“Good Trouble” Episode 319 Recap: It’s Closing Time

Back when Good Trouble premiered, I issued a warning in my initial review:

There is, admittedly, some nervousness about Good Trouble falling into the same trap as The Fosters: endeavoring to tell more stories than the show has time to tell well which led to characters, storylines and the audience being shortchanged. It was clear that the writers had a lot of great stories to tell — many from communities whose stories often go unheard — and that’s laudable; but maybe let’s not try to shoehorn all those stories in at once.

And while, over three seasons, Good Trouble has done a good job of assuaging me of that fear, it all came rushing back during “Closing Arguments” cold open. The show found a unique way to showcase all of this season’s questions for all its main characters and I began to worry. Even with an extra 30 minutes of runtime, it seemed impossible that the show would be able to address them all in a way that felt satisfactory. I was right to be worried. There are issues brought up in the cold open — whether Alice got into the CBTV program because she was sleeping with Ruby or whether Malika is actually poly — that aren’t dealt with at all in the season finale. There are others — like Mariana’s resolution with the Fight Club girls and Alice’s decision about Sumi — that are shortchanged so much that the conclusion feels unearned.

But what makes last night’s Good Trouble finale particularly frustrating is that, instead of finding a way to tighten the storytelling — by excluding, for instance, the comedy showcase or Davia’s imagined performance of Sara Bareilles’ “Breathe Again” — the writers made a different narrative choice: cliffhangers for everybody! Storylines that the audience has invested in over the season simply go unresolved. What happened to Tommy Sung? I don’t know. Did he kill his boyfriend? I don’t know. Is Kathleen going to jail? I don’t know. Will Davia choose Matt or Dennis? I don’t know. The show sees some utility in stringing those stories out, I do not. To be clear: I don’t mind a good cliffhanger but the overuse here distracts from the legit cliffhangers — the return of Malika’s ex-boyfriend, Isaac, and Callie’s proclamation that she’s leaving, most notably — and, ultimately, feels manipulatve.

“Closing Arguments” was not Good Trouble‘s finest hour (and 30 minutes) but I’m grateful that it’ll get another season to right this wrong.

When “Closing Arguments” picks up with Alice, she’s rehearsing for the CBTV showcase under Margaret Cho’s watchful eye. Nearby, Sumi and Ruby are sewing the sketch’s costumes and Sumi expresses her happiness for her and Alice. Ruby corrects Sumi: she and Alice are just friends, contrary to what Alice led her to believe. I worry for a half a second that Sumi will hit on Ruby — in part because she’s always found Ruby attractive but also to get back at Alice for lying — but before anything can happen, Magda interrupts to tell her fellow comedians about a leaked e-mail exchange between CBTV’s network executives and the head of Human Resources. In the e-mail, the powers that be make it clear: Alice will win this year’s talent deal.

“It’s been a few years since an Asian has won the deal,” the exchange reads.

“Asians are hot this year,” it continues, adding, “Plus with Margaret Cho directing, best to reward another female Asian comic.”

Embarrassed that the decision’s been made before they can even perform their showcase, Alice apologizes to the group. Surprisingly, most of the group is supportive of Alice taking the deal. Magda reminds a skeptical Derek that if it weren’t for Alice, the entire program would’ve been called off. Alice demurs, saying that everyone deserves a shot at the deal, but Lindsay urges her not to be a martyr. Sanjana reminds Alice that the other comedians will still be able to take advantage of the exposure from casting directors and agents. Still uncertain about what to do, Alice turns to Margaret Cho for advice.

“Well, in my experience, opportunities weren’t always offered for the purest reasons, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t accept it,” Margaret points out. But before I can cheer too much — I may have been yelling, “take the money Alice!” at my television screen — she adds, “sometimes it’s not worth it if it makes you feel shitty. You know, in my career, my biggest breaks didn’t come from networks or studios. It came from fellow artists, friends looking out for each other.”

Margaret’s advice only buttresses Alice’s instincts — she opts not to take the deal — and the other comedians finally band together and walk out on the CBTV program for good (Ruby’s left to deliver that news to the network’s HR director). Instead of letting all their hard work go to waste, the comedians gather their family and friends and perform their showcase before a friendly crowd. Alice resurrects her sketch about her mother — why she feels okay about performing her mother’s accent now, the show doesn’t bother to explain — and I gird myself for her mother’s reaction. First, she looks pained by the mimicking but eventually that gives way to the realization that she is funny. Grateful for Alice’s sacrifice, Alice’s fellow comedians retool the “Alice the Dumb Asian” sketch to be “Alice the Inspir-Asiaaaaan.”

After the show (and the afterparty), Sumi accompanies Alice back to the Coterie and Alice invites her into her loft for a nightcap. Sumi demurs, recalling what happened last time they had too much bijou, and Alice interjects that she and Ruby aren’t together. Sumi admits that she knew that already and questions why Alice wanted her to think they were back together. Alice confesses that she’s scared and doesn’t want to relive the heartache of their first break-up. She’s changed, Alice points out, but Sumi points out that she changed too. She’s not the person who took Alice on her first date with Meera — and, to her credit, she apologizes for having done that — but insists that she’s not that person anymore. She adds, “The only part of that person I want to be is the part that is still in love with you.”

Somehow Alice doesn’t swoon at Sumi’s overture, resisting the urge to fall back into old patterns. It’s too much of a risk for Alice and, instead, she tells Sumi that they’re better off as friends.

Meanwhile, Malika’s internship at Dignity & Power Now is approaching its end and DPN approaches her with an offer of a full-time position. She doesn’t accept right away, though: she’s been approached by Angelica’s ex, Councilwoman Lucia Morales, and offered a position on her staff. While Malika never imagined herself outside the activist space, the opportunity to bring lasting change through legislation and public funding is appealing and she wants time to consider it. She keeps the news of DPN’s job offer from Dyonte…who she wants to save from believing that he’s DPN’s second choice, in case she decides not to take the City Council job.

It’s a kind gesture, one far kinder than Dyonte deserves because when he hears about the job offer from Councilwoman Morales, he nearly accuses Malika of selling out. He believes that politicians play lip service to the important issues during their campaigns and then work to uphold the status quo once in office. And listen, Dyonte might be right — the fact that Councilwoman Lucia Morales is played by the actress that played Adele on from latter seasons of The L Word makes me immediately skeptical — but, after the conflict that he and Malika had about her not feeling supported, you’d think he’d silence his own misgivings and simply offer her his support, but apparently not.

Later, Malika’s out on a date with Angelica and talk of Malika’s job situation — and, by extension, Angelica’s ex and Malika’s boyfriend — dominates the conversation. Malika presses Angelica to find out if Councilwoman Morales is worth giving up her role as an activist for and Angelica admits that Lucia is passionate about changing the system. Angelica thinks they would work well together. Later, she pivots back to Dyonte and advises Malika to do what’s best for her and trust that Dyonte’s resilient enough to land on his own two feet. It is, in some ways, understandable to have conversations about your exes early in your relationship but here it feels like so heavy that it inadvertently tamps down the chemistry that’s been building between this pair. Between that and Angelica’s ambivalence about Malika’s polyamory: I’m not sure how long for this world their relationship is.

The next day at DPN, Imani tells Dyonte he’s earned the full-time position at DPN, which unbeknownst to him, Malika had already turned down. She’s going to work for the City Councilwoman and views it as an opportunity to continue the work she’s started at DPN. She promises not to compromise herself or her beliefs as she tries to change the system from within. Eventually, they just agree to disagree and settle back into their relationship…and one night, after the couple says goodnight, who would reappear at the Coterie but Isaac?!

Now that’s how a cliffhanger is supposed to work!

Good Trouble Coterie Sundries

+ Callie is confronted by her shortcomings this episode — with a special guest appearance by Judge Wilson — and is reminded that she doesn’t always have to take the most complicated way out. For years, she’s been adapting to the situations that she finds herself in and now she’s stuck in reaction mode. Wilson urges her to leave her safe cocoon and bet on herself.

Judge Wilson: It’s time for you to believe that you can be more than just the Callie Adams Foster that we all know…and love.
Callie: What if I can’t? What if this is the best I’ll ever be? As good as it gets
Judge Wilson: I don’t believe anything’s as good as it gets. You have the power to make every day better. To let go of everything and everyone who’s holding you down. You deserve the moon and the stars. You just have to have the courage to reach for them.

This exchange is, perhaps, Maia Mitchell’s best work of the series. Unfortunately, the whole thing is a figament of Callie’s imagination so who knows how much of this means anything — is Maia Mitchell leaving the Fosters-verse or is Callie leaving Kathleen Gale and Associates? — but one thing’s for sure: Callie Adams Foster most definitely needs to be in therapy.

+ Isabella and the baby are fine but her drop in blood pressure and the need to be rushed to the hospital pushes Gael to finally make the decisions he needs to make. He and Callie break up — he cares for her but admits she deserves more than what he can give right now — and Gael asserts himself in his relationship with Isabella and in his future child’s life.

+ Last we checked in on Mariana, things at Bulk Beauty had become untenable and she was looking for a way out, facillitated by her new BFF, Zelda Grant. But when she sits down at the interview with Revitalize Beauty, their pitch is identical to Bulk Beauty…and, coincidentally, it’s being funded by Jackie Morton at the Hallis Group…the same would-be investor that rejected the pitch from BB.

Tired of being Claire’s punching bag, she gives BB her notice. Claire fights back until finally Rachel and Gina stand up and say enough. They all acknowledge that they work better with Mariana than without her and even Claire concedes the point. Besides, she admits, holding a grudge is exhausting…and just like that, the fight is over. But before Mariana can rejoin the partners, she confesses that she interviewed elsewhere. They concoct a plan to infiltrate and destroy Revitalize Beauty: starting with getting Mariana that job as the project manager.

Mariana goes to Jackie directly and pitches herself for the job. Jackie assumes that she’s coming to threaten Hallis Group with a lawsuit because of the similarities between Revitalize and Bulk Beauty but Mariana overwhelms her with evidence that she’d be great for the job. She tells Jackie that she’s separated herself from her partners at Bulk Beauty because she didn’t want to continue to be tarnished by their bad reputations. Mariana even produces a glowing recommendation from Evan Speck to bolster her case. She gets the job so apparently Mariana’s going to be practicing corporate espionage next season?

But wait, there’s a plot twist: after confirming that he sent the recommendation, Evan asks Mariana to talk…but who would be sitting right over his shoulder as he awaits her answer? Jackie Morton.

+ In one of my favorite scenes of the season, Dennis shares the news of his success with Davia: he’s officially licensed to operate a food truck. None of it would be possible without Davia, Dennis tearfully acknowledges…not the license, not the food truck, not his life. She saved him. Later Davia watches Dennis and I think, finally, she’s going to recognize that Dennis has learned to deal with his grief without it eclipsing him. But when she sings “Breathe Again,” she thinks of Dennis and Matt and I have no idea who she’s going to choose.

+ Listen, y’all know I love a good musical performance…and Emma Hunton looked and sounded AMAZING…but did I need to hear that rendition of “Breathe Again?” No, I did not…especially at the expense of actually finding out if Davia chose Matt or Dennis!

Good Trouble returns for its fourth season in 2022. Until then, catch-up on Hulu or the Freeform app.

“Good Trouble” Episode 318 Recap: Queer Love Connections

There’s a moment in this week’s episode of Good Trouble that made me salivate over the possibilities of a genuine love triangle between three queer Asian women again: it’s early morning at the Coterie and Sumi steps out into the hallway in her pajamas. At the other end of the hall, Ruby steps out of Alice’s loft, fully dressed. She’s wearing the same thing she had on when Sumi saw her last so it’s clear that Ruby spent the night… and now the two competitors for Alice’s heart have a showdown in the hall. If Ruby knows she’s competing with Sumi, she doesn’t let on: there’s not an ounce of shame in her walk to the Coterie elevator. Sumi tries to put on a brave face — exchanging pleasantries laced with a hint of disdain — but her disappointment is palpable.

I loved this scene and, despite my tremendous misgivings about how we got to this moment, I wanted more of this. I wanted more of Ruby’s swagger, Sumi’s jealousy and Alice being a BAWSE, having these two women compete for her affection. Three Asian lesbians in a love triangle? YES, PLEASE. I wanted it despite myself.

But it was too much to hope for, really: after all, Good Trouble already has one too many love triangles on-screen and prolonging another for the sake of entertainment — no matter how groundbreaking — would’ve just been too much. So, by the time Ruby and Sumi have their showdown in the hallway, the triangle is already over.

Yes, Ruby spent the night with Alice but, in the light of day, Alice realizes that she made a mistake. She’d offered comfort to Ruby because Alice didn’t want to be another in a string of disappointments for her, which, at once, feels crueler than anything Alice has ever done and yet exactly what you’d expect Alice to do. But when Ruby wakes up with hope that their relationship can grow from this, Alice sets the record straight: her heart’s just not in it (she leaves out the part where she’s possibly falling in love with her first ex-girlfriend, again).

“I hope we can still be friends,” Alice asks, meekly.

And, in a sign that Good Trouble definitely has some gays in its writers’ room, Ruby answers back, “Of course. I mean, what kind of lesbians would we be if we didn’t stay friends after breaking up?”

But, of course, Sumi doesn’t know this when she spots Ruby in the hall and later, when she and Alice cross paths in the Coterie kitchen, all she really knows is that Ruby spent the night in Alice’s loft. She asks about Ruby — offering Alice the opportunity to clarify the relationship between them — but Alice doesn’t recognize the opening for what it is and, instead, laments that Ruby’s been forced to resign her position at CBTV. Alice does try to pivot back to the personal: she asks Sumi to talk about their Lunar New Year kiss but Sumi dismisses it as the byproduct of a little too much baijiu (Alexa, play that song that goes, “Blame it on the a-a-a-a-a-alcohol.”).

Sumi heads for safer ground, urging Alice to find a way to save the comedy showcase. Alice reminds her ex that they don’t have a director and Sumi encourages her to ask Margaret Cho. Alice dismisses that outright: Margaret Cho’s too famous and too busy to have time to direct the showcase. Plus, after Alice called Margaret out for her inaction, Alice doesn’t think she’ll be receptive to the invitation, given that Margaret Cho blocked her on social media. But even as Alice is content to wallow, Sumi is undeterred: “where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

The way, as it turns out, is to lie. With an assist from Ruby, Sumi meets up with Margaret Cho, pretending to be a reporter from Heysian Gaysian, an online quarterly that focuses on queer Asian representation in Hollywood…which is definitely a thing Magaret Cho and I would subscribe to, if such a thing existed. With Alice feeding her questions from a nearby car, Sumi tries to interview Margaret Cho about her interview with the Hollywood Reporter and the ramifications for the CBTV program. But, of course, it turns into a comedy of errors: Alice bungles the questions or talks too fast or talks while Margaret’s trying to answer a question, leaving Sumi to improvise in front of Margaret. It’s a big mess. Eventually, Margaret Cho catches on and invites whomever’s on the other side of Sumi’s earpiece into the diner to tell her what’s really going on.

Alice slides into the diner booth next to Sumi and explains the reasoning behind their elaborate scheme: there’s no way CBTV would cancel the showcase if Margaret agreed to be the director. Unfortunately, time is not on their side: he showcase is just a week away and there’s no way that Margaret could fit directing into the projects she’s already juggling. Alice accepts defeat as a casualty of things eventually getting better and hopes she didn’t burn down her dreams in the process. The girls walk out, dejected, but Sumi rushes back in to get her phone…or, at least, that’s what she tells Alice. Instead, she sits back down with Margaret Cho and makes one final pitch to get the famed comedienne’s help.

“Let’s face it: one article in the Hollywood Reporter, blowing the whistle on a program that you participated in and profited from doesn’t make you a hero,” Sumi states plainly, before making a more emotional plea. “And I know you’re a hero because you showed me and Alice and every other Asian girl that we can be strong and funny and in charge. You inspired us, and now is not the time to let us down.”

Later, Alice joins her fellow CBTV comedians to hear about the fate of the showcase. She apologizes for the way that everyone found out about her relationship with Ruby but assures them that their relationship wasn’t why Alice had gotten into the program. Cooler heads have, seemingly, prevailed and most of the comics are more understanding than they seemed originally. Even Lindsay — who would be completely justified in having animosity towards Alice — stands up for her and asserts that Alice deserved her place in the program. The lone holdout is Derek, who remains critical of Alice’s role in bringing the program to its potential demise. It’s at that moment that it finally clicks for Alice: Derek is the one who told Scott about her relationship with Ruby.

The revelation causes tempers to flare until the CBTV HR director interrupts. She delivers what sounds like bad news — the showcase can’t go on without a director — but then introduces the new director: Margaret Cho! As everyone celebrates the news, Alice asks what changed Margaret’s mind and she admits Alice’s stunt with Sumi deserved to be rewarded. She tells Alice that Sumi is a keeper and, bashfully, Alice admits that she already knows that.

I take that admission as a sign that Alice will persist. Sumi’s grand gesture — one of the greatest romantic tropes — speaks far louder than anything she said earlier about their kiss. Alice’s affirmation has to mean that she’ll leave rehearsals, she’ll find Sumi and they’ll finally have an honest conversation about their feelings, right? Oh, if only.

Later, Alice and Sumi toast the success of their stunt on the Coterie rooftop. Sumi also offers credit to Ruby — who, apparently, is just living rent free in Sumi’s head at this point — and Alice shares that Margaret got Ruby re-instated as co-director. Sumi asks about the potential conflict of interest, given Alice’s relationship with Ruby…and it’s the opening I’ve been waiting for. All Alice has to do is tell Sumi the truth: she and Ruby have decided to just be friends and confess that her heart belongs to Sumi, but Alice doesn’t do it. Sharing these moments with Sumi has brought back the memories of their shared past…including good moments like their first date at a seniors’ swimming class and their bad ones, like Sumi cheating and the fallout from the heartbreak. The pain’s been made real again and Alice just isn’t ready to risk that again.

But while Alice’s queer love connection may have failed this week, Malika’s is just getting started.

Malika is still playing host to Yvonne’s children at the Coterie and, as a result, switches her schedule to work the afternoon shift at Douro. She rants to Angelica about how holding Yvonne in jail — over what is, apparently, a clerical error — is grossly unfair and puts the family’s entire life at risk. Angelica volunteers to ask her friend on the city council for help and Malika welcomes any help she could provide. That friend on the City Council? It’s actually Angelica’s ex. And when Angelica casually says she’s “on the city council,” she really means she’s on the City Council…her ex is Councilwoman Lucia Morales. Angelica calls in a favor and secures Yvonne’s release…much to her kids and Malika’s delight.

With the crisis averted and Angelica’s queerness confirmed, Malika presses her on whether or not their hike was meant to be a date. They do this dance around each other — the directing in this scene is particularly good — which only fuels the tension building between them. Angelica acknowledges that she wanted it to be a date but she didn’t want make assumptions. Malika admits that she didn’t know if she wanted it to be a date, at first, because she’d never dated a woman before…and, of course, Angelica seizes on the “at first” part of her answer (which, again: proof that Good Trouble has gays in its writers’ room).

“I would like to go on a date with you,” Malika confesses. “But I’d want to ask you properly, you know? Just so there’s no question in either of our minds what we’re doing.”

Malika steps into Angelica’s physical space, ostensibly to grab another glass to clean, before stepping back and waiting for Angelica to respond. It’s a power move — it’s a top-off, actually — that I don’t entirely buy a newly queer person making, but, on the other hand, it’s very, very hot so I’m willing to overlook it. Angelica grabs Malika’s hand and pulls her back towards her and…just so there’s no confusion…they kiss. It’s all very, very hot…and Flavia’s “Blue” is the absolute perfect song to soundtrack the moment…and I can’t wait to see what happens with Angelica and Malika.

Good Trouble Coterie Sundries

+ I suspect that, due to COVID protocols, it must be easier for Good Trouble (and shows like it) to keep storylines siloed from each other…but as I watched Alice grapple with her past and a potential future with Sumi and Malika navigate her first romantic feelings for a woman, I couldn’t help but think about how both those characters (and their storylines) could’ve benefitted from some time together. Their friendship has always been a grounding force…and it would’ve been helpful to lean on it here.

