ABC Family's The Fosters - Episode 2.10 "Someone's Little Sister"
Callie calls in a favor from Robert Quinn to help Rita and Girls United but an unexpected betrayal threatens to derail the new bond she's forging with the Quinns. The pressure Connor faces from his father to end his friendship with Jude intensifies and leads Lena to make a life-changing decision. The tension mounts between Brandon and Lou. A visit with Ana makes Jesus see his relationship with Hayley in a new light.
I was really enjoying the summer finale of The Fosters. And then, Callie and Brandon kissed - again! Now, that was the very final moment of the finale so I can't judge the episode as a whole too harshly because of it. But I do have very concerning thoughts about what it means for the series when it returns next year. The show had been making such strong progress with both of them as individual characters and (more importantly) as siblings. And now, the show could go crawling back down that rabbit hole because it needed a scandalous way to conclude its summer finale. It's the exact same tactic the show did exactly a year ago. So I'm really hoping we don't just get a retread of it.The two kiss yet again because it's looking increasingly unlikely that Callie will ever be happily adopted. She wants the love that the Foster family provides but her own biological connection to the Quinn family threatens to ruin that. She has never viewed Robert as her father. She's his biological daughter but Donald is her real father and her real family is the Fosters. The Quinns desperately want a connection to Callie. They want her as a part of their family. Sophia has become attached to having a sister who she can talk to about anything. She's lived quite the sheltered life as the daughter of wealthy parents. But that life is also very lonely. So she'll do anything to get Callie into as much of her life as possible. That means tearing up the abandonment papers just after Robert signs them. Robert had made peace with letting Callie go and be happy. Because of Sophia, Callie was willing to keep in touch with the Quinn family even though she knew they couldn't provide the type of love she needed in her life. Callie has always struggled to open up emotionally. Whenever she did in the past, something bad would happen. It finally looks like things are looking up for her and she recognizes Robert as her father during the fundraiser for Girls United. It took a lot for to open up like that and now Robert sees it as actual love. He can't sign the abandonment papers now that she has acknowledged him in that way even though it's exactly what Callie wants. She just wants to be happy and it seems like she'll never get it. And that leads her back to Brandon because he's the one to chase after her. After all this goes down, she just wants to be alone. She doesn't go running to Stef and Lena. She runs away again and Brandon is there for her.
Elsewhere, Lena quits her job at the school as the situation with Connor's dad intensifies. What was most surprising to me about this story was how unwilling to fight Stef was. She never backs down from anything and her solution to this situation is that Jude needs more friends anyway. That leads to tension in their relationship. Stef believes Lena quit because of how out of control everything in her life has been lately. I'm not completely sure I buy that because she spent the last two weeks away finding herself again on the school trip with Jude and it seemed like she was dealing with that stuff quite well.
Lastly, Jesus and Mariana saw Ana again. It's interesting because Mariana was willing to see her and what she had to say while Jesus was adamantly against it. Through circumstance, they both go. It turns out that Mariana is the one who has the most anger towards her while Jesus just wants to comfort her. Yes, that leads to wonderful resolution for both of their respective plots this season as Mariana returns to being a brunette and Jesus realizes he needs to spend some time on himself too. It was just an odd dichotomy.
Some more thoughts:
- "Someone's Little Sister" was written by Joanna Johnson and directed by Norman Buckley.
- Speculate away on what Jude and Connor did in their tent that they weren't suppose to.
- Brandon's band - which is apparently called "Someone's Little Sister" - is actually really good. I just wish the show didn't feel the need to have someone say that in every other interaction.
- I give it one episode until Jesus tries to get that tattoo removed.
- Some of the Girls United girls returned and they don't get any lines? What's up with that?
- But Rosie O'Donnell continues to be awesome.
- Loved the shared bit of history between Jude and Connor about being hit by adults.
- Sophia heads to the bathroom in the final moments of the finale. Does that mean she's suicidal? It was left quite ambiguously.
