The Fosters Episode 420 Recap: Stop The Madness

Previously on The Fosters, everyone is lying and keeping secrets and an entire storyline we have spent all season on turned out to be nothing except a reason to get Callie into MORTAL DANGER. So yeah it’s the finale.

I loved this show once. I loved the writing and the characters. More than anything I loved seeing a two-mom family on my television. But man, it hasn’t been that show for a long time. The show has been given at least eighteen more episodes. But I don’t know if I can keep watching this zombie Fosters.

Jesus, after reading Mariana’s anonymous tweets, thinks Emma is pregnant and tells her that they can be parents together. Emma tells him that she had an abortion because the baby was Brandon’s. Turns out it was a motherfucking dream sequence. Emma texts to make sure Jesus is okay since he was so weird the day before. Yep, totally fine. Fake news!

You’re … gay?

Yes. I would have told you sooner but you stapled your brains to the inside of your skull and I felt bad.

Oh hey Stef in your flannel layering. Looking good, lady. Yeah, that video of Callie in Doug Harvey’s house is bad for her case. So bad that the deal they are offering is three years in prison. She has 24 hours to decide.

Callie dissolves when they get out of the elevator. She’s freaking out. Everything is over and she knows when Stef tells her they have a day to think about it that’s there’s nothing to think about. She asks Stef not to tell the other kids; she doesn’t want a day long pity party. Hooray! More secrets! What could go wrong?

Emma stops Mariana in the halls of school. She wants to know how she could have tweeted about her being pregnant. Everyone in school is trying to figure out who it is. Mariana is like, “Dude, no one knows it was me.” So not the point, Mariana. Emma reminds her that she knows and so will Jesus. Mariana thinks that deleting it will fix the problem. But Emma’s unimpressed by that plan. He might have already seen it and even if he didn’t, Mariana’s not much of a friend these days. Oh Emma Earp, there’s a spot for you in SyFy with Waverley and Wynonna.

You told my brother you’re gay? We can finally be together!

…or I can try to find someone to date whose family isn’t cursed.

Lena pulls up to school while learning that her eldest daughter is about to spend three years in prison. She runs into Drew and gives him an earful about the Stratos family. He doesn’t give a crap because turning the school private is awesome. They will get more money, her kids will get to go for free and everyone wins! Drew’s obviously a Republican: lots of selfish bullshit, no follow through. Lena says she’ll be back to work tomorrow and he calls her the wrong name and says if she is going to stir the pot she shouldn’t even bother coming back. Someone get this guy a cat to stroke while he’s saying this.

Stef called the cavalry, or what passes for the cavalry around here, to help keep Callie out of jail. The cavalry is Mike. Callie, start watching OITNB because you’re fucked, girl. Stef sees that Doug Harvey lied about knowing about Martha Johnson’s murder. Yeah, he’s got a whole wall of newspaper clippings they can see on the video of Callie breaking in. Stef can’t look into it so Mike goes to do it. Aw Mike, don’t get anyone shot this time!

If you want me to pick up Lena and drive us into our own child-free spin-off, just say the word.

Stef’s supervisor pops over and asks if there are any texts between Diamond and Russell. Nope no texts but they know she told him that the police were talking to her. Stef’s worried that maybe they should move Diamond for her own safety but her supervisor says to give it a day. Weird that everything has the same deadline, isn’t it? What a funny coincidence.

Lena scoots into the classroom where most of her kids are making signs. She pulls Mariana to the side. She wants any protest from students to be calm and controlled. Mariana says that’s fine but they are making signs and they want to be heard. Lena promises the kids will have a voice at the vote but they can’t just walk out of class and cause a ruckus. She tells Mariana that Nick’s dad is behind everything. At the table, Callie asks Jude if he wants to take a walk with her.

I’m glad the writers decided a shark attack scene was too over the top, even for this show.

Out on the beach, she tells Jude that she’s pretty sure Kyle killed Martha Johnson and she was wrong to think otherwise. She says the plan is to convince the jury that Kyle manipulated her into doing all kinds of stupid stuff. She knows Jude is going through a hard time and he’s finally mad after years of getting the short end of the stick. He has every right to be mad just don’t be like her, okay? Find a channel for his anger that won’t get him sent to jail. He says he learned how to fight back from her. She’s his hero. She looks like she’s going to cry and reaches to hold his hand. It’s nice moment. But did we really have to go through a season of awful storyline for this moment? I mean, at what cost?

Doug Harvey and his Coyote Bergstein-inspired weed-whacker haircut is waiting in an interview room when Mike pops in. Harvey remembers Mike from when he came to talk to him with Stef. Mike says he remembers Doug telling him he knew nothing about the murder case but gee whiz, this picture sure makes it look like his story was wrong. Doug says he was there painting the curb but someone else (not Kyle) was there, too.

The final season of Ezra Fitz and the Liars starts next week.

Callie continues her rounds through her siblings with a trip to Brandon’s room to play some music. It’s so haaaaard to say good-bye…. While they sing a duet, Jesus and Emma are in the living room studying. Mariana comes down to tell them about the board meeting. They say they will go but things are not comfy between Emma and Mariana and even Jesus notices.