+ There was a brief moment in “Shame” where Gael admits that he and Isabella can’t raise a baby in the Coterie — a point that was, seemingly, re-emphasized last week as they met with his parents — but this week, we got to see a bit of what it might look like if they tried. It was pretty adorable, actually. Everyone at the Coterie pitches in to help get Yvonne’s kids ready for school…and for a moment, I thought, “well, this could actually work. They could totally raise the baby here.”

But, of course, just as I start to imagine the possibility, Isabella starts to experience cramping and bleeding…and she and I both fear she’s about to have a miscarriage?

+ I know part of the Autotraddle TV Team brand is “make it gay, you cowards” but this week when they revealed that Tommy and the boy he allegedly killed, Zach, were secretly gay for each other…that just felt unnecessary?

+ The girls at Bulk Beauty continue to profit off of Mariana’s hard work — she helps them secure a second brand partnership with Like Nature — but instead of offering her seat back at the table, they extend minimal thanks and usher her back to work on the algorithm. But what becomes increasingly clear, after Mariana salvages the pitch meeting, is that Claire’s the only member of the Bulk Beauty team unwilling to give Mariana the credit she’s earned. Gina suspects the root of Claire’s disdain for Mariana lies with Raj — who Claire is now dating — so Mariana sets out to make things right with them both…not to regain her partnership, mind you, but to simply make amends with her friends.

But the problem for Claire was never Raj, it was always Mariana: the lies she told and the way she’d undermined Claire when she was appointed team leader. Mariana doesn’t call Claire out on her bullshit — refraining from pointing out that Claire was the lead because Mariana was penalized for something they were all complicit in or noting that Claire holds Mariana responsible for undermining her but not the person who did the actual undermining or the way the girls wouldn’t advocate for pay equity for Speckulate’s staff members of color — and it annoys me to no end. Thankfully, though, she recognizes that the situation is untenable and hits Zelda up about that job interview.

Next Week: The Good Trouble Season Three Finale!

“Good Trouble” Episode 317 Recap: Do You Get a Queer Vibe?

This is a recap of Good Trouble episode 317: “Anticipation.”

What a difference one week makes. After a disappointing episode last week that felt disconnected from the character development we’ve witnessed over three seasons, Good Trouble returns to form this week. Whereas “Opening Statements” showcased plot-driven characters, “Anticipation” focused on character-driven plots, building upon stories that Good Trouble has been telling since its earliest episodes.

For Gael, the focus is back on his tenuous relationship with his family, a hallmark of the character’s storyline since season one. With his sister Jazmin at his side, Gael returns home to tell his parents and grandfather that their family is growing: he’s about to become a father. It’s clear Gael’s faced his parents’ disapproval before — he’s prepared to set boundaries and keeps Jazmin close by for support — but I am, admittedly, stung when his father’s immediate reaction to finding out he’s going to be a grandfather is, “I knew this bisexual thing was a phase.”

I should’ve expected that from Gael’s father. As much as I’d hoped that his father’s brush with death would make Hector a better father to his trans daughter and bisexual son, he wasn’t going to change overnight. But still, hearing his biphobia jump out — before he could even express excitement about his first grandchild — was jarring…honest, but jarring.

To his credit, Gael corrects his father’s misperception and pivots to explaining his complicated situation with Isabella: yes, they’re having a baby. No, Isabella isn’t his girlfriend. And, hell no, they’re not getting married. Despite pushback from his parents, Gael holds firm to his boundaries, fully willing to cut them out of the baby’s life if they can’t respect his choices. He lets it slip that the baby’s a “she” and his mother seizes on it but he corrects her too: they will not gender their child. His father scoffs at that — another indication that his phobias aren’t a thing of the past — and Jazmin notes that while it wasn’t her idea, she’s supportive of how Gael’s choosing to raise his child. Gael’s grandfather interrupts his parents’ inquisition and offers his support: he can’t wait to become a great-grandfather. For now, though, Gael’s mother just wants to meet the baby’s mother.

Gael’s not immediately sold on the idea of introducing his parents to Isabella. He worries, of course, that his parents won’t respect his boundaries but also that Isabella won’t adhere to those boundaries either. Her parents have, effectively, abandoned her and the baby — unwilling to respond even when Isabella sends them baby’s first ultrasound — and Gael recognizes that the potential for his parents to fill that void. But Isabella assures him that her job is to have his back and commits to respecting his boundaries.

Isabella joins the Martinez family for dinner and, surprisingly, it goes better than expected. Jazmin brings her boyfriend, Spencer, to dinner as well to run interference and take some of the pressure off Isabella. Their parents volley back and forth in questioning their children’s partners: asking Isabella about her relationship with her parents and Spencer about his career. Isabella keeps her promise to respect Gael’s boundaries with his parents but, as the night progresses, Gael wonders if that’s fair since she is clearly craving that parental support. But Jazmin warns him to be careful: if Gael gives their parents an inch, they’re liable to take a mile.

It doesn’t take long for Gael’s parents to prove Jazmin right. They wade into a conversation about Isabella’s living arrangements — Gael admits that she’s living alone in his loft, while he crashes with a friend — and it’s clear Gael’s parents want to intercede. Isabella reminds them that she’d be doing what millions of other single mothers do but they tell her that she’s got them to lean on (actually, Gael’s dad’s exact words are “you’re not single” which, I imagine would’ve made Callie’s head explode). Gael eases his parental boundaries for Isabella so she’ll have all the support she needs and the relief is palpable on Isabella’s face.

No sooner does Gael open that door, though, than his mother goes charging through it: offering to host a baby shower. At that, Gael sends a clear sign for help to Jazmin across the table and she tries to keep their mother from doing too much. Then Jazmin adds to the family’s excitement: she and Spencer are engaged to be married. There’s a moment of stunned disbelief on Hector’s face — one that, thank goodness, everyone else at the table seems too elated to notice — but then he pivots, giving Spencer his blessing to marry his daughter.

Through all this, I’m struck by how great Isabella and Gael work together as partners. I don’t know if they’d behave similarly in a romantic context but the difference between Gael’s relationship with Callie and his relationship with Isabella is noteworthy. She and Gael communicate well, they make concessions for the other when needed and are willing to put the other person’s happiness first. She fits into this world — a world that Gael has always coveted, a world that he’s longed to see restored — seamlessly and it’s hard to imagine Callie fitting in as well…especially given her first meeting with Gael’s mom. Unwilling to drop two bombs on his family at once, Gael neglects to mention his relationship with Callie to his parents, but when Gael’s mother decides to stop by his loft with a gift for Isabella, she catches the couple mid-embrace. The secret is out!

Oh, Gael, you should’ve listened to Jazmin.

I suppose, if you asked most Good Trouble fans about Malika’s arc over three seasons, they’d mention something about her social justice work. Beginning with her advocacy in the Jamal Thompson case to her work with Dignity and Power Now (DPN), activism has been part of her identity since we first met her. But when you talk about the growth and development of the character, I think Malika’s arc has always been about learning to let herself be loved.

Still bearing the scars of her youth, she’s learned how to love over three seasons, with her chosen family at the Coterie, in rebuilding relationships with her father and brother and, of most notably, with Isaac. He kept showing up, ensuring that the ground beneath her wouldn’t shift, and finally she felt secure enough to love someone else and to let herself be loved. Then along came Dyonte…who opened up Malika’s worldview to the possibility that love could extend beyond one person. And now there’s Angelica, who’s challenging her to think beyond mono-sexuality. I mention all that because, while there’s been a lot of pushback about Malika’s exploration of polyamory and, now, her sexuality, it feels like a natural progression of Malika’s character. Each person contributing to a fuller understanding of what love is.

But I’m getting ahead of myself…let’s talk about this week’s happenings…

Malika’s meeting with Dyonte’s primary partner, Tanya, before her work shift starts to discuss her campaign at DPN. Angelica interrupts, delivering two freshly made empanadas — that Malika never asked for, mind you — to the pair as they do their work. Malika introduces Angelica to Tanya and Angelica disappears as quickly as she came. As soon as she’s out of earshot, Malika asks Tanya if she gets a “queer vibe” from Angelica.

Tanya: Do you get a queer vibe?
Malika: I don’t know. I mean, she asked me to go on a hike, but I just kind of wonder if it’s a date.
Tanya: What if it was? Would you be open to that?
Malika: I mean, I’ve never dated a woman, but I guess I wouldn’t be closed to it if the chemistry was there.
Tanya: Is it?
(Camera pans to Angelica, glancing back at Malika and flashing a bright flirtatious smile.)
Malika: I don’t know, maybe.

There is no maybe about it, though: these girls have electric chemistry between them (though, in fairness, it might also be the case that Zuri Adele would have chemistry with a potted plant). Though Malika tries to play it coy, the fact that she wears Chucks instead of hiking boots to her outing with Angelica suggests that she’s in the “fashion over function” stage of impressing your crush.

On the hike, Angelica invites Malika to unplug and enjoy the beautiful scenery around them. Malika begrudgingly agrees and puts away her phone for the rest of the outing. Soon thereafter, talk turns personal: Malika learns that Angelica’s not seeing anyone and Angelica learns that Malika’s in a poly relationship with Dyonte. Malika realizes that she’s said too much but Angelica wants to know everything. She tells Malika that she finds her intriguing and Malika assures Angelica that the feeling is definitely mutual. How this couple didn’t spark a wildfire from all the sparks between them, I don’t know.

They finally settle on a rock, overlooking the city, and Malika thanks Angelica for inviting her on a hike. It looks, for a second, like they’re about to share their first kiss but nerves get the better of her and she invites Angelica back to the Coterie instead. But waiting for them when they return are Yvonne’s three children: their mother’s been arrested again and they had no where else to go. The kids throw a wretch in Angelica and Malika’s plans and their date ends abruptly.

The queering of Malika Williams will have to wait for another day.

Coterie Sundries

+ My heart broke for Davia this week as she experienced a relapse of her eating disorder. It was a really great performance by Emma Hunton. After receiving clothes from an online shopping service — some of which she fits, some of which she doesn’t — she gets some positive feedback and falls back into old habits to ensure all the clothes fit. Davia’s mother, who has long been a trigger for Davia’s self-loathing, even reappears to compliment her daughter’s weight loss. Dennis recognizes what Davia’s doing and tries to help but she foists the blame on him instead, so he reaches out to his competition for Davia’s heart, Matt, to ensure that Davia has someone to lean on.

+ Unfulfilled by her work at Kathleen’s law firm, Mariana returns to Bulk Beauty, only this time as a coder in an effort to regain the girls’ trust. But Mariana’s contribution to the Byte Club wasn’t just her coding abilities, it was her ability to be the face of the brand…and the girls are definitely missing it. They need Mariana’s help to secure a meeting with Zelda Barnes, an influencer, and one of her brands and Mariana proves invaluable when it comes time to pitch. Mariana’s barely thanked for her efforts and begins to wonder if the girls will ever forgive her for her past missteps.

Listen, I understand the need to do penance when you’ve wronged someone but this feels gross…particularly since Mariana’s the lone woman of color on the team. I hope Mariana finds a new job soon.

+ Desperate to quash the introduction of a video that would implicate their client in a murder, Kathleen and Callie scramble to find some legal pretense…and, magically, it shows up on Callie’s doorstep. This is the third time — if you include Jamie’s files — that Callie’s happened upon compelling evidence at crucial moments. Why not let her actually be good at her job rather than just being lucky?

Next Week: Callie and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

“Good Trouble” Episode 316 Recap: Two Steps Back

This is a recap of Good Trouble episode 316: “Opening Statements.”

After last week’s episode of Good Trouble, I was excited. It feels like we throw around the word “groundbreaking” too capriciously these days but with this burgeoning queer love triangle between Ruby, Alice and Sumi, it felt appropriate. Television doesn’t tell the stories of queer Asian characters nearly enough and to have three in one storyline — each one side of this love triangle — it felt like Good Trouble was truly breaking new ground. As a critic, that excites me.

As a fan of the show, I tried to sit down and imagine who’d be the better match for Alice. I have, admittedly, been a fan of Ruby’s since she sauntered onto our screens. There was something about her swagger and confidence…and how she’s locked in on Alice from the very beginning, both personally and professionally. Long before agents and talent deals were at stake, Ruby recognized Alice’s talent as a comedian and pushed her to try out for the CBTV workshop. She failed Alice when it came to the workshop and, as Alice herself pointed out, it’s hard to rebound from that sort of betrayal.

That said, it might be slightly easier than rebounding from Sumi’s betrayal which involved cheating on Alice, especially since their Lunar New Year kiss proves that she’s still not above kissing someone who isn’t their partner. Still, though, Alice and Sumi have a history — she’s Alice’s first love — and it’s hard to compete with that. There’s an effortlessness to their chemistry, the kind that’s honed by years of connection. I’m still uncertain about her on-screen personality transplant but, for now, she’s loving and supportive of Alice in exactly the way that Alice needs.

I don’t know who Alice should choose and, as a fan of the show, that excites me.

But then came “Opening Statements,” which disappointed me so much, both as a critic and a fan, that it squashed most of my enthusiasm for this love triangle. Clearly, I was tempting the wrath of the TV Gods by being so excited about a romantic storyline; I jinxed us all. That said, as is Good Trouble‘s wont, when the show disappoints in one area, it gives me something else to latch on to…and in this case, it’s my favorite “something else:” more queer women.

This week, Alice walks into the workshop’s auditorium and immediately runs into Lindsay. She’s flustered — memories of her kiss with Sumi (AKA Lindsay’s girlfriend) flash in her head — and doesn’t hide it well. Thankfully, Scott arrives and saves Alice from herself. He shares the list of sketches for the CBTV showcase. Cuts were made, Scott announces, and much to her surprise, Alice’s sketch wasn’t among the casualties. She celebrates with the other comedians but not everyone’s happy: Derek’s sketch got cut and, instead of working with the others to bolster his role in their sketches, he sulks out of the auditorium.

The next day, Scott returns to the workshop with good news. He’s secured five extra minutes for the showcase so Derek’s sketch gets added back. But the celebration is short-lived: Scott and the writers have re-written the sketches to be “woke” and “inoffensive.” Translation: Scott strips the unique perspective offered by the comedians from underrepresented communities and makes it as bland and generic as possible. He and the writers are amused by the results. Ruby, Alice and the other comedians? Notsomuch.

“Scott took all of the substance out of our sketches,” Magda laments.

“And all of the funny,” Lindsay adds.

“A week ago, he thought racism was hilarious, now we can’t even mention anything cultural,” Shaun notes.

“We can do these jokes because they’re our experiences and our risk to take,” Stacey points out, before directing her comment at Alice. “No offense but you told us to give him another chance and for what?”

After Sanjana announces her desire to quit, Alice rallies the group. Scott said he was willing to have the tough conversations so Alice suggests they take him up on his offer. Lindsay’s skeptical that it’ll help anything but Alice presses on. Derek suggests that everyone just performs the sketches as written and just be satisfied with the exposure which Alice’s dismisses outright. They’ve been through too much, Alice points out, not to fight to do the showcase that they want to do. The other comics, begrudgingly, agree to have a conversation with Scott about preserving their sketches as they wrote them.

Admittedly, I’m unsure why Alice is defending Scott and the workshop so much: it’s entirely predictable that Scott won’t yield to the comedians’ pushback. If the suggestion is that Alice is preserving this for Ruby — based on the earlier suggestion that her job’s at stake — it’s not made clear in “Opening Statements.” Ruby is silent through most of the back-and-forth between the comedians, chiming in only to invite CBTV’s HR Director to the sit-down with Scott. How is she, the program’s co-director, not more active in this conversation? If she’s pressuring Alice to keep the program afloat, where’s that interaction? It feels like a missing piece of this storyline.

The meeting with Scott goes exactly as I expected. Alice calmly lays out the comedians objections — “with…all of your rewrites, you took out the social and cultural commentary that made the sketches funny to begin with” — and Scott defends his efforts to curate an inclusive showcase. He points out this what Alice said she wanted but she insists that he’s overcorrected. Shaun and Stacey both chime in that as a cis white man, he’s not in the best position to judge what they would find offensive. He ponders their criticism for a moment and then lashes out: no matter what he does, he can’t win. He throws a tantrum and leaves the “lunatics to run the asylum.”

Before he walks out, though he lobs one last bomb into the program: “FYI, your fearless leader, Alice, is only in this program because she was banging the casting director and still is.”

Dismayed, Sanjana asks if Scott’s revelation is true and Ruby’s driven to tears. Alice admits to the relationship but assures the group that they were only casual. Derek chimes in with his two cents: Alice encouraged the group to talk to Scott only in an effort to save her girlfriend’s job. The revelation, Derek surmises, erodes all the trust that all the comedians had in Alice…and while she sits silently, accepting their disapproval, I’m at home, screaming “WHAT?!” at my television. None of this makes sense!

Alice’s entire story arc on Good Trouble has been about building up her confidence and learning how to stand up for herself and it feels like a total regression that she doesn’t do that here. It’s particularly unfathomable that neither she nor Ruby would defend themselves in this situation because the allegation just isn’t true. Yes, they hooked up but Alice hasn’t been banging Ruby this entire time — much to my chagrin — and Ruby isn’t the reason that she got into the program. Alice earned her spot in the program thanks to the unanimous approval of the judging panel.

If the show’s staying true to the history, the mere suggestion that she didn’t earn her spot should’ve drawn Alice’s ire. But if the show’s crafting a new narrative, contrary to what’s played out on screen, it should, at the very least, be addressed between Alice and Ruby (and yet it isn’t) and, at worst, it should lead to some serious self-doubt from Alice (it doesn’t).

But also? Alice walked out of the program. She stood up for herself and the other comedians when they were too afraid to do so. It was her bravery that inspired Margaret Cho to speak out about the program. If Ruby’s job was such a concern to Alice, why would she have walked out in the first place? None of it makes sense…none of it reflects the characters we’ve come to know…and, worst of all, it derails my enthusiasm for this entire storyline.

Alice returns to the Coterie and finds Lindsay there with Sumi. She questions whether they were the one who told Scott about her relationship with Ruby — clearly, it was Derek! — and Lindsay’s taken aback by the allegation. Alice guesses that they’re motived by jealousy…but, instead of confessing to her Lunar New Year kiss with Sumi — much to Sumi’s relief — she recalls that Lindsay never wanted her in the program in the first place. But Lindsay sees through Alice’s weak cover-up. They respond, “well, our talk with Scott — the one you thought was going to be such a great idea — derailed the program so that’s not going to be an issue anymore. And I’m pretty sure whatever is going on between you and Sumi just derailed our relationship too.”

After Lindsay walks out, Alice asks Sumi what happened and Sumi admits that they just broke up. It wasn’t because of their kiss, Sumi assures her, it was because things between her and Lindsay weren’t working out. She confesses that she lost respect for Lindsay when they didn’t have Alice’s back during the walkout. Sumi tries to initiate a conversation about their kiss but before the exes can address it, Ruby walks in and asks Alice to talk.

Alone, Ruby reveals that she’s been asked to resign — “WHAT?!” I yell at my television — and that the showcase will likely be cancelled this year. There’s no mention of Scott’s allegation at all or the other comedians’ reaction to it….which, again, is bizarre if we’re suppose to believe that Ruby masterminded Alice’s admittance into the program for a relationship that she, at the time, said she didn’t want. Ruby apologizes that things are ending this way but hopes that things aren’t ending for them. She admits that she didn’t like the person the CBTV job turned her into and expresses regret for not having Alice’s back all along. She asks for Alice’s forgiveness and for another chance at a relationship.

We don’t get to hear Alice’s answer this week…and, after this mess of an episode, I’m not sure I even care.

Coterie Sundries

+ Good Trouble newest queer character? Angelica, Malika’s brand new colleague at Douro. She doesn’t come right out and announce it, of course, but the way she flirts with Malika — including buying her a rose to cheer her up after she doesn’t secure a grant for her campaign to help incarcerated mothers — is unmistakable. Until now, Malika’s only expressed an interest in men but perhaps her foray into polyamory has opened her up to all other possibilities. She has to, right? I mean, no one, not even Dyonte, could ignore the sparks between the two co-workers.

+ Perhaps the most relatable moment of this episode: Mariana running into her ex-boyfriend, Raj, with his new girlfriend and Mariana’s former business partner, Claire. Everyone’s polite — well, except the way Raj immediately drops Claire’s hand, that’s cold! — but when they ask the other what they’re up to now, everyone lies. You can’t have your ex (boyfriend or business partner) believing you’re not better off without them so, of course, they spin fantastical tales: everything at Bulk Beauty is great and Mariana is indispensable in her new role at the law firm. Somehow, though, Mariana assumes that’s Claire’s being honest — c’mon Mariana, that’s not how it works! — and laments that Bulk Beauty is better off without her.

