Episodes
Season 1 (2019–20)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | Prod. code | U.S. viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "Pilot" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Chuck Lorre & Eddie Gorodetsky & Al Higgins & Gina Yashere | September 23, 2019 | T11.10127 | 5.89 [4] |
Bob, a Detroit business owner, suffers a heart attack and is immediately smitten with Abishola, the Nigerian nurse who is treating him when he awakes from surgery. | |||||||
| 2 | 2 | "Nigerians Don't Do Useless Things" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Chuck Lorre & Al Higgins & Gina Yashere | September 30, 2019 | T12.16502 | 5.36 [5] |
Intrigued with the possibility of Abishola marrying into money, her Uncle Tunde and Aunt Olu tail Bob as he drives about town. Abishola later agrees to have tea with Bob during her break at work, but insists it isn't a date. Title quotation from: Abishola, to Bob, when he asks her if she has any hobbies. | |||||||
| 3 | 3 | "A Bird May Love a Fish" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Chuck Lorre & Al Higgins & Gina Yashere | October 7, 2019 | T12.16503 | 5.30 [6] |
Bob asks Goodwin, one of his workers, to teach him Yoruba so he can tell Abishola he enjoyed having tea with her and would love to do it again. Meanwhile, Kemi creates a Facebook post implying that Abishola is in a relationship with Bob, and soon Abishola's friends and family want to talk to her about it. The pressure causes Abishola to tell Bob that they cannot be together. First Appearance of: Bayo Akinfemi as Goodwin and Anthony Okungbowa as Kofo Title quotation from: Douglas, to Bob, pointing out the glaring differences between his brother and Abishola. | |||||||
| 4 | 4 | "Square Hamburger, Round Buns" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Al Higgins & Gina Yashere Teleplay by : Carla Filisha & Gloria Bigelow & Marla DuMott | October 14, 2019 | T12.16504 | 4.87 [7] |
Following Abishola's rejection, Bob explores the world of online dating, but his first date (Missi Pyle) is way too much to handle. Meanwhile, Aunt Olu tries to set up Abishola with Chukwuemeka (Tony Tambi), a Nigerian friend's son, but Abishola is unimpressed. The episode closes with Bob unexpectedly finding Abishola on their park bench. Abishola says she's glad he showed up. Absent: Maribeth Monroe as Christina, Travis Wolfe Jr. as Dele, Bayo Akinfemi as Goodwin and Anthony Okungbowa as Kofo Title quotation from: Tunde, making a remark about his Wendy's double-baconator burger. | |||||||
| 5 | 5 | "Whacking the Mole" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere Teleplay by : Chuck Lorre & Matt Ross | October 21, 2019 | T12.16505 | 5.27 [8] |
Abishola is having frequent, recurring dreams of romantic encounters with Bob, to the point that she becomes ill from lack of sleep. Meanwhile, Bob is less than thrilled with the ad campaign pitched by Douglas and Christina, but soon realizes they may have a point. Title quotation from: Gloria and Kemi, comparing Abishola's feelings for Bob to the arcade game, saying that she can whack the feelings down but they will just pop back up. | |||||||
| 6 | 6 | "Ralph Lauren and Fish" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Al Higgins Teleplay by : David Goetsch & Gina Yashere | October 28, 2019 | T12.16506 | 5.71 [9] |
Bob and Abishola go out to a fancy steak restaurant, where she insists that he have fish rather than steak or chicken, and spinach instead of French fries because of his recent heart attack. After dinner, Bob gets a call from Christina, who tells him something is wrong with their mother. From the symptoms that Christina describes, Abishola correctly deduces that Dottie is having a stroke. Bob and Abishola get to the hospital and find Christina in the waiting room, hopped up on Xanax she found in her mother's purse. Meanwhile, Douglas gets lost trying to get to the waiting room to meet up with Bob. Absent: Vernee Watson as Gloria Title quotation from: Bob, reminiscing over the cologne he put on for his date with Abishola and the food she made him order at the steakhouse. | |||||||
| 7 | 7 | "Tough Like a Laundromat Washing Machine" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Al Higgins & Gina Yashere Teleplay by : Matt Ross | November 4, 2019 | T12.16507 | 5.62 [10] |
Bob hires Abishola to take care of Dottie in his home while she recovers, but Dottie has a hard time dealing with her limitations and takes it out on Abishola. Meanwhile, Bob enlists Kofo and Goodwin to run MaxDot while he is away to help look after Dottie, but they get carried away and the entire staff goes on strike. Title quotation from: Goodwin, referring to Dottie's health. | |||||||
| 8 | 8 | "Useless Potheads" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Al Higgins Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Gina Yashere & Ibet Inyang | November 18, 2019 | T12.16508 | 6.02 [11] |
Abishola continues to care for Dottie, while also working at the hospital. Douglas and Christina take over when Abishola can't be there, and get high rather than properly taking care of their mother. Meanwhile, Goodwin and Kofo close a big deal with a customer while Bob is away. Title quotation from: Dottie, describing Douglas and Christina to Abishola on the phone. | |||||||
| 9 | 9 | "We Were Beggars, Now We Are Choosers" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Al Higgins & Gina Yashere Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Carla Filisha & David Goetsch | November 25, 2019 | T12.16509 | 5.65 [12] |
Chukwuemeka apologizes to Abishola for his chauvinistic behavior and asks for a second chance. Given that things with Bob are in a holding pattern, due to both being so busy, Abishola agrees to another date with Chukwuemeka. While Olu seems to approve of Chukwuemeka, Tunde still sees him as a jerk and secretly meets with Bob to tell him he feels Abishola is better off with him. Bob goes to Chukwuemeka's pharmacy, and sees why Abishola might be taken by him. When he tells Abishola he just wants her to be happy and supports whatever decision she makes, Abishola gets angry and tells Bob she wants someone who will fight for her. After Olu finds out what Tunde did, she throws him out of the house and he goes to Bob's house. Absent: Anthony Okungbowa as Kofo Title quotation from: Olu, telling Tunde that Abishola now has choices for a man in her life. | |||||||
| 10 | 10 | "Ice Cream for Breakfast" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Al Higgins Teleplay by : Dave Goetsch & Matt Ross & Gina Yashere | December 9, 2019 | T12.16510 | 5.99 [13] |
Frustrated with Bob, Abishola goes on a dinner date with Chukwuemeka, but finds him to be more arrogant than ever. Pushed by Tunde, Bob interrupts their date to make a passionate pitch to Abishola. Meanwhile, Dottie seems to enjoy having Tunde at the house, but she decides to convince Olu that she's lucky to have her husband in her life. Absent: Travis Wolfe Jr. as Dele and Vernee Watson as Gloria Title quotation from: Bob, using a simile to tell Abishola that even though their relationship doesn't make sense, it still could be something good. | |||||||
| 11 | 11 | "Splitting the Hairs" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Al Higgins & Gloria Bigelow Teleplay by : Carla Filisha & Ibet Inyang & Marla DuMont | December 16, 2019 | T12.16511 | 6.15 [14] |
When Abishola insists to her friends that she wants to pursue Bob, Kemi asks Chukwuemeka for a date without telling Abishola. Abishola says it would be uncomfortable to have her best friend dating the man she is dumping, but Kemi goes on the date anyway. Kemi also finds Chukwuemeka to be boring and arrogant, leading her to ask Abishola for forgiveness. Elsewhere, Bob learns from the family lawyer that Dottie has not prepared a will, and that the business could be greatly affected if she passes away. Dottie agrees to make a will, while using the opportunity to bribe all three of her children into improving themselves. Bob and Abishola inadvertently have their first kiss. Absent: Shola Adewusi as Olu, Barry Shabaka Henley as Tunde, Travis Wolfe Jr. as Dele, Bayo Akinfemi as Goodwin and Anthony Okungbowa as Kofo Title quotation from: Kemi, debating whether she lied to Abishola or was just "slow to tell the truth". | |||||||
| 12 | 12 | "There's My Nigerians" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Al Higgins & Gina Yashere Teleplay by : Dave Goetsch & Carla Filisha & Matt Ross | January 6, 2020 | T12.16512 | 6.66 [15] |
When Abishola suggests that Dottie is getting depressed staying in her room, Bob arranges to have two friends from Dottie's club, Jen (Wendie Malick) and Trish (Marilu Henner), pay a visit. When that backfires, Olu and Tunde make a visit. Dottie decides to get out of the house and go to her club with Olu and Tunde. This leads to a discussion about Bob and Abishola's possible marriage, wherein Dottie angers her guests by mentioning the need for a prenup. Meanwhile, Chukwuemeka gives Kemi a necklace after a night of sex, but he returns the next day and wants it back. Absent: Bayo Akinfemi as Goodwin and Anthony Okungbowa as Kofo Title quotation from: Dottie, when she hears Tunde and Olu pull up to take her to the club. | |||||||
| 13 | 13 | "The Canadians of Africa" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Al Higgins & Gina Yashere Teleplay by : Dave Goetsch & Carla Filisha & Matt Ross | January 20, 2020 | T12.16513 | 6.50 [16] |
After noticing that Dele seems unhappy, Bob brings it up with Abishola during a dinner date and ruins their night. Later, Dele proves Bob right by telling him he wants to be a choreographer, while his mother is dead-set on him becoming a doctor. When she sees the dancing video Dele showed her, she tells him about what will happen later. When he goes go college, he will attend a medical school and earn a PhD. And when he graduates, Abishola will decide on what Dele will do afterwards, which Dele reluctantly agrees with. Meanwhile, Kemi tries to navigate passionate nights with Chukwuemeka when his live-in mother is always in the next room. Title quotation from: Kofo, describing women from Ghana after he and Goodwin suggest Bob will have to move on from Abishola. | |||||||
| 14 | 14 | "Full-Frontal Dottie" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Al Higgins & Gina Yashere Teleplay by : Dave Goetsch & Matt Ross | February 3, 2020 | T12.16514 | 5.85 [17] |
With Dottie able to move her left leg for the first time since her stroke, she decides it's time to return to work. Bob tells Abishola that he's happy his mother is getting better, but is not looking forward to her being back in the office. Sure enough, on her first day, Dottie shoots down an idea her children had to add compression sleeves to the product line, and takes advice from Abishola over Bob. Bob responds by quitting, getting drunk, and driving a forklift through the warehouse. Absent: Shola Adewusi as Olu, Barry Shabaka Henley as Tunde, and Travis Wolfe Jr. as Dele Title quotation from: Douglas, bemoaning Dottie's belligerence upon her return to work. | |||||||
| 15 | 15 | "Black Ice" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Al Higgins & Gina Yashere Teleplay by : Ibet Inyang | February 10, 2020 | T12.16515 | 6.00 [18] |
During Valentine's Day dinner, Bob professes his love for Abishola, but she does not return his "I love you" due to cultural customs regarding showing affection. Abishola later tells Bob she is very committed to their relationship. Meanwhile, Goodwin tries to keep Kofo from riding his motor scooter, having promised relatives he would keep his younger cousin safe. Their dispute ends up in Douglas's office. Absent: Travis Wolfe Jr. as Dele Title quotation from: Kofo and Goodwin, telling Bob and Douglas about Michigan driving hazards that don't exist in Nigeria. | |||||||
| 16 | 16 | "Where's Your Other Wives, Tunde?" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre Teleplay by : Al Higgins | February 17, 2020 | T12.16516 | 6.12 [19] |
As Dottie mends fences with Olu and Tunde, Bob professes to the three of them that he and Abishola don't have a "real" relationship yet. An angry Abishola asks Bob to explain, and he later tells her that, among other things, they haven't had sexual relations. Abishola responds by saying that she has never had sex outside of marriage. After Bob sulks and drinks all day, Abishola calls him late at night to say she isn't ruling out the possibility of intimacy in the near future. Title quotation from: Dottie, asking Olu and Tunde about polygamy in Nigeria. | |||||||
| 17 | 17 | "A Big, White Thumb" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Gina Yashere & Carla Filisha Teleplay by : Matt Ross | March 9, 2020 | T12.16517 | 5.81 [20] |
During a dinner with her family, Abishola invites Bob to church. Bob is a little reluctant and inadvertently offends Abishola while trying to explain his nonreligiousness, but eventually agrees to do so to make amends. After an uncomfortable experience during the church service, Abishola wonders how their relationship will ever last. Bob tells her that even though he's unsure about his belief in God, he does believe in miracles, citing the two of them as an example. Absent: Bayo Akinfemi as Goodwin and Anthony Okungbowa as Kofo Title quotation from: Tunde, extrapolating on Abishola's reluctance to invite Bob to church. | |||||||
| 18 | 18 | "Sock Wife!" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Al Higgins & Gloria Bigelow Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Dave Goetsch & Gina Yashere | March 16, 2020 | T12.16518 | 6.89 [21] |
After discovering from Kemi that Bob's ex-wife Lorraine (Nicole Sullivan) has been admitted to the hospital, Abishola makes a visit to the woman's room. With Abishola's help, Bob prays for his ex-wife's happiness and slowly begins to let go of some of his animosity towards her. The exes share a hug that Kemi witnesses, and Abishola grows concerned that Lorraine still has feelings for Bob. Meanwhile, Christina recruits Kofo to help with online branding, and the two find themselves drawn to one another. Absent: Christine Ebersole as Dottie and Travis Wolfe Jr. as Dele Title quotation from: Kemi, out of breath from running and trying to explain Lorraine's presence in the hospital to Abishola. | |||||||
| 19 | 19 | "Angry, Happy, Same Face" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Gina Yashere & Ibet Inyang Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Carla Filisha & Marla DuMont | April 6, 2020 | T12.16519 | 6.73 [22] |
