I’ve been a bit disappointed in the most recent of episodes of Black-ish, but this episode really upped its game in the type of stories the show is telling in its third season.
The episode starts out with what Charlie helpfully labels “A Trap.” Dre sees a little white girl alone in the elevator at work. Now, many people would feel the instinctive need to help the girl, but Dre knows better. His dilemma points out something I never considered before, and something that the show blatantly tells us through Dre. Some people don’t get the luxury of being helpful (or Chris Hansen may pop up with some questions).
Dre is ridiculed by his co-workers and even Rainbow for brushing off the little girl (why does his workplace have a video of him and the elevator when Charlie later confirms that the poor lost little girl is still in the elevator?!). Pops, on the other hand, is nearly in tears with pride. There are social niceties and then there’s survival instinct, and no parent will begrudge their child for following the safer option.
Dre is upset that his son, Junior, hasn’t seemed to hone this instinct and that Johan, who should know better, ignores it entirely. Dre absolutely refuses to dab in front of some white guys in a convertible because “scaring Caucasians” would not end well for him.
While previous episodes have made the tension between Dre and Johan exaggerated due to Johan’s hipsterness and general obliviousness, here it made more sense and come from the character. Johan wants to believe that we live in a post-racial utopia and honestly thinks that acting like that will make the world a better place. He doesn’t want Junior to be scared about listening to the wrong kind of music or making the wrong impression. It may be hopelessly naïve, but it still fits what we’ve seen of Johan (and also shows some of the ways he and his sister are alike). Dre tells Bow that he uses his appearance, behavior, and cynicism as an armor and the episode really wants to make its audience think about whether or not that is still necessary. Drake Summer ’16 after all.
This conflict becomes the crux the episode. Bow tells Dre that it wouldn’t hurt him to wave at the neighbors every once in a while, and Dre makes tentative strides in being nice to a neighbor named Janine. This in turn leads to him attending a homeowner’s association meeting, which gets him into some big trouble.
Everything at the meeting seems to be going great. Junior is an active member (he has this in common with Evan over on Fresh Off the Boat) and enjoys reminding people about trash bins. Johan spreads the news about his spoken word showcase (featuring They Call Me Johan), and Dre gets to engage in some casual racism to make him seem cool among the neighbors. We do get the feeling that Janine is pretty awful. She uses Dre as a way of showing that she herself isn’t racist. She may say snotty stuff about the Persian family down the street, but if Dre agrees with her, then it’s cool everybody.
Dre has to deal with Janine when she gets drunk and none of the fed-up neighbors want to drive her home. That’s when this episode gets potentially horrifying. A car ride singing along to Third Eye Blind turns into a traffic stop. Dre has no ID and is driving the car of the unconscious white woman in the passenger seat. He may have been lulled into a false sense of security by Junior and Johan, but he’s not going to get fooled again…
Meanwhile, in a B-plot that seems incredibly light given the heavy subject matter of the A-plot, Bow seeks Pops’s help in getting the kids to spend time with her. It ends with her making them jealous by complimenting their cousins, hearing sirens, and seeing Dre inexplicably pop up on the couch.
Pops’s earlier moment of pride in Dre gets echoed when Junior rushes in right after Dre. Dre is relieved (and a little surprised) that Junior is still alive, and proud that Junior too obeyed his instinct and got out of a dangerous situation. Too bad it meant sacrificing Johan in the process. The ending was the only false note for me. I don’t think the show wanted us to laugh at the thought of Johan getting brutalized by the police, or in any way suggested that this was deserved comeuppance, but it didn’t seem to give the moment of him walking in, dazed and possibly in pain, with as much weight as it should have. I didn’t want this to have turned into a Very Special Episode (although the commercials seemed to be heading in that direction), but a little more acknowledgment of the messed up nature of Johan’s situation would have been nice. Instead, Junior tries his hand at spoken word, Johan realizes how horrible he sounds, and the entire family moves on.
All in all, Black-ish took a step up in humor and social commentary this week. It was a great and enlightening episode!
Line of the Night: My shoe game is holding up racial healing.
What did you think of tonight’s episode? Let me know in the comments!
