Congratulations are in order! Deborah Wayne (Maleah Joi Moon), the youngest daughter of Dwayne Wayne (Kadeem Hardison) and Whitley Gilbert (Jasmine Guy), successfully made it to the end of her freshman year at Hillman College in A Different World Season 1.
Like many first-year students, Deborah accomplishes and overcomes a lot throughout her first two semesters at college. She navigates an ADHD diagnosis, learns some tough lessons in financial responsibility (no more lash extensions for a while), successfully establishes her major (come on, Distinguished Arts!), and even leads a student protest that results in increased transparency from university administration. Along the way, Deborah also builds lifelong friendships with fellow students Rashida (Alijah Kai), Hazel (Kennedi Reece), Amir (Jordan Aaron Hall), and Kojo (Chibuikem Uche). And she gets into plenty of conflict with her parents, new friends, and love interests Shaquille (Cornell Young IV) and Ellington (Vincent Jamal Hooper).
“I think it’s important for Black people to be able to be messy,” says showrunner and executive producer Felicia Pride. “I don’t want to strip us of our humanity. It’s important to see us fully excellent, fully messy, fully joyful, fully not getting it quite right.”
Every character experiences huge wins and major stumbles in Season 1 of the A Different World sequel series, which Moon says is exactly what the original show was all about. “It’s wonderful that young people will be able to see themselves reflected in the art that we created,” she shares. “That’s the legacy of A Different World.” Pride agrees: “I want young people to understand and see that you can mess up, you can make a mistake, and you can rebound, learn from it, and grow.”
Ahead, we sort out and explain all the season’s messiness and mistakes that lead to romantic misunderstandings, fights between best friends, and family drama — including details about Deborah and Shaquille’s backstory. Keep reading to learn more about important Easter eggs you may have missed, as well as exclusive insights from Pride, executive producer Debbie Allen, and more members of the new-gen cast, including Young, Hall, Reece, and Uche.
Strap in for a will they, won’t they romance that rivals even that of Dwayne Wayne and Whitley Gilbert. Before starting college, Deborah and Shaquille had a connection, but as he tells Amir and Kojo, the timing just never worked out. After some initial hesitation on Deborah’s part due to fear and an undisclosed past incident, the two decide to actually try to date now that they’re both at Hillman. Complications and miscommunications abound throughout Season 1, but their connection is undeniable.
In Episode 8, we finally learn more about what actually happened between Deborah and Shaquille before they got to Hillman — and why they can’t quit each other. The previous spring, Deborah lost her virginity to Shaquille. But their romantic evening turned into a nightmare when a fire erupted at the warehouse party they attended together right after. Both got in big trouble with their parents, and Shaquille’s dad even took away his phone, laptop, and credit cards, leaving him unable to contact Deborah. When she didn’t hear from him, she thought that their night together just didn’t mean as much to him as it did to her.
The emotional conversation is a pivotal one in the relationship, according to Young. “It shows how powerful and important communication is. A simple conversation could have really cleared up everything from the beginning,” he says. “I hope that’s the message that young people can take away. Having those uncomfortable conversations can really give clarity to both sides.”
Unfortunately, the poor communication continues. When Deborah asks if he’s been with anyone else since they slept together, Shaquille says, “Deborah Wayne, you were then — and you are now — the only one for me.” Now, how could she resist a line like that? Once again, the two sleep together, and Deborah tells Shaquille she’s in love with him. Soon after, however, she discovers Shaquille’s hoodie in Candace’s (Renee Harrison) room and figures out that something happened between them. In the finale, Deborah confronts Shaquille about it, and they break up.
Even with all their messiness, Young wants Shaquille and Deborah to be together. “I’m Team ShaBorah, for sure,” he says. “I’m rooting for them.” But will these two crazy kids ever work things out? “He loves her, but we’re going to have to see.”
With his relationship over (again), Shaquille doesn’t have much keeping him at Hillman. So when Coach Deion Sanders offers him a spot on the University of Colorado football team, it seems he may take it. Of course, he still has at least one emotional tether to Hillman — and it’s a strong one. As Shaquille packs up his dorm in the finale, the last item he puts in his bag is a framed photo of him and his late mother, Jaclyn (Halle Berry). Fans of A Different World’s original run will remember her as someone Ron Johnson (Darryl M. Bell) dated in Season 4.
