Glass ceiling-shattering Emmy winner Lena Waithe’s love letter to her hometown, The Chi, became premium cable’s longest-running Black drama earlier this summer. Surpassing Soul Food (the notable Showtime series that ran from 2000 until 2004), the ninth episode of The Chi‘s seventh season, titled “Last Respects,” dug beyond the gangbanging, murder capital narrative often favored by mainstream media. Instead of running away from or ignoring the city’s gritty reality, the series also showed the trials and tribulations that many everyday people face in such a challenging environment, or just in life. 

That ordinariness is what Waithe, who rose to prominence as both a writer and star of the Netflix series Master of None, emphasizes to The Hollywood Reporter. “It struck a nerve, because everybody knows a character in the show,” she says of The Chi’s core fanbase. “I hear from a lot of young guys that they really relate to Emmett. A lot of older guys will say they relate to Darnell. Jada [Emmett’s mom and eventual wife to Emmett’s father, Darnell] is also a reflection of every woman; there’s something about her that is just very familiar. But even with Tiff [Emmett’s ex-wife and mother of his son EJ] and Kiesha [a close friend of Tiff’s as well as Emmett’s current partner and co-parent] they feel like girls and women you know.” 

From teenage fatherhood, gang life and brotherhood to cancer, motherhood and love, the series has tackled a lot over its previous seasons. Storylines around trans women and lesbian romance, alongside those of heterosexual relationships, as well as politics, the church and institutional corruption and gun violence have created a fuller sense of a Black community that hits closer to home than a lot of other shows. This season also featured intense storylines about the fallout of Rob’s [former NBA player Iman Shumpert] murder and its impact on his woman and cannabis business partner Tiff [Hannaha Hall] who later learns she’s pregnant, pushing her closer to his mother Alicia, portrayed by Lynn Whitfield, who, despite being determined to avenge her son’s death, finds herself on the wrong end of the bullet in the season finale. 

Other highs and lows include Emmett and Jamal (Vic Mensa) being shot in connection to the harrowing return of Victor (Luke James) and Jake’s (Michael Epps) criminal-minded brother Reg (Barton Fitzpatrick) who had been presumed dead after season two. His resurgence from the grave perhaps made the death of Yolonda Ross’ character Jada, who had been an anchor for the show since its premiere, even more emotional. 

Kyla Pratt (Dr. Doolittle, One on One), Wendy Raquel Robinson (The Game, The Steve Harvey Show), Reagan Gomez-Preston (The Parent ‘Hood), Kadeem Hardison (A Different World) and Phylicia Rashad (The Cosby Show, Creed franchise) — all from shows she enjoyed watching as a fan — helped Waithe tell these stories. “Why would we not have them there?” she says. 

That nostalgia and appreciation also seeped into various scenes with The Chi paying homage to Boyz n the Hood (“I’m always paying homage to Mr. Singleton. He’s one of my biggest influences. If you look at Boyz n the Hood, The Chi is absolutely influenced by that movie”) and New Jack City (“Some people caught when Reg is walking around the table trying to figure out who’s down for him. Some people think it’s a Martin reference because Martin was referencing New Jack City and [even] got a fake dog and shit!”). She also worked in a reference to her own film Queen & Slim.

The Hollywood Reporter spoke with Waithe, asking her key questions about why some characters died and others lived, Reg’s resurgence from the dead and what’s ahead for the already renewed season eight.

***

So why was it time for Alicia (Lynn Whitfield) to die? Considering she’s been trying to kill people, and they haven’t really been trying to kill her, it was kind of a shock. 

The key word you said is “shock.” As a television writer, and as a person who’s also a fan of television, that’s what I often look for: Is something unexpected? The truth is that Roselyn’s given false information. But what’s interesting about that false information is that Alicia did want to kill Douda; she just didn’t get the opportunity. There’s something really interesting about that. What I also think has become a bit of a theme of the show is that you never know. We sometimes make assumptions, or believe things that sometimes aren’t true, and we act on information that isn’t true, and that can have really tough consequences. 

Shaad and Victor literally have no connection to Alicia’s death, but in the final shot of the finale, they are surrounded by police and have their hands up. It really isn’t looking good for them. 

