steamy between the two as they show their scars off to one another. Autumn has a cesarian scar and Andre has one from when he was a child and was born with his heart outside of his chest, apparently.

Once the session is over, Autumn gives Clifford her cut in front of all the girls and since she has a massive stack of cash, Mercedes accuses her of having sex in the Champagne Room, essentially calling her a prostitute. Clifford assumes the same until she clarifies the whole casino scheme, which certainly piques the manager’s interest.

Since Autumn gives him Lakeisha’s ID card, he knows it’s a fake and she’s running some kind of fraud game, which gives him perfect blackmail material to make Autumn juice Andre for more information on the impending deal.

In the final moments of the episode, Mercedes returns home to find her mother waiting for her on the porch. She complains about Mercedes not arriving at the church with her tithes, but her daughter is sick of Patrice’s behavior and instead demands she give her the $20,000 she’s kept stashed at the church. It could be to help Clifford get out of her hole since she told her how much money she needs.

Then, Autumn makes good on her deal with Clifford to call Andre, who is in the middle of a phone call with his girlfriend/wife (ugh) and hangs up to take Autumn’s call. The two have raunchy phone sex.

What will happen if the casino comes to town in P-Valley? Will Clifford be able to get enough money to save The Pynk? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

New episodes of P-Valley air Sunday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Starz.