While Black-ish is, at its heart, a sitcom about relationships, parenting, and growing up, it’s never been afraid to be political. It would difficult to make a show about being black in America and not be political. Some of Black-ish’s best episodes have addressed current events and American politics. It already did an episode about voting, so of course it would spend an episode addressing the recent presidential election.
In "Lemons", Black-ish takes the lesson it taught last week, about examining why people do the things they do, and applies it to this one.
Dre begins the episode talking about upsets of all kinds, from the American Revolution to the acquittal of OJ Simpson. Even if you didn’t know that this was the much-advertised election episode, you would know what he was talking about. As with any upset, Dre tells the audience, people start freaking out about where things went wrong. When both sides are supposed to unite as a country, what happens next?
For once, Dre doesn’t sound smug in the opening narration. He sounds scared.
“Lemons” is Black-ish’s passionate love letter to America, warts and all. With all that passion, it still doesn’t shy away from the political realities the country now faces.
“Lemons” is powerful, but it’s also a wickedly funny satire on the mourning atmosphere almost half the country affected the second the results came in. It’s revealed that the employees of Stevens & Lido are so obsessed with analyzing the results, they’ve done basically no work since election day. The kids’ school is out for a Day of Reflection and Junior is hard at work prepping for the healing rally. Bow is coping by donating time and money to every nonprofit she can think of. Jack’s looking at every glass as half-full, even if that glass is a bowl.
Dre is exasperated. He thinks that, because the deadline is finally upon them, his co-workers will start working on the pitch to Boxable. They manage to stay on task for about ten seconds until news of another Twitter beef leads to shouting, recriminations, and the political catch-phrases everyone in America is already sick of hearing. If you had a bingo card for everything people have been saying about the election, you would easily have won with this episode. We have “black people didn’t turn out for Hillary” “America should be run like a corporation” “He’s not a true conservative” “never her” and much more. Poor Josh is even still holding out hope for the electoral college.
Charlie, meanwhile, didn’t realize that Obama was a democrat and decides to head to the library for more research.
Charlie might have sensed what was about to happen. When poor Lucy, back after a lawsuit no one’s allowed to discuss, confesses she voted for Trump, the mood turns ugly, quickly. Even Leslie, who claims he’s as Republican as they come, can’t understand her mindset. Lucy explains it well and defends all the women who voted for the Republican candidate. None of her coworkers, especially Daphne, care. While the scenes at the agency often have a “boy’s club” feel to them, it was very important to have both Lucy and Daphne in the episode to give voice to the anxieties women are facing.
Leslie, fired up at Lucy’s admission and convinced he needs to get to the bottom of “What Went Wrong” (as the employee whiteboard calls it) calls Dre out on his political apathy. Does he not care what happens to America?
Dre shuts them all up and shuts them all down quickly with a beautiful and heartbreaking speech. He tells his coworkers how much he loves America and how much change still needs to happen. His white coworkers are upset, he decides, because for the first time they’re on the losing side of an upset and they don’t know how to handle the fear and frustration. Dre tells them that’s how he feels every day when he looks at the state of the world. Leslie admits, to him “It’s a nightmare.”
In addition to Dre’s argument with his coworkers, Black-ish writers pair the A-plot with two powerful B-plots.
In the first, Bow is frustrated with Zoey’s reluctance to join her causes. Zoey just wants to make lemonade for the healing rally, but Bow thinks she should be doing more. At the very least, she should turn the lemonade into a metaphor. Zoey refuses. She tells her mother that her lemonade isn’t conservative or liberal. It’s just lemonade that she took the time and care to make. It’s what she can contribute to the school. Zoey also assures Bow that she will be able to contribute a lot more when she is allowed to vote. Bow believes she has failed as a parent, but Zoey makes her see that she needs to trust in her children and keep up the hope for the next generation.
As Bow and Zoey have a wonderful mother-daughter moment, Pops is busy giving Junior a history lesson.
Junior, as student body president, has been chosen to read MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the school healing rally. When Pops hears him practicing, he lets Junior in on a little secret. That’s not the whole speech.
When Junior hears the rest of the speech, his mind is blown. He realizes that Dr. King had sounded a battle cry and he’s ready to share it with the rest of the school. Pops sees Junior ready to go to war and has to talk him down. People remember the “I Have a Dream” part of the speech because what they needed wasn’t just a call to arms. They needed a hope that their contributions would make the world a better place. That hope is what Junior can give his classmates, and that’s the hope that Black-ish gives its viewers. It understands that many audience members are feeling scared and angry. It also understands that many audience members may be happy about the election results. In the end, both sides can hope for a better future and begin a conversation that gets us there.
What did you think of tonight’s episode? Let me know in the comments!