Not at all. What I love is that our audience, our Chi family, knows what’s up. They know they didn’t do this. What I think is fun is that our audience is kind of frustrated because they’re like, “Tiff, don’t talk to Nuck” or “Yo, police people, they didn’t do this.” That’s something that’s interesting and unique to our show. A lot of times, people are banking on the mystery [and] want the audience wondering, “Well, who did it?”

So why did you guys decide to bring Kandi Burruss’ Roselyn, Douda’s wife, back to kill Alicia?

We love Kandi, we love Roselyn. We love that character. And we thought, if anybody would get revenge for Douda’s death, she would be the one to do it. She initially is like, “I don’t want to get involved in this, or whoever took him out,” but then she tried to go away and remembers they had a bit of a bond, and were more than just husband and wife. They were partners. I think she feels guilty like, “Somebody really killed my guy, and they’re not going to pay for it?” She also assumes correctly who did it, and of course, Nuck [Cortez Smith] does what he always does: he’s going to say whatever he’s got to say to save his life. What’s great is that Roselyn thinks, of course, Alicia would take him out. All of it makes sense. It’s not too far-fetched. It’s a believable thing.

Why have Jada die?

Death is a part of life. It just is. That’s something we, as a show, aren’t afraid of. It’s so interesting because I’m 41. I have friends of mine, particularly a close friend of mine, who is my age, we went to high school together, he lost his mother to cancer. And that wasn’t the impetus. We were already on this idea and then he shared this with me, and it was kind of eerie because he didn’t know at all. Another one of our cast members lost their mom to cancer [and] he is not an older guy at all. And, by the way, both my friend and the cast member had babies around the time their mothers passed away. So it was just this thing that was happening around us, a real life thing in my own personal life. We were seeing comments from people saying, “I lost my mom, she beat it, and then it came back and took her life.” If you’re upset, that means you have connected to a character. A lot of people have had real life experiences with this. 

Why did you all decide on a living funeral for Jada?

That came out of the writers room. It was pitched to me so I can’t say exactly who it was. When the room pitched me the idea, I had heard about that, and warmed to it and immediately loved it. Because when you lose a character, it’s still a person we’ve worked with for a long time. So there’s also an element of us wanting to show love to Yolonda, the person. Even though she’s a fictitious character on the show, it also gives us the opportunity to say farewell to this actor who’s been with us for a long time. Oftentimes, you don’t get to do that in real life, if a character is shot or killed suddenly.

We loved the idea of a person knowing they’re about to make their transition, and then the community around them getting to say, “This is an opportunity for us to tell you how much we love you and how much we’re going to miss you before you make your transition.” We got to the room and thought, “Wow, that’s going to be really special.” Then when it came to writing the episode, we knew Emmett wasn’t going to be able to get through his letter, and then the idea of Darnell coming to help him finish it came up, which we were taken out by too. I mean we’re human as well. We got emotional thinking about it. And Jacob Latimore is just phenomenal. The Internet has been giving him all his flowers, because he deserves that. He really went somewhere. It just was really emotional for everybody.

Prior to the living funeral for Jada, people were upset that Emmet got shot and were wondering if he would make it. 

Jesus! I mean our most-watched episode was people trying to find out if he’s going to make it after he gets shot. We broke a series record because people were so invested. It is interesting and also nice that people know that on The Chi, you don’t know who may leave. You don’t know who is going to be gone. That’s also a signature of the series. I think people watch because they love the characters and like the storyline, but they also never know what’s going to happen. That’s something we want to keep up.

So you had two people in Emmett and Jamal get shot and come back, and then two people in Alicia and Jada die.

Yeah, two people got shot and two survived. People get cancer and don’t. Some people get shot and get killed, and some people get shot and go somewhere and hide out and wait for the block to cool down and come back.

People were super shocked to see Reg. Why bring Reg back after he was presumed dead at the end of season two?

There was a hunger for it from the audience. We are very much in conversation with our Chi family. People do recaps and chats, and they talk about it online. We’ve got our ears to the street. We don’t let The Chi family dictate the storylines, but we hear the conversation. And that was something we kept hearing. What was exciting for us as a room was to see all three brothers together. That was probably one of the most memorable scenes of the series, to see Victor, Reg and Jake on that couch smoking together. And then also the “Mother’s Day” episode [four], which was also really powerful, [because] you have three different sons who have three very different viewpoints of their mom. They have different dads but the same mom, and [they each have] different experiences with their mom.

