【Terms of service】

Netflix's comedy Dear White Peoplepushes the envelope in many ways,Terms of service and Season 2 gave us a half hour of pure catharsis as Sam (Logan Browning) and Gabe (John Patrick Amedori) fought through their feelings in the recording studio.

The bottle episode – featuring several long takes, heated arguments, and a heartbreaking conclusion – gets Browning and Amedori on their feet, exploring their characters' relationship through physicality and movement as much as Justin Simien and Jack Moore's scorching words. This is a conversation that starts with "Are you aware of your white savior complex?"

And then it only escalates.

"It was a dream come true," Browning, who had been itching to do theater, told Mashable. "I just wanted to do a play so badly, and Justin and Jack, they wrote a play. Honestly, as fun as that episode is to watch, it was a thousand times more fun to perform."

Sam comes in seething that Gabe is making a documentary called "Am I Racist?" and that he's getting undue attention and credit for doing the same work as her radio show "Dear White People." Gabe insists that he's trying to further her own causes, to help in the movement and weaponize his privilege, but Sam doesn't want to hear it.

Gabe has been the show's token white ally since Season 1, and while there are a few other white faces (Troy's friend Kirk, Reggie's bumbling new roommate Colton), he's the only one that gets a little depth and back story. He's coming into the room wholly aware of his guilt and privilege, but beneath the intellectual discourse he and Sam try to engage in is the fervent frustration of two people who were once – mere weeks ago – in love, and who just can't communicate.

Like so many other characters (mostly men), Gabe judges Sam for not showing her vulnerability, for working overtime to protect herself – from Gabe, from Troy, from Reggie, and from the anonymous online haters.

Gabe: "This is your problem! Your walls are so fucking high and you're so afraid to bring them down that you would push anyone and everyone that you care about away just so you can stay mad at the world forever."Sam: "Yeah? Well you're gonna end up with some black chick who you convince yourself you love just so you can use your relationship with her to atone for your white guilt."Gabe:"Your white guilt is the only reason that you do 'Dear White People.' You overcompensate for the part of you that you hate."

Browning said she and Amedori met with Simien and Moore before filming to block out the episode, which includes long takes of up to five minutes that they had to perform uninterrupted. The episode was shot over four days – less time than most episodes require since it was in one location, but immensely demanding of the two actors.

"We were putting on performances," Browning said, emphasizing the relationship to theater again. "Honestly, that’s where the magic kind of lived. The stuff that we did that probably will never be seen on tape, just exploring in a space like that, where you’re free to just have a dialogue, was so liberating. And I think the dialogue that Jack wrote is conversation starters, so I’m looking forward to that."

It certainly is. Gabe continues to ask how best to be an ally, and he doesn't necessarily get a straight answer. Sam insists that "Dear White People" was never meant to be inflammatory, and they ponder "the Batman problem" – did crime in Gotham create Batman, or did the caped crusader give rise to additional, costumed criminals? Does racism necessitate passionate retaliation, or do frank discussions about identity and oppression like "Dear White People" further inflame those who they address?

And in the end, they lay bare their personal baggage. Below layers of Ivy League discourse and the protective cocoon of identity in 2018, we find two twenty-somethings in pain. We find two former lovers, two friends – perhaps – who start seeing each other as fully formed people again instead of the labels they themselves so ardently fight.

Are there answers to the questions posed in "Chapter VIII?" Perhaps, but what Dear White Peoplenudges us to do, without underlining the message in red, is to imagine others complexly, to be a little vulnerable in our quest for truth.

Dear White People Vol. 2is now streaming on Netflix.