When Bob's ex-wife Lorraine reconciles with Dottie and starts hanging out at Bob's house several days in a row, Abishola begins to take exception. Meanwhile, Christina continues to pursue Kofo, who resists her advances because he fears losing his job if the relationship ends badly. This forces Douglas and Bob, who know their sister's romantic history, to take drastic measures. Absent: Travis Wolfe Jr. as Dele Title quotation from: Kemi, explaining to Gloria how difficult it is to decipher Abishola's emotions. | |||||||
| 20 | 20 | "Randy's a Wrangler" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Al Higgins & Gina Yashere Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Dave Goetsch & Carla Filisha | April 13, 2020 | T12.16520 | 6.81 [23] |
After Dottie meets Hank (John Ratzenberger), a fellow patient in recovery, Abishola and Bob encourage her to explore the initial connection. Dottie and Hank meet for coffee, which only shows Dottie that she isn't ready for a relationship. However, when Abishola and Guy (Leonard Roberts), Hank's caretaker, arrange for the two to meet for their rehabilitation exercises, Dottie's reluctance seems to loosen, indicating that a relationship between them may be possible in the future. Meanwhile, Bob and Douglas video-chat with Christina, who has been attending a mental health and wellness program on a ranch, and fear that she is no better than when she left. End of Season 1. Title quotation from: Christina, describing the ranch-hand with whom she's become infatuated. | |||||||
Season 2 (2020–21)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | Prod. code | U.S. viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | 1 | "On a Dead Guy's Bench" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Al Higgins & Nathan Chetty Teleplay by : Gina Yashere & Matt Ross & Ibet Inyang | November 16, 2020 | T12.16701 | 5.22 [24] |
With negotiating assistance from Tunde, Bob purchases an engagement ring for Abishola. Despite Bob's pleas to keep it a secret, Olu wheedles it out of Tunde, then blabs to Abishola. Abishola tells Bob she knows about the ring and is flattered, but feels it will be such a hassle to get a divorce from her Nigerian husband and get her village to approve Bob, it isn't worth the stress. Bob briefly considers staying together with Abishola while unwed, but soon decides he wants to marry her no matter what. Title quotation from: Bob, referring to his and Abishola's favorite bench after she identifies the name on a dedication placard that's affixed to it. | |||||||
| 22 | 2 | "Paris is for Lovers, Not Mothers" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Gina Yashere & Carla Filisha Teleplay by : Dave Goetsch & Gloria Bigelow & Marla DuMont | November 23, 2020 | T12.16702 | 4.90 [25] |
Bob plans a fancy dinner with Abishola to celebrate their engagement, but they wind up at a coney stand that Bob says got him through some tough times. Kofo reveals to Goodwin that he's still hung up on Christina, despite the way she treated him in Arizona. Douglas asks Dottie for a promotion and a raise, but Dottie will only agree if he "earns it" by working at least a year on the shop floor. Meanwhile, Kemi is angry when Chukwuemeka tells her he's taking his mother to Paris, thinking he should be taking his girlfriend instead. Olu convinces Kemi that to win over Chukwuemeka, she has to act more like his mother. Absent: Travis Wolfe Jr. as Dele Title quotation from: Kemi, lamenting that Chukwuemeka is taking his mother to Paris instead of herself. | |||||||
| 23 | 3 | "Straight Outta Lagos" | Nikki Lorre | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Matt Ross Teleplay by : Carla Filisha & Dave Goetsch & Nathan Chetty | November 30, 2020 | T12.16703 | 4.92 [26] |
Bob invites Abishola to a gala dinner where he will be presented with the Michigan Undergarment Association's Businessman of the Year award. As he introduces Abishola to some fellow businesspeople at the event, Bob does all the talking, causing Abishola to excuse herself from the room. Outside the banquet hall, Abishola tells Bob that she researched his business and prepared some jokes and conversation starters, and is disappointed that he felt the need to speak for her. Bob makes up for his error by praising Abishola during his acceptance speech, giving her credit for the changed man he's become. Elsewhere, Douglas puts in his first week on the MaxDot shop floor, and invites Goodwin and Kofo out for Friday evening drinks. Goodwin and Kofo feel out of place when Douglas takes them to an expensive club. Absent: Travis Wolfe Jr. as Dele Title quotation from: Bob, as he introduces Abishola to some big-wigs at the awards dinner. | |||||||
| 24 | 4 | "Camp Bananas" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Matt Ross Teleplay by : Ibet Inyang & Marla DuMont & Gloria Bigelow | December 7, 2020 | T12.16704 | 5.28 [27] |
Following Bob's less-than-stellar stress test at the hospital, Abishola meets with the Wheeler family to discuss changes that need to be made to improve Bob's health. Bob and Abishola decide to take a day off work to de-stress, but they have vastly different ideas on how to spend the time. Meanwhile, Christina takes over the management of MaxDot in Bob's absence and becomes a tyrant, especially enjoying rubbing her higher status in Douglas' face. Later, while cleaning out Douglas' office at Christina's request, Kofo and Goodwin find some of Douglas' pay stubs, causing friction. Also, Gloria takes over Dottie's physical therapy. While the two women share fond memories of Detroit's glory days, Dottie has to admit that her family was part of the "white flight" to the suburbs. Absent: Travis Wolfe Jr. as Dele Title quotation from: Dottie, describing the mental health ranch that Christina attended. | |||||||
| 25 | 5 | "Sleeping Next to an Old Boat" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Carla Filisha Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Nathan Chetty & Ibet Inyang | December 14, 2020 | T12.16705 | 4.85 [28] |
Bob wants to spend some time getting to know Dele, and says he will pay him to help clean up his garage. The two find several items that Bob bought and never used, so he gives them to Dele and his family. One item is a roomba, which begins to make Olu feel inferior about the way she cleans the apartment. Abishola takes the items back to Bob, saying she doesn't want Dele to be spoiled and receive things he didn't work to obtain. She then implies that Bob had everything handed to him, while people like Dele and herself have to work for all that they have. Dottie then tells Abishola about how Bob dropped out of college at age 20 to run MaxDot after his father died, and that he literally saved the family business by working long hours. Abishola sees Bob differently, but is disappointed that he never told her the story. Absent: Bayo Akinfemi as Goodwin and Anthony Okungbowa as Kofo Title quotation from: Olu, describing Tunde's snoring as he sleeps. | |||||||
| 26 | 6 | "A Tight Ass is a Wonderful Thing" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Gina Yashere & Marla DuMont Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Dave Goetsch & Carla Filisha | January 4, 2021 | T12.16708 | 5.63 [29] |
After a week letting Kemi ride along as he takes Abishola to and from work, Bob tells Abishola that Kemi's constant chatter is annoying. Abishola shares this with Kemi, making Bob angry. When Bob explains that there are some things you keep to yourself for the sake of not starting a fight, Abishola challenges him to reveal anything about herself that he won't tell her. Elsewhere, Goodwin is left unsure of himself as a manager after finding out Douglas has made some disastrous mistakes on the floor, as well as taking in Dottie's dishonest but effective solution for cleaning up her son's messes. Absent: Travis Wolfe Jr. as Dele Title quotation from: Kofo, assuring Goodwin that his reputation as a strict manager is a positive. | |||||||
| 27 | 7 | "The Wrong Adebambo" | Kristy Cecil | Story by : Al Higgins & Matt Ross & Gloria Bigelow Teleplay by : Dave Goetsch & Gina Yashere & Marla DuMont | January 18, 2021 | T12.16706 | 5.55 [30] |
After eight years in Nigeria, Abishola's husband Tayo returns to Detroit for business and has dinner with the family at the apartment. Bob sees this as a perfect opportunity for Abishola to ask for a divorce, but he learns from Kofo and Goodwin that divorce is very rare in Nigeria. Abishola gets angry when Tayo brags about his career and wealth, and boldly states Abishola would be a fool not to live with him in Nigeria. Bob also reminds Abishola that she's not the same person Tayo left eight years ago. Abishola then asks Tayo for a divorce, but he insists he will never grant her one. Title quotation from: Bob, telling Abishola that while he looked up Tayo online, he found a funk bass player with the same name. | |||||||
| 28 | 8 | "Honest Yak Prices" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Matt Ross & Ibet Inyang Teleplay by : Gina Yashere & Nathan Chetty & Gloria Bigelow | January 25, 2021 | T12.16707 | 5.96 [31] |
After Abishola's pastor and her mother, Ebunoluwa, both side with Tayo in his refusal to grant a divorce, Bob decides to play hardball and hires powerful attorney Arnie Goldfischer. Tayo counters by announcing he'll hire an equally powerful attorney whom Arnie knows well. Faced with the almost impossible task of getting Tayo to change his mind, Bob and Abishola resolve to live a life as if they are married, even if it isn't official. However, after seeing Bob and Abishola dance to a song Bob had chosen especially for his wife to be, Aunt Olu encounters Tayo outside of church and shames him into accepting a divorce. Title quotation from: Ebunoluwa (Abishola's mother), pondering if her new wig might be made of yak hair. | |||||||
| 29 | 9 | "Tunde the Boy King" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Carla Filisha Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Nathan Chetty & Ibet Inyang | February 8, 2021 | T12.16709 | 5.54 [32] |
After a chance encounter in Chukwuemeka's pharmacy, Abishola and Christina unexpectedly hit it off and find that they complement each other. At MaxDot, Douglas brings some fun to the shop floor with dancing and games, which gives the workers a morale boost and surprisingly increases productivity. However, when Bob praises Douglas for his leadership abilities, Douglas begins to feel pressured. Absent: Travis Wolfe Jr. as Dele and Vernee Watson as Gloria Title quotation from: Olu, telling Christina that Tunde was an Egyptian boy king in a past life. | |||||||
| 30 | 10 | "The Cheerleader Leader" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Marla DuMont Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Nathan Chetty & Ibet Inyang | February 22, 2021 | T12.16710 | 5.56 [33] |
Bob encounters Tayo in the hallway and brings him into the apartment where he sits down with Dele in time for the Football game. Bob didn't expect for this to come around but Abishola says it will be good for Dele to get to know his father. However, when Tayo picks up Dele from school and sees him working with his dance group, he gets upset and says it's a waste of time. Abishola asks for Bob's help to deal with Dele's subsequent moping, and ultimately tells Tayo that as long as Dele works hard in school and gets good grades, he can do what he wants in his free time. Abishola then learns that Tayo asked Dele to live with him in Nigeria during the summer, and that Dele wants to go. Elsewhere, Bob enlists Goodwin and Kofo in his quest to actually like soccer; not only does it end up working for him, but Goodwin and Kofo also try to enjoy NFL action and become fans of the game when they see a great play by a Nigerian-born player: Emmanuel Ogbah. Title quotation from: Tayo, using a condescending moniker after Dele calls himself the choreographer for his dance group. | |||||||
| 31 | 11 | "I Did Not Raise Him to be a Teenager" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Marla DuMont Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Nathan Chetty & Ibet Inyang | March 8, 2021 | T12.16711 | 5.20 [34] |
Bob arrives at Abishola's apartment for dinner and Tunde warns him that Abishola is still not happy about Dele wanting to go to Nigeria. Bob tries to talk to Abishola, but her mind is set on not letting Dele go. At dinner, Dele rebels against his mother by not eating the food she's prepared, which is a serious insult in Nigerian culture. Dele stays with Christina and Douglas for the day as Abishola asked. They try to get Dele to talk about his feelings, but when he finally opens up, Douglas and Christina don't know what to say to help. Meanwhile, Abishola talks to her work friends about Dele, and they relate stories of when their children were teens. In the end, Abishola allows Dele to go to Nigeria for the summer, albeit with a few ground rules. Title quotation from: Abishola, reacting when Gloria says Dele is just being a teenager. | |||||||
| 32 | 12 | "We Don't Rat on Family" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Matt Ross Teleplay by : Nathan Chetty & Gloria Bigelow & Carla Filisha | March 15, 2021 | T12.16712 | 5.10 [35] |
Bob learns he's done everything wrong with regard to courting Abishola and Nigerian culture, and wants to make things right. He asks Tunde for advice, and Tunde says it's not just Bob marrying Abishola, but the two families marrying each other. Tunde sets out to learn as much as he can about Bob's family, including meeting with Lorraine to ask what went wrong in Bob's first marriage. Lorraine blames her cheating on Bob being married to his job. Meanwhile, Abishola and Kemi discuss how big the wedding will be, with Abishola wanting to keep it smaller that Nigerian tradition would dictate. She and Bob discuss having a courthouse wedding, but soon realize they want family and friends involved. Bob tells Abishola to be honest with him if he ever puts his job before her, but she sees working 70 hours a week as perfectly normal. Bob then has a Skype call with Abishola's mother who, after a brief discussion, surprisingly says she likes him. Absent: Travis Wolfe Jr. as Dele Title quotation from: Dottie, after learning that Tunde wants to dig up Wheeler family secrets. | |||||||
| 33 | 13 | "A Big African Bassoon" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gloria Bigelow & Dave Pilson Teleplay by : Gina Yashere & Ibet Inyang & Marla DuMont | April 12, 2021 | T12.16713 | 4.74 [36] |
With Gloria going on vacation for two weeks, Abishola takes over as Charge Nurse for her shift. Seeing this as a stepping stone in her career and wanting to impress her superiors with a tightly-run ship and productive staff, Abishola instead causes the nurses to rebel against her. Kemi finds her friend crying in the closet and tries to lift her spirits. Meanwhile, Bob learns more about Nigerian culture, as Olu, Tunde, Kofo and Goodwin all assure him that Abishola will never stop working toward the next stage of her career. This disappoints Bob as he dreams of buying a boat when he retires. As the episode closes, Abishola tells Bob she's learned that every higher nursing position takes her further from the patients, so she instead wants to become a doctor. Title quotation from: A nurse complaining to Kemi about Abishola's strict leadership. | |||||||
