Your House Will Pay

As Grace and Miriam get ready for church, Miriam asks Grace about her trip to Palmdale, to the Holloways. Grace tells her that it didn’t go well, and Miriam scolds her for going. Still, they bond over Miriam having had the same impulse to talk to the family after she found out about their mother two years ago.

At church, Grace gets the sense that things are starting to heal. The pastor announces the Parks’ presence to the congregation, and Grace feels the support of those around her. She struggles with the fact that they are quick to judge, but kind to her and her mother. She understands why her parents have sought refuge from their past in the church, surrounded by kind faces. Grace understands how her mother was able to live with what she did, as she, too, almost feels forgiven (211).

Miriam cooks spaghetti for dinner, and the family eats together, whole for the first time in a while. The sisters’ parents question Miriam about Blake and marriage. There is laughter, and Grace allows herself to hope for the future. She reflects on the way humans survive in the face of their own guilt, and how they can so easily ignore all the injustice in the world. People forget to remember the “ugly things” (214), which eventually fade because they cannot “survive the attrition of everyday life” (213). Grace also acknowledges that not everyone has the privilege to forget.

Shawn’s employer Manny wants to talk to him after work. Shawn worries that his job is in jeopardy, and apologizes for missing time recently. However, Manny tells him not to worry and offers his condolences for Ava. He didn’t know Ava Matthews was his sister until he saw the recent news, and wishes to offer his support. Despite Manny’s good intentions, Shawn simply wishes to live with dignity, and not have to apologize or make excuses for himself and others.

When Shawn returns to Palmdale, there is bad news waiting: Ray confessed to Yvonne’s shooting. The family is grieving, and Sheila is having a hard time. She has had trouble sleeping ever since Ray was arrested. Nisha does not believe Ray did it, and thinks the cops beat a confession out of him. Shawn wants to confront Ray, as he doesn’t believe he did it either. While the family talks, Darryl sneaks out. Nisha and Ray hear Ray’s car start and watch as Darryl drives off.

Grace and Paul have a normal day at Woori Pharmacy, but toward the end of the day, Detective Neil Maxwell shows up to talk to Grace. They talk over coffee in the Korean bakery nearby. Maxwell tells her that Ray Holloway confessed, but believes her parents are hiding crucial information. He says Paul has been lying from the beginning, and then asks Grace about the cameras in the pharmacy; Paul claimed they were only for show. Grace doesn’t know much about them, but knows they used to work; however, she does not say this to Maxwell.

On the drive home, Paul asks what Maxwell wanted, and Grace questions her father about the cameras. Paul says nothing, and Grace assures him that she didn’t say anything to Maxwell. He just wants the situation to be over, and says that Yvonne doesn’t care if someone goes to jail; she just wants things to go back to the way they were before, without a trial to keep them in the news. Grace wants to help the police in case there is a different shooter, especially if they decide to shoot Yvonne again, but Paul doesn’t want the police’s help. He doesn’t trust the police because the LAPD used the killing of Ava Matthews for their own political ends back in 1991. He insists that the police are not on their side.

After her parents go to sleep, Grace sneaks onto the family’s old desktop computer and finds security camera footage from Woori Pharmacy. She believes her father retrieved the footage after the shooting because he wanted to solve it himself, as he saved some footage from being automatically deleted. Grace reviews the older footage and sees a Black man in the corridor outside the store, looking through the window. He is looking intently at Yvonne. Grace zooms in and sees that this person isn’t an adult at all—but a teenager whom she recognizes.

Worried for Darryl, Shawn and Nisha wait in case he returns home; he doesn’t. Shawn assures Nisha that Darryl will come home on his own. He tells her that they shouldn’t call the police, because they don’t know what he has gotten into.

The next day, Shawn looks for Darryl on his own. He looks on Facebook and tries to contact Darryl’s ex-girlfriend, Brianna Lacey. While watching Monique (because Jazz is at work), Brianna finally responds and says she hasn’t seen him. Shawn decides it’s worth going to the school and talking to her anyway. After the school day ends, Shawn speaks to Brianna while Dasha takes care of Monique. Shawn learns that Darryl and Brianna broke up because Darryl started acting weird. He was cutting school, acting tough, and ignoring her texts. Brianna thinks something is wrong, because after they broke up, Darryl left a silver crucifix in her locker from Tiffany’s—a $200 gift. Knowing that Darryl doesn’t have that kind of money, she assumes he has been dealing drugs. Lately, he has been hanging out with Quantavius Fox. Shawn knew Quant when the latter was a child; now, he is 35 years old and running a transplant crew in Palmdale.

Shawn meets up with Quant at a Chipotle restaurant. Quant has slimmed down since Shawn last saw him, and seems confident and cool. He acts familiar with Shawn, and Shawn is disappointed that he feels shame about his own life. Shawn is frustrated that he has played by the rules since getting out of prison, and yet his family is in trouble. He feels naive thinking he could have kept Darryl sheltered from his past. He remembers the way he looked down on his own Uncle Richard because he admired gang members who “wanted to leave their mark on the world” (243). Shawn realizes that children will make their own mistakes, but he still wants to help prevent these mistakes: “You bothered because you had no choice. There was no love without the bothering” (243).

Quant calls Darryl his boy, which to Shawn means that Darryl has been dealing for him. Quant frames gangs as Black men sticking together in an unfair world, but Shawn knows this is not the full story. Angry and influenced by adrenaline, Shawn punches Quant, surprising him, and leaves the man on the ground.

Grace meets up with Jules Searcey at a café in Venice Beach. After some small talk, Searcey asks how Yvonne and Grace are doing. Grace offers a mild response, suggesting that things are getting better. Then, she tells him that she wants to get Ray out of jail, as he isn’t guilty. Searcey mentions that Duncan Green, Ray’s best friend, started a Twitter campaign to free Ray. Duncan posted a photo of Ray with a woman and claimed it was taken at the same time as the murder; the tweet is getting a lot of retweets. Grace reflects that she likely wouldn’t have believed Duncan if she hadn’t seen the video. She doesn’t fully understand the legal system, so she finds challenging it difficult.

Grace and Searcey talk about the cyclical nature of social unrest. Every 30 years or so, Los Angeles enters a new era of protesting racial injustice. Searcey points out that this is because there is video documentation. Without the video of the Rodney King beating, the racist behavior of the LAPD wouldn’t have become a national story. Such stories remain until people become desensitized and choose to ignore them, regardless of changes. Nowadays, because there are so many similar videos, the process has sped up: With each new story, people forget previous ones. Now that Ray Holloway is the story, nobody is talking about Alfonso Curiel anymore. Graces thinks about Curiel’s mother on TV, asking everyone to remember her son’s name.

Finally, Grace makes it clear that she knows for certain that Ray didn’t shoot her mother. Searcey tells her that she is the only person who can change the course of the investigation and puts her in touch with Ray’s lawyer. Grace meets the lawyer, Fred MacManus, at his office in Century City. MacManus is a charismatic Black man with a successful career. Grace hints at having proof that Ray is innocent. MacManus suggests that if she is willing to testify, casting doubt on Ray’s guilt, the prosecutors might drop the case altogether. Grace says that her mother won’t testify, but that she herself will confirm that the shooter wasn’t Ray. MacManus asks if the DA’s office has contacted her yet. She refutes this, and he says that they soon will.