Episode 1 of "Beauty in Black" kicks off with an intense encounter between Roy, a powerful figure, and Kimmie, a stripper yearning to escape her grim reality. Working at the club, she tries earnestly to please Roy but falters due to a misplaced outfit choice. Frustration mounts in Roy, culminating in his abrupt dismissal of Kimmie.
Unbeknownst to him, Kimmie harbors aspirations beyond the strip club's neon glow. She has submitted her application for the prestigious Beauty in Black hair scholarship, a dream that her skeptical friend Rain finds questionable. Despite Rain's doubts, Kimmie persists, clinging to the slender thread of hope dangling from the million-dollar prize and the scholarship slot, generously offered by Mallory Bellarie, the dynasty's enigmatic queenpin.
Mallory, once a humble soul, transformed her fate through a wealthy marriage, leveraging it to propel her brand and persona skyward. Her unique negotiation for equity-based compensation underscores her ambition and astuteness.
Later, Kimmie arrives tardy at the club, her demeanor tinged with defiance towards those in authority. This rebellious streak stems from the club owners' exorbitant cuts, rendering it nearly impossible for her and Rain to keep a roof over their heads.
That night, fate shuffles Kimmie into a VIP booth with Horace, her latest client, who happens to be gay. Observing Horace's covert admiration for a Latin dancer named Angel, Kimmie inquisitively probes, sparking a hasty retreat from Horace and landing her in hot water. Her financial woes remain unrelenting, a stark reminder driven home by Jules, who forcefully escorts her outside the club for a stern reprimand.
The subsequent gig looms large, drawing Kimmie back into Roy's orbit. Warnings hang in the air: failure to please him could mean a bleak future where every meal is swallowed through the narrow confines of a straw. Reluctantly, Kimmie returns to Roy's lair, where he brandishes his power over her, hinting darkly at her vulnerability to re-incarceration.
Cornered and desperate, Kimmie complies with Roy's demands, struggling futilely to arouse him. Seizing a fleeting moment when he steps away to the bathroom, Kimmie reaches for his phone, intending to expose his infidelities to his wife. Ironically, the recipient of her call is none other than Mallory Bellarie herself.
Now, Mallory encounters a significant obstacle as she finds herself entangled in a lawsuit against her company, drawing fierce criticism. In the car ride back home, a drastically different facet of her personality emerges. She's rude, vicious, and even fantasies about the woman who scolded her at the event being brutally murdered on the streets. Mallory ultimately insists on driving herself, disregarding her security detail. However, while answering a call from Roy in the midst of a torrential downpour, she accidentally runs over a pedestrian. Instead of stopping to assist, she coldly leaves the poor woman lying helplessly on the wet pavement and speeds off.
Meanwhile, Rain seizes an opportunity to undergo a buttock augmentation procedure, but it soon turns out to be far from reputable. Found in a motel, she's coerced into consuming alcohol to alleviate the pain. Tragically, after the surgery, the room is littered with blood-stained towels. When Kimmie returns home, she discovers Rain lying face-down on the floor, unconscious and in peril.
