15x06 - The Roomies Have Soul

[bunniefuu]

- FEMALE NARRATOR: Previously, on "The Real World"...

- I got this right here.

Football's a huge part of my life,

or was a huge part of my life,

and it's something that I've just recently

kind of gotten over and have moved on from.

- [sirens blaring]

- KARAMO: I'm about to say, I'm in a club chilling,

I got a g*n on me?

Yo, MJ!

How many times have you ever been stopped in a club

surrounded by police patting you down

asking you if you have a g*n?

How many times?

Just tell me that answer.

- MJ: I can't tell you a [bleep] thing

because all you do is run your [bleep] mouth

and now you've pissed me off.

- WILLIE: This is the true story...

- SARAH: ...of seven strangers.

- KARAMO: Oh, my god!

- MJ: Picked to live in a house...

- KARAMO: Work together and have their lives taped...

- MELANIE: To find out what happens...

- SARAH: I'm over it.

- SHAVONDA: When people stop being polite.

- MJ: Oh, shut up.

- LANDON: And start getting real.

- EVERYBODY: "The Real World Philadelphia."

- [birds chirping]

- MJ: Last night was so bad.

Between Karamo and then walking home and then

having everybody yelling.

Any one of us could've been accused

of having a g*n in that club.

We're all carrying around battery packs

for our microphones.

It was so bad that they wouldn't even let me

go up and talk to him.

- SARAH: No, he had no right to get pissed at you guys.

He needed to just put it into perspective that

it was somebody -- with him because of the situation

that he's in.

- MJ: You know, I really don't understand everything

that's going on with Karamo.

I never have been arrested or been accused

of having a g*n.

All I can do is help you,

but instead of him taking that help,

he's just like, "Oh, MJ turned his back on me."

It'd be like your mom whenever you were upset

trying to help you and you were like,

"Hey, mom, [bleep] you."

- Yeah.

- MJ: I don't know what it is,

and we're gonna have to talk about it.

- KARAMO: He's like, "We got a call from an anonymous tip

"someone matching your description

that you had a g*n."

- RAY: What?!

- Trust me, son.

This is something that happens to me

and my friends constantly, and so, it just,

I'm tired of it because I did not think that

it would happen here in Philadelphia.

This what really got me.

Homeboy MJ, one of my roommates,

when it all went down, we get outside or whatever,

he's telling me I'm overreacting.

- RAY: What?!

- Telling me that he can't talk to me

when I'm acting like this.

- RAY: What?!

- Though it may not have to happen to you,

you have to be understanding of someone it has happened to.

Seriously, like yesterday, when I'm sitting here

coming back to the house trying to explain it,

everyone was like, "Oh, it's, uh,

somebody was playing around."

They're like trying to make excuses for it, like,

"Well, it could've happened to anybody randomly,"

you know what I mean? - RAY: But it didn't.

- Exactly. - RAY: It did not.

- Thank you, brother.

- RAY: It happened to the tall black man.

- Thank you. It did not happen to any of y'all.

It happened to me. - RAY: I mean, karma, man.

Karma is gonna come right back around,

and they're gonna feel exactly what you're feeling.

- KARAMO: Yeah. All right then, son, be safe.

- RAY: All right, man. Peace. - Bye.

- WOMAN: You f*gs!

- LANDON: Thank you!

It was nice meeting you.

God, Philadelphia loves us.

- MJ: Some of the people here in Philadelphia

really aren't showing their brotherly love.

It's a very uncomfortable situation.

No, but the way you gotta look at it,

it'll happen anywhere.

- MAN: You [bleep] suck! - See?

LANDON: People are, like, mindless,

so they'll just say things

'cause they think they're funny,

and really, they're just being really mean.

- MAN: All right, all right.

[people chattering]

- Well, what do you want?

You want a beer or you wanna do a shot and a beer?

- MJ: I need about two beers before...

- LANDON: I'm on it.

- MJ: I'm just kind of sitting here

minding my own business,

and this guy comes walking towards me

with a stool in his hand.

I think he was about to sit down,

but instead he walks up and throws the stool

right at me. What the [bleep]?

