User blog comment:Mattalamode/A Second Opinion: The Roots/@comment-9300845-20171010032127

I chuckle every time somebody complains about how "The Roots" wasn't as emotional or deep as they've expected. Gee, what did you expect? When a two-minute clip of this episode was posted on CN Africa's channel last year, it was rather obvious to me from the get-go that it wasn't going to be so full of feels like "The Shell" or "The Origins."

Although it does annoy me that people claim Darwin was mistreated by his family in this episode. It's self-evident that the "mistreatment" wasn't done out of malice, but out of well-meaning but misguided love. (There were similar complaints of how Frankie was treated, and how the family acted in "The Outside.") Personally I love the dynamic of the Wattersons when it comes to trying to make their adopted brother/son more comfortable with his living situation, and various wacky ways they go about accomplishing that goal. Sure, it may have ended up doing more harm than good, but still the family sincerely believes it's in Darwin's best interests. Way to miss the point of this episode, people.

It's one of my personal favorite episodes of Season 4, and you've done a wonderful write-up!