Solo

Rutherford, Uncle Stevie, a cameraman, and Birdie, Rutherford’s new sober coach, get off the bus. After hugging a stunned Blade, Rutherford starts playing his guitar in the middle of the village. The village children “swarm” Rutherford. Even Sia runs to him. Rutherford excitedly tells Blade that the band is getting back together, and they are making a documentary about their comeback. Coldly, Blade asks why Rutherford didn’t check with him first. Confused, Rutherford says that Storm did. Blade’s phone battery had died during the power outages, but now that it is charged, he sees the frantic texts from Storm telling him the their dad is coming and that she couldn’t stop him. She wishes him good luck.

Blade confronts Rutherford, upset that his father is crashing his trip, interrupting village life, and filming everything. When Rutherford refers to the villagers as “little village people in Ghana” (309), whose gratitude for his “help” he wants to film, Blade loses his temper, which the cameraman says will be good for viewership. Joy interrupts them, telling them not to fight in front of the children before greeting Rutherford and telling him that the Elders will decide whether he can film.