Home Is Where The Heart Is: ‘Bel-Air’ Season 2 Episode 1 Recap

When the first season of Peacock‘s hit series Bel-Air ended, the Banks family was in a state of turmoil. Will (Jabari Banks) found out that his mother Vy (April Parker Jones), Aunt Vivian (Cassandra Freeman) and Uncle Phil (Adrian Holmes) had been lying to him about his father Lou (Marlon Wayans) being locked up. The realization caused Will to abruptly leave the Banks residence in hopes of figuring things out on his own.

Season two picks up two weeks after the spicy events of season one’s finale. Still not seeing eye to eye with Uncle Phil, Will has been living in South Los Angeles with Jazz (Jordan L. Jones), where he says he feels right at home. We find out that Will has seemingly reverted back to his street ways. He reveals to Carlton (Olly Sholotan) that he’s been making money by playing pickup basketball games. Will also shares that everything he is doing is all apart of his plan. He lets his cousin know that there’s a big time scout named Doc (Brooklyn McLinn) that helps a lot of kids get to D1 schools and even the pros. When Carlton suggests that Will let Uncle Phil help him, Will declines, claiming that he has to do this without him.

It’s refreshing to see that Carlton and Will’s relationship is thriving. It’s especially good to see considering the fact that after Carlton broke his arm, Connor (Tyler Barnhardt) turned the whole lacrosse team against him. Will takes Carlton to a Black Student Union, primarily to get him some brownie points with the group’s President Yazmin (Riele Downs), who has mutual interest in Carlton. A student calls Carlton out for not attending any BSU meetings after they played a major part in him getting voted as class President. Carlton expresses how he felt that they did more complaining than actively trying to come up with solutions. His opinion was received well and Yazmin invited him to come and share his suggestions at the next meeting.

Elsewhere, the rest of the Banks family also had their own things going on. Enthused to make a difference, Uncle Phil returned back to his firm, which caught his co-workers by surprise. Aunt Viv had an interview for her fellowship, where she laid out some big ideas. Even with her putting real thought into her plans, the article that came out was all about Reed (Michael Ealy). After buying the influencer house from Kylo, Hilary (Coco Jones) struggled with Ivy (Karrueche Tran) trying to take control of it. She also had to have a difficult conversation with Jazz about not wanting to go public to avoid everyone being in their business. Then there was the birthday girl, Ashley (Akira Akbar). She received some book suggestions on the Black Panthers from her teacher (and OG Ashley Banks) Mrs. Hughes. She also witnessed Mrs. Hughes seemingly get chastised for doing so.

That storyline will surely be expanded upon throughout the season. For now, back to Ashley 13th birthday party. The Banks family brought it in with style. It took place on a yacht, that Will and Jazz almost missed. If it wasn’t for Jazz, Carlton and Geoffrey (Jimmy Akingbola) encouraging him to make amends with his Uncle, Will probably wouldn’t have attended. Before he could get to that point though, he had another pressing matter. Will stopped by Doc’s hoop runs to try and impress the scout/agent/coach. He played very well but Doc told him that he wasn’t accepting any new clients at the time.

The party turned out to be a success! Will and Jazz made it to the yacht in just the knick of time for the festivities. Ashley was surprised with an appearance by Sweetie. Uncle Phil apologized to Will and the two reconciled. Will was finally able to have a real conversation with Lisa (Simone Joy Jones). He took a play out of Phil’s book, put his pride to the side and apologized to her for lying about who he was. He admitted that he meant what he said about loving her but felt that they needed to take a break in order for him to get some things in order for himself.

After becoming annoyed watching Jazz and Ivy flirt the whole party, Hilary finally admits her true feelings for Jazz and the two make it official. To the delight of the rest of the family, Will moves back in. Before the episode ends, he gets a call from Doc. He lets Will know that he’s willing to come and check out his next Bel-Air basketball game. Will is ecstatic but doesn’t know that Doc is only showing any interest in him because of his ties to Uncle Phil. What’s his play? It will be revealed in the coming weeks, as will a lot of other unknowns that the return of Bel-Air left us with. Let us know what you thought about the first episode of season two and what your predictions for next week’s episode are in the comments!