“Dr. Hell No” is a fine episode of television — one of Black-ish‘s best to date, a half hour that gets its racial perspectives out of the way early, in order to pave the way for a heartwarming story about the Johnson family coming together. Unlike other episodes, where the show’s social perspective often comes in conflict — or simply complicates — its more family-centric stories, “Dr. Hell No” uses a montage intro detailing the various crimes of the medical industry against African Americans in the 20th century as a primer for a story about Dre trying to keep his father alive.
The opening sequence, with its black-and-white images of mid-20th century experimentation, laid over Dre’s monologue about African-American paranoia with the medical establishment, is a sobering one, a thought that Black-ish clearly doesn’t want to expand too much on, but still wants to make a point of. Considering the 21 minutes of material that follow it, it seems like a very out of place sequence — yet, it serves as a great primer for the story that follows, baking its point right into the episode’s premise, and then letting the episode that follows explain the problems this paranoia can cause.
Pops may be proud he hasn’t been to the doctor since 1985 (an appointment he walked out of, once a Lionel Richie story played over the loud speaker), but when it’s discovered he has a heart condition, Dre’s attempts to “break the family cycle” over not going to the doctor are thrown into jeopardy. Oddly, the episode doesn’t even begin here: it starts with jokes about Dre’s first prostate exam, which throws him into a deep sadness and catalyzes his father’s own trip to the hospital (though when it’s time to bring him there, it’s Rainbow fighting Pops’ “old man strength”), thus bringing Pops’ strong aversion to healthcare to the surface.
The real debate of the episode comes when Pops finds out he needs an angioplasty due to a clogged artery. When Pops refuses to have it, Dre has to figure out how to crack the old man’s reserve against the procedure. And this is where the real humor, and poignancy, of the episode come to life. From the flashbacks detailing Pops’ approach to healthcare and how it brings added layers to the father/son dynamic, to the scene where Pops asks Dre to go for a walk with him right before surgery, “Dr. Hell No” shows its audience a vulnerability Black-ish often doesn’t display, even in its most emotional stories. It helps when Laurence Fishburne is the actor conjuring this empathy, but the writing of the scene is also beautiful: Dre asking his father if he wants to take one more lap before they go back in the hospital is as cathartic a moment as Black-ish can offer, a scene that reinforces the relationship between father and son (which is normally relegated to “father makes fun of son for being different” jokes) with particular meaning.
What’s also rewarding is how Ruby and Rainbow find a compromise of sorts. There’s an extremely thin subplot with Ruby spoiling the grandchildren, which exists on the fringes until the heart attack drama is squared away. Rainbow is frustrated with Ruby’s natural approach to being a grandmother, which involves letting the kids do whatever they want; when Rainbow confronts her about this, however, “Dr. Hell No” finds purpose for what is mostly another aimless story to distract the kids (there’s also Jr. trying to film Pops, and Jack and Diane getting power of attorney over him, but these stories are literally pointless).
When mortality creeps into the thoughts of family members, there are two potential directions it can lead: bringing a family closer together, or further exposing an individual’s flaws of an individual and fracturing the family unit. The potential of losing a family patriarch doubles down on this idea. Bow and Ruby have an important choice to make in that moment outside the kid’s bedroom. Like it or not, Ruby’s time with her grandkids is going to be limited in some way, and Bow certainly doesn’t want to get in the way of that. Rather than the two of them duke it out in the usual fashion, however, Bow realizes the value of having Ruby around, even if it comes at the cost of her children’s modesty (though considering the house they live in, I think that ship may have sailed). Bow and Ruby both recognize the importance of family, and even though Ruby is definitely a terrible person (she steals Pops’ Vicodin when she comes to visit him in the hospital, for example), her presence as a grandmother in the Johnson household is an extremely valuable asset.
Save for the pointless shenanigans of the children (Jack and Diane’s approach to their grandfather’s potential death fits their characters, but it’s still friggin’ creepy), “Dr. Hell No” is a strong episode whose biggest fault is misusing the Puff Daddy/Faith Evans remake of “I’ll Be Missing You” (that song suggests a death has already happened!). Maybe I’m just a sucker for father/son stories that resolve themselves with Luther Vandross songs, and dissonant familial relationships finding small moments of clarity. Either way, “Dr. Hell No” is undeniably one of the most satisfying episodes of Black-ish yet.
Other thoughts/observations:
- “Are you recording me for posterity?”
- Jenifer Lewis kills this line: “I want to be the favorite grandparent… not the only one.”
- Blink and you’ll miss Andy Daly as Dre’s doctor.
- “Ooo la la, a Pert Plus!”
- Boy, seeing that image of little Dre’s leg does not get easier the second time around. I nearly lost my lunch the first time I saw that.
- “Death by pork. A warrior’s death.”
[Photo credit: Isabella Vosmikova/ABC]
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I agree, this was a great episode that really focused on the characters and took a break from handling bigger topics. I really enjoyed the interactions between Bow and Pops in particular.