Embracing History
Episode 5 of Little America begins in Uganda as a child excitedly hurries around making food. Beatrice is told to stand where her Father toasts to her and explains the family history of baking. He tells her to go abroad – America to be precise – and make her dreams come true. We then jump forward to the disco era as we see Beatrice dancing the night away before stumbling home drunk where she’s berated by Eunice for being intoxicated. After baking some cookies, her son awakens and they share a cookie together before heading to bed. In the morning, Beatrice answers a call from her Mother who berates her for being asleep and it’s here we learn her Father passed away some time ago. Scrambling to get dressed, Beatrice heads to work and hands over some cookies while struggling to deal with her son. Only, her boss arrives and fires her for not getting a babysitter and bringing her child to work. On the way home, she struggles to carry her son and her things, eventually deciding to start selling cookies. It’s tough going too but eventually she embraces her own Ugandan roots and sells a dozen cookies to a group of stoners in the car after balancing the bowl on her head. It opens the door for her to eventually hustle a lot of money. Her mother back home however is not impressed with Beatrice and it turns out the police aren’t impressed either, giving her a ticket for selling food outside without a licence. It all becomes too much and she decides to try and book a trip back to Uganda. Only, before she does she has second thoughts and decides to use the money to let a retail space instead. She opens “Mukasa’s Cookies”, calling on the help of her friends to try and make it a success. Her Mother finally arrives in America and looks upon the shop she’s built from scratch. After eating the chocolate chip cookie she made, she looks at her daughter with pride and smiles. As the episode ends, we see that in 1989 Beatrice received the key to the city and has shipped cookies all around the world. With a great message about embracing heritage and your own familial roots, Little America continues to deliver a really well written dose of drama. While the character arc is a little basic, the overall message and theme is strong enough to easily overlook this. The episode does well to keep things engaging too and seeing the struggles Beatrice has had to endure just to set her business up is testament to the struggle and cost of making it on your own. It’s not easy and seeing the success this woman has managed to conjure at the end is the perfect proverbial cherry to a very sweet and wholesome cake.
