DRAWING ON THE PAST: YOLO SEASON 6 EPISODE 6 REVIEW

YOLO SEASON 6, EPISODE 6

                 DRAWING ON THE PAST: YOLO SEASON 6 EPISODE 6 REVIEW

There is something spectacular and refreshing about this 6th episode of YOLO season 6. It is not because this episode features the highly recognized actors Majid Michel and Jackie Appiah, who both in this episode lead the ensemble, but because the director, Ivan Quashigah, heavily leans on the unpleasant memories that are left cognitive in the minds of these old generations, Shaker (Majid Michel) and Enyonam (Jackie Appiah). This episode invites its audiences to reminisce the misfortune of Enyonam (Jackie Appiah), who, in “Things We Do for Love”, suffers rape as a teen-age girl, and births Cyril. Not only Enyonam, this episode, although it keeps it secret, touches the wounds of Lydia (Christabel Awuah Amoabeng), who keeps her heartbreak and misery in her own head after Shaker (Majid Michel) puts her in bed, in a noncommittal relationship. In this review, I would illuminate the perceptible past moments of some characters that drive this episode. My argument rests on the assumption that this episode substantially reveals that the problems of the older generation resemble that of the younger ones. 

The prime fact about Mark Anthony’s character is that, even though Odenkyem (Joseph Delove August) purposely schools him to be a bad youth, and to be like him (Odenkyem), he—Mark Anthony—seems masterly—or mastered-—in the game now; thus, when his father (Max) offers him a ‘yam’ phone, he opens his two labials and watches the sky as if he is insulting the father, Max, in the head. What is so clear and objective, in this scene, is reading Max as a character who is technologically cultured, but not, as the audiences may see it, a character who is not technologically cultured. As demeaning he may look when he gives Mark Anthony a ‘yam’ in a TECNO Spark 6 box, he seems to be optic—nodding his head and gazing at Mark Anthony, his son—-in examining Mark Anthony who avoids making eye contact with him, the father.  

But what this production—or this episode—makes it ambiguous of Max’s character in the same scene is that for Max to present the “yam” phone in a TECNO Spark 6 box, as if it were exactly the celebrated TECNO Spark 6 phone, depicts Max as a comic character although he does not act or appear in such a resemblance. I do not know whether the performance life of the object is purposefully to reveal or elicit Mark Anthony’s behavior or whether it aims at revealing Max’s CID-like-attitude towards Mark Anthony when he (Max) mentions that “But lately, his [Mark Anthony’s] suspicious behavior makes it hard for me to trust him”. Taking all these into account, I identify Max to be preventing Mark Anthony from any intimate relationship that could lead him to giving birth at his early–youthful age like Auntie Enyonam (Jackie Appiah), who, in “Things We Do For Love”, unfortunately, gives birth, but is raped.

The moment Shaker (Majid Michel) enters Auntie Enyonam’s (Jackie Appiah’s) shop, the camera director zooms Lydia’s (Christabel Awuah Amoabeng’s) face to appear at the center of the screen. Her intermittently, and fearfully, staring at Shaker (Majid Michel) depicts her as one who deliberates on Shaker’s presence—-thus, she finds it difficult to believe that whom she sees is really Shaker (Majid Michel), the man that, in one of the episodes, breaks her heart and ignores to answer her calls, and in her own words “deceives me [her]”. Within this part of the episode, a fascinating parallel is drawn in the scene with Shaker (Majid Michel), Auntie Enyonam (Jackie Appiah), and Lydia’s (Christabel Awuah Amoabeng’s) life. 

 These three characters have common experiences that they want to keep cognitive, even though Shaker—who seems to be making his nefarious and hideous acts covert—unconsciously makes them overt through his language behavior. As he, with hesitation in speech, mentions to Enyonam that Akua is “my [his] niece”, Enyonam exclaims “Eeei, Shaker, are you sure she is your niece?”, making it known that she still, today, doubts Shaker. Akua, who is unknown to the conversation between Shaker and Enyonam, responds “yes, babe!”—when Shaker invites her to confirm that indeed she is his “niece—which communicates to Auntie Enyonam (Majid Michel) that Shaker means it and does not take it lightly when he says “I am the Shaker”---thus, perhaps he means “I am still the Shaker you already know: I have not changed”. Similarly, Akua, instead of Shaker (Majid Michel), blushingly answers Enyonam’s (Jackie Appiah’s) question— “So Shaker (Majid Michel) you haven’t changed?” when Shaker (Majid Michel) asks Enyonam (Jackie Appiah) “Are you married?” and later comments “[..] let’s get personal”—with the statement “Funny, my mum says the same thing about him”. It should be noted that, by Akua’s answer, although Auntie Enyonam (Jackie Appiah) gets evidence from Shaker’s (Majid Michel’s) own acclaimed “niece”, Akua herself does not know the belief embedded in her mum’s declaration. Or it is plausible that she is desperately in love with Shaker who is particular about his good-looking self. 

The episode also shows that Enyonam is careful when dealing with a character like Majid Michel’s Shaker—she cares about herself, and nothing else. As Shaker brings his body closer to her in order to question her, “Are you married?”, she frowns at Shaker’s question (“Are you married”) to remind the audiences about her past life in “Things We Do for Love”. It is even so that, when she frowns at Shaker (Majid Michel), she intends to warn him not to talk about anything that involves her past, or she does not want any of the very younger generation—like Akua—-present in the shop, know about what she suffers in “Things We Do for Love”. Like Jackie Appiah’s Auntie Enyonam’s case, Christabel Awuah Amoabeng’s Lydia also tries, in the shop, to submerge her associations with and feelings for Shaker, yet the camera director makes her inherent behaviors visible as, on camera, she constantly draws herself to be a secret participant of the conversation between Auntie Enyonam and Shaker.   

In this episode, I do watch Auntie Enyonam's past experience—which I have reflected on here—repeating itself in the life of Akua and Lydia. I do not want to ignore the choices that Quashigah makes for his audiences. That the first generation, the cast of Auntie Enyonam, Majid, etc., the second generation, Lydia, Bra. Charles, etc. and the third generation, Akua and this new young ensemble cast in this season, all have behavioral experiences which juxtapose and mimic the other. If the camera director switches in their taking shots from Auntie Enyonam to Akua, and to Lydia, and back and forth, it is should not be only considered that Quashigah is inviting the audiences to see how Auntie Enyonam, Lydia, and Akua respond to his (Shaker's) put-the-make-on, but he (Quashigah) is bringing into the audiences' mind a resemblance of the past which is repetitive in this episode.

In conclusion, Ivan Quashigah leans on past references in this episode, looking at how he touches on Jackie Appiah's Enyonam's seemingly healed wound. In this episode, it is not totally clear that Auntie Enyonam, who has since and from "Things We Do for Love" been a single parent, may fall or may not fall into the arms of Shaker. From what is seen in this episode or production which I discuss, it seems that Quashigah brings the audiences to anticipate what will happen in Lydia's, Akua's, Autie Enyonam's lives, more especially Auntie Enyonam, as Shaker the 'player' constantly plays along with his mind games. But it will seem interesting, in the next episode, if Quashigah heavily explores on the path he is taking in this very episode.

Godfred, Nana Kruentsi Ogoe

[Performance/ Theatre Reviewer, 

Shakespeare and Performance,

Mary Baldwin University]

frednana007@gmail.com