Summary
“Ralph Lauren and Fish” features Bob and Abishola’s first real date, but it ends in a medical emergency.
This recap of Bob Hearts Abishola Season 1, Episode 6, “Ralph Lauren and Fish”, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
There are lots of things about living in America that are new for Abishola (Folake Olowofoyeku), as we learn in the cold open of Bob Hearts Abishola Episode 6. One of them is snow. Another is electricity, day and night. But the most telling is the fact she’s a black woman, which in Nigeria she never had cause to think about. In America, she’s reminded of it all the time. Bob (Billy Gardell), on the other hand, is never forced to think of himself as a white man. But he asks if, as a black woman, she’d like to go to dinner with a white man, and she says yes.
The Ralph Lauren half of the episode’s title, “Ralph Lauren and Fish”, comes from a running gag about Bob’s overpowering cologne, which is first noticed by Goodwin (Bayo Akinfemi), who explains his father used to use it to get his mother “in the mood”. He’s one of seven kids, so it must have worked, which Bob thinks bodes well for him — but Goodwin warns him that a Nigerian woman will dominate him unless he exhibits his own strength. Bob insists this won’t happen with Abishola, which Goodwin and Kofo (Anthony Okungbowa) have a good laugh about.
Kemi (Gina Yashere) is getting Abishola ready for the night and thinks Bob might be after more than a drink and a meal. “What car does he drive?” She asks. “Cadillac,” replies Abishola. “Never mind,” tuts Kemi, “you’re too old for the back seat.” It’s going to take another two hours for Abishola to be ready, which means they’re nearly done.
Dottie (Christine Ebersole) interrogates Bob about his date with his “little African friend”. She thinks taking her to the steakhouse is a bad idea. He should take her to someplace that feels like home — somewhere she can eat with her fingers since she isn’t one of the “chopstick people”. On the way out of the room, she insists she isn’t a racist. She wouldn’t mind a grandchild who looks like Tiger Woods, or Halle Berry, or — her personal favorite — Barack Obama.
When Bob arrives to pick Abishola up in Bob Hearts Abishola Episode 6, Auntie Olu (Shola Adewusi), Uncle Tunde (Barry Shabaka Henley) and Dele (Travis Wolfe Jr.) are more dressed up than he is, even if they probably don’t smell as strong. Abi emerges, transformed by Kemi, much to Bob’s delight.
At the steakhouse, they’re both ogled by old white patrons. “We’re from California!” Bob says to the nearby table. Bob is clearly annoyed by the disrespect — perhaps even moreso than Abishola, who laughs it off and makes some jokes of her own, but what she said in the opener about being a black woman is brought into stark relief here. They decide on the wine. A surprising detail is that Abishola is something of a connoisseur from working as a waitress in London. Bob wants the steak, but Abishola tells him he can’t have it since he only recently had a heart attack. The battle of wills begins and ends just as quickly. You can probably guess his dinner choice, which is definitely totally his own decision — the episode is called “Ralph Lauren and Fish”, after all.
On the ride home, Bob is full of fish and spinach, but Abishola says they can go and do something else — she doesn’t have to go straight home. Score one for Bob! However, Bob gets a panicked call from Christina (Maribeth Monroe) saying that Dottie has had an episode and is slurring her words. Abishola thinks she might be having a stroke and tells her to get to the hospital. She and Bob will meet them there.
At the hospital, Christina is high as a kite on the Xanax she found in her mother’s purse. Douglas (Matt Jones) gets hopelessly lost. The endless stupidity of his siblings drives Bob nuts, and once Abishola tells him that Dottie is out of surgery and he’ll be able to see her soon, he storms off. Christina tells her that when their father died, Bob dropped out of college to look after the whole family. We get a sense here in Bob Hearts Abishola Episode 6 of what Bob means to them. Christina tells Abishola that if she breaks Bob’s heart, she’ll hunt her down and kill her. I know who my money’s on.
At the end of Bob Hearts Abishola Season 1, Episode 6, Abishola finds Bob in the church chapel and consoles him while he cries. Douglas ends up in a Holiday Inn. “Ralph Lauren and Fish”, we’re told, is to be continued.
