Staying in touch with childhood friends isn’t always easy. As Dre says in his opening monologue, the calls get less and less frequent. Unless you get the one you’ve been dreading.
Black-ish has addressed Dre’s issues with his past before, but it’s a rich well for emotional plots. In this one, Dre confronts his own mortality and his unease with his current lifestyle.
Dre loves his current lifestyle, but when he goes back to his childhood home for a funeral, it becomes clear to him that he’s on a very different path than his old crew. Dre is with his old friend Sha when he gets the call that Tony, the previous peacemaker of Dre’s group, died. Dre is shocked by this random act of violence, until Sha tells him Tony died in his sleep. Dre is even more shocked when he finds out that people can die in their sleep.
Dre sends flowers for the funeral and reunites with his old friends. T-Will just had twins (sort of), Ledarius is working in the cement industry, and Ronnie has a horrific neck tumor that disgusts everyone who sees it. Dre feels good about seeing everyone again and invites them over to his house the next week.
Once again, Dre makes a good decision that goes horribly wrong when his coworkers get involved. After asking Charlie and Dre to explain what a “repass” is, they rag on Dre for not doing enough at the funeral. According to them, he should have paid for the whole thing. Even Charlie, who’s usually on his side, admonishes him for not taking care of the widow and not acting like Kevin Garnett.
For the benefit of their coworkers, Dre and Charlie explain that Kevin Garnett was a basketball player who always took care of his O.F.B., his official black family. The more he talks about it, the more Dre realizes that he can be Kevin Garnett to his friends. In typical Dre fashion, he doesn’t pause to consider their feelings or responses to his sudden generosity.
Bow, however, does. She tells him he’s being crazy when he asks Ledarius to fix the patio, tells Bow to take a look at Ronnie’s neck, and gives away their TV. Bow understands that this newfound need to take care of others comes from Dre’s own grief about Tony. She didn’t need Junior, one signed grief-log away from being a peer counselor, to tell her that. She warns Dre he’s taking it too far, and Dre responds by upping his game. He gets diapers for T-Will’s twins, gets Ledarius a job he’s actually good at, and gives Ronnie a tumor removal, vasectomy, and Bow’s bike. Dre also moves his grandmother, Mabel, out of her home and starts looking at an apartment for her in Encino. It’s got a Sizzler now!
His friends thank him for his gifts, but that’s not enough. Dre wants them to really feel his generosity, and it just isn’t happening. It comes to a head at Hooters where Dre has a complete meltdown over a toast. He doesn’t understand how his friends can keep talking about Tony as a generous man and not profusely, constantly thank him for all the good he’s done them. It’s an ugly moment. Even the Hooters waitress is disgusted when she hands Dre the check.
When Dre arrives back at the house, he finds Mabel ready to move out. She doesn’t want to live in Encino. She just wants to go home.
Dre’s friends show up to share the same sentiment. They appreciate his gifts (and don’t actually want to give them back) but they hate the idea that he’s pitying them. They want to hang out with Dre because he’s their friend, and Dre deciding that he needs to save everyone puts them all in an awkward position.
Dre apologizes and realizes that it connects back to Tony’s death. His friends forgive him, keep the gifts, and promise they’ll be there for him in the future. Dre isn’t the only one of the crew that can support the others.
Maybe it would have gone better if Dre had just listened to Junior’s advice in the first place. In a funny recurring gag, Junior keeps popping in as an unwanted grief counselor. If he helps his father through the healing process, he can complete his grief log and set up shop in any YMCA in the country! Dre, naturally, declines, but Junior gets Diane of all people to open up about being teased at school. Such teasing wouldn’t have occurred if Bow hadn’t dressed her up as a trashbag potato for Carbohydrate Day.
It’s just the latest in Bow’s attempts to show Zoey, Diane, and Jack that she can do traditional “mother” things. It’s not the strongest plot in the world, but it does give Tracee Ellis Ross some great moments as she fumbles through baking, sewing, and other tasks Ruby usually does for the kids. She admits to Zoey that she sometimes thinks she has failed because she can’t bake a pie, sew a costume, or build a structurally-sound popsicle-stick pueblo. Zoey assures her that the kids rely on Bow for other things. Just not anything they have to eat, wear, or submit for a grade…
What did you think of last night’s episode? Let me know in the comments!