+ Tommy’s trial gets underway this week and Callie gets very upset at her ex-boyfriend, Jamie, for the sin of…um….*checks notes*…doing his job. Her accusations about ethical violations ring especially hollow when you recall that the only reason Jamie has this job is because of Callie’s ethical violations which she’s never been held accountable for.

Good Trouble’s Sherry Cola on Queer Asian Love Stories and Making Her Mom Proud

Pause for a second and think about some of your favorite queer Asian characters on television. I’ll forgive you if it’s a little difficult: according to GLAAD’s most recent “Where We Are On TV” report, only about eight percent of the LGBTQ characters on broadcast, cable and streaming television are Asian-Pacific Islander (28 characters).

Izzie from Atypical. Grace Choi from Black Lightning. Leila from The Bisexual. Adina El-Amin from The Bold Type. Kalinda Sharma from The Good Wife. Emily Fields from Pretty Little Liars. Brook Soso from Orange is the New Black. Arthie Premkumar from G.L.O.W. Nico Minoru from Runaways.

No matter what queer Asian character you thought of chances are one thing about them will be true: they will be in an interracial relationship. And while there’s nothing wrong with interracial love stories, what does it say about the lens through which we view queer racial identity that this is the story that Hollywood tells so often? Can the world not tolerate more than one queer Asian person at a time? What’s more: doesn’t it suggest — however unwittingly — that queer Asian people aren’t loved by their own communities? This season on Good Trouble, they’re rewriting the rulebook about what’s possible when it comes to queer Asian relationships on television by creating a love triangle featuring three queer Asian characters. To call it groundbreaking feels like a profound understatement.

I got to talk about Good Trouble star Sherry Cola about the Sumi/Alice/Ruby triangle and her pivotal role in creating and starring in the “Lunar New Year” episode.

Natalie: I talked to Joanna [Johnson, Good Trouble executive producer] a couple of weeks ago about what it’s meant to tell Alice’s story at this particular moment in our country’s history. For you, that must feel intensely personal. How’s it been to navigate telling these stories?

Sherry: First of all, Joanna Johnson is my queen. As the creator/producer/showrunner, she’s definitely seen my fire and my passion as Sherry and she honors and respects that in Good Trouble and it truly means a lot. Alice and I have a lot of parallels, you know, we’re both, we’re both Asian, we’re both women and I believe we’re both immigrants. For so long society, didn’t root for those things, but now I’m fully embracing and celebrating these identities. I’ve never felt more liberated to be honest. As Sherry, I feel a hundred percent whole for the first time in my life, just so proud of who I am and the fact that I get to tell these stories.

For this “Lunar New Year” episode, we started this process of filming at the end of March in the midst of the anti-Asian hate crimes. It was very emotional for me to be shooting this episode in the middle of all of these thoughts and all of these feelings, coping with the trauma and being worried for my community [while also] at the same time, trying to fight for my community. I’m really grateful to Joanna giving me this episode and actually allowing me to have the freedom to write Alice’s speech after she does the lion dance. I was really speaking from the heart and it was just — tears, true tears, real tears — because of everything we’ve gone through.

Good Trouble has been ahead of the time, period. From everything we touch on Black Lives Matter, trans rights, equal pay, etc., now, the queer audience experience. We make sure the audience does not feel left out in any way. The representation on this show is something that every single whole TV show to learn from. I’m not the same person I was before Good Trouble. This show has taught me so much, so I’m beyond grateful.

Natalie: I totally agree with you about Good Trouble. It feels like a show that really takes diversity seriously in an organic way compared to other shows, which are just trying to like check the diversity boxes. I really loved this “Lunar New Year” episode. I think it did a great job of really balancing kind of educating the audience — who, may not know what Lunar New Year is — while also being a really entertaining episode. Can you tell me a little bit about how this episode came about and your role in bringing it to fruition?

Sherry: Honestly, I’ve been telling Joanna I want a Lunar New Year episode and she gave it to me and I just on Cloud Nine about it. It was such a gift to be able to share my culture and such an important tradition. It was really a collaborative effort. Kara Wang, who plays Sumi, and I had an entire meeting with the writers about this, down to the superstitions and the details that we wanted to implement. I have to shout out the crew —- the props department, set decoration, wardrobe, everyone — who was so absorbing of all of our thoughts and made sure it was important to tell this Lunar New Year story with authenticity. It just was really cool and it was definitely very collaborative and I’m just so thankful for that.

Natalie: One of the things I really liked about this episode is kind of continuing to watch Alice’s evolution of her relationship with her parents. I’m not Asian but as a daughter of an immigrant and as black biracial, woman, I really related to some of the stuff that her parents said about making her tough. How is it important for you to showcase this relationship between this young woman and her immigrant parents?

Sherry: Portraying this story on the screen is just everything. Parental expectations are universal to everyone. Being compared to a sibling? Who can’t relate to that? But we’re showing it in such a culturally specific way…that is really the cherry on top.

I think it’s really beautiful to watch Alice find her voice in the comedy world and also with her family. She already came out to her parents and now she’s coming out as this person who wants to do comedy and wants to be unapologetically herself. But still, it’s hard when your mom is still kind of like hovering and kind of expects you to just take the heat. It’s really beautiful that Alice’s mom says, “we we just want you to have thicker skin because life can be hard for someone with a sweet heart like” hers. That’s a conversation that we don’t hear that often, especially with Asian families. I think right now we are catching up with these conversations that are overdue on-screen.

Also with my mom in real life, like, you know, everything that’s happened in the last couple of years — with me, being on Good Trouble and with all the anti-Asian hate crimes — I have had real conversations with my mother that I have, I should have had when I was younger. But I’m also learning as I go and she is too. It’s never too late to have these conversations. With Asian American kids and their immigrant parents, there’s that language barrier, there’s that cultural divide, there’s that generational gap, so to be able to meet in the middle and to have an understanding conversation. For me to be able to portray that on screen, on mainstream American TV, that just means a lot.

Natalie: With Alice’s dad, it was easy for him to understand her brother’s type of success — closing this $50 million deal — but not conceptualize what Alice’s brand of success looks like. What’s been your experience? You’re getting to a point in your career, you’re doing TV, you’re doing movies [including Adele Lim’s new comedy], you’re doing all of these things. How has it been for you to get your parents to conceptualize what success looks like?

Sherry: Personally, for Sherry, success is making my mom proud and to be able to take her around the world because we all know immigrant mothers, especially Asian immigrant mothers, they never live for themselves, not for a second. It was all about making sure I have a good life, taking care of her parents and sending money back to China, whatever it may be. My mom has never been to New York, my mom has not seen the world. For me, success is making her proud and making sure she sees the world. That is my definition of success and that’s my motivation really and everything that I do. My mom, she’s my rock, she’s my everything.

My mom always wanted me to just have a comfortable life but my dad was very much a dreamer. He also kind of wants to be famous. He was on a Chinese radio station here in LA when I was growing up. Then I ended up also doing radio and then moving into stand-up and TV and movies. They never had a traditional expectation for me when it came to career. I think that they’re actually really in awe of what I’m doing and they’re very supportive and very proud.

I’m lucky in that regard, but that’s the thing: with coming to America, we have these bare minimum expectations, essentially because society didn’t let us dream that big. With the AAPI community, we were happy to settle for less. We didn’t think we deserved more and that’s how we were brainwashed into thinking. But now we’re completely reclaiming this experience and kind of redefining who we are and not being put in a box and not being limited. You know, I’ve never felt so limitless in my life.

Natalie: We wouldn’t be Autostraddle if we didn’t ask about the queer relationships on the show. It’s kind of unbelievable to any queer Asian representation on television, period, but now we have a queer love triangle featuring three Asian women: we have Ruby and we have Sumi and they’re all competing for Alice’s heart.

Sherry: Listen, I’m beyond myself. I literally feel taken aback at the fact that I am telling this story that has never been told, period. I challenge everyone to name one other TV show that portrays lovesbetween two Asian women. It does not exist to this level. We’ve seen it with Alice and Sumi. We’ve seen them in all three seasons with this push and pull up and down. There’s history, there’s nuances that there’s layers. I can’t believe, and then they share the beautiful kiss at the end of the Lunar New Year episode and I’m just shook — I’m shook — that I never saw this growing up. Then we have Ruby, who is also Asian, and you have this Asian queer love triangle, like “what is going on?!” It’s so beautiful to see.

It’s a real story. It’s a real experience. Do you know how many female Asian couples I know? How it has not been on TV before in this way? It’s such a full circle moment, especially for Alice and Sumi. And I’m just so delighted to be able to tell this story, and hopefully this is a step in the right direction. I think a lot of other TV shows can take notes from Good Trouble and that’s the truth.

Natalie: Absolutely. I absolutely agree. So that means you’re team Sumi? Are you Team Sumi?

Sherry: Ah, honestly I’ve always said: Alice and Sumi endgame.

“Good Trouble” Episode 315 Recap: Lunar New Year

This is a recap of Good Trouble episode 315: “Lunar New Year.”

For a long time, Hollywood thought that the best way to tell a relatable story was to make it as broad as possible. Usually, that meant telling a story with a cis, straight white man at its center…and if women or people of color or LGBT folks were to be featured at all, they’re have to be a palatable as possible for a white audience. Cast a wide net, capture as many people as possible…that was the goal. But as the industry has evolved, there’s more of an appetite for telling more specific stories. Some folks will get to see their stories portrayed in ways they never have been before. Others, if they pay close attention, will find common ground and hopefully, build more empathy toward other communities. That’s the goal, I hope: building empathy.

“Lunar New Year” is a very specific story about a Chinese celebration, crafted with input from Sherry Cola (Alice) and Kara Wang (Sumi), that I, admittedly, knew very little about before this episode. I’d seen lion dances and heard about red envelopes but never really understood the symbolism behind any of it. But as “Lunar New Year” unpacks all the traditions, I didn’t just learn about Chinese culture, I saw the ways in which our cultures share common elements. As Sumi explained the importance of the whole fish or Alice’s mom explained the history of dumplings, I saw the culinary New Years traditions of my own family. Even in these moments of deep specificity — ones that, on their face, don’t relate to my own experiences at all — I feel more connected to Alice than I ever have before.

There’s a moment in this week’s episode of Good Trouble where Alice tells everyone, “I realize that everyone’s experience is different, no matter what you look like. Celebrating and understanding those differences goes a long way.” And while that’s invariably true, what “Lunar New Year” episode also reminds us is that our experiences aren’t that different, no matter what we look like. All we have to do is stop, pause and recognize our own commonality.

I should also note how astonished I am that this episode exists, not just as a matter of storytelling, but as a technical feat. It’s easy to forget, as we escape into worlds in which the pandemic does not exist, that actors and crews are performing in a world where COVID is very much real. Everyone shows up to celebrate — Alice’s family, Ruby and the comedians from the CBTV workshop, Malika’s new boo and his girlfriend, Davia’s other love interest, Matt, the entire Coterie family and a handful of others — and bringing that many actors together, on top of the crew required to meticulously depict the Lunar New Year festivities, is a marvel. I’m not sure we’ll ever fully appreciate how much the pandemic and the (costly) protocols that come with managing it safely have effected storytelling but Good Trouble doesn’t allow it to impact this ambitious episode.

Alice calls her parents to share the news of her latest triumph with the CBTV workshop. She notes how close she is to getting an agent and a talent deal but rather than celebrate her accomplishment, her parents quickly pivot to discussing her brother’s recent success. David got a promotion and a new parking space, they report, clearly not for the first time. David’s also purchased a new condo, Alice’s mother touts, and will be hosting the family’s Lunar New Year celebration there. Seeing her moment, Alice interjects: she volunteers to host this year’s celebration at the Coterie. Her parents are rightfully wary but Alice insists. She’s hosting the Lunar New Year celebration this year and it’ll be perfect.

Has there ever been anything, in all our time at the Coterie, that’s turned out perfect? Of course not, but it’s not for a lack of trying on Alice’s part. She micromanages everyone at the Coterie to prepare for the big event. She drags her white-gloved hand across the surfaces in the Coterie, assuring that the place is spotless so the bad luck is scrubbed away and that the good luck can come in. She instructs her Coterie family to hang more red lanterns for good fortune and joy. All the while, Sumi trails behind her, celebrating everyone’s contributions, the good angel, to Alice’s bad.

But then things — as they are wont to do at the Coterie — start to go off the rails. Davia returns with rice porridge instead of the customary rice balls (tang yuan) and now the meal is short one dish. Once Alice discovers that the tablecloths she ordered are pimento and not the customary read, her frustration over everything not being perfect starts to boil over. She admits that she wants to prove to her parents that she’s not “just the funny one who fails.” Thankfully, Sumi’s there to calm Alice down, reminding her that it’s bad luck to have unhappy thoughts around Lunar New Year. For a moment, it looks like Sumi is successful but then Alice realizes that the order doesn’t include the red envelopes — a must have for the celebration — and she’s back on her doom spiral.

The exes work together to get things back on track. It’s a remarkable turning of the tables for the characters — usually it’s Sumi’s that’s self-obsessed and Alice that’s perpetually supportive — but it’s nice to see…well, except for Lindsay who walks into find their girlfriend flirtily massaging a whole fish with their ex. Ruby comes in soon thereafter — greeting Sumi and Alice with the little Chinese she knows — and Lindsay invites her to help Alice with the fish instead. Before the tension can get too thick, Alice’s parents and her brother interrupt. Despite Alice’s assurances that she had this year’s Lunar New Year Celebration handled, her mother comes with extra food and immediately starts to criticize Alice’s culinary efforts (which, to be fair, deserved criticism…those dumplings did not look appealing). Sumi gently strokes Alice’s back as her mother’s aghast to discover that the tablecloths aren’t the right color red. Her father undermines Alice’s plans too: handing out red envelopes even though she planned to do it. And, of course, even though Alice is hosting, David finds a way to steal the spotlight, announcing that he’s in the middle of closing a $50M deal at work.

Later, Alice’s fellow comedians from the CBTV workshop arrive and she takes the opportunity to introduce them to her parents. Her father’s short on red envelopes but Alice insists that she’s got it, handing each member of the comedy troupe red envelopes — still wet from being colored in with a marker — to symbolize good wishes and luck for the new year. Unfortunately, that good luck is on credit because Alice can only afford to slip IOUs inside her envelopes. I was, admittedly, a bit disappointed that Alice’s CBTV introductions didn’t include Ruby but I suppose it is a little early in their not-actually-a-relationship to meet the parents.

The CBTV comedians and Sumi join Alice’s mom to prepare the dumplings. Her mother explains that the dumplings’ size and shape mirrors the gold ingots used for money in ancient China so eating them satisfies the desire for wealth. She compliments Shaun on his dumpling making technique while making jokes at Alice’s expense. She laments Alice’s “foot-fingers” but Sumi reassures Alice that she’s always loved her hands. Alice laments that her mother’s taken over the party but Sumi encourages her to let her mother help, after all, Alice has already done so much. Plus, Sumi points out, they’re still going to perform their lion dance after dinner and the spotlight will fall back to Alice where it belongs. Alice can barely acknowledge Sumi’s point before the sounds of drums, cymbals and gongs interrupt. Of course, David’s hired a professional lion dance troupe for the party.

As everyone else revels in the excitement of the dance troupe, Alice escapes to the roof to lament what her party has become. Her parents find her sitting beside the Coterie pool and entreat her to go downstairs and host her party. This isn’t her party, Alice insists; it’s theirs and David’s. She explains that she keeps trying to make them proud but, clearly, she doesn’t know how. Her father injects: she makes them proud just by being who she is. Her mother confesses that she touts the success of her son, the banker, and her daughter, the building manager, to her friends. She asks her parents to also be proud of her burgeoning comedy career — her admission into the comedy showcase and her possible foray into television — but her father admits that that kind of success is hard for them to conceptualize…certainly harder than $50M business deals.

Alice’s parents assure her of their love but Alice isn’t convinced: if they love her, why does her mother criticize her “foot fingers” and why won’t they tell the rest of the family, including David, that she’s gay? It’s a bold line of questioning — one that I can’t imagine the Alice of season one even approaching — but it’s a necessary one that this new, more confident, Alice can take on. Her mother acknowledges the criticism but promises that it’s just their way of protecting Alice…a way to toughen her up for the moments where her soft heart conflicts with the hard world. But Alice insists that her mother’s methods — learned from her grandmother — aren’t working: they tear her down instead of building her up. The only way that her sweet heart can survive in this world is to know it is loved and supported. Her parents agree and banish any remaining bad thoughts so that the Lunar New Year doesn’t bring a year of bad luck.

But because last year isn’t done delivering it’s bad luck, Sumi interrupts with the news that the stove is broken. Thankfully, though, Alice’s mom joins Dennis in his newly acquired food truck and they cook the remaining food, saving the Lunar New Year celebration. Alice’s father shares the story behind the lion dance and what it represents today. Afterwards, Alice and Sumi perform their lion dance on the Coterie rooftop. As she and Sumi take off their costume and bask in the applause and affirmation, Alice looks as free and as happy as we’ve ever seen her on this show. And you see that, most clearly, when Alice addresses her family — her biological and chosen one — after the lion dance.

In a speech, penned by Sherry Cola, Alice says: “You know, I thought I wanted to have this party to prove to my parents that I’m an adult, but I think what I really wanted was to share a piece of my culture with everyone. Sometimes it’s hard to balance keeping Asian traditions alive and also trying to feel American.”

She continues, “My comedy program folks and I have been through some tough times recently, being forced into a stereotypical box. I realize that everyone’s experience is different, no matter what you look like. Celebrating and understanding those differences goes a long way. Tonight was healing for me, and I hope, in some way, for all of you. I’ve never been prouder to be Chinese. And I’m so proud to be able to call all of you, family.”

But even though the lion dance is supposed to ward off all the bad spirits, it’s soon clear that jealousy will be part of Alice’s coming year. Recognizing the growing closeness between their girlfriend and Alice, Lindsay asks Ruby if she and Alice are still together. Ruby admits that they were before the program but now — clearly turned on by Alice’s new-found confidence and Sherry Cola looking impeccable in the red blazer and red lipstick — she’s working on it. And while I thought everyone in the program knew Ruby and Alice had been together, the look on Derek’s face, as he overhears the conversation, suggests otherwise. I have a bad feeling about this…Alice might want to do that lion dance again, I don’t think it worked.

After the crowd disperses, David finds his sister putting the lion costume back in the box. He apologizes for hiring the dance troupe but Alice assures him that it’s okay. She also assures him that he hasn’t been replaced as their parents’ golden child, despite the understanding she’s gained with them. But while Alice has always been jealous of the way her parents’ pridefully boast about David, she’s never considered what it takes, from David, to live up to all those expectations…and, especially, how David’s role — as the elder child, fulfilling all his parents’ dreams — makes it possible for Alice to be whomever she wants to be. A new understanding achieved between the siblings, David admits that he wishes that they could spend more time together.

“I’m gay,” Alice blurts out.

“Awesome,” her brother responds. “Maybe we can grab a bite next week?”

The next day, Alice, Malika and Davia survey the remnants of the Lunar New Year celebration while nursing their hangovers with water. Alice admits that she’s confused and when Malika asks why, Alice recalls what happened last night. After her parents left, Sumi approaches and Alice thanks her for all her help. They marvel, for a moment, at what they were able to accomplish together and Sumi admits it was nice to be there for Alice for a change. Then Sumi leans in and kisses Alice…and after a brief pause, Alice returns the kiss, only deepening it this time. Before anyone can share their opinions about Alice rekindling her romance with Sumi (or my heartbreak over this hit to #TeamRuby), Dennis interrupts.

With his freshly cut hair.

On New Years!

The epitome of bad luck!

Coterie Sundries

+ This episode had a lot of really funny moments but two stood out for me: first, Davia and the rice balls. Something about Emma Hunton’s physical comedy as she laments being given rice porridge instead of rice balls had me in stitches. Also? Whomst among us has not been Dyonte? Fasting ahead of a big meal only to thwart your plan by drinking a little too much on your empty stomach and ending up crashing abruptly. Hilarious.