Mike and Stef lay out all the evidence they have from Doug Harvey to the detective who arrested Callie after the accident. He’s hesitant to step on Detective Grey’s toes but Stef and Mike convince him that Grey isn’t going to do the right thing after suppressing evidence in the first place.

Brandon needs stuff from his room and Jesus takes the opportunity to ask if Brandon’s ever gotten a girl pregnant. Jesus explains about the Twitter account (that he assumes is Mariana’s) and explains about the post about her best friend being pregnant and how Emma is her best friend or whatever. He tries to show Brandon the tweets but the account has been deleted. Brandon, ever helpful, is like “Don’t worry about it, dude!” Jesus is tired of no one telling him the truth so he calls Sharon to find out if maybe Grandma didn’t read him the whole note. Will someone just tell this kid the truth?

Is now a good time?

No.

The moms climb into bed wondering if Stef’s work will be enough for Callie to turn down the plea deal. Just when they look like they might have a chance to cuddle, Jesus knocks on the door. He has something he needs the moms to know. Emma got pregnant and then got an abortion. He just found out but thinks the moms need to know (jokes on you, buddy, they already know!). Stef climbs out of the bed to ask him how he feels about it all. He can’t help feeling weird because if Anna had an abortion he wouldn’t be alive. He never wanted to get into a situation like this but if he did, he never thought abortion would be an option he would choose. But, it’s not his body so it’s not his choice. He wishes she had told him but he’s not going to bring it up unless she does.

Mike and Stef watch the detective question Troy’s alibi witness. She better not lie because she will go to jail for it. The witness still swears that Troy was working when Martha Johnson was killed. Stef has to run out because Russell is going to get Diamond. But Mike and the detective will figure something out.

At the school, Mariana is impressed with the turnout and Jesus says it sure was good that some random person tweeted about the school maybe going private. He knows it was her. He just wishes she told him about Emma. Well, that brings the house down because she says how could she tell him when he lost his shit over pepperoni on his pizza (fair point). Really, he should be pissed at Brandon. Oh Mariana, come on!

At the stake out Stef’s boss is psyched they are going to nail Russell this time. She knew Stef was going to be good at it. When she calls Stef “Foster,” Stef corrects her and warns her to call her Adams Foster or risk the rage of Lena. I love it when Lena gets angry. Let’s have more of that. Diamond sees a cop car and Stef and makes a run for it. Way to be subtle, coppers.

I mean, even Friday Night Lights had a shitty murder storyline, though, right?

Which they abandoned and never spoke of again after NBC backed off them.

Drew wades through the crowd to welcome the distinguished guests. Mariana wants to know when they can come in to speak and Drew tells her the meeting is closed. When Nick’s dad comes through Mariana lays into him. It’s his fault Nick stalked her, could have killed everyone there, and almost killed himself. She’s not going to let him take her school, too. He tells her that she has no say. Oh no. Mariana is taking her power back, asshole.

A cop car shows up with lights and sirens on and Russell drives out of there. Diamond and Tina are gone. They called 911 to warn Russell and Stef realizes that Diamond wasn’t bringing him drugs, she was bringing him a girl.

Callie and Daphne are driving around, talking about Callie’s three year deal. You know, regular girl stuff. They see Christina and Diamond and pull over to top them from running away. Diamond is desperate. If she doesn’t go back with a girl for him she’s going to be dead. Christina wants to back out and Callie and Daphne let Diamond try more and more lies. Callie says Christina doesn’t need to go, she will. It’s not like she has anything to live for anyway. Callie Jacobs Quinn Adams Foster, stop this Pretty Little Liars stupidity right now.

And now I would like to perform the gayest song of all time…

Work Bitch by Brittney Spears

You want a hot body? You want a Bugatti? You want a Maserati? You better work bitch.

Lena can’t believe that they closed the meeting. She looks pissed as Nick’s dad starts droning on about elite schools and money. Even Monte looks nervous that Lena might ditch her calm, gentle demeanor and really let loose. DO IT!

Mike and the detective (did anyone catch his name?) are talking to Troy. He won’t say anything without his lawyer present so Mike just lays it out for him. He’s guilty and everyone knows it. They lay out the evidence they have on him, the times he lied, and tell him that Vanessa recanted her alibi. He admits killing her when she told him he was out of her will.

As darkness falls, Callie and Diamond get in the van with Russell.

Mike calls Stef to tell her that Troy confessed to everything. She’s so relieved she is going to call Callie. Daphne pulls up to GU in Callie’s car and Stef runs over. Daphne says that Stef needs to track Callie’s phone to find them. Good lord, there is never good news for these moms. Callie hides her phone in a bag in the van so Russell won’t find it on her.

Lena steps up to the mic at the meeting. The issue on the table is whether they should give a gift to a bunch of wealthy kids and their parents while throwing away all the work they have done for every kid who has gone to Anchor Beach.

