Zoey Johnson (Yara Shahidi) is ready to make her sequel. Freeform’s Grown-ish is back for season two! We’ll be seeing Zoey and her group of friends take on their sophomore year of college in a whole new setting and with a positive outlook. They’re sophomores, people! They’re no longer fresh-meat. They’re experienced. They know things. And, they’re ready to take on the new year with high hopes.
Wishful thinking, right? Sophomore year of college is just another year of growing and becoming your own, which turns out to be much different than what Zoey believed. The first obstacle comes right away when Zoey and her new roommates, Nomi (Emily Arlook) and Ana (Francia Raisa), move into an absolute dump. To make the best of it, they throw a party, open to their other friends so they can get help cleaning up the place. (Not really what would happen in real life, but I digress.)
From there, the one-hour season premiere shifts its primary focus to Zoey’s romantic relationship with Luka (Luka Sabbat), whom we all remember she chose over Aaron (Trevor Jackson) last season. But, did she make the right choice? Let’s break it down.
In the first episode, Zoey is anticipating the moment she finally sees Luka in person since he left for Paris over the summer. Despite getting her room ready for his big welcome, Luka disappoints her by failing to call Zoey as soon as he arrived and falling asleep once they’re together. Furious, Zoey leaves Luka’s dorm to fall on the shoulders of the ones who matter the most to her: her girls.
The following episode deals more with the surrounding pressure of obtaining the title of “#relationshipgoals.” Still fresh off Luka and Zoey’s first post-Paris night together, Zoey is gung-ho about convincing the world she’s in an amazing relationship after seeing Doug (Diggy Simmons) and Jazz (Chloe Bailey) become the envy of everyone on social media. She was hell-bent on receiving that satisfaction of becoming the “it” couple.
At the end of episode two, Luka and Zoey exchange the first in-person “I love yous” to each other and discuss their fears of stepping into a serious relationship. Eventually, this all ends in assurance from one another that everything will be OK. They don’t need to show off to the world the status of their relationship. It should matter between them. End episode.
It’s clear that Zoey and Luka make a literal picture perfect couple. They’re both physically flawless but they lack the chemistry of real conversations that she once had with Aaron. On paper, they seem like the perfect match, but when you catch their interaction sans their cellphones, something isn’t clicking. You guys, they made up their fight over Snapchat. I’m not 100% on the Zuka love boat but I’m interested to see how they work together as a team from now on.
You might be thinking, “OK, but what about the rest of the cast?” The majority of the spotlight landed on “Zuka,” but here’s a quick refresher:
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- Ana: Spent her whole summer working at a restaurant to pay for her new place and is still butting heads with Aaron due to their different political views.
- Nomi: Covered up her sexuality from her parents over the summer and also doesn’t understand what it means when it comes to personal boundaries with Ana.
- Aaron: Took a step towards volunteering his time to get more involved in social reform.
- Vivek (Jordan Buhat): Still up to no good by drug dealing so he could work his way up the social ladder.
Bring on the antics, sophomores.
Grown-ish airs Wednesdays on Freeform.
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