+ Speaking of Davia, this week she confesses that she’s fallen in love with both Matt and Dennis…which, admittedly, caught me a little by surprise. I like Matt a lot and there’s something appealing about seeing Davia with someone who has always chosen her but I didn’t think that he and Davia had reached the love stage yet. Malika suggests that Davia try polyamory so she won’t have to choose between the two men but when faced with the prospect of seeing them kiss other women, Davia’s jealousy flares and she realizes polyamory isn’t for her.

+ I know it was just an imaginary sequence but the thought of Dennis getting close to Isabella was intriguing to me. It’d be less about her, of course, and more about the opportunity that the new baby would provide for him to do fatherhood over again. I’m not sure Good Trouble would go there but it struck me as an intriguing possibility.

+ Much of Callie’s storyline this week was about her drunkenly trying to manage her relationship with Gael but I really, really loved the scenes between the sisters. As invested as I am in the other Coterie residents, there’s still something about those Adams-Foster girls that truly makes this show feel like home.

Next week: Mariana Is Crushing Her Job

“Good Trouble” Episode 314 Recap: Finally! A Big Win For Alice!

This is a recap of Good Trouble episode 314: “Picks and Strikes.”

Standing up for yourself comes with some risk, as Alice found out this season when she decried the stereotype-laden sketches she and her fellow comedians were being forced to do. But Alice’s invitation back to the program doesn’t mean the risk is over, especially now that Scott’s back. This week on Good Trouble, Alice feels the sting of the backlash for her decision…and, once again, is left to grapple with the problematic dynamics of the CBTV program on her own. Or, at least at first.

A couple days of sensitivity training has Scott feeling especially “woke.” He goes through the workshop’s old sketches and weeds out the ones he now finds problematic. He whitesplains to Magda that her “Don’t Make Me Take Out My Hoops” sketch is hurtful to the Latinx community. He cuts Sanjana’s one-woman sketch for not being inclusive enough. He tosses out Derek and Alice’s sketches and declares a moratorium on accents. But instead of replacing the old sketches with ones written by the talent — as Ruby promised — Scott encourages the comedians to huddle with the writers to develop new material for the upcoming showcase.

Salty that their racist sketches are being sidelined, none of the program’s writers want to work with Alice so the novice comic is left to fend for herself. It’s also worth noting that none of the other comics — who just a few weeks ago hailed the return of Alice the Conquering Hero — invite her to join their groups either. So much for solidarity.

Later, back at the Coterie, Alice turns on some emo music and collapses on her bed, regretting having returned to the program in the first place. Her lamentations are interrupted by a ghost of girlfriends’ past: it’s Sumi (!!!), ready to offer a cup of tea and a friendly ear. Apparently, Lindsay and Sumi are still together and they gave Sumi the heads up that Alice might need a friend.

We haven’t seen Sumi since early in season three and she’s returned to the Coterie with, seemingly, an entire new personality. Gone is Alice’s self-absorbed, attention seeking, flighty ex who was, almost, annoyingly effervescent. NuSumi is thoughtful, compassionate and willing to put Alice’s problems ahead of her own. The character shift is a little jarring. Should we trust this nuSumi or should we be girding ourselves for the moment where Sumi comes along and, as Davia once said, “Sumi shit up?” Or maybe that’s just the Alice/Ruby shipper in me talking…

After hearing that none of the writers want to write for her anymore, Sumi suggests that Alice pen her own sketch. Alice demurs —Scott’s rules don’t afford the comics that autonomy — but Sumi reminds her how much she’s grown. Standing up for herself and others took courage, Sumi notes, and that’s a very attractive quality. Alice blushes and bashfully thanks Sumi for the compliment but isn’t convinced that the program is worth investing in anymore. Realizing that Alice is going to need a little more convincing, Sumi suggests they go out for a drink. Alice declines the offer but Sumi won’t take no for an answer. She grabs Alice’s feet and literally pulls her out of bed. Maybe nuSumi isn’t that different from ol’ Sumi after all.

At the bar, Sumi and Alice recall their first real date over drinks — a mishap at a seniors’ water ballet class — and Sumi confesses that she doesn’t regret it. Alice doesn’t get to revel too much in their rekindled intimacy when they are interrupted by two “Asian fetish frat guys.” They are exactly as insufferable as you’d expect them to be: making assumptions about Alice and Sumi’s identities and their relationship. When Sumi wraps her arms around Alice and proclaims that they’re together, the dudebros walk away disappointed until they consider the possibilities. Alice and Sumi know what’s coming and they answer the frat guys request to watch with an emphatic “no!”

Afterwards, Alice laments being talked to that way and Sumi attributes it to the guys not seeing them as people but as fantasies. And in that moment, Alice decides to let the fantasy continue. She does her best dudebro impersonation and compares Sumi to every Asian actress under the sun. Her joke earns a hearty laugh from Sumi who recognizes its possibility: that is a sketch.

And sure enough, the next day, Alice turns it into a sketch, involving two unicorns and a pig. The sketch gets laughs from everyone but when Scott realizes that none of the writers actually wrote it, he tosses the sketch out. This time, though, Ruby speaks up and advocates for the comedians to have more creative agency. She asserts herself as the program’s co-director and demands that Alice’s sketch moves forward. The CBTV head walks in and Scott’s entire tenor changes: he pairs her with a writer and promises to deliver notes tomorrow.

Later, Alice toasts her big win with Sumi. She admits that she has changed and even if it’s all she takes away from the diversity program, it will have been worth it. But Sumi assures Alice that the program’s also going to give her an agent and talent deal. Alice isn’t so confident but Sumi urges her not to think small.

“Why couldn’t it be you?” Sumi asks…and while it sounds like she was talking about the CBTV competition, the way their smiles linger on their faces tells me that it definitely wasn’t just about the competition. But before more can be said, Lindsay interrupts and joins in the celebration. Alice excuses herself for drinks with Ruby, an announcement that’s met with an unmistakable flash of jealousy on Sumi’s face. Lindsay notices and so does Alice…who doesn’t go drinks with Ruby but, instead, sits in her loft daydreaming about her time with Sumi.

Though I’m still skeptical about this personality shift from Sumi, I appreciated that this episode gave us some insight into exactly what drew Alice to Sumi in the first place (something that was missing from their story in the first season). They have an easy rapport and effortless chemistry. But perhaps once she stops daydreaming Alice will recognize that Sumi cheated on her once and is, seemingly, ready to cheat on her current partner with Alice…not exactly someone I’d be in a rush to give my heart to. Or maybe that’s just the Alice/Ruby shipper in me talking…

Coterie Sundries

+ After Gael finds Isabella searching for cribs and creating Pinterest boards, he invites her to begin imagine raising their child in a gender-neutral world. He recalls his sister’s difficult upbringing and doesn’t want to replicate that with his own child. I’m still unsure about how this whole baby story is going to play out — because they can’t raise a child in the Coterie — but if this storyline continues, I hope they delve into what gender-neutral parenting looks like in practical terms…I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that dramatized on television.

Later, though, Gael spots Isabella’s laptop open to her Pinterest board that’s covered in pink. She apologizes for what he’s seen — she made the board before she learned about Jazmin — and she was trying to change the board to make it more gender neutral. But Gael’s still moved to learn the baby’s gender…because his future as a father just became way more real. He and Isabella make plans to start talking about how they’ll handle co-parenting.

+ Callie and Mariana are both busy this week as jury selection gets underway in Tommy’s trial. Callie and Tommy are assisting Kathleen in the courtroom while Mariana and Rowan scour through the prospective jurors personal information to glean insight into how they might judge the case. A few things become clear over the course of the hour: 1. I loved Mariana and Rowan’s dynamic and hope, even if Mariana is not long for the legal world, they’re able to develop a friendship and 2. Callie is clearly not over Jamie…can she just try being single?

+ Davia and Dennis may not have gotten to perform their rendition of Faouzia and John Legend’s “Minefields” at the club but we did get to hear Josh Pence and Emma Hunton’s cover over the episode’s closing montage. Will I ever get tired of the beautiful way in which this show incorporates music? No, I will not.

Next Week: It’s Lunar New Year!

“Good Trouble” Episode 313 Recap: The Sleuthing Sisters

Because my parents both worked while I was growing up, my older sister was tasked with doing a lot more around the house. I’d help where I could — washing dishes, doing laundry and looking out for our younger siblings — but the one area where I absolutely was not permitted to help was with cooking. It was understandable: I was exceptionally bad at it. Every time I’d try to cook, it’d end in disaster: burnt bacon, scalded eggs and the occasional grease fire. It was better for everyone if I stayed away from the hot stove.

Fast forward several years — and plenty of experimentation in the kitchen — and I’ve turned into a pretty good home cook. If we’re gathered for a family dinner nowadays, chances are, I’m cooking the meal. I love being in the kitchen, serving comfort food to those who need comfort. There’s no greater triumph than seeing my usually picky nephews gobble up something I made or the sides I made disappear first at the family BBQ. But, no matter how much time has passed, when my older sister joins us, she approaches my food with trepidation. I’m always going to be that kid who couldn’t scramble eggs.

I thought about that as I watched Callie and Mariana navigate a new facet of their relationship this week on Good Trouble: they’re sisters, best friends, roommates, and now co-workers. I thought about the ways in which the sisters’ view of each other are still shaped by the versions of each other that they saw growing up. In Mariana’s eyes, Callie’s still the troubled kid that Lena rescued from juvenile detention on The Fosters and, to Callie, Mariana’s still the boy-crazed fashionista. Neither of them really appreciate the young woman the other’s grown into… and now that they’re working together, conflict was bound to happen.

Work at the law firm is picking up, as Tommy Sung’s trial rapidly approaches. Thus far, Kathleen Gale and her associates haven’t been able to find a smoking gun to prove Tommy’s innocence so now they’re just looking for a way to establish reasonable doubt. Mariana interrupts the meeting to deliver phone messages for Kathleen and the boss just invites her to stay in the meeting. Witnesses who saw Tommy fighting with Zack before the latter fell/was pushed down the ravine are coming into the office for question and Kathleen pushes her associates to get the witnesses to recant their statements to the police.

The sessions with the witnesses do not go well. Each of the witnesses stick to the story they told the police. Intermittently, Mariana interjects, sending Callie text messages based on her observations on the witness as they come in: one, she suspects, is on steroids, another smokes weeds. While Callie uses some of Mariana’s observations to direct her line of question, she’s mostly dismissive (and annoyed) and it’s clear that she doesn’t think Mariana has anything of value to offer.

Sufficed to say, Kathleen is not pleased with her associates coming up empty during the witness interviews. Only a not guilty verdict for Tommy ensures that his father, Ken Sung, will tell Kathleen where his sister is…a revelation that would, finally, get the FBI off her back…and the pressure is clearly starting to weigh on Kathleen’s shoulders. Jailtime for Tommy almost certainly means jailtime — or worse — for Kathleen too.

“If you don’t have the skills to rattle a few fun facts from a bunch of kids, then you have no business defending anyone,” she yells. “So find something to prove to me that I didn’t make a big mistake taking a chance on the three of you.”

Despite Callie’s skepticism, Mariana’s convinced that Tommy’s ex-girlfriend is hiding something behind her fake tears. Later, she does a deep dive into the witness’ social media and to get some answers. Before the sisters can discover anything, the tension that’s been building between them boils over. Mariana insists that she can do more than filing and answering phones but Callie just admonishes her to keep things professional: keep her personal life out of the office. No more regaling Tony and Rowan about her time in juvenile detention or the time she took a baseball bat to her foster father’s car.

Mariana asks Callie to stop underestimating her and starts to unravel an interesting thread from the witness’ social media accounts: Katie and Zack never followed each other on social media. Mariana notes how unusual it’d be for two high school students — the girlfriend and best friend of the school’s quarterback — to not follow each other and surmises that the two probably didn’t like each other. The revelation is enough to capture Callie’s attention and she joins her sister in the social media deep dive. They track down a hashtag (#LDRZAS) and a fake Instagram account that they believe belongs to Tommy’s girlfriend, Katie. Mariana’s convinced that she’s hiding some incriminating photos from the night of Zack’s death.

Instead of talking to Katie about it, Callie takes Mariana’s suggestion and talks to Katie’s friend, Izzie, about their discoveries. The “sleuthing sisters” conduct the interview together and they work together seamlessly: Callie handles the direct, professional questions, while Mariana tries to build enough of a rapport with Izzie to get her to let guard down. It works, sorta. Izzie reveals that Katie was bothered by the friendship between Tommy and Zack and hadn’t wanted to go to the party that night. Asked about the LDRZAS hashtag — that she’d used in a previous comment — Izzie feigns ignorance. While the sisters don’t get any definitive evidence out of Izzie, there’s enough smoke that they’re both convinced that there’s fire somewhere. Kathleen agrees and commends the team for finding potential evidence that could cast suspicion on Katie.

But, soon after Mariana gains access to Katie’s finista — spotting a photo from the night of the part that shows her looking really unhappy to be there — Katie deletes the account… and suddenly, the Sleuthing Sisters are back to square one.

Coterie Sundries

+ I am, admittedly, uncertain about Malika’s recent foray into polyamory and how it’s playing out on screen. Two things bothered me: first, while Isaac’s abrupt departure — in lieu of a serious conversation with Malika — was a jerk move, the show seems to assign fault to him that I don’t think he’s earned. Isaac and Malika wanted different things from the relationship, that doesn’t make either of them the bad guy. Second, the move from Isaac to Dyonte was so quick….shipping allegiances aside, it felt less like stepping into a genuine relationship and more like stepping inside a FWB situationship.

That said, I think this storyline’s doing some important work: demystifying polyamory in a way that audiences (myself included) need to see. I particularly related to Malika’s admission that she “didn’t want to do poly wrong,” as I think a lot of queer people feel similarly when they come out. I’m glad Malika opted to slow her relationship with Dyonte down and adjust to this new “love-style” at her own pace.

+ We got to go back to school this week with Davia, Andre and Matt. After Andre’s activism is thwarted by the school administration, his mother and Davia huddle together to ensure that Andre fully understands the risks that come with the work he’s chosen to do. The Davia of Season 2 would have insisted that she could do it but, through her work with the equity committee and restorative justice, Davia recognizes that she’s not the best mentor for Andre. Instead, she reaches out to Malika who takes Andre to a Students Deserve meeting where he thrives. It’s a testament to both of their characters’ growth over the last season.

via GIPHY

And while I remain committed to the Davia/Dennis ship, Matt continues to grow on me. Why shouldn’t Davia have someone who’s not ambivalent about liking her…and someone who appreciates a good sweet tea?

+ After thwarting Gael and Callie’s previous attempts at romance, however unwittingly, Isabella works with Mariana this week to set up a romantic breakfast date for the couple. Between that and the paternity test results proving Gael’s about to become a father, it seems like Isabella is living up to her promise of being a good person this time around. I’m still weary but I kinda want to trust her?

Next Week: She’s Baaaacccckkkk!

“Good Trouble” Episode 312 Recap: The Shame Game

This is a recap of Good Trouble episode 312: “Shame.”

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

It’s an often-used quote — mostly ascribed to Dr. Martin Luther King but that traces back to a 19th Century Unitarian minister — that imbues us with optimism. It fits into a narrative we like to tell about America; progress, however deterred, ultimately leads us toward equality and a more perfect union. But the arc doesn’t bend toward justice innately, it bends because scores of activists bend it. Those committed to equality engage in the long, hard work of perfecting the union. Nothing bends on its own.

That feels like an overwrought way to start a recap about a television show about a group of twenty-somethings on Freeform but Good Trouble has always been a show that’s keenly aware of the world in which it inserts its characters. They know the arc needs bending but also realize that bend doesn’t happen overnight. Since its first season, Good Trouble has understood that the problems that we face are systemic and systems rooted in oppression don’t cede power easily. Alice standing up for herself and her fellow comedians was never going to be the end of this story. Margaret Cho spilling the tea to The Hollywood Reporter about the CBTV program perpetuating racist stereotypes was never going to solve the problem. That is not the world in which we live. There is always more work to do; the moral arc always needs bending.

But I should back up a bit, as Alice starts “Shame” debating whether or not she should return to the program. Even with Scott gone, even with the comedians now leading the program’s creative effort, she can’t shake the scars from her time there. The environment was toxic, Alice tells Ruby, who explains that the new program will be totally different. Ruby admits that the program needs Alice back…that she needs Alice back…and, admittedly, I’m a little jarred by how business-like Ruby is about this whole thing. She and Alice were on the verge of a relationship and now whatever feelings existed between the two are brushed aside for the sake of this program. I’ve been #TeamRuby from the very beginning so I don’t particularly like this development. Ruby explains that her jobs on the line if she can’t fix things and, for first but not the last time in this episode, I scream, “of course!” at my television: of course, they’d hold the woman of color accountable for fixing a program that she didn’t break.

Alice admits to Malika that the reason she doesn’t want to go back is the other comedians: none of them stood up with her and, in the time since she walked out, not a single one has called to check on her. Malika reminds her that this program isn’t about them, it’s about her: Alice should get to benefit from the changes that she provoked. Malika encourages Alice to walk back into the program with her head held high and that’s enough to convince Alice to return to the program.

She returns tentatively but when her fellow comedians spot her, they offer her a hero’s welcome. Derek apologizes for not having Alice’s back, admitting he was too scared to step up. Magda admits that she didn’t step up because she didn’t want to risk her big break. Sanjana professes that, after Alice’s walked out and she didn’t, she didn’t know what else to say to her. Stacey admits she choked and Lindsay begrudgingly gives Alice her props. Ruby announces the changes to the program, including collaborative efforts with the writers, but for today, they’ll work together writing scenes for themselves. Everyone’s elated and they work together to produce a funny sketch…but just as they finish their first run-through, Scott walks in and announces that he’s back. This, in case you were wondering, was the second time I yelled, “OF COURSE!” at my television. Everyone’s shocked and Alice turns immediately to Ruby, as if to say, “WTF?!” Scott apologizes to the group, sort of; he treats his admission of bias as just another joke. He went to a sensitivity training course yesterday and now he’s cured of all his biases.

Bigoted cis white dudes are the awful, no doubt about that…but bigoted cis white dudes who feel like they’ve done their penance with sensitivity training are the absolutely worst because now they can weaponized racism, sexism, phobias AND “wokeness” against you. I feel for the comedians.

“Nobody wants to admit that they’re part of the problem. No one wants admit that they are racist or sexist or phobic,” Scott says, while ironically, not admitting that he’s part of the problem and that he’s racist, sexist and phobic. He thanks the group for the second chance that the comedians never actually offered him and says they’ll pick up tomorrow where they left off.

After he leaves, Ruby admits she didn’t know that Scott was coming back: CBTV is contractually obliged to give him a chance to change his behavior before he can be fired. Ruby has to smooth things over and leans onto Alice to help her. Alice rejoins her fellow comedians and now they’re all ready to walk out. They know that Scott’s problems can’t be solved by one three hour seminar and look to Alice to tell them what to do next. It’s a lot of pressure on Alice, on top of the pressure she’s already getting from Ruby, and she relents. Alice encourages the comedians to give Scott another chance, noting that he’ll be supervised more this time….and, while I hope Alice is right, I given my own personal experience with recent sensitivity training graduates, I am not encouraged Scott will justify Alice’s feigned optimism. I suspect Alice has more bending to do.

While I liked Alice’s story this week, it was Gael, Malika and Dennis’ stories that really resonated with me. They all revolve around the idea of shame: what causes it, the ways in which it manifests in our lives and why we continue to carry it, even if those moments of shame are far in our rearview. There’s a powerful message in each story about being candid about the shame that we carry and how exposing it to the light of love can finally rid us of that burden.

Gael’s impending fatherhood has him feeling the shame of his Catholic upbringing — particularly its messages around sex, marriage and children — all over again. He internalizes those messages so much that when he tries to tell his Coterie family the truth about why Isabella’s moved into his loft, he can’t. All he can hear is the Church’s judgement: what was he thinking? How could he be so irresponsible? What’s his family going to think? How’s he going to support a child when he can barely support himself? But, eventually, Gael show’s himself some grace.

“All this stuff they’re teaching you, it’s just to make you feel bad about yourself. We all make mistakes. It doesn’t mean we’re sinners, especially if you own up, take responsibility and make it right,” Gael tells his younger self, across the confessional booth. “You’re a good boy. Try to love yourself ’cause God made you perfect just the way you are.”

“Okay, you too,” the young Gael answers.