Luckily I was kind of able to catch it

and security obviously gets him,

but it's very obvious that a lot of Philadelphians

don't want us here, or are jealous or something.

- LANDON: Can't believe

a guy threw a chair at you tonight.

Crazy.

- SARAH: How was your night?

- MJ got a chair thrown at him.

- By who?

- Some random guy.

- SARAH: I just understand people being malicious

and being hurtful.

If that gets you by every day and makes you feel

a little bit better about yourself

that you made somebody else feel crappy, then go ahead,

live that way.

- LANDON: We had three CDs thrown at us on the way home.

- By who?

- Some random people driving by.

- [unintelligible] - Man, that sucks, you guys.

I'm sorry about that, man.

- Wasn't a real good night for us.

Did you talk to MJ?

- Of course not.

- LANDON: He had a chair thrown at him tonight.

- Really?

- LANDON: We'd just gotten in the bar.

I mean, we hadn't even had a drink.

So uncool.

He got hit by a chair.

Right now I'm finding it hard

to be empathetic or sympathetic.

- Oh, Karamo.

Sure you've heard the drama from the night, haven't you?

- KARAMO: Yeah. It's real unfortunate.

- MJ: Me, I was physically assaulted,

but I didn't blow up, I didn't lose my whole mind

and make a big scene,

and you just have to learn how to get over stuff.

- Some people would say karma's a b*tch.

- MJ: Do what?

Do what?

Somebody said what?

- I said I want some strawberry jelly.

Karma's a b*tch.

And we're gonna leave it at that.

[chuckling]

- [knocking on door]

- SARAH: I think there's a knock at the door.

- [grunting] Where's Willie?

- LANDON: We got us a package. It looks really cool.

- Willie! - Look, who's it from? Soul?

- SHAVONDA: Arena Football? - Oh, no.

- LANDON: Here we go. - MJ: Football was my life.

I played SCC football.

I was a wide receiver.

That's what I'm kind of known for.

About a year ago, I found out that

I wasn't drafted, didn't go free agent.

- SHAVONDA: Oh, what is it? - LANDON: Oh, wow!

- WILLIE: What's that? - MJ: I bet we watch this.

I guarantee you we watch this. - KARAMO: Hold on, hold on.

I got this.

- MELANIE: You guys are gonna play or something!

- KARAMO: All right, it says,

"The Philadelphia Soul needs your help.

"We would like all of you

to come work with us this summer."

- LANDON: Oh, [bleep]!

- KARAMO: Trust me!

"Enclosed are some Soul jerseys for you

"as well as a DVD introduction.

"Also enclosed are seven tickets

to a Philadelphia Soul Arena Football game."

- ALL: [cheering]

- MELANIE: I'm excited.

It's something new, it's something different.

Maybe it'll give me

a better appreciation for football.

- KARAMO: Hold on, we got this DVD thing.

- SARAH: Cool. Oh wait.

- [players grunting]

- MELANIE: We get to meet Bon Jovi?

- [laughing] "We're gonna meet Bon Jovi!"

- I wanna meet Bon Jovi! - Hold on, hold on.

- MJ: Come to find out that

Bon Jovi is a co-owner of the team,

so I don't know what I'm more excited about,

working for the team,

or getting to meet Bon Jovi and his feathered bangs.

- [horn honking]

- SHAVONDA: Oh, our car's awesome.

- WILLIE: Oh, man, we are pimping!

- LANDON: You guys need a ride?

We are on our way to watch the Philadelphia Soul

play an AFL game.

We're pumped to meet our bosses

and to hopefully find out what we're gonna be doing

all summer long.

- WILLIE: This is gonna be our job.

I'm excited to make some money 'cause me so broke.

- MJ: Right here. Get off right here.

- Right there. - There it is.

- SARAH: We're not gonna be able to fit all.

- [bell ringing] - MAN: Suite level.

- ALL: [laughing] - [bleep]

- SARAH: Boys?

- LANDON: [unintelligible]

- Yes! Yes!

Ha, what?

- MJ: Today is hard for me because around and watching

all the players warm up and seeing the camaraderie

that the players are showing is something that I'm missing.

