Black-ish : Johnson Family Says Their Final Goodbye in Emotional Series Finale
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Richard Cartwright/ABC
Farewell, Johnsons!
During Tuesday's series finale of Black-ish, the Johnson family said their final goodbye to the home they've known and loved for eight seasons — and celebrated with the ultimate departure.
After living in Sherman Oaks, California for the past 17 years, Dre (Anthony Anderson) and Dr. Rainbow "Bow" (Tracee Ellis Ross) Johnson made the difficult decision to move out of their family home — but not before receiving some words of encouragement from Simone Biles.
"If I've learned anything, I would say you have to do what you want to do, and not what anybody else wants you to do," Biles told Dre during a visit to his office after the family patriarch expressed feelings that he's ready for something new. "Do a gut check. What's your heart telling you?"
"I think it's telling me I need to make some changes," Dre responded.
Later that evening, Dre brought up the topic of moving to Bow, who took it surprisingly well.
"I'm at a place right now where I'm questioning everything," he told his wife.
Richard Cartwright/ABC
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"Me too, Dre," Bow responded. "Between the election and the pandemic, it's just making me reconsider what's important."
"Life is too short to not go after what you want," Dre noted. "So I think we should listen to four-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles. She came to my work today and she told me to blow up my life."
"I think we should sell this house and move to a Black neighborhood," Bow suggested.
After discussing the move with the rest of the family, Bow and Dre struggled to convince their kids why it would be a good decision.
"There's so much upside, you guys," Bow said. "If we have Black neighbors, we're not obligated to be their friends. We can just judge them by the content of their character."
Richard Cartwright/ABC
While looking at houses, Dre revealed that he was ready to make another change by leaving his job at the ad agency and spending more time with family — a decision Bow fully supported.
Standing together in their empty home, Bow and Dre took an emotional trip down memory lane.
"I'm starting to realize that this is no longer home," said Dre. "This won't be the place that I come to to see the people that I love."
"I know it's happening, but it just doesn't feel real," Bow shared.
"At the end of the day, I keep telling myself these are just four walls," Dre added. "But it feels so much bigger than that."
"Because it was our home," Bow responded. "We made a family here. We spent our lives here — good and bad. Laughter, heartbreak, births, deaths, and we did it together."
Richard Cartwright/ABC
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The next morning, the Johnson family held a makeshift memorial service for their Sherman Oaks home.
"It occurred to me that in order to move on to the future, we must honor the past and that's why we're here to celebrate our home and all the joy and love that it has brought us," said Dre.
After each of the kids shared their fondest memories, the family then participated in one final — and joyous! — dance party in the street, accompanied by their closest friends and family.
To end the series, a lovely Latinx couple moved into the Johnson family home, leading fans to wonder, what's next?
ABC
Earlier this month, Ross, 49, opened up to PEOPLE about the past eight seasons playing Bow on the ABC comedy — and the emotional last day spent on set.
"I leave this show with so much joy and pride, and I think what we created changed my life in that we really changed the landscape of modern prime time television," she said. "I do think we opened a pathway for television that is more reflective of who we are as human beings. And so it was a real honor and life-changing to be able to work on another show that I feel so incredibly proud of."
While it's been a joyful ride for Ross, Anderson and the rest of the Black-ish cast, including Yara Shahidi, Marsai Martin, Miles Brown, Marcus Scribner, Laurence Fishburne and Jenifer Lewis, the last day on set was full of emotions.
"I think there's something really special when you know something's coming to an end that you really get to kind of revel in all that you love about something," Ross explained. "I was able to talk to everybody, really specifically, and hear from so many people what exactly their takeaway was and why this show was impactful personally in their lives. The last week was filled with a lot of that."
RELATED VIDEO: Tracee Ellis Ross Says She "Wept" Filming Final 'black-ish' Scene
"Then the last moment, they saved a particular scene in the episode for us to shoot last that was just me and Anthony," the star added. "I was like, 'I literally can't get through the rehearsal.' And thank God I had kind of gotten the tears out so that you can hear my lines... we did it once for wide and then we came in on closeups twice. It's very emotional. It's a long time to be working with people and doing something you love and it's great."
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Though Black-ish coming to an end, its televised universe will live on.
Grown-ish, featuring Zoey (Shahidi) in her college years, was recently renewed for a fifth season.