| 34 | 14 | "A Tough Old Bird" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Nathan Chetty Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Carla Filisha & Marla DuMont | April 19, 2021 | T12.16714 | 4.93 [37] |
At the pharmacy, Bob learns from Chukwuemeka that he and Kemi broke up. Abishola finds out just as she and Bob are looking forward to a weekend alone, with his siblings taking Dottie to a casino in Sarnia, Ontario. Kemi explains to Abishola that Chukwuemeka's mother, Ogechi, insists on grandchildren, and Kemi is too old to have them. Kemi gives herself a garish makeover, and calls Abishola in the middle of the night while attempting to break into Chukwuemeka's apartment, forcing Abishola and Bob to come get her. Kemi and Ogechi then reach an understanding: Kemi will continue to date Chukwuemeka because they love each other, while she and Ogechi will look for a suitable woman to have Chukwuemeka's child. Absent: Travis Wolfe Jr. as Dele, Bayo Akinfemi as Goodwin and Anthony Okungbowa as Kofo Title quotation from: Bob, explaining to Chukwuemeka that Kemi is strong enough to get over their breakup. | |||||||
| 35 | 15 | "TLC: Tunde's Loving Care" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Nathan Chetty Teleplay by : Gina Yashere & Ibet Inyang & Marla DuMont | April 26, 2021 | T12.16715 | 4.69 [38] |
After learning that Gloria graduated medical school but never became a doctor, Abishola angers her by suggesting she didn't work hard enough. Gloria later retorts that Abishola shouldn't judge her when she has Bob to pay her way. Abishola insists she never asked Bob to pay, then learns the real reason why Gloria was unable to complete her residency, and apologizes. Meanwhile, Tunde offers to fix the broken dishwasher in Bob's house, but insists on Bob learning how to do the work. Olu later tells Bob that Tunde has trouble with manual tasks due to arthritis, and thanks Bob for getting him involved in a project. Title quotation from: Tunde, offering his services and wisdom to Bob when Bob's dishwasher breaks down. | |||||||
| 36 | 16 | "Sights and Bites" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Ibet Inyang Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Carla Filisha & Nathan Chetty | May 3, 2021 | T12.16716 | 4.91 [39] |
When Abishola worries about not knowing what Dele is doing during his upcoming trip to Nigeria, Bob suggests she put a tracker in Dele's phone. Abishola starts obsessing over watching Dele's every move via the tracker, ultimately tailing her son to a park where she sees him kissing a girl. This has her considering cancelling Dele's trip, until the rest of the family talks her down. Meanwhile, Bob thoroughly researches Nigeria, with help from Kofo and Goodwin, to make a "sights and bites" guide for Dele to take on his trip. Title quotation from: Bob's title for the guide to Nigerian scenic locations and restaurants that he makes for Dele. | |||||||
| 37 | 17 | "The Devil's Taste Buds" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Matt Ross Teleplay by : Carla Filisha & Marla Dumont & Gloria Bigelow | May 10, 2021 | T12.16717 | 4.90 [40] |
Dottie takes some time to clean out things in her house, and upsets Christina by saying she plans to sell the house and live with Bob permanently. As Abishola was expecting to care for Dottie at Bob's, she finds herself with a rare day off. Gloria and Kemi invite Abishola to their favorite jazz club, but while the girls get ready at Bob's, they start drinking and using the hot tub and never leave. Dele happens to face-time his mother from Nigeria after she's had several drinks. Tayo overhears the conversation and says Dele should stay with him and not return to Abishola. Meanwhile, Olu and Tunde rent Dele's room to a young Nigerian woman, Morenike, who accuses them of becoming too Americanized. Title quotation from: Olu, conversing with Tunde about Morenike's affinity for extremely spicy food. | |||||||
| 38 | 18 | "God Accepts Venmo" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Chuck Lorre Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Nathan Chetty & Ibet Inyang | May 17, 2021 | T12.16718 | 5.39 [41] |
With their busy schedules, Bob and Abishola decide the best time to get married is in three weeks. Pastor Balogun insists that the two must go through two months of pre-marriage counseling to get married in the church, but Bob changes his mind with a generous donation. Abishola face-times with Dele and says she will arrange flights for him to return, while Bob asks Dele to be his best man. As the girls have a combined bachelorette and planning party, the guys get fitted for tuxedos and have a bachelor party. Bob gives Tunde, Goodwin and Kofo expensive watches for being his groomsmen, but leaves out Douglas. Bob tells his brother he doesn't need a watch, but Douglas is still upset about being overlooked. When Abishola calls Dele again to finalize travel arrangements, Tayo tells her that Dele is better off in Nigeria, explaining that his connections can get their son into one of the best colleges. Abishola asks Dele directly if this is what he wants, and he reluctantly agrees. Abishola, Bob, Olu and Tunde are then shown on a plane bound for Nigeria. End of Season 2. Title quotation from: Pastor Balogun, after Bob tries to make a donation with a check. | |||||||
Season 3 (2021–22)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | Prod. code | U.S. viewers (millions) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 39 | 1 | "Welcome to Lagos" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Matt Ross Teleplay by : Nathan Chetty & Carla Filisha & Ibet Inyang Beneche | September 20, 2021 | T12.17301 | 5.43 [42] | ||
Soon after Bob, Abishola, Tunde and Olu arrive in Nigeria, Abishola kidnaps Dele and brings him to her mother's home. Bob is left to ride with Tayo, who knows where Abishola is hiding their son. While the two agree that Abishola has done a great job preparing Dele to be successful, Tayo says he's able to get Dele into a prestigious British university and that it's best for Dele to stay with him. Abishola later reluctantly agrees, after seeing Dele absorbing Nigerian culture and enjoying time with his half-sisters. Abishola and Bob decide to get married in Nigeria so that Dele and Ebunoluwa can be a part of it. Dottie, Douglas, Christina and Kemi are then shown arriving in Lagos. Title quotation from: Tunde, making a somewhat sarcastic comment to an overwhelmed Bob upon the group's arrival in Nigeria. | |||||||||
| 40 | 2 | "Bowango" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Marla DuMont Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Gloria Bigelow & Dave Pilson | September 27, 2021 | T12.17302 | 5.49 [43] | ||
As the wedding approaches, Bob learns he must fulfill a wish list for Abishola's father as a way of earning the right to marry her, per Nigerian tradition. Meanwhile, with the same Nigerian tradition dictating that a wedding is more about the bride's mother, Ebunoluwa goes overboard trying to take all the credit for Abishola's success and her groom-to-be, refusing to acknowledge her sister Olu's contributions. In the end, Bob and Abishola are wed in a beautiful ceremony. Title quotation from: Bob, misinterpreting Tunde's "bow and go" command as a Nigerian word. | |||||||||
| 41 | 3 | "Dud" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Carla Filisha Teleplay by : Nathan Chetty & Ibet Inyang Beneche & Marla DuMont | October 4, 2021 | T12.17303 | 5.21 [44] | ||
Bob tries to make things as easy as possible for Abishola to move into his home, including agreeing to her choices of uncomfortable furniture and removing the TV from the living room. The two host a wedding party to include those who could not go to Nigeria, including Goodwin, Kofo and Gloria, but the party ends up being a bust. Abishola is disappointed to later find Bob in the garage with several guests. Absent: Travis Wolfe Jr. as Dele Title quotation from: Dottie, describing the party thrown by Bob and Abishola. | |||||||||
| 42 | 4 | "Old Strokey" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Gloria Bigelow Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Dave Pilson & Jamarcus Turner | October 11, 2021 | T12.17304 | 5.12 [45] | ||
Dottie starts feeling like a burden when Bob and Abishola complain about her intruding on their private time. She travels in her chair to see Olu and Tunde, who do their best to lift her spirits. Elsewhere, Kofo also feels unwanted in his cousin's home, after overhearing Goodwin and his wife complaining about his habits. As the episode closes, Douglas is shocked when he sees Dottie get out of her chair and stand up to reach something on the top refrigerator shelf. She angrily tells Douglas he didn't see anything, and also to forget anything he just saw. Absent: Travis Wolfe Jr. as Dele Title quotation from: | |||||||||
| 43 | 5 | "Greasy Badge of Honor" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Nathan Chetty Teleplay by : Carla Filisha & Ibet Inyang Beneche & Marla DuMont | October 18, 2021 | T12.17305 | 5.05 [46] | ||
Abishola gets sucked into the "girls day" routine of lavish shopping sprees and long champagne-soaked spa trips that Dottie and Christina embrace, causing her to fall behind in her studies. Meanwhile, Kofo comes up with an idea to sell MaxDot products through a factory outlet store, which earns Bob's interest. Concerned that it will affect his own position, Goodwin tries to sabotage his cousin's presentation but Kofo is one critical step ahead of him and nails the pitch. Title quotation from: Goodwin, explaining his plan to distract Bob with donuts during Kofo's presentation. | |||||||||
| 44 | 6 | "The Devil's Throuple" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Dave Pilson Teleplay by : Nathan Chetty & Gloria Bigelow & Jamarcus Turner | November 1, 2021 | T12.17306 | 4.98 [47] | ||
Over Kemi's objections, Ogechi decides that Morenike will be the perfect person to have Chukwuemeka's children. Kemi becomes worried that Morenike wants to become Chukwuemeka's wife, and Morenike's actions seem to confirm that. Kemi gets some revenge by telling a horrified Chukwuemeka or her own plans to "move on", and then does so with a handsome hospital tech named Terrance. Elsewhere, Douglas is left to take the bus everywhere because he's no longer MaxDot management and loses his company car, but he has a meet-cute meeting with a pretty bus driver who finds him charming. Absent: Travis Wolfe Jr. as Dele Title quotation from: | |||||||||
| 45 | 7 | "Fumble in the Dark" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Gloria Bigelow Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Ibet Inyang Beneche & Dave Pilson | November 8, 2021 | T12.17307 | 4.96 [48] | ||
Absent: Travis Wolfe Jr. as Dele Title quotation from: Kemi, talking about touching other girls when she was in an all-girls boarding school. | |||||||||
| 46 | 8 | "Light Duty" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Dave Pilson Teleplay by : Carla Filisha & Marla Dumont & Jamarcus Turner | November 29, 2021 | T12.17308 | 4.88 [49] | ||
Still upset over Kofo getting Christina's job, Goodwin gets worked up on the shop floor and collapses. When he awakes in the hospital, Abishola tells Goodwin he had a panic attack. Goodwin pleads with Abishola to record the incident as a heart attack, because mental issues are looked down upon in Nigerian culture. Bob puts Goodwin on light duty in the shop, saying the company's insurance requires it, but a furious Goodwin refuses and goes home. After a calming time assembling a jigsaw puzzle with Kofo, Goodwin returns and accepts his assignment. Bob then informs Goodwin that he can do almost any job at MaxDot, and therefore will be groomed to run the company when Bob retires. Elsewhere, Christina has been unable to find another job after quitting. Kemi and Abishola convince her to see a Yoruba priest, who uses his powers to deduce that "a blonde woman" close to Christina is holding her back. Christina confronts Dottie, who surprisingly tells her daughter she believes in her and supports her decision. Absent: Travis Wolfe Jr. as Dele Title quotation from: Bob, informing Goodwin that he must be placed on light duty work following his panic attack. | |||||||||
| 47 | 9 | "I'm Not Edsel" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Kelly Farrell Teleplay by : Nathan Chetty & Gloria Bigelow & Dave Pilson | December 6, 2021 | T12.17309 | 5.08 [50] | ||
Bob brings Abishola to her former apartment, where Tunde and Olu still live, saying he has a surprise for her. The surprise is that Bob has flown Dele home for a visit. Abishola's elation is short-lived when she sees her mother, Ebunoluwa, has arrived with Dele. Ebunoluwa soon becomes critical of everything and everyone, even mocking Bob for having only one sock factory. Abishola later angrily tells her mother to stop being a jerk to Bob, leading Ebunoluwa to disown her and move into Olu and Tunde's apartment. Title quotation from: Bob, after Ebunoluwa visits the Ford museum and starts comparing him to the Ford family's least successful son. | |||||||||
| 48 | 10 | "Tunde123" | Bayo Akinfemi | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Carla Filisha Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Ibet Inyang Beneche & Jamarcus Turner | January 3, 2022 | T12.17310 | 5.21 [51] | ||
When Dele cooks an excellent meal for Bob, Abishola and Dottie, Abishola finds out he bought the ingredients using a credit card that Tayo gave him. After railing on Tayo in a video chat, Abishola orders Dele to do only chores and homework while cutting up the credit card. Wanting to also bond with Dele, Bob goes behind Abishola's back and gets Dele a video game, later inviting Doug, Kofo and Goodwin to also play the game. Meanwhile, Olu and Tunde scheme to get Abishola and Ebunoluwa to make up, hoping the latter will move out of their apartment and back into Bob's house. The stories converge when Bob makes a point Abishola listens to: Dele is a great kid who has been raised superbly by her, but if she continues to treat him the way Ebunoluwa treats her then Dele will cut off contact with her and lead his own life in Nigeria. This leads Abishola to apologize to her mom, and in turn Ebunoluwa is impressed for the first time by Bob standing up to his wife, and then browbeats Abishola to be more subservient to her husband. Title quotation from: Ebunoluwa, easily figuring out Tunde's internet password. | |||||||||
