‘Single Ladies’ Recap: The Friend Zone

This week on ‘Single Ladies’ Val, Keisha, and April are back to endure another week of men issues, and this time it’s served with a little girlfriend drama on the side.

Val (Stacey Dash) goes on another date with the wealthy suitor she met last episode and the two to seem to have had a really great time together.  He walks her to her door as the night closes and the mood quickly turns sour. When she doesn’t welcome him inside he flips out asking what he has to do for her to give him more than just a goodbye kiss. Val seems shocked by his rejection of her good girl tactics and promptly breaks things off between them. But inside the house April (Charity Shea) and Keisha (LisaRaye McCoy) remind her that holding back too much can turn men off. As usual Val doesn’t like what the ladies have to say and insists on sticking to her guns.

In a move to go back to what’s comfortable for her she starts seeing old but brief flame KC again, who makes it clear he respects her but wants to be way more than just friends. Val is called to her shop in the middle of the night to find her sassy intern Christina (Kassandra Clementi) and her BF in danger of being arrested for having sex in the window of the shop. What’s most surprising here is that Val seems only moderately pissed off and doesn’t fire Christina on the spot. (Huh?)

Keisha is still waiting for Malcolm to come begging her for forgiveness and is shocked when he stops by the shop to see Val instead and completely ignores her. (Girl don’t you know it’s part of his game?)  Malcolm asks Val to design clothing for a big event he’s having then tells Keisha he’s tired of apologizing and if she comes to his party she better not bring a date. He goes a step further the next time they see each other suggesting they “just be friends” to keep from disappointing one another.

At Malcolm’s jewelry party it turns out both he and Keisha bring dates they’re seemingly uninterested in. After a brief game of cat and mouse they wind up getting it on with each other in a private bathroom. Keisha thinks this means an end to their “friendship” and is crushed when Malcolm pretends as if their little romp was nothing more than friendly. (Keisha, why should he buy the cow when you’re handing out all that free milk, girl?)

April thinks she and Darryl might still stand a chance when he agrees to go back to counseling with her. Unfortunately the move on his part was just the next step in his very-calculated plan to divorce her and take her for all she has. She shows up to their house to find he’s packed all her things and plans to use everything she admitted to in therapy to help win his divorce case and take half of her lottery money. Uh-oh April. It looks like Darryl’s not playing nice anymore.

Can a man who once loved a woman as much as Darryl seemed to love April just turn into such a cold and calculating jerk overnight like that? What do you think?