Hulu's 'The Other Black Girl' Includes A *Major* Twist You'll Never See Coming
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Hulu’s newest psychological thriller series, The Other Black Girl, follows 26-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers during her early career at the fictional Wagner Books book publishing house.
Nella is tired of being the only Black employee at her all-white company, so she’s very excited when Hazel—the other Black girl—is hired. But Nella soon learns that Hazel isn’t who she seems to be, and things become seriously freaky from there. The 10-episode series actually has a major twist at the end, and it's leaving viewers with a ton of questions about what happens.
So, what’s up with the ending of The Other Black Girl, and will there be a season 2? Here’s everything you need to know.
What is The Other Black Girl about?
The Other Black Girl is about Nella, who is career-focused and working on snagging a big promotion at Wagner Books. She’s the only Black employee at the office and is constantly reminded of that fact by her white coworkers.
So, of course, Nella is excited when Hazel, another Black woman who was born and raised in Harlem, starts working at the office. Nella tries to form a friendship with her, but things start to get weird for Nella. Hazel starts to find major success at the company, all while gaslighting Nella, and Nella starts to worry that something dark and sinister is happening in their office.
It’s based on a book by the same name.
The Other Black Girl: A Novel
amazon.com
$14.43
Hulu didn’t make this plot up or anything—it’s actually based off of the 2021 novel The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris. Harris has said that her book takes some inspiration from Jordan Peele's movie Get Out and Ira Levin's The Stepford Wives, per The New York Times. And if you watch the series, you'll recognize that vibe.
Like most authors who sell the rights to the screen version of their story, Harris was pretty involved in the making of the movie, and has shared several behind-the-scenes photos and videos from her experience on set:
What’s going on with the hair grease?
There's a lot of emphasis on hair grease throughout the episodes. Nella actually first realizes that there is another Black woman working in the office after smelling her hair grease.
While it seems kind of insignificant in the beginning, the hair grease is later linked to a form of mind control against Black people. So yeah, you'll want to pay attention to the mentions of hair grease throughout the 10 episodes.
What happens at the end?
The end of the series finds Nella super paranoid because she's been receiving threatening letters at the office and other weird things have been happening around her. As a aresult, Nella’s career has been taking a hit while Hazel becomes an office favorite.
Eventually, Nella learns that Hazel is actually part of a network of women called OBGs (which stands for “other Black girls”). OBGs basically use hair grease as a form of mind control to help Black people ignore racism in the workplace.
In a surprising twist, Nella actually gives in to using the hair grease which, Hazel argues, will allow her to be free from the daily battle against racism at the office. Nella ends up changing her hair and is given a corner office after she starts using it.
Here's where things get even more interesting: At the very end, Nella is seen making a call on a burner phone to her best friends, who are leading a resistance movement against the brain washing from OBGs, leaving everyone wondering what in the world happens next.
The new ending is a twist from the book’s ending.
At the end of the book, Nella gets away from Hazel and the hair grease situation, but eventually gives in to the pressure to use it after discovering that Jesse Watson, an activist she admires who spoke out about structural racism at Wagner, had also been brainwashed.
Readers then see Nella taking things a step further and targeting other Black women to recruit them to the OBGs. So, this is definitely different from the whole burner-phone-call-resistance-movement situation at the end of the TV series.
Will there be a The Other Black Girl season 2?
The show left things open for a second season. “There’s just so many places it could go if the story and the show were to [continue],” Harris previously told Glamour. “We've been talking about plans if it were to go past one season. Wagner Books is so rich for storylines.”
That said, there are ongoing strikes with WGA and SAG-AFTRA, which would delay any season 2 plans. Plus, the show just came out, so everyone will just have to wait and see…
For now, you can catch the series streaming on Hulu now.
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