- EVERYONE: S-O-U-L!

Soul, Soul, Soul!

- Yeah!

- [whistle blowing]

- CROWD: [cheering]

- SHAVONDA: Arena football is a scaled-down version

of regulation football.

Instead of having a -yard line,

you've got a -yard line.

It's a little more ballsier than football.

- Let's go, Soul!

- How you guys doing?

- KARAMO: Hey, how you doing?

- Hi, I'm Craig Spencer.

I'm one of the owners of the Soul.

Will you join us up here and we'll tell you

a little bit about what's gonna happen this summer.

- CROWD: [cheering]

- CRAIG: I really wanna thank you for being here.

- MJ: Ron, Craig and Mimi walk into the room,

and right off the bat, I can tell that

they mean business.

- Let me just give you a brief history on the team

and sort of how we got here today.

- LANDON: It's impressive just to be around people

of that level of success.

It just comes off of them and you feel it

just being in their presence.

- MIMI: Okay, I guess you're wondering

what you're gonna do while you're with the Soul, right?

Well, as Craig said, there are a couple things

that are really, really important,

one of which is the community aspect,

so you'll be working doing a lot of,

you know, community work.

- SARAH: It becomes clear that we're going to be

working with kids and also working with...

some of the football players and the cheerleaders

who also do community service.

- LANDON: None of this looks familiar to me at all.

- SHAVONDA: Maybe you have asthma.

- None of it is familiar 'cause... [laughing]

Apparently, yo, we in the ghetto.

Part of me feels more comfortable in the ghetto

than I do in the suburbs.

I don't know, it's my people just being themselves

and their essence you just wanna be around that.

- LANDON: Hey, Karamo, where the [bleep] are we, man?

- WILLIE: I don't know, man.

- LANDON: It seems like we're going the wrong way

for a really long time.

- We're lost right now

because Karamo doesn't wanna listen to any of us.

- MJ: Take a right, Karamo.

- I wanna go down further.

- MJ: Supposed to be back there, Karamo.

- SHAVONDA: There are b*llet holes

shot up in the side of cars.

There are crack-heads and he's like,

"Are you guys scared?" - MJ: It says it right...

- SHAVONDA: Yeah, go that way. Go right.

- MJ: No, no, no, don't go right.

We need to be back this way.

- KARAMO: Yo, there's nothing to be scared about.

What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna stop up here

and have a couple. - LANDON: And what?

- KARAMO: And ask for directions.

- I think Karamo likes to make the roommates

kind of stir in their pants a little

and get a little anxious.

- [laughing]

Y'all faces are funny!

- SARAH: Is Karamo here? - MJ: I don't know.

Do you need to talk to me about something?

- SARAH: I mean, not really.

- MJ: What does he think that I've done?

I'm trying to figure out the part...

- I don't even under...

- Is it the distancing or is it whenever I got mad?

- Yeah, that's it.

I don't think Karamo's ready to talk to MJ yet.

I'm just fearful that he's going to be holding on

to this for a long time.

- MELANIE: Like, why is he mad at MJ?

What did MJ do?

- Because he wasn't his boy.

- You can't be someone's boy when there's, like,

five cops around like, "Oh, no, no, no."

- WILLIE: Like, what's he supposed to do?

- Like, what are you gonna... - "I'm his friend."

- MELANIE: No. It doesn't work. - "Here to help him out."

- ALL: [laughing]

- The main issue between MJ and Karamo is that

Karamo feels like MJ doesn't have his back.

- SHAVONDA: Do you know what I heard last night,

I heard him say to you?

He goes, "Karma's a b*tch."

- MJ: And then he told Vonda that he hopes that

I have four more chairs thrown at me.

- SHAVONDA: He's like... - LANDON: What?

- I'm his roommate!

All I wanna do for Karamo is be there for him,

and until Karamo figures that out

and wants to talk to me man-to-man in a civil way,

then, how can I be there for him?

- MELANIE: It takes a really mature person

to be able to say...

- WILLIE: They wanna be able to see themselves in here.

