After last week’s stellar episode, Black-ish settles back into its groove and gives Dre a new frontier to conquer: therapy.
Dre doesn’t believe in going to a therapist to talk about your problems. As he states in his opening narration, he thinks therapy is just for people with too much time and money on their hands. He’s happy supporting Bow when she has $200 sessions once a week, but he and Ruby secretly laugh behind her back when she goes out. They have their own way of coping with things. The Johnson method involves a lot of screaming. Dre is even ready to start a witch-hunt over missing coupons in his val-pack (we later find out Diane is responsible. Charlie may have been right about her).
Bow writes Ruby off as a lost cause when she breaks a vase over day-old coffee cake, but encourages Dre to go to her therapist. Dre scoffs at the idea, despite his coworkers’ ringing endorsements. Josh calls it a “hooker for your heart”, Leslie says it looks great in divorce proceedings, and Connor says he would go even if it wasn’t court-mandated (his father has to tell him that no, it will always be court-mandated). Only Daphne dislikes therapy, and that’s because she has a horse to talk to.
Dre finally gives in. It only takes him thirty-five minutes to have a Good Will Hunting style breakdown and make the connection between his difficult childhood and his use of humor in tough situations. The therapy sessions aren’t easy. Dre has to overcome a natural urge to point of his therapist’s super weird wig. They do, however, help him deal with people looking at him.
Bow had selflessly given Dre her sessions, but finds herself missing them when she’s steamrolled by an aggressive coworker. Earlier, it seems like Bow was very in touch with her feelings. She is a veteran of fifteen years of therapy and had assured Dre that she has a reservoir. It seems, however, that the stresses of her job are more than she can handle without someone to talk things over with. She tries to keep a brave face and not derail Dre’s progress.
Bow’s and Dre’s therapist may be good, but she hasn’t come up against Dre’s coworkers yet. As soon as they see the newer, more peaceful Dre, everyone tries to get him to break. Dre is working through his issues with food and with each new insult from his coworkers, the complimentary employee donut tray looks more and more tempting. He doesn’t flip out over Connor’s All Lives Matter tattoo or Leslie’s comments about Obama, or the janitor’s aggressive stare. He can’t help it, however, when he finds out that Connor makes more money than him. Bow finds him stress-eating in their closet.
Bow and Dre have an honest conversation about their emotional journeys. Bow asks for her sessions back and Dre acquiesces. He has learned to not use anger in every situation, but that there are times in life when he just needs to bark. Bow agrees. His coworkers are crazy racist and it’s not getting better. Who puts blackface on a snowman?
When Bow initially tells Dre that he needs therapy, Jack and Diane take this as a sign of eminent divorce. Last week, Diane said that she has always wanted to testify against one of her parents, so she’s excited about the “race to the bottom.” When they discover that Bow’s and Dre’s partnership is stronger than ever, both are crushed. They really wanted to have the Rock as a step-dad.
While Dre gets in touch with his feelings with a real therapist, Johan has also reinvented himself as a life coach. He has it all figured out, including how to keep mooching off his sister indefinitely. He offers to help both Junior and Zoey with their problems. Junior wants help with “all of it” while Zoey believes she doesn’t need any guidance, until Johan tells her that she’s going to turn into her mother. Johan gets Zoey to walk over a bed of rocks and Junior to walk over a bed of flaming rocks (Junior has more issues) before the two get wise to his situation.
Johan is in a pyramid scheme. He doesn’t actually know it until his nephew and niece point it out and even then tries to get the twins to buy in. Diane and Jack are a little too smart to fall for that.
This week’s Black-ish doesn’t pack the emotional power-punch of last week’s, but it does have a nice A-plot with plenty of humor. What did you think of this week’s episode? Let me know in the comments!
Also: In case you haven’t seen today’s post, producers are tentatively creating a spinoff for Yara Shahidi. It will follow Zoey Johnson during her first year of college. What do you think of the idea?
