After nearly four years, Harlem has come to an end. Back in November, it was announced that the third season of Tracey Oliver’s take on friendship in your 30s, was getting a third season. But viewers were a little shocked when it was then announced in January that the third season would be the show’s last. The show also got fewer and fewer episodes per season, which is really a shame. Season one was ten, season two had eight, and the final season only has six. And yet, despite the limited space to tell the women’s stories, Oliver and her crew worked extra hard to make sure that everyone got their happy new beginning.
Season three opens right where season two left off: We find out which one of the crew is pregnant. Shockingly, it’s Camille. She was told that she probably wouldn’t be able to have children, but surprise! Angie is still engaged to Michael, and is preparing to star in Girls Trip: The Musical, a not-so-subtle nod to Oliver’s most famous work.
Quinn ended season two jumping into a relationship with her old college boyfriend. Now, she is single and focusing on being Quinn motherfucking Joseph instead. So of course she meets a handsome athlete who is going to make her really think about what it is she wants in life. (More about this later.)
Tye has an interesting arc this season. Season two ended with her taking a vow of celibacy after finding out she was dating mother Aimee (played by Rachel True) and her daughter Zoe. It turns out to be a good thing, as it allows Tye to focus on creating Q’s sister app, P, a dating app for polyamorous people. It’s through that endeavor that she meets Eva (played by Gail Bean), who works for the venture capital company financing the app.
The two are quickly enamored with each other, and most importantly, Eva respects the journey Tye is on. Eva pushes Tye to be a better version of herself, questioning her about running away from her family instead of coming out to them, insinuating that her choice may have something to do with her inability to commit.
Their relationship escalates quickly, with Eva casually dropping that her mother (played by Robin Givens) is coming to town and wants to meet Tye. Oh, and she just so happens to be a psychologist who has a tendency to analyze Eva’s romantic partners. As someone who is a walking red flag, naturally Tye freaks out, jeopardizing her relationship with Eva in the process. But in the end, she kind of proposes?
It’s hard to distill a journey like the one Tye goes on in only six episodes, especially when you’re trying to balance four storylines. Tye makes a serious 180 in terms of her behavior, but we don’t get to see enough of their interactions to fully grasp how they got there. Most of the time, we see Eva pushing a little harder than Tye wants, and her trying to run away. It’s hard to know if it’s time, seeing her friends seemingly settling down, or actual growth that leads Tye to want to commit to Eva.
Regardless of how quickly they got there, Eva does one very important thing: gets Tye to begin unpacking her relationship with her family. Granted, I would have suggested therapy before suggesting she get on a plane to Atlanta to confront them, but what do I know? Love makes us do a lot of things. Still, I think there deserved to be more care put into this part of Tye’s journey. So much of her storyline in seasons one and two focused on repairing her relationship with her ex-husband Brandon, so I was hoping we would see her process what going home would mean for her with her friends.
Any queer person knows the unique stress of having to come out to your family. During her conversation with Eva, Tye makes an offhand comment about her family being homophobic. Suddenly she’s just willing to get on a plane and subject herself to potential mistreatment? It seems out of character to have her jump into a situation where she could be hurt.
And then the proposal at the end? Listen, I love a good romcom moment. But those moments have to be earned, and I simply do not believe that Tye and Eva earned that moment. There was an opportunity to show Tye making a vow to commit to the relationship and maybe agree to find a way to work through her issues together. Instead, she’s getting down on one knee in Eva’s apartment building and presenting her with her grandmother’s ring. I get the need to wrap up a story with a bow, but after the season they’ve had, I simply cannot believe happily ever after is in their future.
And what about our girl Quinn? She finds herself falling hard for sexy baseball player Seth. He is willing to give Quinn everything she’s ever wanted: marriage, a family, stability. And she’s so ready to go all in with him. But then he reveals to her that he’s ethically non-monogamous, shaking Quinn to her core. Seth wants to make her his primary partner, but can Quinn really handle it?
She decides to be open minded about it and meet Seth’s current partner, Sabrina. But after Sabrina gives her a laundry list of rules to follow if she’s going to join their polycule, Quinn realizes that monogamy is the thing she wants.
It was such an interesting choice to give Quinn the storyline that deals with non-monogamy, because anyone who’s ever watched Harlem knows that she is not going to be about that life. Of the core four, Quinn is the most traditional, and while there may have been a brief second where you could suspend your belief into thinking that she’d go for non-monogamy, you know it simply isn’t happening.
I would have liked to see Tye get Quinn’s non-monogamy storyline actually! Her character seems more suited to the lifestyle, and since she’s starting a dating app for polyamorous people, it could have been awesome to see her try it. And if she didn’t like it, she could say it was something she attempted. But I do give the show’s writers a lot of credit for handling the storyline with grace, and not making Seth or his lifestyle the butt of every joke.
With her romance over and Camille’s baby on the way, Quinn frets over her options for motherhood. After running into a friend at Camille’s baby shower who used a sperm donor, Quinn begins to realize that she can have a baby without the man and the marriage. So she attends an info session about becoming a single mom by choice. And as she’s leaving, who does she run into? Isabella, the hot as hell politician Quinn dated in season two!
When I tell you that I screamed seeing Isabella pop up on the screen. I loved her and Quinn’s relationship; she brought something out of Quinn that no one else did. As they begin to walk out of the conference room, Isabella gives Quinn her easy smile and says that she’s been thinking about her. Maybe now that Quinn is a little more settled, the two of them could give romance another chance? Anything’s possible.
I will certainly miss the besties of Harlem. It would be nice to see them move into the next parts of their lives, but I’ll just have to make up the rest of their journeys in my mind instead.
Harlem season three is now streaming on Prime.
