First there’s the errr… noise. Then the camera tracks over to a couple having a verrrrry steamy encounter. It’s Bryson (Tequan Richmond) and Simone (Tetona Jackson) and their relationship seems to have moved ahead by many levels since we last saw them. We’re also learning a lot about Simone who turns out to be shall we say… quite adventurous! Well it all seemed that way at first.

Viewers soon come to find out we’ve been hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray and Simone and Bryson are not in fact running amok or even hooking up. It was all just a dream. A duragged Bryson awakens suddenly and sits up in bed (alone) with a start! Surprisingly, he doesn’t seem as …. pleased as one would expect after after such sexy slumber! He’s bothered all right, but not in the right way. What’s going on?

Cut to Bryson’s therapist’s office the next day, eyes glazed over with anxiety. Therapist says, “It’s not weird to enjoy anal penetration.” Bryson doesn’t seem all that reassured about this and the talk soon turns to his mother. The therapist asks him if Simone reminds him of his mother since she is also smart, aggressive, and powerful. He doesn’t think so.

He reveals without much emotion that he hasn’t spoken to his mother for a month. Not because anything happened. They just don’t talk that much. It soon becomes crystal clear that he has Mommy Issues–really deep Mommy Issues, and some anger festering just below the surface. He says to the therapist, “I always felt I loved my mom more than she loved me. I was never her priority.” There promises to be a whole lot more sadness and sordid mess to unpack where this came from.

Simone peels back some more layers and we see she is not only a bit spoiled but entitled and really averse to following the rules if they hold her back in any way. She is back at her father’s office, where she’d quit just a few weeks ago. To be more specific, she is stealing supplies from her father’s office. When Crystal walks in and stares at her in disbelief at her audacity, Simone’s response is, “Technically, I’m not stealing since my parents own the company.” M- okay, Simone!

Bryson then walks in and instantly flashes back to the dream of the night before. Confronted with Simone’s brazenness though, he quickly gets over his embarrassment and they in fact start to bicker about an ad campaign for a movie he’s promoting. He has an idea for the campaign that Simone (no surprise) doesn’t agree with. Her eyes do light up when he says he needs someone to do some singing for the campaign. She knows the perfect person (her client Tia, whom she forced on Bryson for his last campaign, causing him to tank his presentation) but Simone doesn’t show her hand yet.

Later, Bryson screens the film for Victoria and the rest of his colleagues and articulates his vision but they don’t “get it” either. Victoria, who has ‘I just want to go home, take off these uncomfortable shoes, and get a glass of wine’ written all over her face, tells Bryson to go with something a little less experimental.

Over lunch, Simone tries to convince Tia to do the singing for Bryson’s movie campaign. Bear in mind, she hasn’t asked Bryson a thing yet! Simone’s plan is to have the song (and Tia) go viral and increase Tia’s visibility. Tia doesn’t “want to pretend” she’s something she’s not on social media. Simone quickly and matter of factly reminds Tia that all social media is about being fake. Tia is all in.

Bryson meets with the filmmakers, a set of boho, Black Power, Lenny Kravitz-resembling twins. He tries to get them to nail down the essence of the film but they seem to not know what the heck their own movie is about. Is it about “Black Power”? Or “Powerful Blacks”? Or is it about Black people with superpowers? Who knows! The conversation between the three of them goes in circles but kind of ends up proving one of the numerous disparate points made in the convo. There is no one way to sum up the film just as there is no one way to sum up “Blackness.”

That, in essence, seems to be what Boomerang is trying to communicate in general, from its three very different Black women characters to its three very different Black men characters. They’re all existing in the same space together; their beings contradict one another; and they’re all still Black.

Simone may still be working through some stuff in order to accept that fact. It’s evident when Tia and Simone go into the studio to record the song for Bryson’s film campaign and it turns out Tia isn’t too bad of a rapper. Simone isn’t really feeling Tia’s rendition though. Although Bryson is nowhere in the vicinity and has no idea what they’re doing, Simone blames him for her not liking how Tia interprets the song. It feels a little like Simone has issues with respectability but she isn’t forthright about that. Tia is cool being her authentic self, but reluctantly does another version to please Simone. When they later find Bryson and have him listen to the song, to Simone’s shock, Bryson likes Tia’s version. He tries to backtrack to please Simone (there is a pattern developing here with folks) but Tia tells him, “Stand in your power.”

Unlike in the second episode where Bryson let Simone overrule his idea, Bryson listens to Tia. He’s coming into his own and we can’t wait to see where that leads (or leaves) the rest of them.