Since we met her, Malika’s been carrying around the guilt of having called Child Protective Services to report her mother for neglect. She’s carried that guilt for 15 years and her activism, though fulfilling in many other ways, has deepened that guilt. Now she knows the lack of resources afforded to mothers like hers and it makes her decision seem even more callous in retrospect. But when she admits her shame to her father, he corrects her: the shame of a 10 year old Malika having to call CPS and the shame of Malika and Dom entering the foster system belongs to him and her mother. They were the adults and they were the ones that failed them. By confronting the shame from her childhood, Malika’s also able to let go of the shame she’s carrying about Isaac. He chose to leave and work things out and that’s not her fault.

Dennis finally lets go over the shame he’s been carrying by sharing the story of his son’s death. He knows that the only want through his pain is with the help of the people around him that care and his Coterie family — even Kelly — wraps him in their warm embrace.

(I’m not crying, you’re crying!)

Coterie Sundries

+ After seeing her past at Speckulate flash before her eyes during interviews with new tech companies, Mariana opts out of the tech bubble and invades Callie’s space in Kathleen Gale’s office. It’s going to be so much fun watching the sisters navigate separating their personal and professional relationships. Ha, just kidding…those girls don’t have boundaries…this is going to be a hot mess!

+ My personal highlight of the episode? This exchange between Callie and Mariana:

Mariana, donning a very un-Mariana-like Dr. Who t-shirt: I can’t believe I’m starting over looking for a new job.
Callie: I think it’s exciting.
Mariana: Says the woman who can’t get enough of starting over.

That said, I’m still perplexed that Mariana’s spending all this time around all these lawyers and no one’s advised her to sue the Fight Club for a portion of Bulk Beauty’s IP? Maybe I’ve watched one too many legal procedurals but it seems like Mariana’s work on the app should count for something.

“Good Trouble” Season 3B Premiere: Alice and Malika Share Edibles and Heartbreak

This is a Good Trouble season 3B premiere recap. Spoilers below.

As soon as we step into the Coterie, the heartbreak that the first half of Good Trouble‘s third season wrought is etched on the faces of our protagonists. One by one, over the dulcet sounds of Eric Carmen’s “All By Myself,” the women settle next to each other at the kitchen table and weep. Malika’s upset because her interest in polyamory — and, specifically, a relationship with Isaac and Dyonte — has left Isaac (possibly) disinterested in continuing a relationship with her. Davia’s upset because, just as she’s starting a new relationship with Matt, Dennis reappears, declaring that she’s his light. Mariana’s upset because she’s torn between Evan and the girls in the Byte Club. And, of course, there’s Alice, who walked out on a potential career-making opportunity and a potential relationship. Everyone’s crying and everyone’s miserable.

Well, everyone except for Callie, who skips up to the table, wishing everyone a good morning. Maia Mitchell’s Aussie accent slips out as she greets the other residents and it only serves to make her seem more bubbly by comparison.

Malika and Alice opt to spend the day commiserating together. We’ve gotten hints of the depths of Malika and Alice’s friendship throughout the series but we rarely get to see them spend one-on-one time together, so I relished this episode. Malika laments that she’s still hasn’t heard from Isaac. Alice reminds her that his silence means that their relationship isn’t over unlike her relationship with Ruby which, almost certainly, is dead in the water. She recalls Ruby stopping by her loft after she’d walked out of the CBTV workshop. She was so impressed by the courage Alice displayed by standing up for herself — it’s true, Alice has never been sexier than in that moment — and now she’s sure: she wants a relationship with Alice. But despite this being the very thing she’s wanted since she met Ruby, Alice stands up again and says no.

“I didn’t just stand up for myself today, I stood up for all of us who’ve been called ‘diverse’ instead of our names… you know, valued for the optics we bring and not what we bring to the table… and I can’t believe I was standing alone. So I’m sorry but I’m not impressed with you and I can’t be in a relationship with someone who only has my back when nothing’s at stake,” Alice explained to a teary-eyed Ruby.

Malika assures Alice she did the right thing and the pair decide the sooth their broken hearts with edibles and a movie marathon. After Jerry McGuire concludes, Malika points out the parallels between Jerry’s story and Alice’s: both took a moral stand and walked out on their jobs. Malika stresses the that “It only takes one voice, at the right pitch, to start an avalanche,” which doesn’t sound that appealing to a stoned Alice (snow cones, however, sound delicious). Alice brushes aside the advice and looks for a movie that might address Malika’s situation but she’s convinced that no such movie exists.

“There is no movie where the heroine kisses two guys at the end. She doesn’t make it to the top of the Empire State Building and find two men waiting for her, totally down with the idea of sharing her in a complicated, yet open and mutually respectful way,” Malika admits.

Alice reminds Malika that Isaac loves her and that he’ll understand that this is something that she has to explore. But before they can delve into the foreign films section to find a movie with that message, they’re interrupted by a thud at the window. They tentatively (and hilariously) approach and discover that a bird has crashed into the Coterie window. Alice and Malika take the bird to the Coterie rooftop and compare reflect on how they’re like this little bird: sailing along happily — in a relationship or on a great career path — until they ran right into a closed window. But, as it turns out, the bird wasn’t hurt, just stunned, and when it recovers, it flies away. Alice and Malika are overjoyed — again, the scene is far funnier than I can do justice — and as they encourage their feathered friend to soar higher, Malika has an epiphany. She surmises that the bird was a sign and Alice sees the parallel too: they can get knocked down but, like the bird, they can get up again. The realization sends Alice and Malika back down to the Coterie kitchen to toast their realization some liquor and dance it out to Chumbawamba’s “Tubthumping.”

But just as they’re settling into their groove, Ruby interrupts with some news: Margaret Cho gave an interview to The Hollywood Reporter about the CBTV program and spilled all the tea. The story compelled the network to do a complete overhaul of the program, including firing Scott and allowing the talent to lead on creating sketches. Turns out, Alice was that voice, with the right pitch, and she started a much needed avalanche. Ruby invites Alice to rejoin the program. But does the open invitation mean that Alice is just going to return to the CBTV diversity workshop unscathed? Not exactly, according to Good Trouble Executive Producer Joanna Johnson.

“[Alice] stood up for herself and others and they didn’t stand up for her,” Johnson told me. “That just pushes her further to say, ‘Well, I stood up for them. They didn’t stand up for me. But I’m going to stand up for myself even when I go back into this program and I’m going to tell them, you hurt me. You didn’t have my back. And that I’m not going to just come back here and trust you.'”

And, in addition to walking back into these tension filled relationships with her fellow comedians and Ruby, Alice is also committing to a program that’s just decided to change. After years of accepting kudos for their diversity showcase while simultaneously forcing these comedians from underrepresented communities into portraying stereotypes, the CBTV program is undergoing change but Johnson warns that it won’t happen overnight.

“The program itself isn’t just the problem,” Johnson said. “It’s the whole network, it’s the hierarchy of it all. And so, there’s going to be new challenges going forward.”

Since its premiere episode, Alice’s evolution on Good Trouble has, perhaps, been the most defined: she’s gone from this closeted, mousy manager, going out of her way to avoid conflict — be it, with her parents, Sumi or the Coterie residents — to someone who’s unafraid to stand up for herself and speak her mind. We’ll get to see more of that in the remainder of season three, Johnson promises, both in the CBTV program and at home.

“There’s an upcoming episode this season where they do a Lunar New year Celebration at the Coterie, where [Alice] continues to try to learn to speak up,” Johnson spoils. “Everybody’s trying to find identity, but she also talks in this upcoming episode about how hard it is to know to be an American, a Chinese American. Are you American? Are you Chinese? Where do you fit in into this country? And how do you do both?”

As someone lives at the intersection of many identities, I can’t wait.

Coterie Sundries

+ Isabella is pregnant…and moving into Gael’s loft at the Coterie after being cut-off by her family. I’m interested to see how this impacts Gael’s relationship with Callie, of course — I cannot imagine them staying this amicable for long — but also how his family reacts.

+ After Ruby’s arrival, Malika retreats to her loft to sober up for her call with Isaac. Unfortunately, she doesn’t get the news she wants to hear. Despite her assurances that she just wants a relationship with him, Isaac can’t just forget her interest in a polyamorous relationship with Dyonte. He’s leaving the country for six months and thinks they need time and space apart to process everything. What does this mean? Are they still in a relationship? Is she free to hook-up with Dyonte if she wants? These are questions that need answered!

+ The straights really let me down this week on Good Trouble because not only did Isaac and Malika maybe break up, Davia pumped the brakes on the quick romantic reunion with Dennis too. He said all the right things, at first, but when Dennis lets it slip that he knew about Matt before coming back to the Coterie, Davia is (rightfully) incensed. He didn’t come back for her, he came back because he knew she might be moving on and he just couldn’t abide that. The admission puts a kibosh on the Denvia ship finally sailing…Dennis is going to have to prove his love to Davia if he wants her in his life.

+ Mariana and Evan’s relationship doesn’t survive the Good Trouble midseason premiere either: her revelation that she’s Evan’s girlfriend doesn’t deter the Byte Club from wanting to go ahead with their lawsuit. Mariana shares the news with Evan who worries that a discrimination lawsuit would hurt Speckulate’s forthcoming IPO. While he’s content to privately back the Club’s Bulk Beauty app, Mariana and the girls are clear: they don’t want to be in business with Evan Speck. Forced to choose between her boyfriend and her friends/business partners, Mariana chooses her friends and tips them off about the IPO. She encourages Evan to settle, which he does, but grows tired of constantly having to push Evan to do the right thing and ends their relationship.

Mariana thinks that should be the end of it — she’s done with Evan, they got their settlement and now they can move on — but her friends/business partners don’t agree. They accuse Mariana of only doing the right thing when she has no other option (much like Evan) and kick her out of the Byte Club.

Johnson explains, “[Mariana] wants to have her cake and eat it too. She’s growing up. She’s realizing when you do that, what happens sometimes is there’s no cake. You lose your cake. And you lose everything. And it was about time for Mariana to have that comeuppance and to grow up…That’s what they’re all trying to do on the show. They’re all trying to figure out adulting.”

Next Week: What’s next for Mariana? A new job…with Callie?! Oh, this is going to go great.

Good Trouble EP Previews Alice’s 3B Storylines: “She’s Growing So Much”

Soon after Good Trouble‘s third season debuted, it seemed like Alice was living a charmed life. She secured a coveted spot in the CBTV diversity workshop. She was building relationships with fellow comics while still showing up for her friends at the Coterie. Plus, she’d met Ruby and suddenly there was the possibility that the perpetually unlucky in love comedienne might finally find happiness.

But by the midseason finale, Alice’s life was anything but charmed. The diversity workshop was becoming more draining, than fulfilling: pitting the comics from underrepresented communities against each other while forcing them to perform sketches that transform them all into stereotypes. Behind closed doors, Alice’s fellow comics are just as frustrated as she is but when the time comes for them to stand up for themselves, they’re all rendered silent. Also silent? One of Alice’s personal heroes, Margaret Cho, and her would-be girlfriend, Ruby. Alice walks out of the CBTV diversity program alone, potentially ending her comedy career and her relationship before they’ve really begun.

What does Alice’s future hold now that she’s seemingly upended her entire life? In advance of tonight’s midseason premiere (which airs at 10PM on Freeform), I talked with Good Trouble Executive Producer Joanna Johnson about that and what it felt like to watch Alice’s storyline play out against a the backdrop of anti-Asian violence during the pandemic and the murders in Atlanta.

Autostraddle: In the mid-season finale, Alice ended up taking a stand and she ends up out on the ledge by herself, despite what she’s heard from her other comedians in the program and what she also heard from her hero, Margaret Cho. Is that going to make her reevaluate if she has what she needs to succeed in the business?

Johnson: I think that Alice’s arc is to find her voice and to stand up for herself. She’s probably always been good about standing up for others, but not quite standing up for herself. So, in this respect, she stood up for herself and others and they didn’t stand up for her.

Autostraddle: When she walked out of the program, she wasn’t just walking out of this career opportunity, she was also walking out on the possibility of this thing she has with Ruby. Is there any hope of salvaging that relationship and what can we expect from them going forward?

Johnson: I think Ruby has to learn to stand up. And I love Alice for saying to Ruby, “You can’t just stand up for me in private. You have to publicly do that.” And I don’t want to be in a relationship with someone who can’t have my back in public, even at the cost of their career.” And so, it’s just great to see Alice growing so much and respecting herself so much. So I think that Ruby is going to have to do a lot of… If she’s going to try to get back on track with Alice, she’s certainly going to have to prove herself.

Autostraddle: Earlier this year, Sherry Cola did an interview where she said, “Good Trouble has been a show that’s ahead of its time reflecting real life issues before the world catches up.” But when it comes to Alice’s storyline this season, it seems like the world caught up with the show in a really, really tragic way with the rise of anti-Asian violence during the pandemic and the murders in Atlanta. What that was like from your perspective to see it play out with tragic consequences in real life?

Johnson: Yeah. It was hard, for sure. Sometimes people will say that the show is ahead of world events and it’s really, really not because hatred, racism, bias and social injustice have always been here. We just chose to talk about it on the show where maybe some people weren’t talking about it. We didn’t invent them. We weren’t ahead of the curve. We were just paying attention.

Autostraddle: A lot of other shows have [touched on social justice issues] and they’ll touch on it for a little bit and then they’ll go back to being the same old show, but it’s really been a part of Good Trouble‘s DNA to tackle these issues from the very beginning. What’s the thinking behind that?

Johnson: One thing that I have really noticed in this generation is that they do care about the problems facing the world — problems that they’re going to inherit — and they do want to make a change and they do want to make a difference. They also talk about these things more maybe than other generations. So we wanted to make a show that was true to the things that people in their 20s care about. But, another thing is: you don’t have to be an activist, this is just what you’re going to be faced with this in your life, especially when you’re in your 20s and you’re trying to make a career, you’re trying to get a job. You’ve got student loan debt. You’re faced with a lot of things as a young person trying to become an adult.

Ultimately, we want to make sure that we are being an entertaining show, that we’re moving people, that we’re telling stories about real characters and the issues arise out of their real lives and their real work life and their real struggles and drama. We put a lot of humor into it too…and sexiness and all the things that make up your 20s…so that it’s not an “issue show.” We’re not trying to preach to anybody, but we’re just trying to show what it is, what you’re facing in your 20s living in America and in the world.

https://youtu.be/dIppBmNx7GU

Tune in tonight for the Good Trouble season 3 midseason premiere on Freeform and come back tomorrow for more of my conversation with Joanna Johnson.

“Good Trouble” Episode 309 Recap: Driver’s Seat

This is a recap of Good Trouble episode 309: “Driver’s Seat”

Last week’s episode of Good Trouble ended with a bit of a cliff hanger: sitting across from her therapist, Malika admits that she lied to Isaac when he asked her if she wanted a relationship with Dyonte. She’d been holding back for fear that she’d lose the man she loves but she’s ready to admit the truth now. She wants to pursue a relationship with her co-worker, Dyonte, and maintain her current relationship with Isaac.

The camera flashes back to the therapist who turns slightly and asks, “And Isaac, how do you feel about that?” Dear Reader, let me tell you: When she said that, I gasped… audibly. There was Isaac, sitting next to Malika, completely dumbfounded by the revelations.

I don’t like to invest my emotional energy in straight relationships but I had to make an exception for Malika and Isaac. He’s a reformed fuckboy, learning how to do better and be better to be worthy of Malika’s love. She’s a former foster kid, unused to anyone fighting for her, who had to learn to let herself be loved. I am fully invested. I love them together and I want their relationship to work, whatever that looks like. I drew nearer to the edge of my seat, waiting to hear how Isaac would respond… and then the show went off.

It’s frustrating when that happens, of course, but all I needed to do was wait a week. Just exercise a little patience and I’d get to find out what happened. So, imagine my dismay then when this week’s episode of Good Trouble debuts and there’s no sign of Malika and Isaac anywhere!

Thankfully, though, Good Trouble has been proven itself eerily capable of anticipating my frustration and providing a shiny object for me to focus on instead — and, this week, they provide not just one shiny object but two: the queering of an Adams Foster and an acoustic cover song. Somehow this show always knows what I like.

Alice Kwan has never been in the driver’s seat… not with her mom, not during her relationship with Sumi, not with her relationship with Joey (though they’re not a part of the episode’s animated opening) and certainly not in her situationship with Ruby. Alice’s attempt to wrestle away a little bit of Ruby’s control last week went awry. Rather than turn their situationship into an actual relationship, Ruby put a kibosh on all of it, for fear of things getting messy. So now, instead of spending her nights curled up next to Ruby in bed, Alice joins her fellow Coterie residents for game night.

Slowly but surely, the crowd starts to peel away: Callie has work to do for Kathleen; Gael gets called into to work by his overbearing boss, Yuri; Davia disappears and Kelly follows — after she loses the game that she created. Alone, Mariana senses that Alice is a little down and asks her what’s going on. Alice explains the situation with Ruby and admits that she doesn’t know what she’s doing.

“First of all, you have to know what you want and ask for it,” Mariana advises. When Alice seems uncertain about doing even that, Mariana changes course: Tomorrow night, she and Alice are going on a date. I know, I know… it’s not an actual date (it’s not like Mariana’s threesome from season one)… but when it comes to queering the Adams Foster girls, even the smallest of steps count. Let me have my joy!

The next night, Alice takes Mariana to Duoro and Mariana is unimpressed. She calls it a dump and an unoriginal date choice and, of course, Alice defers to her date’s opinion. Mariana chides Alice for giving up the driver’s seat so quickly and pushes her to be confident in her choices. That’s lesson #1, according to Mariana Adams-Foster: Confidence is sexy.

Once they’re seated, the tests keep coming. First, on photo etiquette: “if you must document the first date, take the pictures on your phone. That way, you can delete them if the date went badly, or text ’em later to the girl if it went well.” She reminds Alice that it is never okay for someone to try and change your look and urges the stand-up comic to pay attention to whether or not they’re being listened to. Then Mariana tries to push Alice to buy a fixer-upper with her or accompany her to her cousin’s wedding, which Alice responds to by lying instead of saying no, just like she did with Ruby. Mariana seizes on that and tries to correct Alice’s behavior.

As the date goes on, it’s clear that Alice is learning the lessons that Mariana is trying to impart. She responds to her date’s indifference by abruptly ending the outing. She dismisses the suggestion that she’d look better with side-swept bangs and asserts that she likes her hair the way it is. And, instead of joining her date at her cousin’s wedding in Oklahoma, Alice puts the brakes on moving too fast; instead just opting to see where things to take them. Mariana is impressed and declares that her work here is done. But then, Alice puts those lessons to work, ordering a round of effervescent cocktails for them both… and Mariana couldn’t be more pleased.

Later, as Alice is settling into bed, Ruby texts, asking about her hot date, yet another sign that Ruby really wants a relationship with Alice, despite the break-up. Alice texts back, admitting that it was only a friend date. She recalls Mariana’s advice — know what you want and ask for it — and decided to tell Ruby the truth.

“The truth is, Sanjana and I were never really dating,” Alice admits via text. “I just said that to make you jealous because what I really want is… to be in a relationship with you.”

She clicks send and holds her breathe while she waits for a response. Having been in this situation before, the wait is agonizing, so I deeply related to Alice’s fidgety behavior while she waits to hear back from Ruby. She finally responds with, “let’s talk about it,” which is far more vague than I’d hoped for but clear enough for Alice.

Turns out: It’s date night for everyone at the Coterie! Davia finally agrees to go out with her adorkable colleague that’s been shooting her heart eyes all season. But everytime Davia moves closer to Matt, Dennis re-emerges — with messages and pictures — that make Davia second-guess getting involved with anyone else. She finally puts her phone in “do not disturb” mode and settles in for her first date with Matt. Things go great. He remembers how she likes her calamari (“no tentacles ’cause the texture freaks [Davia] out”) and he regails her with stories about growing up in the South and going to cotillion.

They head back to the Coterie afterwards and Davia offers Matt a drink. He responds with an offer to teach Davia “the proper way to drink tea,” which, speaking as a fellow Southerner, is 100% something I would say. She asks about the usefulness of his cotillion skills, like ballroom dancing, and Matt admits it came in handy at his brother’s wedding. He volunteers to teach her how to waltz and extends his hand to Davia. They dance around the Coterie dining table and it’s just so cute. After he dips Davia, they draw close…. and just when it looks like they’re about to kiss… Davia remembers her night with Dennis. She shirks away from the kiss and Matt rushes out, smarting from the rejection.

