Part of growing up is learning from your mistakes — and, thanks to some help from a Black-ish crossover, Zoey (Yara Shahidi) may just learn hers.
Last week on Grown-ish, Zoey made the biggest mistake of her college career. (No, it wasn't accidentally Instagramming very hush-hush fashion intel, as she did during her fellowship at Teen Vogue — though that was pretty high up there!) In "Wild'n Cuz I'm Young," Zoey cheated on her chemistry final, prompting her professor to call her in front of the academic advisory board to plead her case.
After stressing about the meeting, the whole thing goes about as well as expected. No, Zoey does not get kicked out of Cal U, as was entirely possible. She's instead put on academic probation. It's a metaphorical slap on the wrist, but one that encourages Zoey to step it up. After all, it wasn't so much that she got caught cheating that shook the fashion student — Zoey also didn't like who she was becoming.
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Unfortunately, this revelation doesn't mean much to her dad Dre (Anthony Anderson), who shows up for parent's weekend after learning about all the academic drama. Despite Zoey's protests that she learned her lesson, Dre decides that she simply can't be trusted. He cuts Zoey off — if she wants to stay at Cal U, well, she better figure out how to pay for her life.
As one might expect, Zoey does not take this news well, though she barely has time to process it before Aaron (Trevor Jackson) drops yet another bomb on her about him and Ana (Francia Raisa) hooking up. (All I'm saying is...Zoey better be cool with this. As someone who was #TeamAaron prior to the whole Luca decision, these two deserve to be happy!)
It's unclear how Zoey will handle Dre cutting her off, but it seems that a lot of things in Zoey's life were building to this sort of breaking point. As Dre pointed out in the episode, Zoey has had a lot of things come easily to her in life. The difference is that, before college, she used to thrive under those circumstances. In Dre's eyes, Zoey has used all the gifts given to her to skate by, rather than flourish.
Cutting Zoey off doesn't seem like a cruel move — it might be just the thing that Zoey needs to reevaluate what she wants and how she wants to get it. College is a time for growth (that's why this show isn't called Grown) and Zoey may need to push herself to finally learn what she's capable of without a safety net.
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