The Fosters
Episode 5: The Morning
After
Episode 6: Saturday
By: Carlos Uribe
The
Fosters is a show about an interracial married lesbian couple that
raises their biological son and adopted kids.
Spoilers
Ahoy!
The Morning After:
The
Morning After takes place after the events of QuinceaƱera.
Callie is now “hanging” out with Wyatt which basically means
their dating. Their just not calling it that yet. They do run into
two different relationship obstacles that threaten to get in their
way. The first obstacle is that Wyatt makes the mistake of breaking
and entering into a nice house as part of their first date. When
Callie finds out, she justifiably panics because she's on probation.
She could have gone straight back to juvie if they had been caught.
He had jeopardized her freedom because he wasn't thinking about the
consequences. When he realizes his mistake, he makes it up to her by
apologizing. It's a plot I liked for a primary reason. I liked how
the show used how reckless teenage behavior can be different between
the two characters. It's no big deal for Wyatt because he has no
record. He's just having fun and he doesn't think anything will
happen to him. It's different for Callie because she has a record and
she knows that life doesn't always work out. She knows they could
have been caught and she would have been separated from her brother
again. It's a bit cheesy that he broke into a nice house to impress
her but it worked because of how the show used it to highlight the
differences in the way they see the same action. The second obstacle
is Brandon because he has feelings for Callie. Only she refuses to
get involved with him because the last time they were in a good home
she was seduced by Liam (presumably). Only when his parents found
out, he claimed that it was all Callie's fault. This seems to answer
the question of who Liam is but why is he such a villain? A forbidden
romance doesn't seem like that big of a deal as long as she's learned
her lesson and it looks like she has. It feels like there is still
more to this story than we know.
The
Lexi and Jesus plot takes a very interesting turn when the two of
them have unprotected sex. Lexi starts to get scared that she might
be pregnant. Her parents are religiously conservative and they
wouldn't be happy if they found out she was having sex before
marriage. She's not only afraid of how they'll react but what will
happen to her life if she's carrying child. The content of the plot
contains a lot more depth beyond whether or not Mariana approves of
their relationship (she doesn't) which makes it more compelling.
While I didn't really care how this affected their relationship, I
was interested to see whether or not Stef would give the kids the
morning after pill. The main dilemma over the pill was if they had
any right to do so. Lena thinks that Lexi's parents have a right to
know but Stef is afraid that their conservative views would force the
two teenagers to get married if she was pregnant. It's a strong
crisis as it relates not only to the pregnancy scare for the girl but
over how this affects parental relations with their children. In the
end, Stef decides to give them the morning after pill because she had
to look out for her son and she thought it was the right thing to do.
Lena wasn't happy this was done behind her back but she has no choice
but to back her partner. This pregnancy scare was a lot stronger
material for the Lexi and Jesus relationship so it's sad that is'
over so quickly but the good news is that the two of them having sex
might become an obstacle if her parents ever found out. As a final
note on this plot: I like how Lena was disappointed that she did
everything by the book on how to handle the sex topic and yet Jesus
still didn't use a condom. Just a small nudge that child
professionals don't know everything and how their recommendations
that every child is unigue.
There
were two other major plots this week. The first is giving Mariana a
new “love” interest, Garret. I put love in quotation marks
because Garret has a lisp which makes me think he might be gay. This
is television after all. That's not why this plot is interesting-it's
because of how different Mariana and Garret are. Mariana is a normal
philistine teenage girl but Garret is a really cultured guy who likes
artsy movies and participating in poetry slams. Since Mariana is
interested in him, she tries to get into the poetry slam but doesn't
make it because she's not edgy enough. Mariana responds by piercing
her nose to prove how real she is. Parents freak out but she gets to
keep it even if there is a hints that it got infected. The dynamic
between the two is an interesting reflection of two people with
different tastes and one of them trying to change herself for the
other. The other major plot is where Jude decides to wear nail polish
to school. He gets bullied at school but he does make a new friend,
Connor, who paints his nails at the end to show his support. It's a
good plot in showing how being different can have it's challenges.
Overall:
The Morning After is a really strong episode of the Fosters where
every plot, even Lexi and Jesus, worked well.
Saturday:
Characters
can be complicated. Take Callie's decision to be with Wyatt. There's
no doubt that there's a part of her that actually likes him but
there's also a part of her that's only dating him to avoid Brandon.
