What went down on the latest episode of grown-ish? Get all the tea with Sesi‘s weekly recaps.
It’s that perpetually smiling, in-your-own-world, music-playing-in-your-head, everything-is-happening-in-glorious-slow-motion type love, too. And as she waltzes around campus to her own voiceover telling us how #unbothered love is making her feel, we see her giddily shove a flyer that reads “Trump 2020” into the face of the guy handing them out. (This show goes hard with resistance plugs, and we are always gonna be all the way here for it.)
Then, we see him. Cash. Dude seems like the perfect boyfriend — waiting for Zoey to meet him after class with gift in hand just because. When he opens the box to show her what’s inside, Zoey reacts like she’s just received a legit diamond ring, but the camera reveals it’s actually a four-pack of her favorite tacos (with extra pickled cabbage) in all of life, which makes us swoon even more. He really gets her. And who doesn’t want a bae like that? “God, I love this man,” she says as she leaps into his arms, sealing the scene with a kiss.
Thoroughly enjoying her tacos as she walks down the hallway of her dorm, Zoey gets another urgent text from Nomi, and we realize that ya’ girl still has not hit her back about the first urgent text sent like three episodes ago! Nothing changes with this text, either — not after another text from Cash comes in about how much he loves her.
Committing to her whole ghost-everyone-but-my-boo routine, Zoey also ignores a call from her mom, whispering “stalker” to herself as she does so. She can’t escape Ana, though, and as soon as she walks in their room, Ana’s like, “Where have you been? What have you been doing? Who you been doin’ it with?” It’s clear Zoey has been spending so much time with Cash, she’s barely ever in her room anymore. And that’s when we find out that Zoey’s status that went viral last week had changed.
Meanwhile, Jazz, Aaron, and V-Digital (where has Luca been the past two weeks, btw?) are kickin’ it at Titanium. It’s not crowded yet because, as Jazz shares, she and Sky arrived super early to avoid having to pay the $5 cover charge that kicks in later. Jazz sees Sky approaching the table and warns the guys not to say anything about her face — it’s all scabbed up and rockin’ a lone neon green bandage. Of course, Aaron does not keep his cool:
Turns out, trying to save that fetty, Sky decided to DIY wax her face using pumpkin spice Yankee Candles. Aaron suggests they get a side hustle.
Next, we’re on the set of a national sports talk show, where Cash is being interviewed, and Zoey is watching from offstage. When asked if he’ll declare for the NBA draft, Cash drops a bomb and says, “Wherever I do end up, I want that girl with me,” and he points to Zoey. The talk show’s camera follows suit. Zoey may have been talking all that love stuff, but when Cash basically told the whole world (he seems to do that a lot) he’s trying to wife her up so soon, things got a little to really real, too fast. While trying to figure out how she feels about what just happened, Zoey gets another call from her mom, and she hits “ignore” again.
Post interview, Zoey asks Cash if he was serious about what he just said, and he says he is — he wants her to be the Ayesha to his Steph. She reminds him that she has her own #lifegoals, too, and he tells her that her dreams can follow them anywhere. Still not sure about moving with him if he’s drafted, Zoey promises him she’ll think about it and let him know later.
Back on campus, we see Jazz and Sky have taken Aaron’s advice. Their hustle? Selling the athletic gear they get for free out of their dorm room. Illegal? Probs. But the twins are kinda ’bout it.
Over at Titanium, Zoey spots part of her crew — Nomi, Vivek, and Ana — chillin, having dinner together. Everyone seems happy to see her except for Nomi, obvi, who pretends to be too occupied with her phone to speak to Zoey. Vivek and Ana start talking about the Cash interview and ask Zoey if she’s made a decision about following him. Zoey looks to Nomi for advice, but she’s so over it all. “You really wanna know what I think?” Nomi asks. 👇🏿
Still oblivious, Zoey asks, “Did I miss something?” (Yes, Zoey. You’ve pretty much been missing ALL the things that aren’t you + Cash, TBH.) Nomi pulls out the receipts and says, “Yeah. How about the last six texts I sent you about what I was going through with Dave.” To make things worse, Zoey doesn’t remember who Dave even is at first, and in her attempt to recover her mess up, asks how Dave is doing. Nomi tells her they broke up, but since it didn’t have anything to do with her or Cash, Zoey clearly didn’t care. Zoey tries to apologize, but Nomi hits her with a “Lemme stop you right there” kind of clapback, suggesting she gon’ ahead and leave with Cash because her “head is already so far up his [you know where]” it wouldn’t matter if she stuck around or not.
Back with another dorm hallway soliloquy, Zoey laments about how she thought being in love was supposed to have made her life easier, but instead it seems like it’s making things more difficult. And then, she opens the door to her room to find her mother sitting there waiting.
Zoey tried it. But, Mama Bow is not one to be ignored. Skipping any niceties/greetings, Rainbow gets right to the point: Why has Zoey been dodging all of her calls and texts? (Zoey, your parents live like right up the street. How did you not think one of them wouldn’t pop over if you just stopped responding?) Her standard “I’m busy” line didn’t cut it, either. “Well, apparently, you’re not too busy to be on the set of some sports talk show,” Mama clapped back. Rainbow is not trying to have her daughter turned into a Basketball Wife. But when Zoey confesses her love for Cash, Rainbow softens up a little, acknowledging her daughter’s feelings, and they have a quick bonding sesh.
That is, until Zoey lets it slip that she might dip out on college to follow Cash if he’s drafted. (Say what?) Livid, Rainbow makes it plain that Zoey is not about that life and was raised to be an independent woman who chases after and achieves her own dreams. Zoey tries to say she still has dreams and still plans to reach them, but the struggle is written all over her face.
Meanwhile, Jazz and Sky are in Titanium, and they’ve moved on up to ordering huge shrimp towers. Dean Parker grabs a seat at their booth and confronts them about their hustle, like y’all can’t keep doing this. They’ve broken hella rules, so they’ll have to do 100 hours of community service. He also says that he’ll hire them to paint all the benches around campus for $8 an hour to help them with their money troubles. They take him up on his offer.
Cuddled up together in Zoey’s room, Cash tells her he better bounce, so he can get some sleep because he has an early practice the next morning before the team heads out to Arizona. Zoey playfully tries to convince him to pretend to be sick, so they can chill all weekend. Cash says he wishes he could, but his coach is on him to focus more on the game and less on her. Zoey jokes that she’s not liking his coach right about now, and tells Cash she’s decided to follow him if he’s drafted. He doesn’t seem as thrilled about her decision as you’d expect and tells Zoey that when he goes pro, he could be sent anywhere and would be gone a lot to away games and training camps. The two of them go back and forth and ultimately end up cashing out of the relationship for real (or is it?).
After Cash leaves, Nomi comes in the room looking for Ana, but finds Zoey curled up on her bed balling her eyes out. Still mad at her, Nomi attempts to act like she doesn’t care that Zoey’s crying, but ends up closing the door, sitting on the bed, and asking Zoey what happened. Nomi is there for Zoey’s breakup even though Zoey wasn’t there for her, but she knows now is not the time to go in on that again. They hug it out.
Catch up on the episodes you’ve missed here.