So what’s Reg’s deal? In his return, he has settled back into a life of crime, even to the point that his brothers, particularly Jake, have had to turn him loose. 

We love having complicated storylines. We don’t believe in villains and heroes. Heroes have flaws and villains have redeeming qualities. What’s so interesting is that we got to find out with Reg even hearing Victor talk to Jake about him, and how he had to become this tough guy to survive. Also, that conversation between Reg and Shaad (Jason Weaver). Shaad was Victor’s friend when he was [known as] Trig and they were out here running the streets. Shaad feels bad [or responsible for Reg becoming a criminal and is] like, “Man, we should have shown you better.”

Shaad is loosely based on my uncle who spent time in jail and got out and couldn’t really get his life back together, which I wouldn’t necessarily say is his fault. It’s hard to get back into society, especially in the ‘90s. And that’s why I have a soft spot for Shaad. Even my uncle feels like, “I wish I would’ve shown you something different.” A part of it is sometimes Black men’s backs are against the wall, and they have to do certain things to make money and survive, and it gets them in trouble and lands them in jail. They feel bad about not always giving the best examples to those around them [who] are watching them. That’s one of my favorite conversations between Shaad and Reg. 

Speaking of tough conversations, you guys weren’t shy about tackling interracial dating through Pastor Zeke’s relationship with his white girlfriend and the negative impact it has on his congregation. But you also show a lot of different viewpoints.

I came up on A Different World, as everybody knows, and what I learned, as I still talk to Susan Fales-Hill, Yvette Lee Bowser and Debbie Allen [who all had intricate roles in the series], the thing that they really showed when I would watch A Different World, whatever the topic was on the show that week, there were multiple opinions from different generations. It was something we hadn’t tackled on the show because it’s an all-Black cast. But we wanted to have that conversation. And we thought, what better way to have it than to show a “prominent Black man in the community,” which is Pastor Zeke and what would happen to his kingdom that he built if he decided to date a white woman. 

So many things started to unravel in our writers room, where there are a lot of Black women. They were like, “Yeah, I would look at him with a side eye.” And I was like, “Okay, why?” Those conversations got to be really interesting. And then we realized we wanted Papa in the dialogue because he is younger. And what we found is a lot of young kids kind of don’t care. Then people older than me, in their 60s or 70s, have a very stringent feeling about it, but for obvious reasons with his ex-wife [Carolyn], there’s some tension there. Because she’s like, “Well, is there a preference to her over me? What does she have that I don’t?” She takes it personally. Papa and [Zeke and Carolyn’s daughter] Kenya don’t think it’s a big deal. Then, of course, Phylicia Rashad’s character [Renee, Carolyn’s mother] is like, “Look, this meant life or death when I was a young person.” Then we gave Papa the final word, which is one of our most famous Black men in America, our first Black president [Barack Obama], was born to a white mom. 

So what can we expect in season eight?  

We’re in it right now. Shaad and Victor, I’ll say, are in a really tough spot. And we are dealing with that, with the prison system and what that looks like for us. And it’s not pretty. But we’re not shying away from it [or] what happens to the communities that are outside. What happens with Nora, the one Shaad just met? It’s about how being in the wrong place at the wrong time can completely disrupt your life and we’re not afraid to run toward that. 

Also, Tiff may be sitting on a throne that maybe she wasn’t prepared to sit on. Also we won’t say who, but you will find out where Tiff lands in that triangle [with Victor and Nuck]. We give y’all that at the top, who she chooses. That’s important [because] people are like, “Stop playing with us; what’s happening?” But what you see in the finale is also really interesting because of who’s there when her water breaks, and who’s in that elevator [with her]. So it’s exciting to see where these people land, and the layers that we get to continue to explore. 

Also, some people won’t be returning. The Chi family lets us know which characters they like, and which ones are kind of like, “Oh, we’re good on them.” We listen, and we hear it. And, again, what’s cool about our Chi family is that they see some of their conversations showing up in some of the scenes. 

Oh, are Emmett and Kiesha, especially in the wake of Jada’s death and the birth of their baby girl, moving to the ATL? 

That I can’t reveal.

***

All seven seasons of The Chi are streaming on Paramount+ with Showtime.