Although Dre and Rainbow agreed they would no longer spank their kids, all bets might be off when Jack disobeys. Now, Zoey, Junior, Diane and a nervous Jack are afraid that their parents will go back on their word.
Dre fears his holiday fun will be ruined when the older kids balk at the glorious Johnson Halloween tradition of seeing who can pull the most outlandish pranks on each other.
After the kids turn their collective noses up at Dre's favorite cheap restaurant in his old 'hood,' he decides it's time to give them a reality check. He insists all of them get jobs.
Dre's mother, Ruby, comes for a visit, and she smothers her pork chops with gravy, Dre with love, and would like to flat out smother Bow. Dre tries to find a way to get the two most important women in his life to get along.
Dre wants the family to feel more connected so he embraces what it means to have each other's backs. Bow and Dre invoke "Team Johnson" putting the less-than-enthusiastic Zoey and Andre Jr. in charge of babysitting the twins.
Certain that his annual office Christmas party needs a black Santa, Dre goes out of his way to fill the red suit, even though the head of HR already got the job. Meanwhile, Bow doesn't feel like competing with Ruby over who cooks the big holiday dinner.
Dre worries Rainbow is questioning his manliness, so Pops tries to help his son save face. Meanwhile, things get awkward when Jr. is selected to play "Romeo" to his sister Zoey's "Juliet" in their school play.
On the way to the Johnson family's annual MLK holiday ski trip, Dre realizes his children may not know the significance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. so he decides to inundate them with Dr. King history facts.
When Zoey brings home her first "serious" boyfriend,also named Andre, Dre takes an instant dislike to him for many reasons. He's thrilled when they break up...until he learns that Andre dumped Zoey because she's too shallow.
Andre Jr. is being bullied at school so Dre teaches him how to defend himself with words. Dad teaches his son how to trash talk like a prize fighter. Meanwhile, Diane doesn't want the night light turned off because she's afraid of the dark causing Bow to go nuts from sleep deprivation.
Dre organizes an amazing vow renewal for their 15th anniversary. But when Bow's hippie-dippy parents, Alicia and the white Paul show up unannounced bombshells drop and old disagreements between the two families.
Things begin to fall apart, in more ways than one, when Dre hurts himself playing basketball right before his 40th birthday. Bow and Ruby face off over who can get Dre the best gift, and the kids try to figure out what to give their dad.
Bow learns from her colleague that Dre never had the vasectomy a few years back that he was supposedly scheduled, so she decides to see if he'll come clean and tell the truth.
Bow invites her friends from college to an elaborate dinner party in hopes of impressing them; Dre learns a lot about Bow's past; the kids decide to create their own reality show by documenting the party.
When super cool--and white--exec Jay Sloane challenges Dre over his street cred and picks inept Charlie for a big urban market account, Dre finds himself questioning his "blackness." Pops gets a letter from the IRS and fears the worst.
When teenager Zoey goes through a mini-rebellion phase by pushing boundaries and acting out, Dre wants to lay down the law, while Bow insists on a softer approach like her mom did with her.
Liberals Dre and Bow go ballistic when Junior declares he's joined the Young Republican Club to impress a girl (ironically named Hillary). Since they really can't believe any reasonable black people would be Republicans, Dre and Bow arrange to meet Hillary's wealthy and conservative parents.
Pops comes to the rescue with the colorful story of how his great-great-grandfather, Drexler Johnson, bet the future of the Johnson family against a ruthless gangster, Elroy Savoy, for Jack and Diane's school assignment.
