Black-ish season 4, episode 16 recap: Things Were Different Then

In the latest episode of Black-ish, Dre starts to feel differently about his father’s role in his life. Meanwhile, Bow has decided to say “yes” to everything her kids ask her for.

More from ABC

• Dancing with the Stars season 32 week 9 scorecard: Who went home on DWTS?
• Roger Howarth is leaving General Hospital (Cast exit explained)
• Taylor Swift won’t appear in special Dancing with the Stars episode
• ABC will start rolling out its midseason schedule January 2024 (Release dates and airtimes)
• Grey’s Anatomy season 20 officially has a premiere date (Everything to know)

Bow is still adjusting to life as a stay-at-home mom and has started trying new things. In the latest episode of Black-ish that means taking advice from Shonda Rhimes. At the beginning of the episode, Bow is reading Shonda’s book. In the book, Shonda talks about how she practiced saying yes to her children for a year and Bow decides this could work for her also. She has grown used to saying no because she was always tired from working, but now that she’s home, she should be able to say yes more.

Elsewhere in the Johnson household, Pops’ 65th birthday is coming up and Junior wants to throw him a party. Dre refuses to help because he doesn’t feel that his father deserves a party. For the most part he was an absentee father and Dre still resents him for not being around. However, Junior persists.

Pops’ life

As Junior continues his efforts to throw Pops a party, he digs up a lot of old photos. In one of the photos, Pops is standing beside a car. Dre grabs the photo and says he remembers the car and that his dad loved the car more than he loved him. Smokey, Pops’ old friend, (Cedric the Entertainer) then tells a story about the car. After the war people were struggling but Pops got himself that nice car and looked like he had money. After he got fired from his job at the mattress store, he stole some mattresses and sold them on the street to pay off the car note. This story was complete with an animated reenactment.

Later, Junior finds a picture of a young Dre and Ruby standing by a sad-looking Christmas tree. Dre remembers this as the Christmas his dad gambled away his money and they had a terrible Christmas. At this point, Junior is suddenly understanding why his dad hates Pops. He says that he doesn’t want to throw the party anymore. However, at the same time Dre is starting to realize something. Pops was hustling to try to make more for his family. Though he failed often, he was successful from time to time too. Given the conditions he was raised in, he’s fortunate to have made it to 65. Dre remembers that he was one of the few kids in his neighborhood who even knew his father.

Forgiveness

After coming to this realization, Dre decides to tell his father that he forgives him for all of his shortcomings. Pops is completely confused by this and says he doesn’t need to be forgiven, before leaving. When Dre tells Bow about his father’s reaction to him forgiving him, Bow explains that the forgiveness wasn’t for his father. It’s about Dre being able to let go of the anger so he can move forward. She tells him that he needs to enjoy the time that he has with his father now.

Watch your favorite shows on fuboTV: Watch over 67 live sports and entertainment channels with a 7-day FREE trial!

Bow and the kids

After Bow starts saying yes to the kids we get a montage of all of the activities they have her doing. At the beginning of the montage we see them all painting together. Bow and Jack’s paintings are happy, while Diane is painting “It.” They then dress up and play pirates together (even little Devante.) When she comes back from the store, they ask her if they can have a water fight. Bow agrees without realizing they already have super-soakers but they have fun and she sprays them with water bottles she had in the trunk.

All is going well until the kids decide they want to go to yoga with her. Bow wavers, pointing out that yoga is her only time away from them. Ruby calls her out however and she decides to take the kids with her.

Later in the episode, Bow is hiding from her kids in a closet before talking to Dre about his relationship with his father. When Dre leaves, he tells the kids where she is. When she talks to the kids about why she was hiding, she gets excited to hear that they were having fun with her. She says that she was having fun too, but she doesn’t have the energy to keep up with them. The kids are relived to hear this because, as they tell her, they needed a break. Diane says that they were making polite offers that they didn’t actually expect her to take them up on.

Next: The Good Doctor Episode 16 recap

Conclusion

At the end of the episode, Dre meets his dad at the tracks to give him some cash. Pops wastes no time in taking the cash to make a bet. Of course, Junior tries to turn the moment after the birthday celebration into a bonding moment for him and Dre. However, Dre continues to reject Junior’s proposition to “share a float” with two straws and drive down the road with the top down.

He forgives his father though.

Black-ish should be back with yet another new episode next Tuesday March 27th at 9/8 Central!