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“Scarred for Life” recap: The Black-ish Halloween episode delivers

By Michael Bibbins

BLACK-ISH - "Scarred for Life" - The twins opt out of the family Halloween costume for fear it will hurt their social status in middle school. Dre and Bow take it upon themselves to protect them from bullies by putting together the best haunted house and invite the whole seventh grade. Meanwhile, Junior starts spending time with a girl from Ruby's choir and Ruby doesn't know how to feel about it, on "black-ish," TUESDAY, OCT. 30 (9:00-9:30 p.m. EDT), on The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Tony Rivetti)ANTHONY ANDERSON, TRACEE ELLIS ROSS
BLACK-ISH - "Scarred for Life" - The twins opt out of the family Halloween costume for fear it will hurt their social status in middle school. Dre and Bow take it upon themselves to protect them from bullies by putting together the best haunted house and invite the whole seventh grade. Meanwhile, Junior starts spending time with a girl from Ruby's choir and Ruby doesn't know how to feel about it, on "black-ish," TUESDAY, OCT. 30 (9:00-9:30 p.m. EDT), on The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Tony Rivetti)ANTHONY ANDERSON, TRACEE ELLIS ROSS /
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Another year, another classic Halloween episode for Black-ish as the Johnson’s haunted house might have gone too far in “Scarred for Life.”

At the start of the episode the Johnsons are ready to show off their costumes. This is a change for Black-ish as they usually go for a big reveal at the end. They are dressing as the cast of Black Panther and Junior went as far as to put on Michael B. Jordan’s scarification makeup. “It took me two days to do this!”

Dre goes to hand the twins their Shuri and M’Baku costumes but they aren’t interested. The only thing happening this Halloween is Cameron Carter’s party and they haven’t been invited yet. He’s been giving out two invites a day and there’s only one day left (Dre is impressed by the marketing scheme.) Bow and Junior remember how it all went downhill for them in the 7th grade but Dre says he never took a loss and that the twins will be fine.

Elsewhere in the family, Junior is helping Ruby at the church and she ends up introducing him to her choir prodigy, Niecy (Monique Green). Ruby tries to clown him by bringing up Harry Potter but Niecy is actually a fan and she and Junior hit it off immediately (unbeknownst to Ruby.)

Dre and Bow intervene

Dre gives in and goes with Bow down to the middle school to talk to Principal Biggs (Liz Jenkins: Yes, the same Miss Biggs who became the twins teacher last season!) Miss Biggs lets them know she can’t intervene in middle school affairs, telling them “it’s kill or be killed.”

That’s when they witness the kids being clowned and not getting the last two invites and Dre remembers. In the 7th grade, he did take a loss when his mom gave him a bag that looked like a purse.

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The work talk

At work, Dre explains the situation to his coworkers and after some outlandish suggestions (Mr. Stevens suggests a child hit man, Charlie suggests Dre enrolling in the school) they pitch a solution. Mr. Stevens tells him that they simply have to throw a cooler party than Cameron’s.

Dre pitches this to Bow and she is immediately in. They’re going to go all out. Dre is hiring an effects guy and a makeup artist. Bow says she may bring real blood from the hospital.

Really Junior?

Junior comes in the next morning after being out all night and Ruby greets him. He says he was with a friend and needs to hydrate. Ruby doesn’t think anything of it until he starts singing “Oh Happy Day,” the song that she has Niecy sing a bit of when she introduced them. That’s when she puts it together. The friend he was with was her Niecy and she is disgusted and sends him to his room to NOT think about what he did.

BLACK-ISH — ABC/Tony Rivetti — Acquired via Disney ABC Press
BLACK-ISH — ABC/Tony Rivetti — Acquired via Disney ABC Press /

“Scarred for Life”

The next day is Halloween and Bow and Dre are ready to deliver on their amazing haunted house. The entire 7th grade is at the house and even Cameron Carter says that “it’s lit!” They are about to pull this off. Then the kids go in.

The show leaves it up to our imaginations but 30 seconds after entering, all of the kids come running out screaming. They’ve been traumatized. The Johnsons went too far with their haunted house and none of the kids were going to be staying for the party after what they witnessed.

Things worked out after all

Ruby has a talk with Dre and Bow about how quickly kids grow up (without telling them about what Junior did.) She runs into him later and he apologizes for what he did. He’s no longer seeing Niecy. Ruby tells him that she wasn’t really worried about what people would think, she was actually having a hard time seeing him as a man and it caught her off guard. They hug it out.

dark. Next. Black-ish recap, Dre becomes Permit Patty

When Dre and Bow go to drop off the twins at school, they don’t want to go in. They just know that they’re ruined now. But wait… Cameron Carter peed on himself at the haunted house! He’s “Pee Pee Carter” now and the twins are cool because it happened at their house! Bow and Dre know this high won’t last but they’re going to let the twins have it for now.

Black-ish will be off next week but returns with a Prince-themed episode on Nov.13. 

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