| 49 | 11 | "Cats in a Bathtub" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Gloria Bigelow Teleplay by : Nathan Chetty & Marla Dumont & Dave Pilson | January 17, 2022 | T12.17311 | 5.49 [52] | ||
When Bob talks to Chukwuemeka about the end of his engagement to Morenike, he accidentally reveals that she is gay. Soon, news spreads through the church community and leads to an "intervention" from the horrified and homophobic church elders. Abishola and Kemi are able to throw them off-balance by pointing out the many sins and hypocrisies of Morenike's elders, while Bob is left crestfallen when Morenike tells him nothing he says or does will undo the damage he caused. Abishola is surprised when Olu and Tunde tell her they won't ask Morenike to leave their home because they don't turn their back on family, and they later silence the church by showing up arm in arm with her in solidarity. Elsewhere, Douglas feels guilty for hiding his family's wealth from his love interest, Olivia the bus driver, and pretending he's a blue-collar joe. He eventually does tell the truth, and she initially tells him to get lost. However, she shows up later and says she'd like to give him another chance, as long as he's honest with her going forward. Absent: Maribeth Monroe as Christina Title quotation from: | |||||||||
| 50 | 12 | "Your Beans are Flatlining" | Kristy Cecil | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Ibet Inyang Beneche Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Carla Filisha & Jamarcus Turner | January 24, 2022 | T12.17312 | 5.86 [53] | ||
Absent: Maribeth Monroe as Christina Title quotation from: Gloria exclaiming in Abishola's dream sequence about Ebunoluwa on the surgery table with Abishola as the surgeon. | |||||||||
| 51 | 13 | "One Man, No Baby" | Rhiannon O'Harra | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Marla Dumont Teleplay by : Nathan Chetty & Gloria Bigelow & Dave Pilson | February 28, 2022 | T12.17313 | 5.50 [54] | ||
When Bob and Abishola become weary of Ebunoluwa and Dottie's overbearing joint presence in their home, Bob bluntly asks the moms to give him and Abishola one night of privacy a week. Unfortunately, everyone from the moms to Bob's siblings to Goodwin and Kofo and Kemi & Gloria assume that the Wheelers want that time to themselves to conceive a child. And the thing is that they're fully wrong in Abishola's case (because she doesn't want to have another child) and maybe not wrong in Bob's (because he clearly would love to have a child with Abishola). After some stress, Abishola flees to a wine bar where Bob tracks her down. When they talk, Abishola tells Bob that she's not ready to have a child right now--but she's also no longer a "hard no" on the prospect of doing so, now that she knows he'd love to be a dad. Elsewhere, Christina and Doug both suck up to Goodwin after he reveals Bob's plan to give him control of MaxDot after Bob retires, but Kofo is taking the long view and leaves Goodwin uncertain. Title quotation from: Tunde, declaring his excitement for the prospect of a new baby in the family, when Bob and Abishola explain that they are not currently pregnant. | |||||||||
| 52 | 14 | "Every Subpoena is a Tiny Hug" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Jamarcus Turner Teleplay by : Carla Filisha & Ibet Inyang Beneche & Marla Dumont | March 7, 2022 | T12.17314 | 5.71 [55] | ||
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| 53 | 15 | "Compress to Impress" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Al Higgins & Gina Yashere Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Gloria Bigelow & Dave Pilson | March 14, 2022 | T12.17315 | 5.71 [56] | ||
Noting that MaxDot's advertising presence is ridiculously outdated (the company's last major ad push was 30 years ago and involved Dottie rocking a Jane Fonda-type leotard), Goodwin suggests they make a commercial to hit social media hard. After being impressed/amused by the Wheelers on a Zoom call, Marion Mitchell (Briga Heelan), a very successful commercial director, agrees to take on the ad campaign. But it ends up being loaded with complications, from Abishola's self-consciousness over her accent to the estrangement between Christina and Dottie. After some soul baring and rewrites, the commercial is filmed with the Wheelers and all of their friends and family doing a "show us your socks" musical number that everyone loves. | |||||||||
| 54 | 16 | "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Ibet Inyang Beneche Teleplay by : Nathan Chetty & Carla Filisha & Marla Dumont | March 21, 2022 | T12.17316 | 5.40 [57] | ||
The impact of the MaxDot commercial has turned the people in the video (including Abishola and Gloria at the hospital) into minor celebrities and sent sales of the company's socks soaring. However, what's great for business is not that great for Bob: in addition to having to work crushing hours and wrangle with overseas suppliers for unforeseen new inventories, he's derided by Dottie and Goodwin as being too nice to the workers and even ends up on a list of the "Feeble 15" whom they want to fire. Bob doesn't fire them, but he becomes a mean boss who scares the floor staff into putting in huge amounts of overtime to get the work done. Dottie and Goodwin are very pleased to have Bob as their kind puppy-turned-attack dog, but Abishola is not as thrilled by Bob's long hours and success, realizing the praise that her mother and everyone else is giving Bob for becoming a family-ignoring workaholic is not what she wants him to be. Eventually, the couple find a moment to comfort each other, just in time to grapple with Ebunoluwa's unsolicited plan to build a guesthouse on Bob's property and move in permanently. | |||||||||
| 55 | 17 | "Inappropriate Nakedness" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Jamarcus Turner Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Ibet Inyang Beneche & Dave Pilson | March 28, 2022 | T12.17317 | 5.13 [58] | ||
Bob and Abishola both want Ebunoluwa to go back to Nigeria, but they're not remotely prepared to directly tell her that. A talk with Kemi and Gloria leads Abishola to a different plan: she'll call Ebunoluwa in the guise of her late grandmother and order her return home. Abishola is able to convince Ebunoluwa that the "spirit" is real, but she's surprised and moved when Ebunoluwa talks of her loveless marriage in Lagos. Bob and everyone else are happy when Ebunoluwa decides to fly out of Detroit, but in the car ride to the airport Abishola lets her mom know she doesn't have to stay in a miserable and hopeless marriage if she doesn't want to. So Ebunoluwa comes back to stay, to the barely-hidden dismay of everyone but Abishola. Elsewhere, Tunde and Dele's tasking to paint a bedroom for Ebunoluwa to use gets sidetracked when Tunde finds out his nephew has zero knowledge of hip-hop music and sets out to tutor him on the virtues of Grandmaster Flash and his fellow musical revolutionaries. Title quotation from: Kemi, to Abishola, mentioning one of the many ways that she could get her mother to leave. | |||||||||
| 56 | 18 | "Greasy Underdog" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Carla Filisha Teleplay by : Nathan Chetty & Gloria Bigelow & Marla DuMont | April 18, 2022 | T12.17318 | 4.97 [59] | ||
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| 57 | 19 | "Who Raised You" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Nathan Chetty Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Ibet Inyang Beneche & Jamarcus Turner | May 2, 2022 | T12.17319 | 5.40 [60] | ||
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| 58 | 20 | "Wrangling a Greased Pig" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Carla Filisha Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Gloria Bigelow & Dave Pilson | May 9, 2022 | T12.17320 | 5.14 [61] | ||
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| 59 | 21 | "A Little Slap and Tickle" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Marla DuMont Teleplay by : Carla Filisha & Ibet Inyang Beneche & Jamarcus Turner | May 16, 2022 | T12.17321 | 5.33 [62] | ||
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| 60 | 22 | "Beard In Her Pulpit" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Matt Ross Teleplay by : Nathan Chetty & Gloria Bigelow & Marla DuMont | May 23, 2022 | T12.17322 | 5.70 [63] | ||
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Season 4 (2022–23)
 | This section's plot summaries may be too long or excessively detailed.(January 2023) |
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | Prod. code | U.S. viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 61 | 1 | "Touched by a Holy Hand" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Matt Ross Teleplay by : Carla Filisha & Nathan Chetty & Ibet Inyang Beneche | September 19, 2022 | T12.17801 | 4.44 [64] |
Things are going well between Ebunoluwa and Pastor Falade, but the so-far platonic friendship between them is producing some tension at the church. Abishola is upset with her mom's behavior and enlists Kemi to try push them apart, as Abishola plans to shame the pastor and Kemi wants to (ineptly) try to seduce him. However, while Pastor Falade confirms he and Ebunoluwa aren't romantically involved, his compliments for her and sympathy over her dead and loveless marriage in Nigeria strike a chord with Abishola (who found out through subterfuge how truly miserable her mom's life back home is). He also effortlessly swats away Kemi's seduction attempts. Olu and Tunde have another problem, as mean-spirited Ogechi uses her powers of gossip to blackmail them into giving her concessions regarding the church post-service lunch and the Board of Deacons. Tunde decides to make a "deal with the devil" and takes Ogechi's offer to have the board vote him in as head Deacon. Over at MaxDot, Bob is shocked when Goodwin resigns after accepting a better job offer at Christina's company. Bob lashes out at Christina (leaving her in tears when he says she's now just like Dottie) and begs Goodwin to return. But he eventually realizes he didn't really know Goodwin well, and also that he lied to both Goodwin and himself about retiring in the near future and turning the business over to Goodwin to run. Douglas' offers to take over for Goodwin are absently dismissed by Bob and Dottie, as she and Kofo declare Bob can carry the business himself and pick up Goodwin's slack. Dottie being Dottie, her cheerful recitation of how Bob kept up a workhorse pace after his father died, his divorce and his heart attack has the exact unwanted effect: Bob leaves the meeting, ignores a phone call to his car from Dottie, and takes off his tie and tosses it out the window as he heads for points unknown. To be continued... | |||||||
| 62 | 2 | "Bibles to Brothels" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Al Higgins & Gina Yashere & Marla DuMont Teleplay by : Gloria Bigelow & Dave Pilson & Jamarcus Turner | September 26, 2022 | T12.17802 | 4.73 [65] |
As Bob continues to drive aimlessly and ponder his future, he sees a vision of his deceased father and has a conversation with him. His father admits to never being around, owing to spending all his time at work and drinking heavily to fill the voids in his life. Bob insists he doesn't want to make the same mistake of giving his life to his job. A worried Dottie calls Abishola, who embarks on a search for Bob with Kemi in tow. They find Bob at his favorite coney dog stand, where Abishola angrily chastises him for turning off his phone and questions how he could ever think of quitting his job. Meanwhile, Christina is forced to lay off Goodwin just as he's settled into his new office. At MaxDot, Douglas ponders if he will have a job, knowing neither he nor Dottie is suited to run the company without Bob. Dottie finds Kofo's resumé on the printer and angrily tears it up in front of him. Bob surprises Goodwin by inviting him to his MaxDot office. While Goodwin lies about how well things are going at Toesey-Woseys, Bob asks him if he'd like to be sitting in this office. Goodwin acts disinterested, but asks for details. Bob then offers to make Goodwin president of MaxDot, with responsibility for day-to-day operations, while moving himself up to CEO. Goodwin accepts then exits, telling Bob he's going to retrieve some paintings and photos from his car (the ones he had just removed from his Toesey-Woseys office). Title quotation from: Bob, telling the vision of his late father that he was such a good salesman he could sell Bibles to brothels. | |||||||
| 63 | 3 | "Americans and Their Dreams" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Gina Yashere & Matt Ross Teleplay by : Carla Filisha & Ibet Inyang Beneche & Sam Mohamed Elhindi | October 3, 2022 | T12.17803 | 5.08 [66] |
Having become MaxDot's CEO and a "stay at home Bob", the eponymous Mr. Wheeler busies by making Abishola's morning into a time to remember thanks to a gourmet prepared lunch for her work and two separate rounds of lovemaking. However, when Tunde joins Bob for a morning trip to the supermarket, he isn't happy that Bob is not using his gifts of creating and managing. Somehow, this leads Bob to purchase a luxury speedboat, which he brings by the hospital to show his wife--and she thinks he's completely lost his mind. Bob parks the boat in his driveway and has Abishola join him for afternoon cocktails there. She starts to realize Bob bought this frankly ridiculous item to catch up on the life of fun he never got to have. Olu, Tunde, and Dele later join them to hang out in the boat, where Abishola's enthusiasm for getting the boat out on the lake immediately dissipates when Bob reveals he doesn't know how to swim. At MaxDot, Goodwin is running the place in great fashion (and enjoying his supervisor status over Kofo), and earns an admiring profile from a Lagos-based podcaster. However, Dottie feels very irrelevant as Goodwin wins over Douglas with praise and everyone else with competence. She calls Christina while her daughter's having a "my feet are ruined from living in a commune" manicure, and they bond over feeling left out while Christina once again declines Dottie's plea for her to return to MaxDot. When a triumphant Goodwin prepares to leave one night, he doesn't see Dottie is still in her office, reading the podcaster's news story about how Goodwin "saved a failing company." They share warm stories and promise to work well together. But that's a sham: Goodwin wants Dottie to retire and head to Florida ASAP, while Dottie is planning to take back full control of the family business. Title quotation from: Tunde's disgusted sotto voce response when Bob happily talks about following his dreams. | |||||||
