'Black-ish' Season 1, Episode 23 Recap: Junior Becomes A Republican

If there's one thing Andre Johnson is sure of, it’s that black people can’t be Republicans. It just doesn’t happen. Unfortunately for him, in this week’s episode of the new ABC comedy series “Black-ish,” he is faced with the possibility that his son Andre Junior is turning into a Republican -- and going against the family’s ideals.

The Johnson family are Democrats. Andre and Rainbow both believe that it’s just the way that it works. Black Republicans simply don't exist. Imagine their surprise when Junior comes home and announces that he’s joined the Young Republicans Club in school.

Andre completely flips out. His wife is distraught and so is his mother, Ruby. Andre tries to talk some sense into his son and finds out eventually that he joined the organization because he wants to impress a girl named Hillary. Not Clinton of course, but Hillary Montgomery, a girl from school.

It turns out that Hillary is the secretary for the Young Republicans Cub. Andre is relieved that Junior is only pretending to be a Republican because of a girl, but Rainbow has a different opinion. She says that doing it because of a girl makes things worse because girls can really make a big impact on impressionable guys.

Andre and Rainbow decide to meet Hillary’s parents so they can size them up. They visit the Montgomerys and find out that they are a wealthy upper-crust black family. Andre and Rainbow vow to behave and tone down on the whole Democrat-vs.-Republican issue but they cannot ignore the “elephant in the room.”

The discussion takes a quick dive when Hillary’s mom mentions how she gave up her job to raise the children. She ends up insulting Rainbow who is proud of being both a doctor and a mom of four. The argument becomes heated and the Johnsons walk out. Junior is humiliated but Zoey immediately finds a solution by introducing him to another hot girl. To Andre's delight, this one has the right political affiliations.

While all this is going on with Junior, Zoey learns that she needs glasses. Diane is delighted because she will be able to finally pass the nickname “Gurkel” short for girl Urkel to her sister. When Zoey gets her glasses and Andre starts calling her “Gurkel,” she owns it and makes it look cool. Now Diane wants her nickname back. She destroys Zoey’s glasses and demands to be the only “Gurkel” in the family.

Andre agrees and decides to just give Zoey another nickname. He decides to start calling Zoey “Butterfly” and Diane realizes that she can’t beat Zoey at this game and just settle with being a “Gurkel” once again.

“Black-ish” is nearing the end of its first season. Catch the season finale May 20 at 9:30 pm on ABC.

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