Later, Davia facetimes Dennis and he’s practicing on his guitar. Davia pushes him to play the song he’s learning… and then he starts strumming and sings Sara Bareilles’ “Gravity.” It’s the perfect song that stands in for the conversation that Davia and Dennis need to have but can’t. Dennis sings, “Something always brings me back to you, it never takes too long/ No matter what I say or do, I’ll still feel you here ’til the moment I’m gone.”

And Davia asks — no begs — for him to let her go, singing, “Set me free, leave me be, I don’t want to fall another moment into your gravity/ Here I am and I stand so tall, just the way I’m supposed to be/ But you’re on to me and all over me.” They go on and sing together — a nice throwback to their duet from season two which I also loved — and try to work up the strength to move forward…. whatever that means.

"You loved me, cause I'm fragile." Every second of @JoshPence and @EmmaHunton singing together feels like pure magic. ✨
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Listen to their cover of "Gravity" from last night's episode now: https://t.co/ji83tpwt5G pic.twitter.com/P2m2oVwJd2

— Good Trouble (@GoodTrouble) April 15, 2021

The next night, after the Equity Committee meeting, Davia apologizes to Matt for how their date ended. Matt offers his own apology: He knows that Davia’s just getting out of a relationship and it was too soon to try and kiss her. But Davia insists it wasn’t too soon and that if she could, she’d go back and change what happened. Matt acknowledges her regret and then, as she’s walking away, Matt pulls her back into a kiss.

The real thing driving Davia’s change of heart? Her belief that Dennis is preparing to make his retreat permanent, since he talked to Alice about giving up his loft.

Coterie Sundries

+ The pacing of these last three episodes have really been Good Trouble at its best.

+ While Gael and Callie seem to be moving closer to a reunion — he invited her to attend his boss’ art show with him — he seems a bit gun-shy to me. Davia encourages him to make a move on Callie before her co-worker, Tony, does but the prospect of battling another “Ken doll” lawyer (to borrow Katherine’s expression) for Callie’s heart seems to leave Gael a little weary.

Next week on Good Trouble: A Margaret Cho guest appearance!

“Good Trouble” Episode 308 Recap: Trust

This is a recap of Good Trouble episode 308: “Trust”

We catch up with Alice this week back at the CBTV diversity workshop and things still aren’t going well. The program’s director, Scott Farrell, persists at being terrible: forcing all the comics to perform the most stereotypical version of their identies and laughing riotously at every turn.

When the program’s black comedienne, Stacey, is performing an improv sketch, Scott asks her to add a bit more sass to her performance. He advises Stacey — whose previous claim to fame was a self-written Riverdale musical — “do it like one of your homies from Crenshaw” and she swallows her pride and does it. And, despite a momentary recoil, when Scott asks Alice to add a little bit more of an accent to her performance, she does that too.

After the performance, Scott calls the comedians together and reminds them that they’re just three weeks away from the program’s final showcase. He continues to pit them against each other — likening the $70k talent contract to the Hunger Games — and promises to make the first of two cuts this week. He urges them not to hold back and to not be afraid to be over the top. Not Derek, though; Scott reminds him that he needs to ground his characters in some semblance of reality.

“Guys, remember when comedy used to be fun?” Magda asks after Scott makes his exit. The group decides to remind themselves why they love comedy by performing their own material at a local comedy club that’s hosting an open mic night. But before they can head out, Ruby slips in — unbeknownst to the other comics — and Alice excuses herself to go talk to her. Only thing? Ruby definitely does not want to talk. She pulls Alice down the corridor, kisses her forcefully and asks if she’s free later. Alice is tired of being Ruby’s booty call so she demurs… but instead of telling Ruby the truth about how she feels about their situationship, Alice lies and tells her she has a date tonight.

Since we met Ruby last season, I’ve loved her swagger. Her confidence juxtaposed with Alice’s awkwardness is what endears them to me as a couple. But the moment that Alice tells her that she has a date with someone else, the veil slips just a little bit… and you see that maybe Ruby’s interested in more with Alice than she’s said previously. Maybe all those boundaries Ruby established when she was still recovering from her last break-up are conflicting with what she’s feeling for Alice now? Or maybe I’m just imaging that because I really want Shannon Chan-Kent to stick around. But, I digress: Ruby kisses Alice again and urges her to not forget about her (as if!) and leaves as quickly as she came.

Alice heads to the comedy club and takes her turn at the open mic. She uses the CBTV diversity workshop as fodder for her new material. She takes shots at Scott for his cluelessness, she chastises the creators of diversity programs for opening doors to the 1950s. It’s all going well until she looks out into the crowd and — surprise! — there’s Ruby, the creator of the CBTV diversity workshop, sipping a beer at the bar. As soon as she steps off-stage, Alice rushes over to smooth things over. Ruby admits knowing about Scott’s problematic tendencies but assures Alice that his track record is solid.

“The truth is, these are the parts out there right for POC right now,” Ruby admits. “I wish that wasn’t the case but the point is to get you all working. At least people can turn on their TVs and see diverse faces, right?”

Alice demurs and Ruby takes the opportunity to shift the conversation back to Alice’s date. Rather that admit that she’s been lying, Alice pretends that Sanjana — a fellow comedienne from the workshop — is her date. Again, Ruby shows a momentary flash of jealousy but then pivots back to what she really wants: another hook-up with Alice. Alice maintains her boundaries and declines the offer… but, once again, instead of telling Ruby the truth, she pretends that she’ll probably just be with Sanjana later.

Of course, later, there’s no one sharing Alice’s bed so later, when she discovers that Derek has posted the video of her set at the comedy club, there’s no one to share in her outrage. She messages Derek immediately asking him to take the video down but it’s too late: Scott’s already seen it and he leaves a 😐 in the comments.

The next day, Alice walks into the workshop, convinced that her days in the program are numbered. Derek apologizes for putting the video up and claims it was a mistake but I’m unconvinced. Scott isn’t a fan of Derek’s brand of comedy and, fearing that he’d be the one eliminated from the program, I think Derek posted the video in an effort to sabotage Alice’s chances and boost his own. But to his surprise (and mine!), Scott takes Alice’s jokes in stride. He commends Alice for her performance and reminds the comics that they have to be able to laugh at themselves. The performance didn’t give Scott any cause for introspection, though, because he ushers Alice on stage to do her Vietnamese nail salon bit.

After class, Ruby stops by again… not for a kiss this time but to break-up with Alice (sort of). Ruby admits that she’s gotten a little too clingy and, if Alice is also dating Sanjana, there’s a potential for things to get very messy. Ruby suggests that they should take a break from whatever they have. Rather than admit she lied about dating Sanjana or confess that she wanted something more than just being Ruby’s late-night booty call, Alice accepts Ruby’s decision and slouches in her seat as Ruby walks away.

The other person who could stand to be a bit more honest about what they want? Malika, who finds herself on a therapist’s couch this week. Instead of dealing with the emotional fallout from the revelations about her mother — the issues that literally haunted her just two episodes ago — she focuses the bulk of her session on her romantic relationships. Inside the confines of the therapist’s office, Malika is candid about her feelings for Dyonte for the first time.

“He’s kind and supportive. We have a similar story. He just… moves me,” Malika confesses. “I can’t really explain it and I want to be close to him.”

When asked about Isaac, Malika is similarly effusive: “He takes care of me and he makes me feel safe and cherished. He challenges me in good ways.”

The therapist points out the obvious: Malika isn’t confused about what she wants, she wants to have relationships with both of these men. Malika acknowledges that truth but scoffs at the notion that she can have them both. Why can one relationship be enough, Malika wonders, and the therapist asks, “why does it have to be?”

Society’s conditioned us to chase monogamy — a fact that Good Trouble belies with the commentary from Malika’s friends — but, as the therapist makes plain, it’s a social construct. I try not to let the fact that I’m totally invested in Isaac and Malika as a couple distract me from the fact that the therapist is right. For many people, consensual non-monogamy feels more comfortable for them. The therapist explains that some people see polyamory as less of a lifestyle choice and more of an identity or orientation… and that’s when it strikes me how rare this moment is. I can’t recall ever seeing polyamory discussed this way on television… and certainly not with a black woman at the center of the discussion.

“Commitment shouldn’t mean suppressing your feelings or identity for fear you’re gonna lose the person you love,” the therapist explains. “And as scary as it is, not being your authentic self, not asking for what you truly need, that’s what ultimately blows up relationships.”

Malika takes her therapist’s advice to heart and reconciles to tell Isaac the truth. She needs to tell Isaac that she lied to him and that she does want to pursue a relationship with Dyonte while also maintaining the relationship they have. And she does just that in her next session with Isaac next to her on the couch.

Coterie Sundries

+ Mariana’s Byte Club is preparing to pitch their new app, Bulk Beauty, but they run into a problem: Gina is awful at it. They try to avoid telling her directly in an effort to spare her feelings but when they ultimately settle on eliminating Gina’s speaking role all together, their feelings about Gina’s abilities are clear. Gina’s less bothered about the commentary on her pitching — she can practice and get better at that — and more concerned that, already, their relationships are being hampered by an inability to be direct. It seemed like a good opening for Mariana to be honest about her relationship with Evan but she let it go… and it’s hard to imagine it not blowing up in her face down the road.

+ With Jerod’s case handled, Kathleen Gale and her associates move onto a high-profile murder case. Jamie’s warning about Kathleen being investigated by the FBI continues to rattle Callie a bit… so much so that she reaches out to her former colleague, Ben, to get the scoop on the investigation. But, after bonding with Kathleen over the premature loss of their (biological) mothers, Callie drops her pursuit of more information. She opts to take Kathleen’s advice — “when they rattle you, you rattle them right back” — and posts a cropped photo on Instagram of her and her co-worker looking friendly. And, of course, who sees that picture soon after its posted? Jamie. Consider him rattled.

+ I loved the layers they added to Kathleen’s character this week. They are fully leaning into the Mommi vibe and I am here for it.

+ I complain a lot about Good Trouble‘s tendency to overstuff episodes with storylines but this episode felt like it struck a really good balance. Mariana, Callie, Alice, Malika and Gael (w/ Davia) got storylines this week that all advanced their season’s arcs and none of them felt rushed or shortchanged.

Next week on Good Trouble: No, Gael… please… don’t.

“Good Trouble” Episode 307 Recap: New Moon

Through six episodes of Good Trouble recaps this season, we’ve dealt with some difficult issues: cash bail, white supremacy, the school to prison pipeline, sexism in tech, PTSD, the folly of diversity programs, cultural appropriation, mental illness and police brutality. It’s a lot but it’s been this show’s hallmark since its first episodes so tackling serious issues is something we’ve come to expect from Good Trouble.

But sometimes, you need a break…just a little reprieve from the show’s serious nature…and Good Trouble‘s good about giving us those too. In fact, some of my favorite episodes of the show happen when the show focuses less on issues and more on the relationships between the residents of the Coterie (see also: “Trap Heals,” “Twenty-Fine” and “Re-Birthday”). After all, what good is communal living without getting to enjoy, to quote Alice, the “sexual tension and bad decisions?”

This week, the residents of the Coterie come together for a New Moon ceremony. Malika wants to reconnect with her spiritual practices and she invites Isaac, Dyonte and everyone at the Coterie to take part in setting new goals and intentions. Kelly — whose one-liners have been a reprieve from Good Trouble‘s seriousness all season — shows up in her Edward Cullen t-shirt, expecting a group-watch of New Moon, the second movie in the Twilight saga. When she discovers that the gathering isn’t about her favorite vampire-themed romance, Kelly opts out.

Soon thereafter, Mariana follows her out. Raj is due to stop by the Coterie later today to complete the post-breakup ritual of getting your things from your ex’s apartment. She’s happy with her new relationship with Evan but letting go is tough, especially since a part of her still loves Raj. Mariana was already feeling melancholy about the whole thing but when she gets a message from Claire asking about Raj, she excuses herself from the festivities to find out what’s going on. Turns out, Claire and Raj have been talking — texting, visiting each other’s Animal Crossing islands — and Claire wanted to check with Mariana to make sure it was okay before things went further. Of course, who would show up right at that moment but Raj.

The pair makes awkward small talk as Raj collects his things but, as he turns to walk out, Mariana hear something scurry across the Coterie’s living room floor. Raj assures Mariana that it’s nothing but when that nothing knocks over a floor lamp, Raj drops his box and both of them scurry to hide in separate stalls in the Coterie bathroom. THERE’S AN ANIMAL ON THE LOOSE IN THE COTERIE!

Meanwhile, back on the roof, everyone’s getting settle to participate in Malika’s New Moon ritual. Well, settled isn’t the right word. No one’s really settled. Malika’s literally caught between her actual boyfriend, Isaac — who attends the ceremony because he knows how much it means to her — and the guy she’s been making heart-eyes at all season, Dyonte. Davia invited her co-worker Matt to join the circle and keeps trying to establish a love connection between him and Gael, even though Matt: 1. isn’t queer and 2. is so clearly into her. And then there’s Alice who is…maybe…possibly…in love with Callie Adams-Foster.

I am Davia in this picture. Davia is me.

Let’s rewind:

Alice wakes up in bed next to Ruby (Yay! Ruby’s back!). Turns out those boundaries that she tried to set, post her last break-up, were a bit more flexible that she’d let on. Their one night stand turns into a two night stand and it looks as though Ruby and Alice are stumbling towards a friends with benefits situationship. Ruby just wants to keep things casual so she opts against breakfast, collects her things and kisses Alice before rushing out the door.

As she leaves, Callie knocks on Alice’s other door and finds Alice looking disappointed. Callie asks if she’s okay and Alice lies and says that she is. After dropping off her rent check, Callie departs and Alice settles back into her bed for a nap. In her sleep, she dreams of Callie staying in her loft that morning and them talking about things with Ruby. Alice doesn’t know if Ruby even likes her that much but Callie tries to put her mind at ease.

“How could she not like you? I mean, you’re so funny and kind and hot,” Callie says. Alice laughs off the compliment because, even in her dreams, Alice is still Alice, but Callie assures her that she really does think Alice is hot. Then Callie pauses, looks at Alice’s lips and leans in and kisses her.

This happens differently in the episode, of course — you see the kiss long before you know the circumstances around it — but, after five seasons of The Fosters and 2.5 seasons of Good Trouble, I don’t think for a second that it’s real. I know Callie Adams-Foster too well: much to my chagrin, that girl is straight. The queerest straight girl on the planet, maybe, but straight nonetheless. I’ve made my peace with that realization (I will, however, still read your Kathleen Gale/Callie fanfics, though).

The dream makes Alice more awkward than usual around Callie. She’s nervous about holding her hand in the circle and she volunteers to accompany Callie when she goes downstairs to find Mariana. Callie declines her offer and goes downstairs alone, only to have the animal that is loose in the Coterie hiss at her from beneath Mariana’s bed. Callie screams and rushes into the closet. Hearing her screams as he descends the stairs, Gael comes rushing to the rescue. When Callie spots the animal scurrying across the floor behind him, she pulls him into the closet and they plot what to do next. They don’t so much develop a plan as put on copious amounts of clothes to ensure that they’re protected. They step out of the closet to find whatever animal is loose in the Coterie and run into Davia and Matt.

“This is downtown LA, not the Outback. It’s probably just a fat squirrel…this is exactly why you’re not supposed to feed them,” Davia professes, but as soon as the words are out of Davia’s mouth, the animal — a raccoon, it turns out — rears up and hisses at them from the table.

The foursome scrambles. Davia and Matt retreat to her loft, Callie and Gael run down the hallway and are confronted by raccoon #2. Callie splits off into Alice’s loft and Gael locks himself in the Coterie bathroom. She finds a bat among Alice’s things and arms herself with it, as she prepares to do battle with whatever is on the other side of rattling door. But it’s just Alice who Callie pulls inside. Alice suits up in a catcher’s mask and chest protector — leftover from her softball days, natch — and prepares to catch the raccoons with her bare hands. Callie nixes that idea so Alice grabs her laundry basket instead.

Alice is determined to protect the woman she’s maybe, possibly in love with so she charges out into the Coterie hallway with a scream. They find one of the raccoons digging through the Coterie’s trash and are able to trap it beneath the trash can. Kelly emerges, scaring them all, and Raj and Mariana try to rush to the rescue, armed with a plunger and toilet brush. Once everyone calms down, Gael and Alice explains that raccoons are loose in the Coterie and Kelly’s eyes grow wide with recognition.

Of course this is Kelly’s fault. Of course it is.

Meanwhile, Malika, Isaac and Dyonte are completing the New Moon ritual…in a way that, frankly, looks like foreplay for a threesome, but in water…when their cleansing time is interrupted by the other raccoon who jumps into the pool with them. The trio scurries out of the pool and back downstairs where they run into another raccoon, Kelly, Gael, Alice and Callie. The raccoons (Lucy and Ethel) are part of a performing animal troupe and Kelly is watching them while their trainer is out of town. She thought she freed them in a dream but, apparently, not.

Later, after all the excitement’s died down, Davia revisits Alice’s suggestion that she might be in love with Callie. Once Alice explains the dream, Davia suggests that the dream was less about Callie and more about what Callie represents. Alice thinks of Callie as “a woman who’s unattainable and intimidating” and Davia surmises that Callie was just a stand-in for Ruby in her dream. She encourages Alice to stop being passive and take control of the relationship.

Later, when Ruby sends the “u up?” text, Alice stands firm: she declines the offer and says she’s busy tonight.

Good Trouble Recap: Coterie Sundries

+ I loved this episode so, so much. It made me laugh out loud so many times.

+ While “New Moon” didn’t delve into all the serious issues that have become Good Trouble‘s signature, it did set up some drama for future episodes: Callie and Gael are getting closer again, Davia agreed to get drinks with Matt (and, by extension, not keep waiting for Dennis), Alice putting the kibosh on her situationship with Ruby and Isaac discovering that Dyonte is poly (a fact that Malika forgot to mention).

+ Alice suggests that Callie’s aggressive and “definitely a top”…and, yeah, that sounds about right.

Last night’s episode of Good Trouble is streaming now on Hulu.

Next week: Stop investing in the straights, Natalie. Love, Freeform

“Good Trouble” Episode 306 Recap: Hello

This episode of Good Trouble just hits different.

This season, we’ve gotten to see Alice try to level up her career with participation in the CBTV diversity workshop. Things have not gone well. The group’s program director, Scott Farrell, is a relic: a cis, presumably straight, white man who’s using this diversity workshop to boost his own career while also resenting the diverse comedians in the group for gaining entry into a space previously reserved for people who look like him. Under Scott’s direction, the workshop becomes less about these comedians finding their way in the industry and more about them continuing to fight for a seat at the table. True to character, Alice recoils from the fight, but after a push from Lindsay, she persists.

But when asked to present a new character for the workshop, Alice channels her mother and her mother’s accent during her improv routine. The bit earns Alice riotous laughter from Scott and the workshop’s writing team. For a moment, Alice feels vindicated — she is funny and she deserves to be here — but Lindsay promptly calls her out for falling back on her ethnicity. It was, at the time, a challenging scene to watch. The accent erased all of Alice’s mother’s complexity. It became, to paraphrase comedian Hari Kondabolu, a stand-in for Alice’s mother, replacing her real stories and her real struggles.

But if watching “Whoosh, Pow, Bang” was challenging, watching “Help” bordered on impossible.

Last Tuesday, a 21-year old white man walked into three different spas in the metro Atlanta area and opened fire, killing eight people. Among the victims were six Asian women: Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Yong Ae Yue, Xiaojie Tan and Daoyou Feng. The shooting was the latest in a dramatic spike of attacks, both online and off, against the Asian community during the pandemic. Nearly 3800 separate incidences of anti-Asian hate have been reported to Stop AAPI Hate since March 2020. Local officials in Georgia continue to gaslight Asian communities by suggesting that the shooter’s motive was devoid of racist and misogynistic intent, as if those things could be disconnected from a shooting that left six Asian women dead.

But Hollywood’s hands aren’t clean either. As Ada Hsieh notes in her column for Cosmopolitan, “This idea that I am ‘other’ has been reinforced over and over and over again by Hollywood and its perpetual portrayal of Asian women as hypersexualized, fetishized, and objectified. These depictions are dangerous — they incite possessiveness and violence.”

