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Black-ish season 4, episode 17 recap: North Star

By Michael Bibbins

BLACK-ISH - "North Star" - When both Dre and Bow's families show up for Easter, they have to learn to love each other's different cuisines. Meanwhile, Junior tries to organize an Easter egg hunt but Jack and Diane pretend not to be interested to impress their cooler cousins, on "black-ish," TUESDAY, MARCH 27 (9:00-9:30 p.m. EDT), on The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric McCandless)ANTHONY ANDERSON, LESLIE GROSSMAN
BLACK-ISH - "North Star" - When both Dre and Bow's families show up for Easter, they have to learn to love each other's different cuisines. Meanwhile, Junior tries to organize an Easter egg hunt but Jack and Diane pretend not to be interested to impress their cooler cousins, on "black-ish," TUESDAY, MARCH 27 (9:00-9:30 p.m. EDT), on The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric McCandless)ANTHONY ANDERSON, LESLIE GROSSMAN /
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In the latest episode of Black-ish, Bow’s family shows up for an Easter celebration. The meal quickly turns into a history lesson, but this time Dre isn’t the only one with a story to tell.

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To set up the latest episode, Dre tells us how he and Bow sat down to divide up holidays. They each have issues with the other’s family so those were hard-fought battles. They disagree about whose year it is to have Easter and this results in both families showing up. For Dre, this means Grandma Mabel (Marla Gibbs) is showing up. For Bow this means her parents, her cousin Gwen (Leslie Grossman) and her family, as well as her cousin Gary (Rob Huebel).

This is the first we are seeing of Bow’s extended family and, of course, they all come with their own quirks. Gwen has brought along her comfort dog, and her comfort dog’s comfort dog. Her husband Brian (Dan Sachoff) is stressed by work and isn’t talking (he apparently wasn’t talking two years ago either.) Cousin Gary is the one Dre likes. He doesn’t really bring along any quirks but he definitely wants Dre and his family to like him.

The episode gets serious near the end but first we have to set the stage.

The Beets

Gwen shows up with a beet dish that she says is just as filling as a meat dish. She completely misses Dre’s “beets by Dre” joke and this seems like a fun moment but there will be a callback to the beets later in the show.

BLACK-ISH – “North Star” – When both Dre and Bow’s families show up for Easter, they have to learn to love each other’s different cuisines. Meanwhile, Junior tries to organize an Easter egg hunt but Jack and Diane pretend not to be interested to impress their cooler cousins, on “black-ish,” TUESDAY, MARCH 27 (9:00-9:30 p.m. EDT), on The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric McCandless)TRACEE ELLIS ROSS, MARLA GIBBS, ANNA DEAVERE SMITH
BLACK-ISH – “North Star” – When both Dre and Bow’s families show up for Easter, they have to learn to love each other’s different cuisines. Meanwhile, Junior tries to organize an Easter egg hunt but Jack and Diane pretend not to be interested to impress their cooler cousins, on “black-ish,” TUESDAY, MARCH 27 (9:00-9:30 p.m. EDT), on The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric McCandless)TRACEE ELLIS ROSS, MARLA GIBBS, ANNA DEAVERE SMITH /

Making plates

Eventually we get to the meal portion of the day and Bow brings Dre a plate while he’s watching the basketball game. Her mother sees this and is appalled by the act. She accuses Bow of being subservient and Bow realizes she has made a mistake. In the past, Bow has hidden the fact that she makes Dre’s plate from her mother to avoid this conversation.

A few moments later, Diane delivers a plate that she made for Jack and Grandma Alice notices this as well. She makes a comment about passing the subservience on to the next generation which causes Bow to take the plate away.

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The Dinner

When it’s time for dinner, clear lines have been drawn when it comes to food selection. Bow’s family is not eating any of Dre’s food, and Dre’s family is not eating any of their food. Gary, of course, is the exception.

Dre decides to question this which leads to a back and forth with Gwen about the healthiness of Dre’s soul food. This leads directly into a classic Dre history lesson.

Origins of soul food

To educate Gwen on why black people cook the way they do, Dre takes it back to slavery. He explains to Gwen that the slaves were given the scraps of their owners meals to eat. This led to them eating things like pig feet and chitterlings, while cooking them in lard and using a lot of seasoning to make them taste like something. To display his point Dre is put into an episode of Chopped (complete with host Ted Allen) where he is given the scraps described above to make a meal.

Gwen feels like she’s being called a racist and though Bow tries to diffuse the tension, Dre doubles down. He says that black things are considered “less than” until they are approved by white people. He gives the example of darker skin (tanning), music (Elvis) and even butts (Kim Kardashian).

BLACK-ISH – “North Star” – When both Dre and Bow’s families show up for Easter, they have to learn to love each other’s different cuisines. Meanwhile, Junior tries to organize an Easter egg hunt but Jack and Diane pretend not to be interested to impress their cooler cousins, on “black-ish,” TUESDAY, MARCH 27 (9:00-9:30 p.m. EDT), on The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric McCandless)JENIFER LEWIS, ANTHONY ANDERSON, TRACEE ELLIS ROSS, MARLA GIBBS, ANNA DEAVERE SMITH, LESLIE GROSSMAN
BLACK-ISH – “North Star” – When both Dre and Bow’s families show up for Easter, they have to learn to love each other’s different cuisines. Meanwhile, Junior tries to organize an Easter egg hunt but Jack and Diane pretend not to be interested to impress their cooler cousins, on “black-ish,” TUESDAY, MARCH 27 (9:00-9:30 p.m. EDT), on The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric McCandless)JENIFER LEWIS, ANTHONY ANDERSON, TRACEE ELLIS ROSS, MARLA GIBBS, ANNA DEAVERE SMITH, LESLIE GROSSMAN /

Brian speaks

Dre feels like he’s in complete control until Brian finally speaks. He tells Dre that the food he cooks has history to it as well. He says that his grandmother and her family survived on beets while hiding in the forests from the Nazis. She used to cook them for his family and tell them stories about how they survived. He cooks beets now to remember her.

Grandma Mabel also has a story

After some failed attempts to diffuse the tension with small-talk, Grandma Mabel speaks up. She says that she doesn’t care about slavery or the holocaust. She just knows that she loved being able to make a plate for her husband. Back in her day, black men were not treated like men when they went out into the world. She made her husband’s plate so that he would at least get to feel like he was somebody in his own home. Mabel says she wanted to let him know that somebody loved him, even if the world didn’t.

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Conclusion

Mabel’s story was finally able to diffuse the tension. At the end of the episode, Bow brings Dre a plate of desert that she made and Dre has one that he just made for her. Gwen comes up to Dre as well. She asks if she can get some of his mac and cheese to go, just in case someone wants a snack.

At the end of the day everyone realizes that they each brought something to the occasion that mattered to them. As a family, they all decide to be more understanding.

Black-ish returns next Tuesday for yet another new episode at 9/8c on ABC.

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