She's hoping that if she's with someone else then Brandon will be
discouraged and move on. This doesn't mean that Wyatt is just a plot
device who doesn't have much depth as this week develops him a lot.
His house is getting foreclosed so he throws a party meant at
vandalizing the place. Callie doesn't understand this as she thinks
that he doesn't care that he's losing the house he grew up in. He
does care. He's having people vandalize it because he's angry. He
does break down later in the party when he's alone with Callie. He
admits that he's not happy he's losing his childhood home and Callie
has to calm him down. She manages to make him feel better, he takes a
piece of his house with him, and the two leave the party. It's a
really strong plot because it once again showcases the difference
between the two characters. Wyatt is losing his childhood home, the
first time the status quo in his life has really been upset. Callie
has never been in a home for a significant period of time as she has
little stability in her life. The way they perceived the situation
was thus influenced by these two different backgrounds to create some
great dialogue. It's simply smart. There are a few key moments that
also happen at the party that are important: Mariana finds out that
Jesus had sex with Lexi and Liam shows up at the end of the party.
I'll cover the former in a bit but the latter basically got me
excited because we've had so much build-up towards Liam. His first
impression isn't a strong one as he merely threatens Callie to stay
away from his family but then he makes up for it when he implies he
knows where she lives. Creepy! I'm hoping we learn more about him
because I'm interested to know more about their story considering how
big of a deal the writers made him out to be. As for the former,
Mariana finding out Jesus had sex with Lexi messes up their
relationship.
I'd
have to say I'm pleasantly surprised how great the Lexi-Jesus
relationship turned out once you took Mariana out of the picture. The
two had sex, they had a great pregnancy scare that tested Stef on
what to do, and now it's used a vehicle to explore homosexuality. You
see, Jesus wants to go to Church camp because Lexi is going. He
doesn't really care about what they teach, he just wants to be with
her. Only the Catholic Church doesn't have a great history accepting
gay couples so Stef is worried about allowing Jesus to go. Making
matters more complicated is that we meet her dad this week and learn
that he hasn't accepted that she's a lesbian. He might treat the kids
as family but he has yet to approve of his daughter's lifestyle. This
is partially because of his religious faith but also because he
refuses to accept it on a personal level. This all explodes at dinner
when Lexi's family comes to eat at Stef's house and Stef's dad
crashes. It suddenly becomes a discussion about whether or not
homosexuality is alright with the Church. To the surprise of Stef,
she finds out that Lexi's parents are actually okay with it because
there's nothing more Christian than family. I disagree with that
assertion but I understand their point. Stef's dad does apologize for
turning his daughter away from religion but he refuses to change his
mind about whether her lifestyle is acceptable or not. It's all
pretty great drama that explores the differing views of homosexuality
amongst religious people in a fair way. It's pretty obvious where the
Fosters stands on the issue (overwhelming support) but it's at least
willing to give both sides a fair shake. The dinner ends in a big
reveal when a drunk Marianna reveals to Lexi's parents that Lexi has
had sex with Jesus. It's implied in a few scenes that she's managed
to break them up due to that outburst.
The
final major plot of the episode has to do with Brandon and Mike.
Brandon has a pretty major audition he has to attend in order to get
a personal class with the best piano teacher (in the state). He's
pretty good, practices a lot, but he places himself under a lot of
pressure. When his dad is late, it messes him up as he can't help but
think it's going to be a disaster. He becomes a nervous wreck and
screws up the audition. His dad, realizing his son didn't make it,
fights for the teacher to give Brandon another chance. The teacher
agrees and Brandon manages to ace the audition. He gets the class but
not the scholarship. At first Brandon is willing to turn it down, but
Mike insists on finding a way to pay the large fee. It's a great
plot that explores the father-son bonding the two have been sharing
while at the same time giving Mike a good chance to shine. I do like
how Mike is stepping up to the plate. He's finally able to do
something for his son that matters to him. It's a strong moment for
the character. It's also nice that Brandon gets to succeed rather
than fail. It's good to let your characters have a win every now and
then.
Saturday
is a pretty great episode of the Fosters that touches the tricky
subject of faith and homosexuality in a great way. Every other plot
worked as well.
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