- MELANIE: "I did this wrong."

Oh, god, Karamo just walked in

and every single person in the house but Karamo

is sitting at the kitchen table talking about him.

- WILLIE: Karamo! We want you to come and talk to MJ.

Come talk to MJ, dude.

- MJ: Karamo. - KARAMO: Huh, what's up, man?

Hold on, I'm coming back, man. - MJ: You know I wanna talk?

- KARAMO: Yeah, hold on, man.

I walk through the door and I hear,

"Karamo, you have to talk to MJ!

Please, you have to talk to MJ now!"

And I feel attacked.

And when I feel attacked, I shut down.

- SARAH: Don't, you're not--no.

- We just want you to be friends.

- I'm cool, I'm cool.

- MJ: Well, then, Karamo.

Can I just please talk to you at least?

- KARAMO: [laughing] I'm supposed to...

- Well, I just feel like there's some tension

and I just wanna talk.

- KARAMO: There's no tension, man. We straight.

- Just come up and talk to me, man, please.

- KARAMO: It is a conflict.

I don't need resolutions.

I'll just breeze off of your a*s and that's it.

I'm done with you.

There's nothing going on, man.

- MJ: Well, but what I don't understand, man,

I thought we were. - And we straight.

- MJ: But then why'd you tell Vonda that

you hope I'd get more chairs thrown at me and then tell...

- KARAMO: I didn't say that. I just said karma was a b*tch.

- MJ: There's nothing you can do

whenever someone doesn't want to...

listen to what you have to say

and work it out.

Well, then, look,

can I just get a dap right now?

- KARAMO: I'm not good at forgiveness at all,

'cause once somebody betrays me,

why would I want to trust you again

to put myself in another situation

where you could betray me a second time?

- LANDON: So are you excited about the game tonight?

- SHAVONDA: Oh, I'm stoked.

Absolutely stoked. I can't wait.

- KARAMO: I'm wearing my jersey.

- MJ: And I need to shave? - MELANIE: I can't talk.

- MJ: Make a good first impression.

- Nice hair. - Thanks.

This is a big deal. I hope we go--

I want to go on the field! - MJ: We gotta get going.

- MJ: Today's Fan Appreciation Day for the Soul,

and we're gonna be going out on the field

during the game and throwing stuff in the stands.

- ♪ I'm a cowboy

♪ Wanted, dead or alive

- Hi. - [door knob rattling]

- Hey. - EVERYONE: Hi!

- How are you guys? - I'm Willie, nice to meet you.

- LANDON: I'm very nervous right now.

Bon Jovi is walking in,

and something just tightens up inside of me

and I can't talk, I don't even--

I can't really think.

I'm Landon. - BON JOVI: What's your name?

- Landon. - BON JOVI: Hi, Landon.

- SHAVONDA: MJ's kind of excited.

He's holding it in a little better.

He's got a little bit better composure,

but Landon is just cheesing from ear to ear.

He can't stop, and he's sweating,

and he's like-- [chuckling]

It's funny.

- I think our objectives for you guys are

to really help us continue to make the impact

that we have here in the city, so...

- MJ: We're building a playground.

- BON JOVI: Yeah, we wanna build

a permanent place for kids to come

in a part of town that wouldn't have it.

- MELANIE: We're gonna be building a playground,

which really excites me

because I've walked around Philly

and seen the facilities for children,

and it's really depressing, so I'm really excited that

we'll leave a lasting impression in Philly for the kids.

- BON JOVI: By building this playground, for instance,

that's the kind of impact we wanna make here.

We want to make sure that in our first year,

we do something that's important

for those kids, you know?

So you want me to sign some of this stuff?

Is that the idea? - MJ: I guess.

Every bit of them. Today was the first time

that I've ever totally been awestruck.

Hell, I couldn't remember any of the names

of the songs or any of the lyrics,

but his feathered bangs look good

and those jeans were tight as hell.

- [camera clicking]

- All right. - MAN: Thank you.

- Thank you. - SHAVONDA: Thank you.

- Okay, y'all. Thanks a lot. I'll see you later.

- MELANIE: Have a good day! Thank you!

