Can 'Black-ish' go on if Dre and Bow's marriage breaks up?

Kelly Lawler | USA TODAY

Spoiler alert! The following contains details from Tuesday's episode of Black-ish, "Blue Valentime."

"How the hell did we get here?"

Dre (Anthony Anderson) asked his wife Bow (Tracee Ellis Ross) this question on Tuesday's episode of ABC's Black-ish, after the couple decided to separate, accompanied by Coldplay's perennial heartbreaker, Fix You.

It's a devastating conclusion to a devastating episode, which follows the couple through weeks of a marital funk, all the while flashing back to happier times in their relationship. It's a dour follow-up to last week's episode, in which their problems began in earnest, and the pair unsuccessfully tried marriage counseling.

Like any heavy topic Black-ish addresses, Dre and Bow's marital woes are portrayed sensitively and realistically. Their fights ring all too true for anyone who's been in a relationship. As they (potentially) rip apart their life together, they literally demolish their kitchen, in a long-planned renovation that only makes the problems worse.

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Anderson and Ross do fantastic work, turning their emotions on a dime and offering a sense of general weariness, helped by the dark filter that covers the Johnson household in the episode. By the time Dre packs a bag, it's completely understandable why they're making this choice. And, as Bow points out, the decision to spend time apart is the first thing the couple has agreed upon in weeks.

If the separation felt right, is divorce next? It would be a big swing for the family sitcom. Dre and Bow's ups and downs have often been the meat of the series, but what if it's all downs from here on out?

If any family sitcom can do it, Black-ish probably could. The series has a long history of taking on more serious subjects than some of its peers, and divorce fits right in with their questioning of religious, racial and gender issues. A divorce could also give the series new seasons of story without going stale, considering how much a split would affect the entire Johnson family, including Zoey (Yara Shahidi) on her Freeform spin-off, Grown-ish. If series creator Kenya Barris is going in this direction, I'm confident he'd do it well.

Of course, I wouldn't be upset if Bow and Dre manage to find their way back to each other. Even though Black-ish can succeed in strife, its inevitably hopeful tone is one of the aspects that makes it such a superb show. Taking Dre and Bow's marriage away would dim the light on the series.

If I had to guess, I'd say Dre and Bow will find a way to work things out, but only after putting in the really hard work couples do in real life. Nothing on Black-ish ever has an easy fix, and a baby's first steps and a kitchen renovation couldn't solve what was going on beneath the surface. But I hope something else eventually will.

The series' fourth-season finale airs May 15.