| 64 | 4 | "Inner Boss Bitch" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Gina Yashere & Matt Ross Teleplay by : Carla Filisha & Dave Pilson & Jamarcus Turner | October 10, 2022 | T12.17804 | 4.79 [67] |
Christina is continuing to thrive as a decisive and downright adored boss at Toesy Wosey's, and when a seemingly meek employee named Jared (Adhir Kalyan) tells her he loves a memo she wrote, she's both giddy that anyone read it and so taken by Jared's adoration that she declares herself to be his new mentor. That night, Christina is dining alone at a local restaurant and feeling lonely when guess who shows up...Jared! They share life stories and eventually get completely hammered. Jared takes his shot and asks Christina is she wants to come home with him; she initially says that the personal and professional don't mix, but does end up sleeping with him and finding out to her horror that he lives at home with his mom before fleeing the scene (she later reveals Jared's mom did make them delicious pancakes for breakfast). The next day, Christina's good mood is shattered when the company's HR department calls her up. It seems Jared reported her for "sexually coercing" a subordinate, and she gets fired. A drunk Christina shows up at the hospital, where Abishola, Kemi, and Gloria give her off-the-books care (mostly to sleep it off, though Gloria notes that Christina has high blood pressure). Christina laments her mistakes, while Abishola sort-of consoles her by saying she's made mistakes and will make more but will come through them stronger than ever. Christina appreciates this, and even the initially horrifying arrival of Dottie (called in by Abishola) turns genuinely sweet when Dottie gives her daughter full support; she thinks that employees who like each other having sex should be allowed and even encouraged, and says that she'll help Christina get back on track. Elsewhere, Abishola becomes weary of Bob's constant attention and his involvement in the margarita/hot tub/gossip sesh with her hospital friends, and tells him to give her some time to herself. He responds by taking his new boat out on the lake alongside Tunde, but Bob didn't check the fuel gauge carefully and they end up stranded in a dry-tank vehicle. With Tunde's gentle prodding, Bob realizes that he really does want to be back at the office and make MaxDot successful. After Tunde finds a full gas can stowed under a seat cushion, Bob tells Tunde he's going to do what really makes him happy: work hard. | |||||||
| 65 | 5 | "Kicked Outta the Dele Club" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Gina Yashere & Matt Ross Teleplay by : Nathan Chetty & Gloria Bigelow & Marla DuMont | October 17, 2022 | T12.17805 | 5.07 [68] |
Bob takes Dele to get a haircut. Abishola's predictable reaction has her demanding Dele remove the twists in his new do, but Dele shocks her by saying he won't do that. Abishola grounds Dele sans phone and makes Bob sleep on the couch for deyfing her. At the hospital, Kemi unsurprisingly feels Abishola has gone soft (she even let Dele keep his bed!) while Gloria is irritated by Abishola claiming that Dele's haircut will offend white racists and those are just "the rules." Bob stays with Olu and Tunde to avoid Abishola's wrath, and later slips into the house to tell Dele that he'd have had his back if Dele had trusted him, and will have his back in the future if needed. When Bob lets Dele out of his prison-room to help with dinner, Ebunoluwa cites a punishment she meted out to Abishola over getting her ears pierced as a child, and Bob actually tells his mother-in-law to be quiet while he's talking to his wife. Later that night, Abishola goes to Dele's room after "agreeing" with her mom to shave his head, but she quickly assures him that's not why she's there. She relates to her son how she once snuck out of the house and was robbed at a nightclub in Nigeria, ending up in danger because she was terrified of her mom. She doesn't want that relationship with her son, and tells him to join them for dinner while giving him back his phone (albeit with all the contacts erased). Christina is feeling low after her firing and dubbing as the "Toesy Hoesy", and Dottie's plan to hire her back falls flat when Goodwin's bylaw-mandated board of directors meeting leads Bob, Douglas, and Kofo to agree with him not to re-hire her. Christina shows up at the meeting's end to plead her case, and it sort of works: she gets hired as the plant's new night shift janitor. | |||||||
| 66 | 6 | "Two Rusty Tractors" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Gina Yashere & Matt Ross Teleplay by : Nathan Chetty & Ibet Inyang Beneche & Sam Mohamed Elhindi | October 24, 2022 | T12.17806 | 5.45 [69] |
As the day dawns in Detroit, Bob is excited about his new life of leisure (he plans to see a double-feature of John Wayne films) while Abishola is annoyed that he isn't headed back to work like she hoped. However, a real crisis brings Bob back to MaxDot, wearing the sharp suit his wife bought for him. It seems that a monsoon in Malaysia and generally awful weather in Asia has left the sock industry bereft of supplies, and none of Dottie's contacts are useful (though she loves the drama). Bob finds a miraculous solution in the form of a compression sock-filled shipping container at the Port of Baltimore. He and Goodwin, who has been denying and lying his way through not dealing with the problem, head off to save the day. While they stop overnight in Akron, Goodwin accuses Bob of being a spendthrift and Bob accuses Goodwin of fumbling as the new company President. But they mend fences in time to make a side deal and get the socks, saving MaxDot. Christina is constantly reminded that she's now a janitor, but shows she knows the ins and outs of the business and earns some grudging respect from Douglas. On the way back home, Bob proposes to Goodwin that they set up a manufacturing division of MaxDot, so they can avoid overseas disruptions and become both self-sustaining and dominant in the U.S. textile industry. Bob is excited about the plan, and Abishola is pleased that he's found passion at his job again...until she learns that Bob's plan requires a huge loan and he has to put up the Wheeler mansion as collateral. | |||||||
| 67 | 7 | "Your Father's Kingdom" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Gina Yashere & Carla Filisha Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Marla DuMont & Dave Pilson | November 14, 2022 | T12.17807 | 4.59 [70] |
As Abishola and Kemi face serious relationship issues with Bob and Chukwuemeka, respectively, Gloria listens to their complaints and provides a sane counterpoint to them, as she nearly threw her husband out over giving their retirement savings to their kids and finds his loss of memory addling but will stay with him because staying together is a conscious choice in a marriage. Abishola is pissed off that Bob is going through with his hugely expensive, long-term lease based plan to turn an abandoned factory into the new manufacturing hub of MaxDot--a feeling that becomes nastier when her demand Bob NOT move forward with the leasing option is followed by him following through on the leasing option. Kemi is feeling bereft because the sex train between her and Chukwuemeka has gotten stuck at the station, and the pharmacist plainly tells Kemi that devoting himself to her carnally has led to him being overtaken as the top pharma at CVS by another employee. But things work out for everyone: Kemi realizes she truly loves Chukwuemeka, and in turn her uncharacteristically supportive behavior leads him to resume their torrid physical activities, while Abishola makes the right demand when she tells Bob that he can put her mind at ease by becoming the most successful sock manufacturer in the world--which is what he wants to do as well. Title quotation from: Goodwin, to his family, describe the building that he and Bob owns. | |||||||
| 68 | 8 | "Estée Lauder and Goat Meat" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Gina Yashere & Matt Ross Teleplay by : Nathan Chetty & Ibet Inyang Beneche & Gloria Bigelow | November 21, 2022 | T12.17808 | 5.13 [71] |
Bob and Tunde are thrilled to be working together again when Bob enlists his uncle to be the point man for renovating the freshly purchased factory, but concerns about having family members share working space turn out to be validated by the disparate ideas each man has for the process: Bob wants to get it done as quickly as possible, while Tunde wants to take more than enough time to tear up and renovate the entire building's floor foundation, and when a fed-up Bob kicks Tunde off the project everyone is critical of Bob for doing that (even as most people later tell Bob privately they agree with his decision, to his frustration). Bob and Tunde mend fences when Tunde accepts a revised offer to take on a "senior consultant" role in the renovation, although it appears Tunde is mostly going to just agree with anything Bob or Goodwin decide to do going forward. Elsewhere, Abishola (who already had covert knowledge of Ebunoluwa's dead and loveless marriage in Nigeria) is affected when Ebunoluwa receives an anti-care package from home that includes cherished items from her home and her wedding ring. So Abishola throws her mom a party to cheer her up, which at least doesn't make Ebunoluwa any MORE miserable and unpleasant than she usually is. Title quotation from: Tunde to Olu, to note how much he loves the smell of his wife's perfume AND her delicious home cooking. | |||||||
| 69 | 9 | "Idle Nigerians" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Gina Yashere & Matt Ross Teleplay by : Carla Filisha & Marla DuMont & Jamarcus Turner | December 5, 2022 | T12.17809 | 4.89 [72] |
Bob and Abishola are both facing situations at work that are new for them, and not in good ways: Bob is left to fix a drain issue at the new manufacturing site because he's spending so much money on other issues (including a large bill to fix the roof) while Abishola is left without a job to do at all when the nurses go on strike. At the hospital, the Gloria/Kemi/Abishola friendship bloc have different views: Kemi isn't on strike herself because the cafeteria workers haven't walked out, but a discussion with a strike-breaking nurse converts her to being a full supporter of the nurses, while Abishola just wants to accept a pathetic management offer but Gloria's strong line on being treated fairly wins her over as well. Abishola finds out despite Bob's evasive efforts how badly the warehouse project is going. Initially, she is harsh with him about the problems. Bob tells her that her doomsaying is making things worse, and she secretly meets with Dottie to ask for help based on Bob's history of always being there for both her and MaxDot. Dottie finds a solution that enrages Douglas and Christina: she uses her considerable savings that she'd earmarked for their inheritance and puts that into a loan for Bob's new facility. | |||||||
| 70 | 10 | "An Afro and a Peugeot" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Gina Yashere & Matt Ross Teleplay by : Nathan Chetty & Ibet Inyang Beneche & Sam Mohamed Elhindi | January 16, 2023 | T12.17810 | 4.72 [73] |
Bob and Abishola's latest point of conflict concerns Dele: Bob is eager to teach Dele to learn how to drive (the kid's turned 16 and is eligible for a limited license in Michigan) and Abishola does not want her son learning to drive because of both safety fears and her desire to keep controlling his life. After a discussion with Tunde about their warm memories of their first cars, Bob decides to just teach Dele to drive without telling his wife--only for Dele to admit that his father Tayo taught him how to drive in Nigeria and he's kept it a secret. Bob is upset because he wanted to be Dele's driving teacher and father figure, though he also notes Dele has some road rage issues. When Abishola finds out from Bob about her ex-husband's actions, she then figures out Bob's own Dele-driving plan and gets mad at him too. Tayo calls Bob and they briefly bond over both of them wanting Dele to learn to drive over Abishola's objections. To everyone's surprise, Abishola buys Dele a very yellow used car and sets conditions for him to drive (such as having passengers, a permit, and perfect grades) which he fully embraces. Dele is then tasked to drive around Dottie and Ebunowuola, which looks to be curing his driving yen right quick. Elsewhere, Douglas is worried Goodwin will be mad at him because a key vendor has been underpaying MaxDot for 5 years after a mistaken rate lock-in. Christina sympathizes with her brother and explains how he can "incentivize a re-initiation" with the vendor along the lines of how Christina has avoided unwanted extra fees from her cable company. At the meeting, Douglas impresses everyone with her idea and gives her almost no credit, leading her to leave the meeting for a janitorial task with more than a little bit of anger. She smushes a cheesecake in his face later when he makes a pathetic apology. When Goodwin later ignores Christina's good advice, Douglas finally tells Goodwin that Christina was behind the fix to the vendor problem, and Goodwin invites her to join them for celebratory Scotch. Title quotation from: Tunde reminiscing about his first French car and the hairstyle that wind would blow through when he drove it. | |||||||
| 71 | 11 | "Twerk O' Clock" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Gina Yashere & Jesse Jensen Teleplay by : Gloria Bigelow & Marla DuMont & Dave Pilson | January 23, 2023 | T12.17811 | 5.84 [74] |
Bob is headed on a business trip to Malaysia, and at Abishola's curt insistence he convinces Dottie to go with him. At the hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Bob and Dottie are surprised to run into MaxDot's longtime sock supplier Wati, who invites them to stay with him and his family. Bob is uncomfortable because his MaxDot manufacturing plan means that he'll be ending his contract with Wati in six months, and he gets more uncomfortable as Wati and his wife relate all the ways that MaxDot has meant and still means everything to them. When Wati mentions that he's lost his all-powerful love for selling socks, Bob thinks he has an opening to disclose the manufacturing news, but Wati gets angry and throws him and Dottie out of the house. Dottie later goes back to see Wati and over a bottle of Jack Daniels' convinces him that he should move to Detroit so he can be near his daughter (now attending the University of Wisconsin) and have all the booze he wants. Bob is shocked by this plan, and when Dottie informs Goodwin, Douglas, Kofo, Christina and even Bob at the next staff meeting that her decisions are final and not subject to discussion, they all realize that Dottie's unrelenting business fury has returned. With Bob away on business, Abishola seeks new ways to spend time. But an attempt to bond with her mother fails because her mother is awful, and Olu and Morenike try to keep Abishola from joining them at a drag brunch where Abishola can't hide her discomfort. Gloria tells Abishola that she's homophobic because of how she was raised, and is about a 7 on a 1-10 prejudice scale. Abishola later encounters Morenike's cross-dressing friend on the city bus, who tells her he's a law student and that he could tell that she was uncomfortable at the drag brunch but also noted that she stayed for the whole thing. They get to talking and Abishola declares she's "down to a six." Title quotation from: The phrase used at Cheeseburger Sally's to indicate the start of the drag brunch. | |||||||
