TV Recap: “Grown-ish” Season 3, Episode 14 – “Know Yourself”

I’m not gonna lie, y’all, but this episode wasn’t all that…busy. Maybe it was due to the insular story that was presented or the weirdly brief end to all the conflict, but this is going to be a mighty quick recap.

It reminded me of a play in the way that one single argument was the crux of the whole 30 minutes. If they wanted to, it could’ve taken place in a single room and no one would’ve batted an eye. However, I digress.

Vivek takes center stage as he is out for a night of partying and MDMA. Think of it as a Euphoria party, but less eyeshadow and overdosing. As Vivek and Heidi are at the top of their high, the other partygoers start to dissipate. The couple is left with one other guy, so obviously, it’s time for a threesome! Vivek locks lips with the new guy at the height of the drug-filled fun fest.

The next day, Vivek mentions nonchalantly how the kiss occurred amidst the threesome, leaving Aaron and Doug disgusted. The homophobia jumped out. They immediately call Vivek bisexual and/or gay and begin to point out all the ways he is not as straight as he should be. He eats bananas in public? Gay. He drinks using a straw? Gay. It’s toxic masculinity at its finest and Vivek is not having it.

The conversation is brought back to the house, where Nomi (she’s back!), Ana, and Jazz join the conversation. The fighting is never-ending, with Vivek and Nomi consistently calling out the BS from others. In the eyes of Aaron, two girls kissing is a right of paassge (exonerating the contradicting nature of Ana calling out Vivek’s gay tendancies, while she has kissed Nomi in the past), while two guys kissing is straight up gay.

Vivek is firm in his stance that he tried it, the feelings weren’t there, and it’s not for him. Just because you kiss one man, even if just for experiment sake, doesn’t immediately make you a member of the queer community. While Aaron and Doug continue to play victim, Vivek takes the lead and kicks them out. I cheered, folks!

Nomi eventually has to go to Aaron’s place to get it into his head how his recent words have been not only hurtful, but insanely tonedeaf. Aaron and Doug return to Vivek’s house with a gay cake and all is right again with the bromance. Huzzah!

At the start of the fight, a sub-fight breaks out between Doug and Jazz over the whole Jazz-getting-with-another-dude thing from last week. I was quickly reminded that Doug set-up the guidelines that hooking-up with others was okay, so now, I’m so anti-Doug it hurts. How can he be mad when he allowed it?!

Doug eventually checks in on Jazz and apologizes and they are in the preliminary stages of make-up sex, before he imagines being next to Jazz’s hook-up. Unsurprisingly, that kills the mood and he tells Jazz they should stick with the parameters of the break for the few remaining weeks they have left. Not to make it a disgustingly cliche track and field pun, but the finish line is in sight.

Study Hall Notes:

  • This Week’s C-Plot Line Sentence Summary – Junior returns and wants to rekindle his relationship with Sky, but she refuses.
  • Sky’s Moment of the Week – Sky will not be helping with any sort of baby activity, okay? No diapers, no nap time, no nothin’.
  • It was nice to finally get a large Vivek plot-line, but did it have to be so infuriating. I understand that Aaron and Doug learned their lesson by the end of the episode, but I left thinking less of them.
Marshal Knight
Marshal Knight is a pop culture writer based in Orlando, FL. For some inexplicable reason, his most recent birthday party was themed to daytime television. He’d like to thank Sandra Oh.