To its credit, Good Trouble understands this, they’ve always understood this (as evidence: “Help” is written by Thomas Wong and directed by Yoko Okumura). As Alice’s portrayer, Sherry Cola, told TV Line, “Good Trouble has been that show ahead of its time, reflecting real-life issues before the world catches up.” But that doesn’t make it any more comfortable to watch.

This week at the CBTV workshop, the writers return with new material for the comedians to act out. Alice has been written into three scenes — more than anyone else — and she excitedly takes the stage to perform. The first scene? In a nail salon/spa… it’s this one that hits the hardest, after the events of last week. The second? Alice as a hapless cab driver. The third? Alice as a martial artist. All scenes that lean into Asian stereotypes and all that require Alice to speak with an accent. Scott and the writers love Alice’s performances but with each scene, you see Alice’s spirit start to break.

Later, back at the Coterie, Alice admits that Lindsay was right about her falling back on her ethnicity. She regrets having done her impersonation of her mother and opening this Pandora’s box of Asian stereotypes. Lindsay, to their great credit, responds less like a competitor and more like the mentor that Alice needs at this moment.

“We don’t control how people appropriate our humor,” Lindsay explains. “So, as a non-binary comic, as an Asian comic, we’re doing jokes about people who don’t understand our pronouns or how much our mom hates how loud our dad chews but, to some people, it’s laughing at the queer freak or the Chinese lady who talks funny.”

They urge Alice to show the writers that what makes her funny isn’t just what makes her different and Alice takes that advice back to the workshop the next day. She gets up in front of the writers and her peers and presents three drastically different characters. She gets tepid applause from the writers.

But Alice’s peers come ready to play the game. They know this is a competition — two comedians won’t make the workshop’s final showcase — and that they need to win over the writers to have a chance. They’ve seen the way the writers respond to Alice’s accent and the stereotypes they pen for her… so they takeover the mantle. Alice didn’t just open Pandora’s box for her, she opened it for everyone.

In an improv scene with Lindsay, Magda leans into Latinx stereotypes: the fiery, hot-tempered Latina who rolls her R’s. One of Alice’s peers, Derek, approaches her to join him in a sketch and lays his cards on the table: “I don’t want to play a bumbling jihadist any more than you want to play a tiger mom but these people are the gatekeepers between us and our careers. We have to learn to play along until we can get through.”

And so she does, she takes the stage and plays the tiger mom/airline attendant to Derek’s failed terrorist. Scott, of course, eats it up — he’s in tears, he’s laughing so hard — and Alice stands on stage, begrudgingly, accepting their applause, even as she dies a little bit inside.

It’s heartbreaking to watch Alice go through this, especially because she’s still so early in her career. Moments like these, when gatekeepers force you to comport yourself in inauthentic ways, can really break a person’s spirit and enthusiasm for doing the work. I’m hoping that she’ll take a lesson from Malika and Callie and challenge a system that reduces her and her peers to stereotypes.

Coterie Sundries

+ Much of what “Because, Men” started to reveal about Malika last week comes to the fore this week as she grapples with the grace she extends to others but never afforded to her mother. Zuri Adele’s performance was pitch perfect but I definitely found myself wishing that they’d extended the story. It seemed like too much emotion to pack into one-third of an episode.

+ Jared’s case is finally resolved! The charges against him have been dropped and the city’s doling out a settlement to pay for the abuse he suffered courtesy of a sheriff’s deputy gang. And, of course, as is this show’s wont: the story is based on a real issue that’s been brewing within the LA Sheriff’s Office.

+ Not to detract from that very serious issue but Kathleen and Callie’s examination of the sheriff’s deputies was a thing of beauty. Constance Zimmer is peak Mommi and I absolutely love it. I don’t even care that she’s been investigated by the FBI.

+ Callie did not look like someone who expected Jamie to say that he just wanted their relationship to be over and that they shouldn’t even be friends. Is it weird that I care about them being together more now than when they were actually together?

+ How long before Mariana’s lies about her relationship with Evan and the pitch meeting catch up with her? And will it mean the end of the Byte Club?

+ After watching “Whoosh, Pow, Bang” a few weeks ago, I revisited Hari Kondabolu’s 2017 documentary, “The Problem with Apu” — thus the random mention of Kondabolu in this piece — to help me crystallize my own thinking around the use of accents in comedy. Highly recommended.

Next Week on Good Trouble: A New Moon Ceremony, wherein romance — maybe, possibly, hopefully — might be in the cards for Alice

“Good Trouble” Episode 305 Recap: Because, Men

Last year, as I transitioned from working in a bustling office to working from home, I decorated my new work space with reminders to keep some time for myself. I couldn’t leave work at work anymore so I had to make sure that I was creating healthy boundaries between my work life and my personal life. To remind myself, I affixed a quote from Brene Brown to my bulletin board — “Daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love ourselves, even when we risk disappointing others” — and challenged myself to live up to the mantra. And while my level of success in that regard is debatable, I’ve seen that quote often enough now that the quote popped into my head as I was watching last night’s Good Trouble.

Last we visited with Mariana, she and her all-girl team (AKA the “Byte Club”) packed up their stuff and left Speckulate, after a band of white supremacists overran their ACT-ivism app and the company refused to take action to counteract them. The Byte Club decides to forge ahead on their own, developing an app for an upcoming open pitch event at a tech incubator.

Rachel proposes an eco-friendly bath and beauty product delivery app called Bulk Beauty and the idea excites all the girls. But Mariana hasn’t left everything from Speckulate behind — her relationship with Evan survives her departure, though he remains a secret to her club-mates — and he advises her to start with something small, instead of pitching a really huge idea out of the box. Since Evan’s a CEO of a really successful company, Mariana takes his advice and steers the Byte Club away from Bulk Beauty and towards creating the next Candy Crush. And when Evan recommends that she maximize the app’s potential earnings power by adding in-app purchases, she brings that idea to the Byte Club too.

But Evan’s own history is a little different: he didn’t start small, he started big, pitching an app called Day Trader even though he knew absolutely nothing about the stock market. He pitched the app successfully, though, because men aren’t dissuaded by the things they don’t know. That revelation is buttressed by Alex and Sam, Mariana’s former misogynistic co-workers from Speckulate (and perennial fixtures on our “Men Are Trash (But Sometimes Not)” leaderboard) who are walking out of the tech incubator just as the Byte Club are walking in. Turns out, they’ve successfully pitched an Interior Decorating app for women. It’s a subject they don’t know anything about but they can figure that out later; right now, the goal is to make money and apps targetted at women are more like to do that. Frustrated, Mariana calls an audible: she wants the team to pitch Bulk Beauty instead.

“We’ve all been conditioned not to believe in ourselves — that women can’t be bold, that we have to walk before we can run — but how can we expect anyone to believe that we’re capable if we can’t believe it ourselves?” Mariana asks.

It would’ve been easy to let Mariana succeed here… to let her go into that room, having tossed away her script at the last minute, and win… but Good Trouble opts against it and I’m glad. As much as success defines who we are and who we’ll become, so does failure, especially when you’re in your twenties and especially when you’re a woman in tech and especially when you’re a woman of color in tech. That said, it’s curious to me that, after exposing the pay gap at Speckulate and earning industry-wide attention for their ACT-ivism app, a walkout by all the Byte Club wouldn’t earn some media attention — thus boosting the group’s efforts to find venture capital — or interest from other tech companies.

Mariana makes one change immediately after the unsuccessful pitch meeting: She pledges never to discuss business with Evan again. He can’t not tell her the truth and she can’t resist taking his advice so, instead, they’ll just avoid those conversations in the future. Evan responds to Mariana’s boundaries by establishing a few of his own, in hopes of avoiding triggering his OCD: He asks her to put his things back exactly where she found them and to always wear socks.

“I know that sounds silly, it’s just…. at work, I have to tolerate so many things that are out of my control, like things that cause anxiety and actual physical pain,” Evan explains. “At home, I need order so I can have one place in this world where I feel safe, like how I feel with you.”

It’s a cute moment — BOUNDARY SETTING IS ADORABLE, Y’ALL — but not enough to convince me that this relationship (and Mariana keeping it secret from the Byte Club) isn’t a really bad idea.

Meanwhile, Malika’s world exists with no boundaries. It’s a common problem for activists: when your work is fighting for your life and the lives of other like you — whether, for example, it’s ending the scourge of police violence on black and brown bodies or ending the epidemic of cis violence on trans women — it’s almost impossible to leave your work at work. Everytime Malika says, “work is my therapy,” my heart clenches a bit… it feels like she’s slipping into a danger zone.

This week, Malika’s friend from lock-up, Yvonne, calls to ask if she can watch her kids for a few hours. Despite having an ongoing competition with Dyonte at work — a competition that could decide which of them earns a full-time job as an organizer — Malika agrees and welcomes Yvonne’s three kids (one insolent pre-teen and two rambunctious younger siblings) to the Coterie. It does not go well. Frustrated, Malika chastises the tween (Kiara) for acting like “a little shit” instead of helping take care of her younger brother and sister.

Later, once the kids are enjoying swimming with Dyonte — who she invited over, partly, to distract from the work competition — Malika approaches Kiara and apologizes. Malika can relate to what’s going through, having grown up with a mother who’s doing the best she can. It’s a significant moment, one that the show brushes past too fast for my taste, that gets at the root of Malika’s trauma and anxiety. Why is she asking Kiara to give Yvonne the grace she never gave her own mother? That, on top of her unaddressed grief over her mother’s death, has Malika heading for a harsh fall.

Another casualty of that fall? Her relationship with Isaac, possibly. All season, she’s enjoyed this flirtatious relationship with Dyonte but, thus far, neither of them have crossed the line. This week, Dyonte reveals that he’s open to the possibility — he’s in a polyamorous relationship — but Malika quickly asserts that she’s in a monogamous committed relationship. In fact, she tells Dyonte, she and Isaac are planning to move in together… only they’re not… Isaac’s therapist agreed with Malika, who had earlier suggested that moving in together would be too stressful for him right now. Despite all Malika’s assertions, though, Isaac senses something’s brewing with Dyonte and urges Malika to call him next time when she needs help.

This is what I get for shipping straight people, y’all.

Coterie Sundries

+ One of the things I’ve talked about since Good Trouble‘s debut is its propensity — like The Fosters before it — to “[endeavor] to tell more stories than the show has time to tell well” and that habit reared its head this week. Gael, once again, got short-shrifted as we heard more about his new internship than we saw.

But also? The jam packed episode meant that the weight of Malika’s conversation with Kiara wasn’t felt and we didn’t get to see Dennis react to Davia’s admission that he’d hurt her deeply when he left so abruptly.

+ Speaking of Davia, her storyline in this episode was great. It’s hard not to let your personal life bleed into your professional one sometimes and Jessie’s insult caused her to lash out at her students. After a pep talk from Gael (and her former self), Davia regains her confidence and apologizes to her students for meeting aggression with aggression.

+ Last year, pre-pandemic and before Good Trouble‘s second season finale aired, news broke that Beau Mirchoff would be promoted to series regular for the show’s third season. Naturally, I’d assumed that this meant that Callie’s break-up with Jamie wouldn’t stick and the pair would find its way back to each other. Sufficed to say, I was shocked when, instead, Jamie walked into the conference room and announced that he was the new Deputy District Attorney (DDA) overseeing the Yvonne Byers case. Not quite as shocked as Callie, though…

+ Admittedly, Callie is not my favorite Good Trouble character. What’s always been disconcerting to me is how she consistently escapes consequences for the actions she takes, even as the lives of those around her are upended. This week, I was both glad to see Callie push to ensure that Jared (or his sister) knows about the deal that’s being offered — which lawyers are ethically bound to share — and for Kathleen to threaten her with real consequences if Callie ran afoul of her again.

Next week: A Conflict of Interests

“Good Trouble” Episode 304 Recap: Klompendansen

Back when the third season of Good Trouble debuted, I lamented that the show opted not to address the pandemic at all. I thought ⁠— and still think, if we’re being honest ⁠— that there was no show on television better prepared to tell the story of this moment than this one. But even though the show’s never mentioned COVID-19 outright, it has tried to capture some of what the last year of the pandemic has wrought: the heartbreak, through the break-ups of Callie and Jamie and Mariana and Raj; the upheaval, through Callie, Mariana and Gael’s changes in employment; the uncertainty, between Davia and Dennis and Malika and Isaac. It’s also grappled with Dennis’ grief and his separation from his life at the Coterie. We’ve seen Malika’s trauma and anxiety come to the fore, as the vengeful justice system she’s been fighting turns its attention to her. It’s not the same, of course, but those things ⁠— the heartbreak, the upheaval, the uncertainty, the grief, the separation, the trauma ⁠— have been real parts of our lives over the last year and it’s interesting to see the show center those feelings and experiences, even as it doesn’t acknowledge the pandemic directly.

“Klompendansen” continues with that tradition, only this time Good Trouble isn’t focused on a feeling that’s resulted from the pandemic, it’s focused on a need: comfort.

At the moments when everything else in the world feels unpredictable, we crave comfort, we long for the moments where everything felt familiar. That’s why my salve during the pandemic hasn’t been new shows, it’s been revisiting old ones: things that I’ve watched over and over again. There’s comfort in laughing where I’ve always laughed, in knowing when the scary parts happen or that the hero will be safe in the end. There’s comfort in the familiarity…and this week, Good Trouble gives us that with the return of the Mamas.

And Judicorn!

And… sigh… Brandon and his in-laws too but, you know, I try not to think about that.

The Adams Fosters and the Hunters are gathering together once again; this time to say, “bon voyage!” to Eliza and Brandon who are off to Amsterdam for Eliza’s stint as the first chair cellist in the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. The party is also a defacto send-off for Stef too: she’s been accepted into an Amnesty International program in Venezuela, focused on helping children, and her departure is imminent. But because Diane Hunter doesn’t do anything half-way, she invites her in-laws to celebrate with a Dutch-themed dinner party, complete with Dutch-themed ensembles (Klederdracht), music, drinks and food.

You can imagine how well that went over with Stef. But because it’s for Brandon and Eliza and no one can say no to Lena, Stef dons the outfit and the Staphorsts (special shoes for her, post-back surgery), all while muttering her displeasure under her breath. It’s been over a year since we’ve seen the Mamas on-screen for Christmas at the Coterie and it’s startling how easily Sherri Saum and Teri Polo meld back into their roles. They appear on your screen as though no time as passed, as if they’re still this couple so deeply in love and so deeply committed to the family they’ve created.

“We have a language beyond what’s written on the page. We have a language and a rhythm and a music that we each understand, instantly,” Saum told TV Line. You see every bit of that rhythm play out on screen.

The Mamas don’t come alone, though: Corey, the foster kid the couple took in the final season of The Fosters, joins them. He’s all grown up but still adorable with the same bright smile. But Corey’s not the only surprise guest: Connor is also at the party, working as a cater waiter.

Jude: Moms, you remember Connor?
Stef:: Oh, my God.
Lena:: I barely recognized you.
Diane: So how do you all know Connor?
Mariana: Oh, he was Jude’s first boyfriend!

Of course, what Mariana doesn’t know is that Jude introduced Connor to his current boyfriend, Carter, as just an old friend. Oops! This is yet another Easter egg from The Fosters that brought me so much joy. Aside from just cheering for Jude because he was so perfect and innocent ⁠— hence the nickname, Judicorn ⁠— there was something truly groundbreaking about his relationship with Connor. Even today, you rarely see queer love depicted that young and
the couple’s kiss from season two remains one of the youngest gay kiss ever on television. Seeing them reunited on-screen was a real treat… and it took just two seconds for me to start shipping Jonnor again.

When the Adams Fosters and the Hunters finally sit down to dinner, things are tense. Jamie’s arrived and things are understandably awkward between him and Callie, after their break-up. Everyone’s keeping secrets from everyone else. Jamie hasn’t told his parents he left his law firm (read: got fired). Callie hasn’t told her moms that she got Jamie fired and has left her job at Legal Aid to work as a defense attorney. Mariana hasn’t told her moms about leaving Speckulate ⁠— most notably, why she left ⁠— or that she’s seeing her former boss. But like Jude’s secret about Connor, that he tried to keep from Carter, the truth always finds its way out when the Adams Fosters get together.

As the Dutch band plays in the background, Jamie ⁠— who according to his father looks like a 70s porn star to which I’d ask, “how does Jim know that?” ⁠— lies and tells his parents he quit his job and is looking for new opportunities. He’s far more gracious than I would’ve been and doesn’t publicly acknowledge Callie’s role in getting him fired. Mariana tries to chime in on Jamie’s behalf but only ends up revealing that both she and Callie have quit their jobs recently. Diane’s surprised to hear that Callie’s quit her clerkship but Mariana corrects her: no, Callie’s other job.

And it just spirals on from there: Callie reveals that she left her clerkship early to work at Legal Aid and is now working for a defense attorney. Mariana explains that she left Speckulate because her app was overrun by white supremacists and, annoyed by Jim’s joke, Callie shares that Mariana had been verbally attacked by them. Later Jim asks about Callie’s move to criminal law and she explains about how she joined Kathleen Gale’s team to assure a defense for Jared. She’s far more gracious than I would’ve been and doesn’t publicly acknowledge Jamie’s complicity in Jared being attacked in jail. All of this comes as news to the Mamas.

Stef and Lena relocate to the bathroom to process all the new information. Lena wonders if they should worry that their kids keep quitting things. Before the Mamas can come up with an answer, Mariana interrupts and they question her about leaving Speckulate. She explains and they comfort her but when Stef turns her ire on Mariana’s former boss, Mariana rushes to defend him (leaving out the fact that they’re dating now, of course). Next, Callie interrupts and the Mamas ask her to explain why she and Jamie broke up. She explains that she stole information and passed it to activists which may have gotten Jamie fired but she’s unsure whether or not she should feel guilty about it. Before they can comfort Callie too much or pry Mariana for details about her break-up with Raj, Brandon interrupts and everyone’s curious about his big news.

Instead of telling them, Brandon ushers them all out of the bathroom in which they’ve been hiding and they run right into Diane who unveils her next surprise: Fleur, who will teach the group a traditional folk dance. And, that is every bit as a joyous and hilarious as you’d think it is…even if it ends with an utterly awkward dance between Jamie and Callie. During dessert, Brandon and Eliza finally spill the big news: Eliza’s orchestra exchange has been cancelled but they’re still going to Amsterdam anyway because Brandon’s found a job with a composer there. This is the kind of underwhelming news I’ve come to expect from Brandon.

After the Mamas get out of their Dutch costumes, they take Jude’s advice and check-in with Corey. His half-sister’s grandmother can no longer care for her and she’s going into the foster system. It’s clearly worrying Corey but he opted not to tell Stef and Lena because he didn’t want them to feel pressured to intercede. Corey’s like Judicorn 2.0. But, of course, Stef wants to intercede but Lena’s reluctant.

Lena: We’ve already adopted and fostered four kids, we’ve earned the right to be done with parenting. She’s four years old and that’s 14 more years until she’s 18.
Stef: (with a slight smile breaking on her face): Frankie wouldn’t be that much older than Ka’maya is now. Hmm?
Lena:: (sighs audibly) I can’t quit the State Assembly which means that you would have to be home, you wouldn’t get your next chapter.
Stef: Wouldn’t I? This is a new chapter too, don’t you think? The whole point of going to Venezuela is because there are children that need help. If there’s a child here that needs help, isn’t that also the point?

If you’re a true Fosters fan, you know why Stef’s comment is a gamechanger: Frankie is Francesca Adams Foster, the daughter Stef and Lena lost to miscarriage. As soon the words are out of her mouth, you know Ka’Maya’s got her new home and the Adams Foster clan will gain another member. Where there’s room in the heart, there’s room in the home… truly.

“I knew that nest wouldn’t stay empty for long,” Mariana quips.

Me either, Mariana. Me either.

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“Good Trouble” Episode 303 Recap: Whoosh, Pow, Bang

Over three seasons of Good Trouble, we’ve gotten to see Alice Kwan grow. We’ve seen her assert herself as the manager of the Coterie. We’ve seen her find the courage to come out to her parents. We’ve watched her experience love and heartbreak and manage to come out the other side. She’s stepped into this new career as a stand-up comic with aplomb: impressing Lindsay Brady enough to get an opening slot on their comedy tour and impressing the CBTV judges panel enough to land a spot in their diversity workshop.

