And this is where the real humor, and poignancy, of the episode come to life.
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When Pops refuses to have it, Dre has to figure out how to crack the old man’s reserve against the procedure. The real debate of the episode comes when Pops finds out he needs an angioplasty due to a clogged artery.
Oddly, the episode doesn’t even begin here: it starts with jokes about Dre’s first prostate exam, which throws him into a deep sadness and catalyzes his father’s own trip to the hospital (though when it’s time to bring him there, it’s Rainbow fighting Pops’ “old man strength”), thus bringing Pops’ strong aversion to healthcare to the surface. Pops may be proud he hasn’t been to the doctor since 1985 (an appointment he walked out of, once a Lionel Richie story played over the loud speaker), but when it’s discovered he has a heart condition, Dre’s attempts to “break the family cycle” over not going to the doctor are thrown into jeopardy. Considering the 21 minutes of material that follow it, it seems like a very out of place sequence - yet, it serves as a great primer for the story that follows, baking its point right into the episode’s premise, and then letting the episode that follows explain the problems this paranoia can cause. The opening sequence, with its black-and-white images of mid-20th century experimentation, laid over Dre’s monologue about African-American paranoia with the medical establishment, is a sobering one, a thought that Black-ish clearly doesn’t want to expand too much on, but still wants to make a point of. Hell No” uses a montage intro detailing the various crimes of the medical industry against African Americans in the 20th century as a primer for a story about Dre trying to keep his father alive. Unlike other episodes, where the show’s social perspective often comes in conflict - or simply complicates - its more family-centric stories, “Dr. Hell No” is a fine episode of television - one of Black-ish‘s best to date, a half hour that gets its racial perspectives out of the way early, in order to pave the way for a heartwarming story about the Johnson family coming together.
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