Grown-ish’s “Girls Like You” Explores Experimentation and Identity

Nomi's sexual experimentation leads to some tough discoveries about herself.

Roommate dynamics and sexual exploration and identity dominate “Girls Like You”, episode 5 of Grown-ish’s season 2, as the #GirlSquad navigates the relationship politics their shared living space.

Nomi (Emily Arlook) has brought home eight girls in seven days, providing as Zoey puts it “the Ritz Carlton” of the lesbian experience — she seduces, pleases, and releases the (exclusively straight) girls she brings home each night. The girls who live with Nomi ask her to be a little more discrete in her extracurricular activities and even question — can a woman be a misogynist?

“Smashing on one type of person is low-key problematic”, Aaron (Trevor Jackson) astutely points out, during a heated debate on Nomi’s sexual preferences after class one day. Zoey (Yara Shahidi) confronts Nomi about the judgemental perspective of the rest of the group, but ends up witnessing a seduction that impresses and upsets her. She questions whether it’s fair for Nomi to lead these girls on and ghost them in the morning. But when so many of Nomi’s male counterparts play a similar game when it comes to getting girls, perhaps it is Zoey that is the misogynist for holding her female friend to a higher standard than she does the men in her life. Zoey expect women to behave better than their male counterparts when it comes to seduction.

On the opposite side of the spectrum is Ana (Francia Raisa), who is notoriously conservative, though she shared an exceptional kiss with Nomi last season. Aaron pressures the whole group to try something they’ve never done before. This ranges from Hawaiian pizza to karaoke, to (in Ana’s case) kissing Aaron.

Nomi takes Zoey’s advice and is upfront with her hookup, but then finds herself offended when the girl she brought up is equally disinterested in bringing Nomi home to meet her parents. A very observant professor helps Nomi realize that maybe her forays into empty hook-ups with straight girls is a defense mechanism — perhaps stemming from the fact that Nomi’s parents do not know that she is bisexual.

Grown-ish continues its 13 episode season Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC Freeform.

Missed last week’s episode? Catch up here.

Photo and video credit: Freeform

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