- [pyrotechnics exploding]

- CROWD: [cheering]

- SHAVONDA: Today is the last home game

for the Philadelphia Soul.

Our job is during time-outs, we get to run out

with the cheer squad on the field

and sling T-shirts into the crowd

and stuff like that.

- Go, go, go, go!

- CROWD: [cheering]

- MJ: We're standing on the field,

and my heart is absolutely pounding out of my chest.

I feel like I'm back in it again.

- CROWD: [cheering]

- LANDON: Being down on the field,

it's a complete rush.

There's so many fans screaming.

It's a blast.

I'm having a great time.

- CROWD: [cheering]

- MJ: Yeah, Soul, baby!

- KARAMO: I was seriously still trying to figure it out.

I went to the gym, I'm trying to figure it out.

I was calling my friends at home,

trying to get their advice on how do I convey

to my roommates how I'm feeling

without coming across as if I'm angry and upset.

I know that I need to say something about the situation,

but once you attack me,

I don't wanna deal with you anymore.

I am sitting here trying to grow and learn

from this process, but obviously,

there's a lot of issues that I still have to--

get to the real pit of it.

Apparently I'm a walking contradiction.

Since I've been here day one, I've been expecting everyone

to understand me, and I've straight been

often bad judging everybody.

I have some distrust issues with people in my past,

and that's why I didn't give MJ maybe the full chance

that I should've given him.

But see, the thing is I didn't want to verbalize it

to any of you because I don't wanna come off as

this aggressive angry black guy.

- SARAH: You are defining yourself

more so by your race in terms of

your relationships with us in the house

than anything else.

I definitely am seeing a change in Karamo.

I'm feeling that he is letting me in a little bit more.

I just wanna be able to have him realize that

you can connect with people on levels that are completely

and totally aside from your skin color.

- KARAMO: I don't know what I'm gonna do with MJ though.

I don't trust him at all.

- SARAH: It takes a really strong person

to forgive the right people, you know?

- KARAMO: I was looking for my boy to have my back.

You understand?

And your intentions, whether you think it was,

wasn't that.

- MJ: Cop came up to me,

he goes, "Don't say anything to him."

- KARAMO: I didn't need you to do anything about no cops

and no [bleep].

I needed you to be like my boys at home,

empathetic and sympathetic to the fact that

your boy was getting harassed.

Trying to see if MJ and I can reconnect because

I don't want to harbor any bad feelings,

and I wanna grow from this process.

I wanna grow as an individual.

Check me out, this is this,

how we gonna squash this right now, because I hate...

- I want to... - Let me, check me out.

This is how we gonna squash it, right?

We're gonna allow the future to see how really

our actions are, how really we are, you understand?

And then I'll be able to see and judge you as an individual

and say that, "Okay, this is my boy,"

or, "This is not my boy."

We're just gonna be aware.

You understand, we're gonna be like it's day one.

It's weird coming back and trying to build

a relationship with MJ because in my everyday life,

usually once you're dead, you're dead to me

and I don't wanna deal with you anymore, so it's new.

- Do you truly think in your heart that

four more chairs could be thrown at me?

- Nope.

- That is one thing that, like...

- I'm gonna lie to you.

Yesterday, I was like, "[bleep], karma is a b*tch."

Today, we cool.

If somebody throwing a chair at your a*s,

I'm coming for that a*s.

- Karamo and I have come a long way since

the Fat Tuesday incident, and I hope that

it keeps going that way, and as long as

he shows respect to me, then I'll definitely

show respect to Karamo.

Hey, hey, hey, Karamo, I need this.

[bleep] all that [bleep].

- I love you, man, we straight.

- MJ: And I love you and I thank you for that.

- Love you too, man.

- SHAVONDA: [screaming]

On the next "Real World"...

- LANDON: [laughing]

There is a crush there,

but Shaun is Shavonda's boyfriend.

- What if I'm starting to have a crush on someone?

- SHAUN: Is it Landon?

- [sirens blaring]

- SARAH: When MJ's drunk, he has said to me that

I should watch out for him in a sexual way.

And I of course don't.