P-Valley Creator Unpacks Uncle Clifford and Lil' Murda's Revolutionary Love Scene

There's a whole lot going on on P-Valley. We're wondering just what will happen to The Pynk, the strip club at the center of the show that's facing closure. We need to know if Andre (Parker Sawyers) and Autumn Night's (Elarica Johnson) complicated relationship will ruin his marriage, the deals underway affecting The Pynk, or both; we're dying to know if Mercedes (Brandee Evans) really is done dancing and if her ambitions to open a studio will dry up like a raisin in the sun. There's plenty happening that has fans chewing off their fingernails ahead of the Season 1 finale. And yet one of the show's most gripping narratives remains the love story between Uncle Clifford (Nicco Annan) and Lil' Murda (J. Alphonse Nicholson).

So far, fans have seen their "entanglement" progress from a one-off hookup to full-on sex and an actual date at Uncle Clifford's family home. Once fraught with what the audience might have assumed was tension because Uncle Clifford is non-binary and Lil' Murda is straight, this pair now seems to be on a speeding train towards Relationshipville, a development that picked up steam in Episode 7, "Last Call for Alcohol."

Written by executive producer Patrik-Ian Polk, "Last Call for Alcohol" depicts a kind of watershed moment, when Lil' Murda surprises Uncle Clifford by stealing her car (LOL), adorning it with twinkling lights, and arranging for a romantic date in the woods -- far away from prying eyes at The Pynk. One of the things that makes the scene so revolutionary is the way it depicts their coitus: respectful, pure, healthy, enjoyable. Creator Katori Hall told TV Guide that their relationship is meant to be eye-opening and provocative, but for the right reasons. "I wanted people to be able to see the possibility that it can happen, that love can be expressed, that it is normal. We have normalized heteronormative relationships. I thought, 'It is time to give that to this community, the care and respect.'" 

Is Lil' Murda Gay? P-Valley's J. Alphonse Nicholson Unpacks His Character's Hazy Sexuality

In one of the scene's most unforgettable moments, the camera is intentional in showing Lil' Murda fondling Uncle Clifford's genitalia. That's groundbreaking because it's a visceral, active rebuttal of "trans/gay panic" -- a longstanding legal defense strategy that, for a long time, let perpetrators of violence against trans, non-binary, and/or gay people get away with crimes, including murder, by saying they were "tricked" or "humiliated" by the queer person. Here,  P-Valley shows Lil' Murda -- a hypermasculine hip-hop star -- embracing all parts of his lover, including the parts that society doesn't typically associate with Uncle Clifford's gender identity. The scene shows the audience that their burgeoning relationship is built on genuine feelings and attraction. Lil' Murda doesn't want just one part of Uncle Clifford; he wants her in totality. 

P-Valley's Creator Explains How the Non-Binary Uncle Clifford Character Came to Be

Nicco Annan, an out gay man who has posted about how the show is promoting a type of healing between Black men, told TV Guide that the scene even surprised him and made him examine his own expectations and assumptions about how a relationship like this might go. "I realized how conditioned I had been as a gay man," he said. "I was like, 'Oh wow.' I hope that [sense of possibility] translates to the audience." In a lot of ways, Annan said, Lil' Murda is clearer than Uncle Clifford about what he wants from their relationship, which Annan attributes in part to generational differences. For older LGBTQ people, scars still linger from Stonewall, the hardest years of the AIDS crisis, and the state-sanctioned hostility LGBTQ people have faced in the military, at work, and so on. Uncle Clifford's hesitance to give in to the relationship is the natural result of the wall of protection she's built to stave off more trauma. 

As Nicholson told TV Guide previously, Lil' Murda is "still trying to figure [his sexuality] out," but he's in no way confused about his feelings for Uncle Clifford. He's admitted that he wrote the song "Fallin" for her, whether he knew it at the time or not. Uncle Clifford earns his affection because of all she has to offer as a person. "I think [Lil' Murda] sees her ambition, all the things she's carrying that come with The Pynk. He sees the beauty in her, her colorful style, her personality. There's a lot Lil' Murda finds attractive." Exactly how they'll be defined remains a mystery for now, but then, who needs labels? Sometimes two people just want to enjoy each other's space, and from the looks of it, they're doing that just fine. 

Said Hall, "I just wanted people to love to see them fall in love. It's a very revolutionary image."

P-Valley airs Sundays at 8/7c on Starz.