Fresh Off the Boat is back from winter break and Honey’s mom, Anne, shows up and doesn’t seem to be a good parent. Anne is super controlling and instead of helping her daughter, she wants to make all the decisions. What made the dynamic between Honey and her mom interesting was how similar, but different it was to the Huangs. Jessica is always controlling, but she’s willing to give some of that up in order to consider someone’s feelings. Anne is not that person. In fact, she left instead of going after Honey and working things out. How cold! One thing I noticed that the episode didn’t bring up was how much Honey was similar to Eddie. Both have controlling parents, but neither of them turned out to be too controlling themselves, granted Eddie is still growing up.
The important part of the episode was that Jessica has her best friend’s back no matter what, but it makes it sad that Honey has a mother like that. It’s surprising that the show has never delved into some more serious issues when it comes to how separate the two family members are. If Fresh Off the Boat does need drama down the road then they should consider diving more into how Honey is affected by her mother’s behavior.
Eddie, on the other hand, learned a valuable lesson that it’s not good to assume. The new girl, Karen, seemed to be interested in him, but his friends told him that it was because he was Asian and her previous boyfriends were Asian. While it was true that her previous record was full of Asians, that didn’t mean that it was why Eddie was on her radar, which he learned the hard way. In fact, Karen flipped the narrative on him about only dating white girls and he was at a loss for words. Goes to show that it’s not good to assume.
What was surprising about Eddie’s story was that the episode didn’t cover preference. After having an episode about Nicole’s preference to women, it would seem to be no problem to cover racial preference. I’m not saying the two issues are the same, but so what if Karen liked Asian dudes?
Meanwhile, Louis and Marvin went on a cruise. Marvin had a great time, but Louis was too worried about spending money. A little spending went a long way in debt. A hundred dollars for a phone call! I don’t blame him for being upset. Luckily for him, a woman fell off the ship (poor lady) and he got a complete refund. It’s nice to know that Louis can stay interesting even if he doesn’t have a huge storyline.
Fresh Off The Boat airs Tuesdays at 8:30/7:30c on ABC.
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