“Grown-ish” Season 5 picks up with Junior taking on the weight of balancing his new college life, with Junior finally relieved to follow in his sister Zoey’s (Yara Shahidi) footsteps as she begins to “make her own way.” Does the emotional passing of the baton episode on Wednesday.
Schreiber told TheWrap, “Junior has now got an ally, someone who he feels he can talk to about these things, because he’s been through the exact same things.” “I think it’s a kind of outlet for their stress. I don’t think the anxiety ever really goes away.” [but] It helps her to get out of the anxiety spiral at least a little bit.
Despite graduating from Cal U last spring, Zoey has made herself an inescapable presence in Junior’s first year of college, and has never hesitated to upstage her brother, most recently with her brother’s friends. shares tickets to a special concert which leaves the friend group scrambling for Junior’s trip to Disneyland.
Scribner said, “He’s feeling excited and hopeful for this new friend group he’s made and, and he’s ready to finally be the big man on campus.” “He kind of looks at it as Zoe swooping in and taking that thunder away from her. Obviously, she has no idea that she’s doing it — she’s just trying to be a good sister.” doing and helping – but I think Junior has a habit of taking too much of the central focus away from him.
When Zoey takes it a step too far by sharing Junior’s childhood love for Dungeons & Dragons in front of Junior’s fraternity brothers, the comment triggers a panic attack as Junior’s pent-up anxiety comes to the surface. and Junior separates himself from the group and the Chiefs. Her worries come to a head in the form of a storage closet.
Zoey immediately offers advice on easing his panic attacks behind his brother’s back, but Junior is initially hesitant to take her advice. Scribner said, “Although he has positive intentions, I think Junior is going through a lot mentally right now and it’s hard for him to accept help when he wants to be the person helping other people.”
Although Junior “Push[es] a valuable source of support to him” in his sister, he finally listens to her as he realizes her perception of his ideal older sister, who doesn’t face any problems, gets good grades, Owning your business and maintaining a healthy relationship isn’t quite the whole story.
“When she really breaks it down for him all the hardships and hard things that he’s had to go through to get himself to where he is, I think he realizes, ‘Oh, shoot. , we are more alike than we could have ever imagined,” Scribner said, adding that the pair can’t walk in each other’s shoes.
As the brother-sister pair display a relief amount of honesty, their sibling relationship turns into a friendship as Junior realizes he has “gained an ally” in Zoey.
“It’s refreshing; It feels more like me and Yara having an equally communicating and equally mentoring relationship in real life,” Scribner said. “I think that’s what Junior would have wanted, and I don’t think Zoey has to. Really realized she wasn’t delivering.”
To cement this new beginning, Junior also chooses to change his surname from Junior, which was used by his father (Anthony Anderson) to “black-ish” to differentiate him from Andre, in a jiffy. Scribner calls a “twist” for his character. ,
“He wanted to break out and create his own destiny – he’s no longer around his father and his parents 24/7 [so] There’s no reason to separate the two anymore,” Scribner said. “It’s more than just a name change—it’s like her representative taking the bull by the horns and taking control of his life.” “
Scribner, 23, also drew from her own experiences to prepare for this emotional episode, drawn from the panic attacks she experienced before going onstage to the real-life stresses of living on her own.
Scribner said, “My life coincides with Junior’s.” “I’m just attracted to those moments when… [you feel] That overwhelming feeling of dread and… you know in your head that you should be okay and everything is fine, but you can’t stop the way you feel.
While Scribner acknowledges that anxiety leads people to their minds about experiencing their struggles alone, he hopes the episode can help viewers realize that “we all go through things, And that the people around you are there to help you.”
