Did Body really survive ‘Beauty In Black’ Part 1?

Now that Beauty In Black season 2 seems to be well on its way, let’s talk about Part 1 – more specifically, let’s talk about what happened to Body. Right off the bat: did Body die in Beauty in Black?

*Spoilers for Beauty In Black below*

All throughout Beauty in Black Part 1, Body (Tamera Kissen) has been somewhat of an evil character. Body’s intense paranoia over Kimmie (Taylor Polidore) stems directly from Kimmie’s proximity to pimp syndicate and their higher-up Jules (Charles Malik Whitfield). We see this violent paranoia culminate in a deadly confrontation between Kimmie and Body at the end of Part 1, resulting in Kimmie ramming into Body with her car.

Did Body die in ‘Beauty In Black’ or not?

Back to that burning original question: is Body dead? The truth is, we’re not 100% sure, but chances are very likely. Kimmie hit Body with her car as an act of vengeance for Body kidnapping her sister Sylvie at the end of Part 1. The blow was undoubtedly lethal, but the show leaves it somewhat ambiguous. With that being said, I would be incredibly surprised if she came back in season 2.

Let’s talk about Body some more for a second. The dynamic here is that Body is a woman thrown into an incredibly competitive, violent world of self-survival. She manages Delinda’s Dolls and Dudes, the strip club that both she and Kimmie work at, which operates as a front for Jules’s sex trafficking business.

Despite the fact that Jules is a very threatening man who entraps scores of vulnerable women into his evil business, Body still willingly works with him to accomplish this goal. Why? Because Body values power, influence, and money above all else. She’s so obsessed with these goals that she even starts targeting Kimmie because she’s terrified of her climbing higher on this unstable career ladder. Body’s seemingly fatal mistake was underestimating Kimmie’s will to protect her sister at all costs.

What ‘Beauty in Black’ says about Body and class struggle

It’s kind of tragic that, despite being a woman of color like Kimmie, Body still saw the need to sabotage her at every step of the way. This type of crab pot mentality festers in communities where unity and liberation are necessary. For Black communities, Malcolm X once described a similar phenomenon as ‘house slave’ mentality, where some non-white people are conditioned into fighting against their own freedom and serving the needs of the establishment instead.

Body fell into this trap by assisting Jules with some of the most evil actions a human being can do. Shee ultimately paid for her actions with her life. There’s plenty to say here in regards to whether Body was written fairly or not, given Tyler Perry’s controversial characterization of Black women. But Body’s actions and psychology unfortunately do exist in a small portion of marginalized communities. It’s what makes systemic propaganda so insidious.

Beauty in Black season 2 was officially confirmed by Netflix on March 12, 2025, and may reveal more about Body’s fate after all.