| 72 | 12 | "My Successful Lawyer Son" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Matt Ross & Gina Yashere & Carla Filisha Teleplay by : Nathan Chetty & Ibet Inyang Beneche & Jamarcus Turner | February 6, 2023 | T12.17812 | 5.78 [75] |
To the surprised discomfort of both Abishola and Gloria, Kemi brings her adult son Fenmbi to the hospital to meet them. That wouldn't be a surprise or uncomfortable in and of itself, but her friends are surprised that Kemi is dressed very conservatively and not acting at all like her normal (loud, rude, self-confident) person, and uncomfortable because Fenmbi is a stuffy prig of a Harvard law graduate who revels in being an attorney who represents misbehaving corporations. Also, the guy has zero sense of humor. But after Kemi blows off Chukwuemeka in front of her son when he tries to give her a romantic greeting, and tells Fenmbi that Chukwuemeka is her realtor and chiropractor but not her lover, Abishola asks Kemi what the hell is going on. Kemi tells her friend that Fenmbi hasn't come to see her in 15 years and she's desperate to gain approval from him, even as she's acting like someone she's not. After a chat with Bob about putting one's foot down, Chukwuemeka goes to the hospital and bluntly tells Kemi that either he's her man in public or he won't be her man at all. Kemi confides to Chukwuemeka that Fenmbi was always his father's son, and when Kemi went out on a date after her husband died Fenmbi saw her and cut off all contact with her. Chukwuemeka understands, they embrace, and before the next church service Kemi shows up looking and talking like her normal self. When she tells her son that Chukwuemeka is her love, Fenmbi tries to chastise her, but she tells him to shut up and either accept her as she is or get lost. This turns Fenmbi into something quite nice for him: silent. Elsewhere, Bob is getting fed up with the way that Douglas, Christina, and especially Dottie are pushing him to change things at the new manufacturing site according to their whims. After he blows up at a blameless Tunde, Bob apologizes and Tunde invites Bob to a Christian men's group: it turns out there is no prayer involved, and all of the guys including the Pastor are watching soccer and drinking alcohol. Bob ends up taking the same approach with his meddling family that Chukwuemeka took with Kemi, by telling them he's running the new facility show and they can either get on board or go away, and he doesn't need Dottie's money to make it work. Dottie caves in, and Bob's siblings also fall in line with him being the true CEO of MaxDot. Title quotation from: The way Kemi repeatedly introduces her son Fenmbi when he is visiting her in America. | |||||||
| 73 | 13 | "Happy People Are Lazy" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Gina Yashere & Matt Ross & Jesse Jensen Teleplay by : Carla Filisha & Dave Pilson & Sam Mohamed Elhindi | February 13, 2023 | T12.17813 | 5.63 [76] |
Bob prepares a special breakfast for Abishola before she takes the MCAT exam, but he's shocked along with Dele and Ebunowuola when she tells them she's not going to take the test today and isn't sure when (or if) she will do so later. Gloria and Kemi are angry at Abishola for passing up the chance to be a female, Black doctor, while Dele is chill and Ebunowuola is angry. Tunde tells Bob that Abishola has put her dreams on hold to support Bob's manufacturing site plans, as often happens for women in Nigeria. Abishola takes a "mental health day" with some prodding from her friends and Bob, and spends it plaintively watching the washing machines spin their work at a laundromat. Olu and Tunde show up, and they share the story of how they met (at a library, while avoiding Ebunowuola's evergreen rudeness) and tell Abishola that she feels strange and disconnected for a simple reason: she's happy. Abishola later half accuses Bob of ruining her with how wonderful he's made her feel and half reaffirms she loves him while also returning to her ass-kicking mode ahead of the MCAT date she's reserved. Elsewhere, Goodwin hurts Christina's feelings by erasing a very detailed marketing plan she drew on a whiteboard, but later calls her into his office to get her take on Kofo's plan to advertise via pictures of random feet. She says that it's a very bad and legally dangerous idea, and Goodwin says he wants her to come up with her own marketing plan to compete against Kofo's. Christina is thrilled but quickly figures out that if she does well, her escape from janitorial work will come via Kofo getting "taken care of." She eventually tells Kofo what's happening, and they agree to battle it out for the marketing position, even though Christina's threats are infinitely more convincing than Kofo's. Title quotation from: Abishola telling Bob why she's never welcomed or trusted the notion of being both happy and successful. | |||||||
| 74 | 14 | "Put that Toe on Ice" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Matt Ross & Gina Yashere & Nathan Chetty Teleplay by : Gloria Bigelow & Marla DuMont & Jamarcus Turner | February 27, 2023 | T12.17814 | 5.56 [77] |
Between Bob's marathon working hours to get MaxDot Manufacturing up and running and Abishola's combination of hospital work and studying for the med school exams, there's little time for husband and wife to spend together or even communicate (Bob didn't even know Abishola was going to take the MCATs in two weeks until Chukwuemeka told him). Abishola shuns the idea of giving herself a little breathing room, but after she ends up working several extra hospital shifts because a flu outbreak has left most of the nurses sick at home, she finds herself struck by the flu--and Bob also has the flu. This turns into a needed respite for both of them as they recover together while Bob has Tunde fill in for him at the plant. Elsewhere, Goodwin tells Christina and Kofo that he chose Christina's marketing plan and that Kofo will report to her as they prepare it for rollout. Christina's happy about the news, but becomes increasingly dismayed by the cruel treatment Goodwin inflicts on Kofo, something that's so overt it's even noticed by DOUGLAS. Goodwin says that he wants the best out of Kofo and uses "tough love" to push him to succeed. Kofo echoes this, but eventually ends up nearly crying and being consoled by Christina as he fully absorbs how his cousin is abusing him. At a staff meeting, Kofo is treated rudely as usual by Goodwin and tells him off, stating that he doesn't deserve to feel the way Goodwin makes him feel, and he storms out of the office. Kofo then goes to the manufacturing plant to talk to Bob, and after Tunde explains his acting-CEO role he immediately grants Kofo's request to be transferred out of MaxDot's marketing office and into the Goodwin-free manufacturing site. | |||||||
| 75 | 15 | "Every Character Is the Villain" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Gina Yashere & Matt Ross & Gloria Bigelow Teleplay by : Ibet Inyang Beneche & Dave Pilson & Sam Mohamed Elhindi | March 13, 2023 | T12.17815 | 4.99 [78] |
After Kofo leaves MaxDot marketing to work in the new Manufacturing section because of Goodwin's awful treatment of him, Bob tries to get the two angry cousins to reconcile for the good of the company. He has them meet him at a pub for beers, and finally gives Goodwin a blunt "fix this or you're fired" ultimatum. Both fail, and Goodwin throws Kofo out of his house -- sending him to sleep on Bob's couch, and causing Abishola to get angry at Bob for being too nice. At the hospital, Kemi is upset with Abishola because she never wore a pair of silly scrubs Kemi bought her years ago. Abishola wears the scrubs the next day. | |||||||
| 76 | 16 | "Mmm, Fresh Baked Sock!" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Matt Ross & Gina Yashere Teleplay by : Carla Filisha & Marla DuMont & Jamarcus Turner | March 20, 2023 | T12.17816 | 5.09 [79] |
Ebunowuola relays the news that her cousin Yeti has died of a heart attack in Toronto. While Bob takes a long time to sort-of figure out how Ebunowuola, Olu, and Yeti were all somehow related, Abishola's main reaction goes from disinterested disgust to horror. It seems Yeti treated Abishola and Tayo poorly when they stayed with her after first leaving Nigeria, and since Ebunowuola's immigration visa only allows her to stay in the U.S. or return to Nigeria, it falls to U.S. citizen Abishola to attend the funeral of the aunt she loathed. Kemi encourages a stone-faced Abishola to prepare to have fun at the funeral per Nigerian customs, but Abishola can barely keep her true feelings at bay before railing to her mom, Olu, Tunde and Dele about what a miserable person Yeti was and how everyone was only at the reception for the free food--not realizing that Yeti's daughter Yinka heard her and is crushed. When Kemi points out that Yeti was not very different in life obstacles and toughness from her best friend, Abishola goes up to the coffin and finally makes peace with her feelings about Yeti. She then sincerely apologizes to Yinka and gets some dancing in at the funeral. Bob is not doing so well himself, after the very first sock off the line at MaxDot Manufacturing is not up to standards. He gets no help from a feuding Goodwin and Kofo or a useless Christina and Douglas, but Ebunowuola actually encourages him and gives him praise, which leads to Bob feeling triumphant when the next batch of socks are perfect. She hugs him and says after dinner, she'll go home and get drunk while he works marathon hours to "build our empire." Title quotation from: Christina expressing glee over the unveiling of that first product from MaxDot Manufacturing. | |||||||
| 77 | 17 | "I'll Never Play Banjo Again" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Gina Yashere & Matt Ross Teleplay by : Nathan Chetty & Ibet Inyang Beneche & Dave Pilson | April 10, 2023 | T12.17817 | 4.55 [80] |
Family interactions take center stage as Bob and Abishola consider how to reach out to Dele and Douglas, respectively. Abishola sternly rebuts Dele's mild inquiries about her life growing up in Nigeria, and Abishola and Kemi explain to Gloria that in Nigeria parents never let their children know anything personal about them. But after Gloria relates that her similarly closed-off dad ended up dying from prostate cancer that she didn't know he had until it was too late, Abishola does share some memories with Dele of how she met Tayo and had a motorcycle in her teenaged years in Lagos (though she makes it clear no motorcycle is in Dele's future). Bob is taken aback when he learns Olivia broke up with Douglas and everyone else has been helping Douglas get through the painful end of a relationship he really cared about. Bob tries to reach out to Douglas, who appreciates it but isn't very talkative, until Douglas suffers a severe hand injury working on a MaxDot Manufacturing sock weaver. Bob rushes him to the hospital and with Abishola's help gets him to surgery where his finger is saved. Bob then tells Douglas he's great at his job and the accident was 100% not his fault, which makes Douglas smile for the first time in a while before they bond anew over the incompetence of the Detroit pro sports teams. At the end of the day, Bob and Abishola curl up together on the couch as Abishola tolerates a taped pre-season Tigers game that Bob is watching. She offers to share some details on her post-Tayo, pre-Bob dating experiences, but Bob politely demurs. Title quotation from: Douglas bemoaning the end of his nonexistent musical career, or even the possibility of starting such a career, due to his mangled hand. | |||||||
| 78 | 18 | "A Hundred CCs of Handsome" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Matt Ross & Gina Yashere & Sam Mohamed Elhindi Teleplay by : Carla Filisha & Gloria Bigelow & Marla DuMont | April 17, 2023 | T12.17818 | 4.49 [81] |
At another social church group gathering that consists of male bonding over beer and sports on TV, Bob is elated when Chekuwemeka says he plans to ask Kemi to marry him, and sincerely encourages the guy to do just that. Unfortunately, an angry Abishola is not so much thrilled as furious with her husband, telling Bob that Kemi has sworn to never get married again and that a proposal from Chekuwemeka will lead to her breaking up with him. And at an upscale waterfront restaurant where Bob and Abishola are (very obviously) surveilling the scene, Chekuwemeka does propose and Kemi does refuse and runs out of the place. At the hospital with Abishola and Gloria, Kemi explains that she was not a good wife to her gross and mean first husband in Nigeria and will not be a bad wife to anyone, even Chekuwemeka whom she deeply loves. Abishola talks to Bob and realizes that Chekuwemeka wants Kemi to be the same person she is now when/if they get married, and the news that the pharmacist is considering leaving CVS for a horrid professional fate at Walgreen's leads Bob, Abishola, Gloria, and most of the hospital staff to help stage another proposal. And after Chekuwemeka proposes again and Kemi finds he is 100% on board with her remaining Kemi forever, she accepts! Elsewhere, Kofo is looking to move into his own apartment, and Tunde gives him a lead on a nice place in their apartment building. Goodwin is clearly and transparently devastated that his cousin is closing the door on his return, but he and Kofo can't admit they miss each other, and Kofo simply tells Goodwin he won't need to come by for his mail anymore because he set up forwarding at the post office. Kofo then signs the lease, but Tunde's offhand reflection of how living alone can be hard puts a look of panic back on Kofo's face. Title quotation from: Bob, describing Chekuwemeka as he wheels him into reception area of the hospital on a gurney to propose to Kemi. | |||||||
| 79 | 19 | "Keep That Under Your Gele" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Gina Yashere & Matt Ross & Gloria Bigelow Teleplay by : Ibet Inyang Beneche & Dave Pilson & Jamarcus Turner | May 1, 2023 | T12.17819 | 4.76 [82] |
