The Carmichael Show - Maxine's Sister

Chris Haston / NBC

The Carmichael’s are finally getting to meat Maxine’s sister Casey and they’re wondering why it took Maxine this long to bring her around, assuming that she must have a deformity or something. Jerrod tries to get them to chill before the sisters arrive, obviously he would have led with the deformity if there were one. When Casey & Maxine get there, Bobby recognizes Casey as Caramel Diva, a stripper that comforted him when he was having a hard time with his divorce.

Maxine is adamant that he has her confused with someone else, that sex work is nothing to be ashamed of and it’s all about a woman reclaiming her sexuality – but her sister is not a sex worker. Well when Casey comes out of the bathroom, she gets confronted and confirms that she is in fact Caramel Diva.

Nekeisha walks in and immediately recognizes Casey as well, letting us know that SHE took Bobby to the strip club when he was having a hard time dealing with their divorce and buying him a lap dance.

Chris Haston / NBC

Maxine is so furious about her sisters stripping career, but Casey likes it, is good at it, and is making up to 100k a year dancing so she doesn’t want to stop. She only didn’t tell Maxine because of how judgemental and uptight she is (Cynthia & Joe agree to this wholeheartedly). We learn that they had terrible parents and that Casey sees Maxine as more of a second mom, because she’s always acted less like a sister and more like a parent.

Taking all this in, Maxine decides to strip at amateur night to get some insight into Casey’s life, and some experience that might make her sister listen to her. Jerrod, who was very pro-stripping is suddenly very against it when his girlfriend’s body is on the line. She tells him she has to do it though and heads to the club. She makes a pitstop at Cynthia & Joe’s house and asks for their advice in how to deal with this and how to get her & her sister to be as close as The Carmichaels are. Their advice is very sweet and parental, and it’s great to see how deeply they’ve accepted Maxine as one of their own.

At the club, the girls have a heart to heart, with Maxine promising to loosen up and not be so judgey and controlling, and Casey promising to stop running away and shutting her sister out when they disagree. Just as their conversation is really hitting a high point, the strip club announcer introduces Maxine’s Wet Sprinkle & she gets up on that stage like a champion and makes enough money for her & Jerrod to go to Hawaii.