Hints about Shaquille’s mother are sprinkled throughout the season. In Episode 2, Shaquille is seen gazing lovingly at a framed photo of Jaclyn and Ron from back when they were at Hillman. Ron also makes reference to his love story with Jaclyn in Episode 9 when he tells his son about the time he had three different dates lined up on Valentine’s Day, an incident that unfolded in Season 4, Episode 15, of the OG series.
Young says he was “surprised and excited” when he first found out Jaclyn was his character’s mother. At the end of the season, as Shaquille stares at that picture, stricken with emotion, Young believes he’s thinking, “Mama, I gave it a shot. I tried. I told you I’d come [to Hillman], but I know you would want me to choose me and what makes me happy.” But will leaving Hillman for Colorado be that choice? That’s something else we’ll have to wait to find out. “Shaquille’s still got to find his way,” the actor adds.
On the messy love triangles tour across campus, our next stop is Amir, Hazel, and Jalen (Elijah J. Roberts). Despite their very different backgrounds, Amir and Hazel become fast friends. The duo then meets sexy junior Jalen in Episode 3. By the time cuffing season comes around, Hazel and Jalen are locked in, and just one episode later, she swears she’s falling in love with him. But Amir and Jalen also form a bond over fresh number two fades and Super Smash Bros. tourneys. In Episode 6, Amir begins to catch a vibe that his connection with Jalen might be more than just a friendship.
By the end of Episode 7, Amir admits to his bestie that he slept with her boyfriend. The implication is that Amir and Jalen hooked up in the previous episode, after Jalen announced he was coming to Amir’s dorm to play video games. Hazel accuses Amir of lying, but after swapping some hurtful words, the two talk it out and make up in Episode 8.
“I love the relationship between Hazel and Amir. It is so refreshing and different from anything we’ve seen before. Their different walks of life make it interesting and so cool,” says Hall. “As we go through the season, they get into their own drama, but they allow themselves to move past it. I think the best friendships do that. You can fall out, you can disagree, but you can come back from it and still love each other and be there for each other. Hazel and Amir are a representation of that.”
In the finale, Jalen approaches Amir and tells him, “I just never allowed myself to have that kind of bond with another dude before, and I don’t know about you, but maybe we shouldn’t have to give that up.” When asked about his reaction to first reading that line in the script, Hall simply says, “It was gaggy.” And the scene only gets gaggier from there. The two share a steamy kiss, then Jalen asks to meet in the serenity garden after the Light the Night Gala, which caps off the academic year.
At that very gala, Jalen and Hazel finally talk. He apologizes, and she admits she wasn’t fully honest with him either — more on her little lie in a bit. Later in the night, just as Amir leaves the gala to meet up with Jalen, he’s stopped by his probation officer, Mr. Larry (Rainbow Sun Francks). Because of a student protest, Amir missed his last check-in, and a warrant has now been issued.
One of the season’s most shocking reveals comes in Episode 8 when Hazel tells Amir, with whom she’s finally reconciled, that she has a boyfriend back home. That’s right: This entire time, Hazel has been hiding a long-distance relationship with a guy named Roger.
Why didn’t she just break up with Roger before heading off to Hillman, or at any point over the course of the school year? As she tells Amir, “We grew up in the church together, and he was a really good guy, but so perfect in a way that made me feel like I could never step out of line.” Because of that pressure, Hazel struggled to be honest with Roger about wanting out of the relationship, so instead, she just started lying.
“I was a little shocked she had a man back home, but then I was just like, ‘You know what? She’s just a girl, for real,’” Reece says. “Perfection is expected of women so often, especially Black women. I think that’s something a lot of girls experience, so I can understand where she was coming from.”
By the end of the school year, Hazel resolves to start being more honest about her situation. So, when Xavier (Dasan Frazier) shoots his shot with her at the Light the Night Gala, she tells him she’s taken. He says he can respect that, and the two head to the Pit together for a casual hang. While there, Hazel receives a text from Roger, who was taking a gap year, telling her that he got into Hillman. She definitely does not look excited.
A Different World’s relationship chaos continues with Rashida and Kojo, who begin dating soon after arriving on campus. As Kojo puts in the work to woo Rashida, she shares that she wants to take things slow since she’s a virgin. While Kojo tells her he’s willing to wait, she still feels pressure, and by the end of fall semester, she suggests that they take a break.