But through it all, one thing about Alice has remained the same: her selflessness. She remains committed to putting other people first, even when it’s too her detriment. She’ll do it when the stakes are high — like last week when she skipped her audition to participate in the sit-in for Malika — and when the stakes are low, like this week when she starts the CBTV workshop on the floor because she doesn’t want to impose upon anyone to get her a chair. Clearly, we’ve still got some growing to do.

Last season, when we first learned about the CBTV diversity workshop, I tried to suppress my natural skepticism. As a biracial black queer woman, I’ve found myself in a lot of spaces where colleagues come together to talk about diversity and inclusion — it’s become a $8 billion industry — and how to improve the culture….and, sufficed to say, those did not go well. I thought about the diversity efforts we’ve already seen on Good Trouble: with Mariana and the “Fight Club” trying to establish equity at Speckulate. While those efforts yielded some gains, they were hard-fought: Mariana’s work was attacked relentlessly by the tech company’s “bro-holes,” who wanted to maintain the patriarchal power structure and nearly derailed by white women who weren’t as invested in racial equity as they were gender equity.

Nonetheless, I tried to be optimistic, for Alice. I wanted to see Alice win…I wanted to see Lindsay Brady lose…and, perhaps most of all, I wanted a reason for Ruby to stick around. It only takes a few minutes of being inside the CBTV diversity workshop to realize that my skepticism was warranted.

After welcoming the seven participants — instead of the usual six — to the program, the facilitator, Scott Farrell, jokes, “As your program director, it is my job to to make, or break, your careers.”

Everyone laughs, including Scott, but it doesn’t feel like he thinks he’s joking. He goes on to talk about all the performers who have participated in the program before and gone onto bigger things…though, of course, he can’t be bothered to remember any of their names. Scott — ostensibly, a straight cis white male — touts “what a great time [it is] to be diverse” and that diversity is “the new black.”

He points to Stacy, a black woman, and suggests that she could be the next Tiffany Haddish. The group’s latina, Magda? He tells her she could be Aubrey Plaza in “el barrio.” He tells Alice she could be “crazy” and “rich”. But he saves, perhaps, his most cringeworthy moment for Lindsay: “you could be Pat!”

Rhea Butcher’s physical reaction to the jab is understated but brilliant. They recoil from the sting of the insult and nod, as if they knew all along when Scott turned his attention to them, Pat would be his reference. Alice, apparently not having seen the first season of Work in Progress, unwittingly adds salt to the wound by asking who Pat is….and Scott relishes the opportunity to talk about that harmful character. It’s only then that Alice looks over and notices Lindsay shifting uncomfortably in their seat. Of course, Scott never notices.

Writing a good “villain” on a progressive television show is a tough needle to thread. You want to make it obvious enough that the audience can tell that this is the bad person while also never going too far that the villain become cartoonish, leaving the audience doubting whether that kind of bad person actually exists. You have to achieve that precarious balance of being compellingly subtle and blatantly obvious. For some, the depiction of Scott in this episode will fall in that latter category. He’ll seem cartoonish…after all, he offends almost every time he opens his mouth and he’s oblivious to the harm he causes. But having sat across the table from far too many Scott Farrells in my life, the depiction felt stunningly real to me.

He felt like every cis white man I’ve met who’s quietly aggrieved about the emphasis on diversity and equity but also sees it as an avenue to boost his own profile. He’s the guy who’s too hapless to be put in charge of anything that “matters” but perfectly suitable for leading the company’s diversity initiative. He’s someone who manages to center whiteness and heterosexuality even as he talks diversity and inclusion. He’s the guy who confuses one person of color with another, even though their skin tones look nothing alike, and who reflexively speaks Spanish when he passes a Latinx colleague in the hall. He’s the guy who makes a point to tell you how much of an ally is to his second cousin who just came out to the family or that he “would have voted for Obama for a third term if [he] could.” Yeah, I know Scott Farrell…I know too many Scott Farrells.

But, as it turns out, the biggest hurdle on day one of the the CBTV isn’t Scott himself, it’s that the diversity workshop culminates with a sketch showcase that will only feature five of the seven workshop participants. All of a sudden, these underrepresented voices are all pitted against each other in competition…forced to fight each other instead of fighting the system which necessitated this program in the first place. After the first day, Alice is convinced that she’ll be one of the people cut and considers quitting before it happens. Surprisingly, it’s Lindsay that talks her out of it.

“Or, maybe, you should just finish what you started instead of giving up because you had a bad day?” they suggest. Lindsay reminds Alice that she’s not competing against them, or anyone else in the group, she’s competing against herself. Alice is, understandably, weary about Lindsay’s motives but they’re sincere…besides, since they gave Alice her first big break, however good or bad she does reflects on Lindsay. Left alone to prepare a character for the next day’s workshop, Alice takes a call from her mother and it’s at this point, I scream at my television, “OH NO! ALICE! DON’T!”

But sure enough, she does. When it comes time for Alice and Lindsay to improvise their sketch with their characters, Alice dons her mother’s accent and reenacts part of their conversation from the night before.

There’s a lot of disagreement in comedy circles about employing accents. As a general rule, I am not a fan — it feels like low-hanging fruit and it’s hard for me to hear anything other than people laughing at immigrants — but, in the instances in which its tolerable, it’s because the comedian grounds the portrayal in a holistic depiction of that person. Margaret Cho will imitate her mother’s accent but she also shares her mother’s stories and experiences. Yvonne Orji slides effortlessly into her parents’ Nigerian accents in her stand-up routine but she also lets the audience see them and Nigeria in her Netflix stand-up special. In short, accents are okay if the depiction is about more than the accent. But, of course, that’s not what Alice does here: she just imitates her mother to get a laugh and it works.

The audience laughs, Scott especially, and when the day’s session ends, Alice’s confidence is at all all-time high. She’s surrounded by visiting writers and the participants that dismissed her yesterday until she sees Lindsay leaving and goes to talk to them. Alice congratulates Lindsay on their character but they acknowledge that it was Alice that killed today.

“You’re lucky, you have your ethnicity to fall back on,” Lindsay says dismissively.

Some small part of me wants to be glad that someone clued Alice in that what she was doing was problematic, I wish it’d been anyone but Lindsay. Based on the stunned look on Alice’s face as Lindsay walks away, I think the détente between the two comics is officially over.

Coterie Sundries

+ As is Good Trouble‘s wont, “Whoosh, Pow, Bang” was packed with story…and, there’s not a single storyline that I couldn’t write a thousand words about. Alice, Callie, Davia, Mariana and Gael all had great stories this week, I really loved them all. Also? The episode was directed by Pretty Little Liars alum, Troian Bellisario.

+ Callie uncovers that the guard who kept Jared pills from him — thus contributing to his increased charges — may have taken the drugs for his own personal use. But when the DA offers a plea deal to Kathleen Gale that’d have Jared out of lock-up in a month, she opts to take the case to trial. Stunned by the reversal, Callie confronts her new mentor. Instead of hurrying to get Jared out, Kathleen’s chasing a civil lawsuit against the city that could be worth millions. She rationalizes it as a way to ensure that Jared has money for treatment and a home once he gets out but Callie and I both seem worried that Jared will last that long.

+ Davia continues her work with the Equity Committee this week and each of the teachers starts sending problem students to other teachers, during their free periods, instead of the principal’s office. Once in the classroom, the focus is on restorative justice…a concept that Davia doesn’t really latch onto right away. She invites Gael into her classroom to work with the students through art and that proves successful.

I’m also glad to see Davia and Gael’s friendship continuing to grow…though I’m less certain about how I feel about whether Davia should pursue a relationship with her adorkable colleague.

+ Through 34 episodes of Good Trouble, I’ve found Gael the most relatable when he’s working on his art and when he’s with his family so I’m excited to see art re-emerge as part of his story. I completely related to his disappointment over not having achieved the same success that his friends have, especially when those friends come from money and you don’t. I was a bit remiss that he couldn’t pursue something working with those kids — he really shined in that environment — but I’m excited to see what this internship brings.

+ So, Evan’s just Tom Hank’s adult character in Big? Why does a grown ass man have a trampoline in his apartment?

Next Week: It’s a Fosters reunion! The Mamas are back!

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“Good Trouble” Episode 302 Recap: Arraignment Day

Previously on Good Trouble, Malika Williams had reconciled herself to agreeing to a plea deal on charges she faced stemming from her direct action — however unwitting — against Judge Wilson’s nomination to the federal bench. She’d have to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge, play a $5,000 fine and spend 30 days in jail but at least she would escape facing felony charges. Then, at the last second, the LA County Attorney adds an extra stipulation to the plea deal — if she accepts, Malika can no longer participate in community organizing — and it ends up being a bridge too far for Malika. She committed to going to trial.

In the season premiere, the march towards that trial began with what was supposed to be a routine hearing. She doesn’t invite her family — biological or chosen — to attend, she urges Isaac to go on his previously scheduled business trip…the hearing is just a formality…except, it isn’t. Because antiblackness is global and thus, Black Lives Matter has international chapters, the DA suggests that Malika is a flight risk and urges the judge to hold Malika over until trial. The judge won’t go that far but ups Malika’s bail to $250,000.

It’s one of those moments that Good Trouble does as well as any other show on television — thanks to the firsthand expertise of Patrisse Cullors and Melina Abdullah — showcasing what BLM activists go through once law enforcement wields the system against those who would dare challenge it. The moment is made even more maddening by its timing: the juxtaposition to this story with those of insurrectionists, released on their own recognizance — or, hell, approved to go on vacation in Mexico — lays the differences in our justice systems bare.

Malika’s led into a holding cell while her team works to secure her release. Tucked against the wall of a jail cell, she finally allows herself to feel the weight of what’s happened: she’s in jail and she’s scared. She brushes her tears away almost as quickly as they come. As her cellmates surround her, Malika tenses but they respond with kindness. They remember what their first time behind bars was like — “no one’s good in here,” Cadence responds when Malika suggests that she’s okay — and they do their best to ease Malika’s anxiety. They offer her a candy bar for sustenance, a phone if she needs to reach someone on the outside. The kindness is enough to snap Malika out of her moment of self-pity (however well-deserved) and allows Malika to turn her focus on learning the stories of the other women (including a special guest appearance by Isis King!) and helping them.

Later, Callie shows up at the jail…there, on her first day as a defense attorney, to interview one of Malika’s cellmates, Shai, about her arrest for indecent exposure. She spots Malika in the cell and asks Shai for a moment to talk to her friend. Malika updates Callie on her situation; instead of asking for help for herself, she encourages Callie to help one of her cellmates, Yvonne, who’s at risk of losing her job and her kids if she doesn’t get out on bail. Of course, Callie agrees, snaking the case away from her smug co-worker.

Meanwhile, Malika’s dad, brother and fellow activists are working hard to get her out. They launch a fundraiser on Mariana’s ACT-ivism app to crowdfund the money for Malika’s bail. BLM’s involvement invites white supremacism trolls to the app and they bury Malika’s fundraiser beneath their hate speech. Dismayed that her well-intentioned app is being abused, Mariana and her team jump into action. They wade into the cesspool, hoping to ban the most offensive users before the problem gets out of hand.

Malika’s team delivers a petition to the DA’s office, demanding that the charges against Malika be dropped. When the DA’s not there to meet with them, the group camps out in the office, staging a sit-in until they are heard. Malika’s Coterie family shows up for her: Gael shields Mariana from a crowd of hostile white supremacists as they make their way into the DA’s office. Gael records everything — from the offensive chants and threatening posture to a literal assault on an activist by a white supremacist right in front of a police officer who, of course, does nothing — and uses his graphic design skills to create a viral video to apply more pressure to the DA. Witnessing the scene in person gives Mariana new perspective on her app and she returns to Speckulate to urge Evan to shut the app down.

Of course, Evan resists Mariana’s push, repeating refrains we’ve heard from so many social media companies lately, “When you create a product, you can’t control who uses it. We’re a platform. We’re not a media company and we’re not political. Our job is to create ways for people to communicate, but, you know, we can’t control what they say.”

Evan won’t risk his business to stand up for what’s right and, all of a sudden, Mariana realizes that she’s tired of fighting. Everyday since she arrived at Speckulate has been a fight — a fight for gender and pay equity, a fight against harassment — and nothing about that dynamic is going to change. Exasperated, she tells her boss/secret boyfriend, Evan, “I can’t give my energy to a place that takes the best of me and won’t stand up for what’s right.” And so she quits…and the rest of the members of her all-female team walk out right behind her, committed to starting something new of their own.

Still, though, ACT-ivism’s crowdfunding works and Malika’s bail is secured. But, of course, Malika being Malika, she forfeits her bail to secure the release of her former cellmates. It’s fortunate because, despite Callie’s efforts to secure bail for Yvonne, she wouldn’t have been able to secure her release because she — like most people — couldn’t easily come up with the money. The story shines a worthwhile light on the problem with cash bail:

But before Malika’s transferred the women’s jail, the DA relents under the public pressure and secures Malika’s release. The charges have been dropped and Malika and her team return to the Coterie to celebrate.

Coterie Sundries

+ Isaac arrives back at the Coterie from his business trip just as Malika returns home and they fall into their easy rapport. They’re so wrapped up at flashing heart-eyes at each other that neither notice daggers Dyonte shoots in Isaac’s direction. Yeah, that guy’s definitely going to be a problem.

+ Alice foregoes her audition for the CBTV diversity workshop in order to support Malika but, at Kelly’s urging, performs her stand-up routine for the sit-in crowd. Someone streams the whole thing and Sumi (!!) shares it with the CBTV judges panel. As the Coterie welcomes Malika home, Ruby calls and shares the news that Alice has been accepted in the program. But — plot twist! — so has Lindsay!

+ I’ve got to be honest, I never really got the Mommi thing…but after these last two weeks of Constance Zimmer as a Kathleen Gale, Callie’s new badass boss/mentor? I get it, I so get it. I’ll have to talk to Kayla and Christina to see what I need to do to cement my status on Team Mommi.

+ Speaking of Kathleen, she takes over Shai’s indecent exposure case when Shai wants to opt for a plea deal instead of having to out herself to her parents. Kathleen finds another way: after threatening to sue the DA’s office for discrimination (Shai and her girlfriend were arrested for making out while gay), she gets Shai released on her own recognizance, with the assurance that her proud father would ensure Shai returned for her court date. Only thing? The guy in the courtroom wasn’t Shai’s father at all.

Next Week: Dear Lord, Not Callie and Gael Again

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“Good Trouble” Episode 301 Recap: Capoeira

Good Trouble finished its second season with one of my favorite episodes to date. Not only did the episode immerse us in the ethereal experience known as Trap Heals, it gave us story development on so many fronts.

Alice continued her evolution, from the meek Coterie manager we saw in the pilot to the confident comedian willing to challenge her mentor for a spot in the CBTV diversity program. Malika cemented her support structure — getting her boyfriend, Isaac, treatment for his anxiety, healing the rift between her father and brother, inviting her fellow Coterie residents into her world — before she goes to court. After silently pining after each other for months (and compelling me to care) Dennis and Davia finally confessed their love for one another. The Adams Fosters sisters finally reunited, after both having lobbed grenades into their personal relationships: Callie stealing Jamie’s privileged work product and Mariana cheating on Raj with Evan (after believing Raj cheated on her with her roommate, Isabella).

“That’s a wrap on season two of Good Trouble! The show returns this summer for its third season and, after ‘Trap Heals,’ I can honestly say I can’t wait,” I wrote in my recap, clearly not realizing that I was “[tempting] the wrath of the whatever from high atop the thing.”

Just a week after the Good Trouble finale aired, an NBA player named Rudy Gobert would test positive for COVID-19. While the virus had already made it to American shores, Gobert’s positive test brought it to the forefront of the American consciousness. The NBA shutdown its season soon thereafter and everything else fell like dominoes behind it. Sufficed to say, I didn’t get those summer episodes of Good Trouble.

We all changed that day and even more in the 344 days since. Everything we do, everything we’ve always taken for granted, comes with risk now. Our grief is palpable, our mourning omnipresent. And while we all hope that the vaccine is the light at the end of the tunnel and that things might one day get back to normal, we all secretly worry that there is no going back… this is our new normal.

Good Trouble‘s third season finally premiered last night, months after it was promised and nearly a year since “Trap Heals” aired. It does not exist in our new normal. There are no masks, no social distancing, no mention of COVID-19 anywhere. In a preview of the new season with TV Line, the show’s executive producer, Joanna Johnson, said, “I just also think that people don’t want to turn on the TV and see everyone in masks. I feel like people want to escape a little, and I really appreciate television [shows set in] a mask-free world, where people are out. It relieves my anxiety when I see that on TV.”

I understand that desire. I get wanting to have a break from this reality and immersing yourself in an alternate universe for a while. Of course, I want to watch television that reminds me of what it was like to sit beside my co-workers or to hang out with my friends at a bar or to share a hug or kiss with someone new. I get wanting to have some reminders of what normal once was and what we hope it looks like again soon. But as I watched Good Trouble‘s season premiere — much to my surprise — I found myself feeling like the show had missed an opportunity.

Good Trouble has never been a show about escapism. It’s never been a show devoted to making people feel more comfortable. When you look at the storylines the show has done — on Black Lives Matter, on sexism and racism in tech, on the school to prison pipeline — the goal hasn’t been to relieve anxieties, it’s been to foreground them so that others could bear witness. To avoid telling the uncomfortable stories now feels contrary to what this show has always been.

What’s more? I’m not sure there is a show on television that was better prepared to tell the story of this moment than Good Trouble. For Malika, the story could have been how the handling of this pandemic has re-emphasized how black and brown lives don’t matter. For Davia, how the solution to educating during a pandemic has harmed our most vulnerable students. For Dennis, how the pandemic has exacerbated the need for mental health resources and, as such, made them harder to access. For Mariana, how even as the rest of the world struggles to make ends meet, tech is booming. For Alice (and Sumi), how the pandemic has led to a spike in Anti-Asian hate crimes. For Callie — if she’d kept her old job — a story about the looming “homeless pandemic” or — if she persisted in pursuing criminal defense — how the pandemic has led to a suspension of defendants’ constitutional rights or how states have allowed COVID to run rampant in prisons. And all that’s before you dig into the personal impact of the pandemic… lost jobs, illness and the loss of life…there was so much story potential but instead we’re concerned about anxiety relief. It seems like a missed opportunity to me.

All that said, Good Trouble‘s season’s premiere did find a way to capture some of the heartbreak of the last year by breaking up nearly every couple on the canvas. Callie and Jamie? Done. Mariana and Raj? Over after she decides to give her inappropriate relationship with Evan a shot. Davia and Dennis? On pause before they even really had a chance to get started. Isaac and Malika are still together but given her newfound closeness with her co-worker, I’m worried about their future (the new guy tells Malika, “I already knew I was in big trouble from the day I met you,” with those dimples…. yeah, I know an interloper when I see one).

Coterie Sundries

+ If I didn’t feel so strongly about the COVID avoidance in Good Trouble, this recap would’ve been entirely about how much I’ve grown to dislike Callie. She is actually the worst.

Last season, she stood before a group tenants and encouraged them to turn down relocation vouchers and fight their evictions. She promised to fight for them. But this season, when a shiny new object turns up at the Legal Aid offices — a shiny new object which I adore, mind you, because it’s Constance Zimmer in full Mommi mode — she drops those tenants without a second thought and opts to become a criminal defense attorney. I guess it’s supposed to be endearing that Callie hops from one job to the next — a lot of 20 year olds do — but if the show valued the stories of those tenants as something other than a plot device, they’d realize how awful this makes Callie look.

And then, on top of that, her theft of privileged information from Jamie — which, I guess we’re supposed to see as some moral victory — carries absolutely zero consequences for her even as it ruins her ex-boyfriend’s career. Perhaps she can’t be held criminally liable but, at the very least, she should face questions from the California State Bar about her moral standing. But no, she won’t face any consequences and I absolutely hate it.

+ As someone who audibly groaned when they put Callie back in Gael’s orbit soon after she’d returned to the Coterie, I was pleasantly surprised by the misdirection of Gael’s brunette hook-up being Isabella, not Callie. That said, it felt a little like Chekhov’s gun and I’m anxious to see if has any ramifications.

+ Speaking of Isabella, she’s gone now? I feel a little bad for thinking the worst of her last season. Turns out she wasn’t as bad as I thought.

Next week: Shut it down, but not really because it’s not a pandemic on Good Trouble.

(I promise, by next week, I’ll be over this.)

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