Does Anyone Remember the Baby on 'black-ish'? Bow and Dre Forget He Exists, Too

If you're a black-ish fan like we are, you know there have been a lot of changes in the Johnson family since the show first started airing back in 2014. 

In fact, there have been so many that the show has given way to an entire franchise including mixed-ish, set in the past and centering on Rainbow's coming of age, and FreeForm's grown-ish, which follows eldest daughter Zoey as she moves out of the family home and sets off to college.

And while the primary cast — which now consists of Dre, Rainbow, Junior, twins Jack and Diane, and grandparents Pops and Ruby — has remained intact, many viewers are wondering what happened to Bow's baby on black-ish?

"Anyone remember DeVante?" one black-ish fan asked on reddit. "Remember that arc where they added a baby that's rarely seen? I wonder what the lil guy's been up to."

As a recap, Dre and Bow shocked both their fans and their family when they announced at the end of Season 2 that Bow was pregnant with a fifth child.

DeVante was born in "Juneteenth," the series' Season 4 premiere. Junior predominantly cared for him, as he dedicated himself to babysitting while his parents worked. Many fans noted that this made Junior, an already nerdy teenager, slightly less likable as he spent the end of his high school days taking on a parenting role.

In Season 6, he was still kind of acting as the primary caretaker for DeVante. "Now that the twins are grown, we're never ever [trick-or-treating] again," Dre said during Season 6's Halloween episode before Junior was forced to remind his father that he still has a baby to care for.

"Oh yeah, I forget. We have another one," Bow replied. "Guys, if you're just going to treat DeVante like this, we should have just left him at the fire station," Junior reminded his parents. He then listed a series of "firsts" — including his first ice cream, first haircut, and first Coachella music festival — that they were absent for.

Fans agree with this take, and to this day find it inexplicable that the show chose to bring yet another addition to the Johnsons' big family. "I don't get it," wrote one. "If you're going to add a baby to the show, then you should develop the character. I mean, a baby is a baby, he's not like a recurring cousin [or] neighbor who pops up every now and then."

As for DeVante's absence from Season 7, there's more of a logical explanation. The series returned to filming in California during the pandemic, so many believe that the filming restrictions prevented a toddler-aged kid from being on set. 

Though DeVante has been pushed to the side since his birth, during COVID times, his absence from black-ish makes a bit more sense. 

While DeVante certainly doesn't have a starring role by any means on the show, and is so forgettable that many fans are wondering where he went, twin actors Berlin and August Gross have actually appeared in at least 40 episodes (and counting!) since they started playing DeVante back in 2017.

As it turns out — fun fact! — these 3-year-old twin actors are show biz legacies. They're the grandchildren of Real Housewives of Atlanta star Peter Thomas, born to his daughter Porsche in January 2017. 

"The youngest and newest member [of the black-ish family] is my grandsons (twins, Berlin & August)," Peter announced on Instagram ahead of the Season 4 premiere.

Per IMDb, their last credited appearance on the series was in "Please, Baby, Please," which was supposed to be the Season 4 finale. However, the episode was pulled at the last minute because of "creative differences." At the time, rumors circulated that the episode was considered to be too political. 

The episode can be streamed on Hulu. 

New episodes of black-ish air Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.