Back on campus after the holidays, Rashida explores a connection with Andre (Joshua Suiter), a quarterback who shares her love of One Piece and also has family back in Compton. But once it’s cleared up that Kojo isn’t dating Nneka (Uche Moxam), head of Hillman’s top fashion organization, and Rashida’s flirtation with Andre fizzles out, the two rediscover a romantic spark. In Episode 8, Kojo apologizes for rushing her and admits he, too, is a virgin. But after they patch things up, Rashida is overcome with guilt and confides in Deborah that she actually lost her virginity to Andre. Since it happened, she’s been avoiding him because she regrets the decision and wishes she had waited for Kojo.
Through the student protests and Kojo’s support of Rashida’s ambitions, their relationship deepens, and she asks him to stay at Hillman with her over the summer as she works as a research assistant for Professor Brooks (Cree Summer). He excitedly agrees, and the two finally sleep together. “They grow from each other. They learn from each other. They challenge one another,” says Uche. “I think that is a beautiful aspect of their relationship. There’s a lot of vulnerability there. Fitting in, having a safe space — which I think they eventually find in one another — is an incredible thing.”
Sadly, the safe space doesn’t last. In the finale, Andre confronts Rashida at the Light the Night Gala, asking what he did wrong to make her start ignoring him after they slept together. Kojo overhears this and is crushed. As Rashida’s mom comforts her, Kojo leaves the soirée with Nneka. The sexual tension, however, is interrupted when an ICE agent approaches Kojo and asks if he has “his papers” on him.
This terrifying cliffhanger is just one example of the social issues tackled in Season 1 of A Different World. According to Pride, “young people not feeling safe when all they’re trying to do is learn” is a reality at a lot of universities today, especially HBCUs. That’s something Pride and Allen set out to highlight with the sequel series. “If there was ever a time that you want to hear from young people in America and certainly young Black people, it’s now with all that we’re going through politically,” says Allen. Moon echoes the sentiment. “There’s never been a better time than this very moment to uphold Black voices, to talk about things that matter that people are scared to talk about, to encourage safe spaces for conversation and learning and experience and representation.”
Ellington is a Huxtable. This truth is revealed in Episode 10, as Hillman students fight to make their campus a better place. Thanks in part to federal cuts to HBCU funding, Hillman is in serious debt and students are suffering the consequences. So, in response to the housing shortage and losing financial aid, a group led by Deborah occupies the president’s office. During this protest, Ellington explains that his mom is Denise Huxtable — as in, one of the leads of A Different World’s original run. For those who don’t know, Season 1 of the original comedy follows The Cosby Show daughter Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet) as she heads off to attend Hillman. So Ellington’s legacy, both at the school and within the A Different World universe at large, is a big one.
After the students deliver their demands in the finale, Ellington gives an impassioned speech about Hillman’s history of student activism. In it, he shouts out a sit-in that his grandmother, Clair Huxtable (Phylicia Rashad, real-life sister to series director Allen), participated in with her class of 1963 classmates. This story is a direct reference to Season 8, Episode 20, of The Cosby Show, entitled “Clair’s Reunion.” When Ellington finishes speaking, Dwayne, who is now the president of Hillman, asks for his last name. He responds, “Kendall,” and a shocked expression spreads across Dwayne’s face. When asked if he has any relation to Denise Kendall — her married name — Ellington says, “She goes by Huxtable now. But yeah, that’s my mom. You know her?”
Boy, does he: Denise was Dwayne’s first love interest at Hillman. A clue about Ellington’s family ties is actually dropped at the start of the season. In Episode 2, he tells Deborah that he figured out he has dyslexia with help from his uncle, who shares the diagnosis. That uncle, Theo Huxtable (Malcolm-Jamal Warner), was diagnosed with dyslexia in another prominent episode of The Cosby Show — Season 6, Episode 5, “Theo’s Gift.”
Ellington’s support of Deborah through the discovery of her own learning disability kicks off their connection, which culminates at the end of Season 1. When Deborah enters her dorm after the Light the Night Gala, Ellington is there. He apologizes for his past mistakes and tells her, “I can’t let someone like you get away from me. Not again. I want to be with you, Deborah.” Unable to get ahold of Shaquille, who she believes is now on his way to Colorado, she runs into Ellington’s arms. And the season and school year end on a kiss.
Feel all the swoons and laughs of A Different World now by (re)watching the sitcom — only on Netflix. And keep coming back to Tudum for all of your Hillman news.
