‘Grown-ish’ Star Marcus Scribner Says Junior ‘Gained an Ally’ in Emotional Passing of the Baton Episode: He’s ‘Taking Control’

thewrap.com:

As the weight of balancing his new college life catches up with Junior in “Grown-ish” Season 5, Junior finally becomes relieved of following in the steps of his sister Zoey (Yara Shahidi) as he begins to “forge his own path” in Wednesday’s emotional passing of the baton episode. “Junior has now gained an ally, somebody that he realizes he can talk to about these things, because she’s been through the exact same things,” Scriber told TheWrap. “I feel like it’s kind of an outlet for his for his stress.

I don’t think that anxiety ever really goes away [but] it helps him out of that anxiety spiral, at least a little bit.”Despite graduating from Cal U the previous Spring, Zoey has made herself an unavoidable presence in Junior’s first year of college, and never hesitates to upstage her brother, most recently sharing tickets to an exclusive concert with her brother’s friends that lead the friend group to ditch Junior’s plans of a trip to Disneyland.“He’s feeling excited and hopeful for this new friend group that he’s created and, and he’s just pumped to kind of finally be the big man on campus,” Scribner said. “He kind of sees it as if Zoe’s kind of swooping in and taking that thunder away from him.

Obviously, she has no idea that she’s doing that — she’s just trying to be a good sister and help out — but I think Junior is used to a lot of the central focus being taken away from him.”When Zoey takes her overshadowing a step too far as she shares Junior’s childhood love for Dungeons & Dragons in front of Junior’s fraternity brothers, the comment triggers a panic attack as Junior’s pent up anxiety comes to the surface and Junior excuses himself from the group and heads to a storage closet as his anxiety comes to a head.Zoey.