Spoilers ahead for the Season 5 premiere of Bob Hearts Abishola, called "The Dead Eyes of a Respectful Son."
Bob Hearts Abishola fans got some bad news at the end of the 2023 TV schedule, and not just because the WGA writers strike began weeks before the Season 4 finale aired. The sitcom would end with the fifth season and a much smaller cast of series regulars, and the Season 4 finale provided two obvious routes for the show to continue despite the changes. I fully expected the first episode of Season 5 to reveal which route the sitcom was taking, or at least provide a reason for so many characters appearing less frequently. Instead, I was left confused about the final season's direction after the premiere in the 2024 TV schedule.
In "The Dead Eyes of a Respectful Son," Abishola's plans for Dele to attend Harvard were dashed when he revealed that he didn't even apply to the university, but was banking on a future as a dancer by attending Juilliard. Abishola was far from thrilled, but Bob persuaded her to support him as much as she could. Was she still holding out for a potential minor in dentistry for her son? Sure, but it was an improvement on kicking him out of the house!
It was also a pretty funny storyline for the first episode of 2024, and featured more familiar faces than was guaranteed after CBS cut hours and pay for the cast... yet I wanted more answers rather than confusion. Billy Gardell and Folake Olowofoyeku were joined by four series regulars out of the previous eleven: Shola Adewusi as Olu, Barry Shabaka Henley as Tunde, Saidah Arrika Ekulona as Ebun, and of course Travis Wolfe Jr. as Dele, with no explanation for why fans might want to expect less of them beyond the premiere.
All of the show's former regulars other than the two leads will only recur in a set number of episodes in the final season. Normally, I wouldn't mind too much about a lack of immediate explanation, and might even be encouraged by how well this episode worked as a sign that the show can be as funny as ever without the full cast of series regulars. What has me so confused was how Bob Hearts Abishola didn't address either of the cliffhanger options.
In the Season 4 finale (which is available streaming with a Max subscription), Abishola was accepted into Johns Hopkins for medical school, which was a prestigious admission for her... but the location in Baltimore meant a change for their lives in Detroit. The two most obvious payoffs were for Abishola to go to Johns Hopkins without Bob, or for both to go to Baltimore. Both seemed like possible setup to continue their stories while also explaining why the rest of the cast would be around less, but the Johns Hopkins questions weren't addressed in the first episode of Season 5.
There may be a valid reason for this, however. "The Dead Eyes of a Respectful Son" was originally scheduled to air as the second episode of Season 5. The premiere was set to be "Kill the Cat" and present some issues for the characters to deal with. Could this be the episode to address the leftover questions from Season 4?
That remains to be seen. Tune in to CBS on Monday, February 19 at 8:30 p.m. ET for the next new episode of Bob Hearts Abishola, which continues to lead in to NCIS on Monday nights.
