Family Reunion: Season 2 Episode 3 “Remember Our Parents’ Wedding” – Recap/ Review (with Spoilers)

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As Moz and Cocoa get remarried, Cocoa’s mother is introduced, and Daniel continues to try to better his image this season.

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Directed By		Richard Lyons
Written By		Adrienne Carter
Aired (Netflix)		1/20/2020
Introduced This Episode
Daphne	Peri Gilpin

Episode Recap

The Fight To Be The Best Man: Daniel, Moz, Shaka, Mazzi, Jebediah

Being that Moz eloped when he got married, and now lives with his very religious parents, as well as his children being old enough to partake in nuptials, he and Cocoa plans to have an old fashion wedding. With this comes him entrusting the new ring to Shaka, since Daniel wasn’t reliable during Moz’s first wedding. This, as you can imagine, is insulting that a grown man is trusted less than someone who may not have gone through puberty yet. But, Daniel takes it in stride.

In fact, when Shaka makes a mistake, he doesn’t rub it into the child’s face or tell Moz, he handles it. Which, unfortunately for him, means dealing with a pawn shop owned by someone who is more than willing to hustle a kid, but ultimately he gets Moz’s ring back. This is something Jebediah learns, and considering the watch Daniel had to pawn for the ring was his father’s, the show nods Richard Roundtree being Shaft, minus showing any violence. Leading to Jebediah returning his father’s watch back to his son without any signs of disappointment since he knew Daniel did what he had to for his brother and his nephew.

Loving Me For Me: Daphne, Cocoa, Moz, Jade

Growing up, Cocoa had to deal with her white mother Daphne who is a soap opera star with two Emmy awards. Also, she is someone who made Cocoa very body-conscious and made what should have been one of the happiest days of Cocoa’s life miserable. Heck, she made the days leading up to it miserable as well by either being an active or internal voice in Cocoa’s head. One which made her pick at her weight and while Cocoa didn’t like it, she put up with it. After all, she, like Moz, want to have a proper wedding and having their parents there is important.

However, when Daphne decided to say something about Jade’s weight, the white gloves came off, and Cocoa told her mom about herself – and disinvited her from the wedding. But, with this being a family show, you know she showed up and apologized. Though, with this show having Black writers, you know Daphne didn’t really apologize but tried to pass the blame off onto her mom talking to her any sort of way so of course she did that to her own child (insert side-eye here).

Other Noteworthy Facts, Moments, and Random Thoughts

• Why didn’t we get more of Jade, assumingly, playing Maid of Honor?

Review/ Commentary

Highlights

Daniel Getting To Further Redeem Himself

We barely got to see Daniel in season 1, and when we did, he was usually treated as a joke. Heck, even him in a situation where it was domestic violence was treated to be something comical – like we were in the 90s. But season 2, or part 2 (because Netflix likes to do this weird part thing), Daniel has shown himself to be far more complexed. From showing his talents in math to showing more emotional intelligence than given credit for, Daniel has been allowed to be more than comic relief, and one can only hope this continues.

On The Fence

Learning To Accept This Show Will Only Go So Far

Let’s take expectations down a notch going forward, shall we? Cocoa’s weight issue, and her not wanting Jade to experience that, while it was certainly a moment, it’s the kind you have to wish was built up to beyond just this episode.

In fact, throwing a wedding episode in the early part of the season just seems weird, doesn’t it? Especially considering Moz and Cocoa eloped and with how religious and traditional Moz’s family is, you’d expect his parents, his brother and sister to be there, right? Also, you’d think it would be more than just Cocoa’s mother. Surely we could throw in some friends from Seattle and all that, right?

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I get with this show being in front of a live audience only so much can be done and who knows what the budget is for the program. However, it stinks that there is a need to lower expectations to enjoy the show. Which isn’t to say I’m probably judging this on a scale way beyond what should be expected from family entertainment.

Yet, it’s the catch-22 of Black shows. Either you expect them to be the way most people see Tyler Perry’s work or of the ilk expected from Spike Lee or Ava DuVernay. Currently, there is no middle. Either you are excelling to the point everyone is mad when you don’t get recognized, or people pick over everything and refuse to accept that you are not the creator’s demographic.

But, with “Family Reunion” maybe we’re getting that middle ground? Something that doesn’t need or deserve massive praise just because of it being scarce, but also isn’t deserving of being overly scrutinized due to the watcher, me, not knowing of any peers who are at this level.