Everyone at the Wheeler household is dressed in their finest outfits for church, but Bob is unhappy that Dottie is going with them and even less pleased that she's vocal and loud (and maybe happy) at the service. Bob can't hide his feelings from anyone even though Abishola makes it clear he's being rude and a bad son, and after he clumsily tries to find a new church his mom can attend without bothering him, Dottie angrily leaves the house and moves in with Christina. Though Christina is initially happy to have her mom there, Dottie quickly wears out her welcome, and she'd love for Dottie to go back to whence she resided recently. Bob finally realizes he's been a jerk to Dottie and apologizes to her, and the end result makes everyone happy but Christina--she still has Dottie as an unwanted roommate and looks just as miserable at the next church service as Bob had been earlier. Elsewhere, Kofo is getting used to his new apartment and its quiet time, but his landlord Tunde keeps visiting without asking, doing any repairs that come to mind, and generally ruining Kofo's underlying wish for a peaceful new living situation. In desperation, Kofo works out an awkward but effective solution where Goodwin comes by and cons Tunde into leaving. However, Goodwin then makes himself at home to watch soccer, as Kofo winces. | |||||||
| 80 | 20 | "The Genius Who Fell Out of my Womb" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Matt Ross & Gina Yashere & Jamarcus Turner Teleplay by : Nathan Chetty & Carla Filisha & Sam Mohamed Elhindi | May 8, 2023 | T12.17820 | 4.41 [83] |
Dele has reached the point in his high school education where it's time to think about college. This becomes a wedge issue between Bob and Abishola, since her view is that Dele's acceptance to Harvard is a fait accompli and all other universities are inferior, and Bob's view is that she's being an elitist who can't hide her disdain of his alma mater Southern Michigan (home of the Jackrabbits!) when she unhappily joins her husband and son on a visit there. Bob takes Dele to an on-campus restaurant and tells him to make the college decision that'll be best for HIMSELF, while Abishola softens to some extent about the campus after meeting a 40-year old mom who's a freshman and whose story strikes a chord with her: she now says that while Dele is still going to Harvard, she thinks Bob got a good education at a terrific place. Back at MaxDot, Goodwin is displeased by both Tunde's unstructured role in the Manufacturing area and the arrival of Wati from Malaysia. After they argue for a while (it doesn't help that Wati speaks Yoruba and eliminates Goodwin and Kofo's usual tactic to openly discuss things other people won't understand), Goodwin realizes that Wati's bottom-line approach is similar to his own. They bond anew and agree that they have a major task at hand: getting Tunde fired. | |||||||
| 81 | 21 | "Take Two Yellows and Go to Bed" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Gina Yashere & Matt Ross & Nathan Chetty Teleplay by : Gloria Bigelow & Marla DuMont & Dave Pilson | May 15, 2023 | T12.17821 | 4.35 [84] |
It's supposed to be a time of pure celebration at MaxDot, as Bob has arranged for a lavish on-site party to celebrate the official opening of the company's Manufacturing division. However, celebration is not the order of the day, as almost everyone is having a conflict with someone else before and during and also after the party. Kofo spends too much time and energy preparing and then executing his not-particularly-entertaining DJ routine, which in turn pushes Goodwin and newcomer Wati closer together in agreeing that Bob is much too nice to his workers and isn't tough enough to put together a smaller, non-coddled workforce (though Goodwin does defend Bob as a good man and achiever to a skeptical Wati). Abishola is busy picking a fight with Christina because she doesn't think Bob's sister is capable of taking good care of Dottie's extensive post-stroke care plan. Christina rightly gets mad at her, and Abishola later shifts her supercilious irritation to Bob because he takes Dottie out to a nice dinner and they both end up getting drunk--which then leads Christina to angrily order her mom to take her medicine and go to bed, which in turn finally impressed Abishola. The next day, Dottie brings in deli sandwiches for her and Bob, and she has notable trouble with minor coordination tasks like opening a bag of chips. She and Bob decide they can spend less time together and will be better off doing so. | |||||||
| 82 | 22 | "Uncharted Waters of Mediocrity" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Matt Ross & Gina Yashere Teleplay by : Jamarcus Turner & Sam Mohamed Elhindi | May 22, 2023 | T12.17822 | 4.77 [85] |
The looming decision day for Abishola's application to Johns Hopkins Medical School is stressing out both Bob and Abishola, but in very different ways. Abishola is terrified that she'll have let everyone down if she doesn't get accepted there (Kemi cheerfully confirms that her rejection would be a disaster) and gets more worried as she finds out the acceptance notices have gone out to other people. Bob's issues are internal and bring on another visit from his dead father Max, who gets Bob to admit that he doesn't want to leave Detroit now that he's got MaxDot Manufacturing up and running, and that he does NOT want to be honest with Abishola and tell her he's not happy about the prospect of trying to run the company from Baltimore. When Abishola concedes she wasn't accepted to JHU, though, Bob's response blows his anti-moving cover and angers his wife. To Abishola's surprise, Ebunowuola is almost entirely supportive and kind when she praises her crestfallen daughter as an incredible woman despite not getting into the best medical school (she does add that the last hope for the family's Ivy League aspirations is now Dele). The Wheelers both confirm they will be honest and supportive at the same time, and it's at that moment that Abishola gets a late e-mail from Johns Hopkins: she's been accepted to their next med school class after all. Bob is thrilled for her even as he confirms to Abishola that he's not excited about the move, and they resolve to figure things out after they celebrate this great news. End of Season 4. | |||||||
Season 5 (2024)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | Prod. code | U.S. viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 83 | 1 | "The Dead Eyes of a Respectful Son" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Gina Yashere & Marla DuMont Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Ibet Inyang Beneche | February 12, 2024 | T12.18502 | 5.21 [86] |
Abishola is stressing about whether Dele got into Harvard (and cursing the idea of him going to such inferior schools as Northwestern or Duke) but when she calls the university to check on his application, Dele confesses to his mom that he never applied to Harvard at all and in fact was accepted to his dream: the dance program at Juilliard. Abishola is enraged, and ends up kicking Dele out for defying her. Olu and Tunde let Dele stay with them, but to prove they're not the "soft-boiled eggs" that Abishola and Ebun accuse them of being they make him do all their chores. Olu finds Dele weeping over his estrangement from his mom and tells him that he's pursuing a difficult path but has the smarts and endurance to achieve it. After some coaching from Bob about having faith, Abishola (with difficulty) firmly tells her son she supports him, and Ebun shocks Dele by telling him she wants him to get a role in Les Miserables one day. When Dele shows the spectacular dance video that got him into Juilliard, everyone is impressed--though Abishola does say she wants him to minor in dentistry once he's enrolled there. Title quotation from: Abishola and Ebun, regarding a young relative who was shipped off to Nigeria and broken as described, leading to him becoming an accountant. | |||||||
| 84 | 2 | "Kill the Cat" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Gina Yashere Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Carla Filisha | February 19, 2024 | T12.18501 | 4.81 [87] |
With Ebun and Dottie getting ready to go to a nearby casino and Dele heading off to study at the library with his friend Jeremy, Bob and Abishola anticipate a night of great food and better sex. But a phone call from the hospital changes that for everyone but the headed-off Dele: Tunde was in a car accident and suffered a concussion. The group heads over there and finds Tunde has a large bruise on his head but is OK to be released; he tells them he swerved to avoid running over and killing a cat and hit a telephone pole. Bob goes with him to an eye care center to finally get Tunde some glasses, which he's very unhappy about having to do. At a dinner with Olu and Bob/Abishola, Tunde lies about being able to read a text without the specs, and then admits to his shocked family members that he lost his license because he's had THREE car accidents (the other two also involved cats in the street). Olu offers to drive him around while he fights the DMV but he refuses that or a bus-riding regime, instead making Bob drive him to work. Bob is stunned but sympathetic when Tunde admits that there was no cat at all in his crash, that he got confused and hit the gas instead of the break and spun out, and now he's having to face his decline as an aging man. At the hospital, Abishola and Kemi relate aging stories to Gloria (Dottie seems to be getting deaf, and Kemi's dad died because his refusal to face his fading vision led to him being pancaked by a bus) before telling an indignant Gloria that she tends to fart a lot now when she's sneezing or coughing. Bob catches Dele trying to sneak into the house undetected at 11:30PM and in the role of "wise elder" gets the kid to admit that "studying with Jeremy" is code for "making love with Jennifer (my girlfriend of two years)", which Bob is alright with as long as Dele is practicing safe sex. On a city bus ride with Abishola, Tunde tries and fails to make friends with the other riders, and decides after a fellow rider bites into a raw onion that being chauffeured by Olu could be the best travel option. But Tunde's commenting gets on her nerves to the point of her making him leave the car and walk the 4 blocks to their home. Title quotation from: Bob, telling Tunde that it would have been a better idea to run over a cat than to crash his car because "there's only one you--there's lots of cats!" | |||||||
| 85 | 3 | "The Devil's Hot Tub" | Beth McCarthy-Miller | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Gina Yashere Teleplay by : Dave Pilson & Sam Mohamed Elhindi | February 26, 2024 | T12.18503 | 4.68 [88] |
Kemi is excited about her upcoming marriage to Chukwuemeka, and after she tries to get Abishola and Gloria to compete to be her maid of honor, she notices Gloria doesn't care and Abishola wins the spot by default. However, Kemi's plans to get married in Las Vegas instead of at the church in Detroit doesn't sit right with her best friend. When Kemi informs Chukwuemeka of her wedding "request", she's dumbfounded that his mom loves the idea of it being in Vegas, until she finds out that the reason is the same one Abishola is on board with the idea: everyone thinks she's too old to marry Chukwuemeka in the first place and they like the idea of not having to invest in a doomed relationship in a place of God. Kemi goes to talk to Bob, who tells her that even if Chukwuemeka has never seen her without makeup or her wig, he loves her and she should be confident in marrying him (the same way Bob lets Kemi know that despite her insulting view of him, Abishola feels the same way about her own husband). Abishola tells Bob she chose him to love because of his good heart and they share a sweet kiss, even though she misses how he used to have a nice pot belly for her to rest her head on. Kemi takes a risk and reveals her makeup-free, non-wigged, grey-haired self to Chukwuemeka, and he tells her that he loves her completely--and also that he wears a mouthguard when he sleeps. Back at MaxDot, the factory workers piss off Dottie and even Bob when they threaten to strike and then do so (they want a 10% raise and protection against AI replacements), while Christina is fully pro-labor until Bob points out she'll go broke if the strike goes on for a while. The strike is potentially disastrous because MaxDot is barely breaking even, but Dottie offers to resign so Bob can end the strike and then because as she puts it "I'm done" and she can do this for her kids. Title quotation from: Abishola uses this term to refer to Las Vegas when she decides that it's the right place for Kemi to marry Chukwuemeka, in non-positive ways. | |||||||
| 86 | 4 | "The Heart Attack Boys" | Phill Lewis | Story by : Gina Yashere & Marla DuMont Teleplay by : Carla Filisha & Kelly Farrell | March 4, 2024 | T12.18504 | 4.68 [89] |
Abishola gets a call from Christina and heads over to her condo, where Christina shocks her by saying she's planning to become pregnant and wants Abishola's help through the IVF process. Abishola has some fun giving Christina hormone injections, and later sternly tells a dubious Bob to lend his sister some support in her plans. While Bob doesn't exactly do cartwheels, he does truthfully say that he loves his sister, and Christina is stunned when Dottie hears her plans and is completely warm and supportive (in a Dottie way, as she notes it's better that Christina is going to be a single mom than to get knocked up by a loser who'll leave her). Dottie also says that this will give her a grandchild, something that Bob and Abishola aren't going to do--and that leads Abishola to first say that's not right, and then to deny to a frustrated Bob that she means anything by that. Bob hypothetically talks to Dele about what it would be like to be an "old dad". Dottie eagerly looks up baby names for Christina to "accept" for "our baby", while Bob warns her to be realistic about her long-term prospects to be around as Christina's mom wingwoman. Gloria tells Abishola she's considering having a baby because Dele is about to leave for college, but Abishola notes she and Bob would make an adorable baby. Dottie supports Christina while also describing herself as a "co-mom" to be. Abishola then reminisces with Dele about his younger days, while he tries and fails to pitch her on having a kid with Bob because they both have good jobs. Bob tells a drunk and horny Abishola that he's OK not having a kid, but she's more interested in making love to him. Christina and Dottie hit their first rough-co-mom patch when Dottie derides the sperm donation candidates, while Christina isn't sure that her child will run MaxDot but IS sure she doesn't want him or her to be named Moses. | |||||||
| 87 | 5 | "Tayo Time" | Phill Lewis | Story by : Matt Ross & Gina Yashere Teleplay by : Carla Filisha & Opey Olagbaju | March 4, 2024 | T12.18505 | 4.45 [89] |
Tayo has moved to Detroit to take a promotion at his firm, and everyone is happy to have his charming self back except for Bob and Abishola. They try to come up with a plan to deal with Tayo being around but Bob's efforts to brag about his marriage embarrass him and Abishola is angered when Bob calls going right to a worst case scenario being "Abishola about it." At the hospital, Kemi thinks Tayo is out to ruin Abishola's life, while Gloria tries and fails to get a patient who's a therapist to help Abishola with her anger issues. Kemi's political allies end up getting useful intelligence that she produces to a very pleased Abishola: Tayo applied for the promotion after his marriage in Nigeria collapsed and his wife left him for his brother! Olu and Tunde are allied with Bob and initially refuse Tayo's rental application for their building...but Tayo offers a year's rent and they say they'll reconsider his application and have him move in. | |||||||
| 88 | 6 | "A Tablespoon of Dad" | Phill Lewis | Story by : Matt Ross & Gina Yashere Teleplay by : Ibet Inyang Beneche & Jesse Jensen | March 11, 2024 | T12.18506 | 4.30 [90] |
Dottie officially packs up her office at MaxDot, with Bob now actually in charge (he thought he had been, which Dottie finds cute), and Goodwin tells a steel-eyed Kofo and a very nervous Douglas that they'll compete to move into the now-vacant space as part of "MaxDot 2.0". Douglas gets out to an early lead with an idea for athleisure wear that blows away Kofo's lame plan for giving employees reusable water bottles. Kofo then rattles Douglas by detailing how unprepared his rival is to undertake the huge manufacturing pivot that his new clothing line will require. Goodwin plans to keep pitting the two men against each other to break their backs to find new ideas, but Bob doesn't like Goodwin's ruthless mindset very much, and later tells Douglas what Goodwin is doing--which leads Douglas to swear he'll destroy KOFO. But after Goodwin tells Douglas he's "won" the office for a whole week and orders Kofo to get revenge, Douglas and Kofo decide they will share the office, which makes them overjoyed and Goodwin furious. Part of Dottie's retirement involves her putting the urn containing her husband Max's ashes in front of her home minibar, which makes Bob and Abishola quite uneasy. Bob is taken aback when Abishola makes it clear she's not on board with his plan to be cremated after death, though she placates him by lying that she'll respect his wishes, and Dottie is angry when Bob counters her adamant views of keeping Max's remains in plain view by noting she outright ignored his will that called for the ashes to be spread somewhere. Bob takes his wife to the Gold Room, an old-style tavern that was Max's favorite place to imbibe in Detroit and enjoy some unhealthy food with the family--and then tells her of his plan to covertly honor Max's plan and dispose of his ashes inside the bar. He puts the ashes into Max's old booth and tells Dottie, who accepts it and says she loved Max so much she couldn't bear to fully say goodbye to him. Dottie sings a love song to her husband's memory. | |||||||
| 89 | 7 | "Worth the Cooties" | Rhiannon O'Harra | Story by : Gina Yashere & Jesse Jensen Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Marla DuMont | March 18, 2024 | T12.18507 | 3.73 [91] |
Christina tries to get Abishola and Dottie to join her in a pregnancy breathing exercise, but after Abishola decides to opt out and Dottie reveals she threw out Christina's Chinese fertility herbs, Christina angrily throws them out of her apartment. Dottie then enlists Abishola to join her at an estate stale where they rack up steals of deals from an unlikable friend of Dottie's heirlooms, but they're surprised and then quite blissful to find that the late woman left some prime marijuana in one of the curios. Abishola confesses that she smoked pot during her two years living Amsterdam, and Dottie admits both that she had many lovers before Max (which Abishola isn't surprised by) and that she's fearful of being alone (which does surprise and touch Abishola, who promises to always be there for her). In search of emotional support, Christina calls Douglas, who drives over and proves to be a great helper, to the point where he takes the point and makes a groggy Abishola and Dottie leave the apartment so Christina can have rest. At MaxDot, the need for a 5% savings in production costs inspires Bob to order Goodwin and Kofo to join him for a leisurely lunch. Over various entrees and some alcoholic spirits, a beery Kofo speaks of how he fell for America after seeing Top Gun while Goodwin reveals that his hero since 1980 has been Ronald Reagan. They come back to the office and Goodwin figures out a way to meet and top the savings market, leaving them all happy. Abishola tells Bob he should spend more time with Dottie, and looks pensive when Bob laughs off the idea. | |||||||
| 90 | 8 | "My Michelle Obama" | Nikki Lorre | Story by : Matt Ross & Gina Yashere Teleplay by : Sam Mohamed Elhindi & Opey Alagbaju | March 25, 2024 | T12.18508 | 4.27 [92] |
Ebun and Olu become part of a bitter rivalry that's 100% the doing of Abishola's mom, as she seeks to re-establish her position as the extended family's top chef by making a jollof rice dish to rival Olu's at the church, and then by scheduling dinner with Abishola and Bob on Saturdays to ruin Olu's ritual of cooking a nice dinner on that night. Abishola says they can go to both dinners without telling anyone, but they end up too full to carry on the charade and Olu is left so angry at Ebun that she doesn't go to church so she won't physically attack her. But after Abishola castigates her mom for being selfish and cruel, Ebun goes to Olu and apologizes, leading them to become the joint matriarchs of the kitchen. Tunde also gets a new role at church, as the "illness" cover story for a departed and unfaithful deacon leads the Pastor to give the position to Tunde himself. But he quickly finds that being a deacon, outside of the gorgeous new purple suit he bought, is basically meaningless. | |||||||
| 91 | 9 | "Sad Cupcakes" | Nikki Lorre | Story by : Gina Yashere & Kelly Farrell Teleplay by : Ibet Inyang Beneche & Dave Pilson | April 1, 2024 | T12.18509 | 4.17 [93] |
Bob and Abishola are both unhappy about their current work situations, but those situations are completely different: Bob is adamant about not accepting a munificent deal to buy MaxDot despite the enthusiasm for the idea from Christina, Douglas, and Goodwin (Kofo sides with a no-sale Bob), while Abishola and Gloria end up sniping at each other when the latest cutbacks in nursing staff lead to Gloria assigning her extra work. In Abishola's case, she and Gloria mend fences by pretending that the nurses will ever be paid or treated fairly--and by stealing all the useful hospital supplies they can get their hands on in the meantime. Bob has some conversations with his dead father Max, where Max pushes Bob to face that the main roadblock to selling MaxDot is his archaic view of his siblings as little kids who need him to keep them out of trouble. Bob then tells everyone that he thinks they should pursue the sale, and at the end of the day he and Abishola confirm that they love each other, while Abishola's support for him cashing in on MaxDot is based on him then building another part of their shared empire. He's happy with this idea. | |||||||
| 92 | 10 | "Diamonds Are Made to Sparkle" | Kristy Cecil | Story by : Gina Yashere & Carla Filisha & Marla DuMont Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Ibet Inyang Beneche & Sam Mohamed Elhindi | April 15, 2024 | T12.18510 | 4.23 [94] |
As Bob prepares to negotiate with a Japanese company for the sale of MaxDot, Abishola prepares him a hearty breakfast (one of 3 he eats to get powered up for the negotiation) while Ebun annoys Bob by bragging on the phone about how filthy rich they're all about to be. Before the meeting, Christina and Douglas are concerned that Bob won't be ready to bring his full force to getting a sale he was reluctant to support, and want Goodwin to be the primary negotiator (Kofo thinks Bob will "kill them with kindness"). When Dele gets a text from a very distant relative named Jonah requesting that his family send him a Peloton, Abishola considers getting some fancy items at her mom's urging, while Ebun sternly tells Dele that the windfall is not going to him in any way. Abishola gets encouragement from Kemi and advice on being smart from Gloria. As the Wheelers and Kofo try to get intel on the sale process, they don't know that Bob and Goodwin are in agreement that the Japanese plan to pump up the sale price in exchange for getting the OK to fire the entire MaxDot staff is a non-starter (Christina is annoyed and then impressed to find out later that Goodwin took the lead in protecting his workers). Abishola is worried when Bob admits the sale remains far from completion and compromise is elusive, while Ebun plans to buy a house and Abishola wonders about the expensive shoes she splurged on; she later throws the shoes out because they are "cursed" before trying and failing to get them back from a poaching Ebun. Goodwin finds an alternate buyer whom he fully believes in and who will keep MaxDot going at 50% of the Japanese price. The buyer? Goodwin himself. Bob wants to keep the sale in the family and when Goodwin realizes Bob considers him part of the Wheelers, the deal is done. Title quotation from: Ebun, while encouraging her daughter to be the outwardly wealthy Abishola she wants the world to see and envy. | |||||||
| 93 | 11 | "These Giants Are Flexible" | Kristy Cecil | Story by : Gina Yashere & Matt Ross Teleplay by : Dave Pilson & Opey Olagbaju | April 22, 2024 | T12.18511 | 4.09 [95] |
It's time for Dele's audition at Juilliard, so Bob and Abishola travel with him to New York City. Abishola is a nervous wreck about two things: Dele's audition and the fact that they're staying with her brother Ade in Brooklyn, since Ade is a musician who leads a free-spirited life that Abishola is scornful of. Dele is worried before his audition but does a great job as Bob watches (Abishola is too nervous to look) and that night Abishola imagines new theatre star Dele leading a Broadway number about what a great mom she is. Unfortunately, Dele isn't accepted to Juilliard, and he runs off in anger with Bob in pursuit; Bob and Dele have lunch and Dele says he's devastated but won't give up on his dream. In the meantime, Abishola warms up to Ade's life as it's clear he's enjoying his music and also that he's a good person. After a matinee showing of "The Lion King", Abishola plans to take Dele to apply for the dance program at SUNY Purchase, and later sees her brother playing jazz on his keyboard and joins in on a guitar for an impromptu jam session--which she denies when a shocked Bob and Dele walk in to see her having a blast with the arts. | |||||||
| 94 | 12 | "Olu! I Popped!" | Bayo Akinfemi | Story by : Gina Yashere & Carla Filisha & Marla DuMont Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Sam Mohamed Elhindi & Opey Alagbaju | April 29, 2024 | T12.18512 | 4.25 [96] |
As the wedding of Kemi and Chukwuemeka gets closer, the expectation of celebrating the event in Las Vegas is first and foremost in the minds of Bob and Gloria, and running a close second in Abishola's to her plan to give a great wedding speech for her best friend. But trouble emerges in the form of Chukwuemeka's mother, whose plans to live with her son and the woman she never has a kind word for lead to a genuinely angry standoff between Kemi (who wants nothing to do with her) and Chukwuemeka (who relates to Bob and Tunde how he has been taking care of his mom and living with her ever since his dad died, and is terrified of what will happen if she lives alone). After she insults Kemi one time too many and Chukwuemeka lashes out at his smug mom for how she's decided his entire life, she ends up having a heart attack. Chukwuemeka wants to postpone their wedding ceremony for several weeks so that his mom can attend, but Kemi tells him they have another option: they end up getting married in the hospital chapel, as Kemi and Abishola & Gloria boogie down the aisle to a tune by Fela Kuti. After they tie the knot, the reception is held in the hospital cafeteria, where Abishola tells Kemi she loves and Kemi surprises both Chukwuemeka and his mom by turning down the latter's decision that they will live together without her there. | |||||||
| 95 | 13 | "Find Your Bench" | Rhiannon O'Hara | Story by : Chuck Lorre & Gina Yashere & Al Higgins Teleplay by : Matt Ross & Dave Pilson & Marla DuMont | May 6, 2024 | T12.18513 | 4.86 [97] |
In the series finale, 7 years after the most recent events in the lives of Bob, Abishola, and their friends and frenemies, a lot has changed in all of their lives. Abishola has become one of the top pediatricians in Detroit and regularly assures loving/hysterical single mom Christina that her adorable daughter Maxine is just fine. Goodwin makes his final payment to Bob and becomes sole owner of MaxDot, as CFO Kofo and COO Douglas toast the new boss and Bob ponders what to do now that he's fully retired and set for life. Abishola allots herself a few minutes to have lunch with Gloria outside the hospital, and they get the lunch specials from Kemi's Yummies, a Nigerian specialty food truck run by Kemi and a henpecked Chukwuemeka. She also has a video chat with Dele, who is now a successful actor in NYC and pondering some time off outside the city; Abishola approves to some extent of her son's choices but does NOT approve when she sees a young woman walking in the background of the chat and tells her son to "get her some pants." Bob decides he wants to write a business/self-help book, but Dottie (who is spending her days drinking and playing cards with Olu and a newly mustachioed Tunde) gets ahead of him when she cranks out pages of her own steamy tell-all memoir. At church, where Abishola "cures" a woman by removing a splinter from her foot and Ebun is overjoyed by her marriage to the Pastor (and not shy about saying it), Tunde gives Bob wise advice that leads him to focus on Abishola in his retirement time. Bob and Abishola sit on the bench outside the hospital and Bob realizes what the title of his book should be: "Find Your Bench." They flash back to meeting, falling in love, getting married, and being together and happy as the episode, and the series, come to a conclusion. | |||||||