Outside it’s inexplicably pouring when Brandon arrives to tell Emma that Jesus is getting suspicious. Jesus storms over and wants to know how Brandon knew and took her to Planned Parenthood? How did everyone know but him? Jesus thinks they didn’t tell him because the baby is Brandon’s. Jesus runs out into the night and the kids decide not to let the adults out since they won’t let the kids in.

Russell throws the bag with the phone out the window to another car. Callie wants to run but Russell has a gun and Diamond says it’s stupid to run. It’s stupid to get in the van in the first place!

Great now your mom is running my school.

SHE WAS ALREADY RUNNING THE SCHOOL, SUPERFLUOUS WHITE DUDE

The board counts the votes. Guess who doesn’t come out a winner? Money wins! Weird! Shocking! Outside there’s a circle of kids and parents around the school chanting “education is a right, not just for the rich and white.” Lena tells the Drewche and Nick’s dad good luck explaining to everyone out there.

Russell takes Callie and Diamond to a gross motel and it seems to hit Callie just how dangerous and awful this situation is. Russell is gross and menacing and sends Diamond out of the room with another girl and guy so he can get to know Callie. Meanwhile, Stef drives past the motel tracking Callie’s cell phone.

And that’s where this season ends.

Last night I went out with my wife and on the way home I told her about my frustrations with The Fosters. She laughed and made a great point (she gave me permission to use her great point in my recap). She said “No one watched 90210 for the Walsh parents.” I laughed at the very notion of watching that show for Jim and Cindy. Her point holds up with The Fosters. We are, clearly, not the target audience for the show. I find this super annoying because, frankly, all of us watching that first season (and however long we stuck with it) certainly helped it get a second season. But it’s true. This is a teen show that happens to have two moms instead of a straight couple at the head of the central family.

My wife likes to point out that having these moms be the figures behind all of this swirling kid chaos remains revolutionary and important. It’s important in a world where my five-year-old has classmates tell her “you need a mom and a dad to make a baby.” Sorry, kid you really don’t. There is a big piece of me that will always be glad this show exists even if I think it has flung itself off the rails so far that I don’t know if I can keep watching it.

Stef and Lena are the best part of this show. When the writing for them is good, no show can touch it. They have scenes that are every bit as good and important and emotionally resonant as Burt Hummel’s finest moments on the shitshow that was the final seasons of Glee.

But, I am no longer sure that’s enough for me to keep watching. We talk about queerbaiting and not giving views to shows that aren’t doing right by us. While it’s an imperfect analogy, I feel mom baited (no, it’s not really a thing). They want us to watch an entire season for the promise of a good scene here or there. I know I am not the only one who feels this way. You tell me every week in the comments that you bailed on the show years ago. And honestly, I don’t think I can do it anymore. It makes me feel used and shitty to have to wade through 37 minutes of teen crap every week for the promise of maybe a single scene where Stef and Lena are in the same room. Once a season we get a great Stef and Lena episode. But is that enough for me to watch? We’ll see. They aren’t writing for me any more than 90210 was writing for the Walsh parent fans. And maybe that’s okay.

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Lucy Hallowell

Lucy Hallowell lives near Boston with her family. She is a writer whenever she can find five minutes of peace. She is proud to say she managed to ignore her children long enough to write a short story called Dragon Slayer. She has been called a mule on more than one occasion but insists that she simply likes the high ones. Twitter, Tumblr

Lucy has written 12 articles for us.

47 Comments

  1. There are teen shows, tho, that spend a lot of time on the kids’ boring parents and their parent drama (I’m trying to remember which shows! But they truly exist because whenever I watch them I’m like wow, you’re spending a lot of time on the olds). I just wish that The Fosters could take a page from their book ;-)

    • My wife is constantly talking me off a ledge about this show. (In fairness, she doesn’t watch it so how does she know what it’s become). I think there are shows who are great at the parent drama– FNL comes to mind but the balance is off for the Fosters.

  2. I’m not sure that 90210 is the best comparison…maybe, Friday Night Lights…and people actually did watch that show for the parents.

    I don’t know at what point TPTB at Freeform (are they still calling it that?) decided that their audience wouldn’t invest in a family show. Look at the success of This is Us…America is longing for well-crafted family dramas.

    • I think the show started as more FNL and has morphed toward the 90210 end of the spectrum. It’s not a good move

  3. That episode was terrible and I hated it. Callie is acting like a complete idiot and I barely care anymore.
    But what does this all mean?? No more Fosters recaps?

    • The fifth season will be back in June, I think. I am going to reassess recapping when we get closer but I am pretty bummed about the show at this point. That may change but if not, yeah, I will be done recapping.

      • Sadness ensues. I’ve been reading your recaps since forever and I’ll really miss them

        • You’re so kind! I know we’ve been through a ton with this show. Every time they pull me back in I think it’s the last season and I can manage. And then they get another. I need to get away fro a bit but by the time it’s back I may be too tempted to finish the job.

    • You are right. This show has gone from an interesting story about a blended, unique group to a mystery/crime drama. It’s not the show I used to love, either.

  4. This whole sex trafficking storyline is just awful. I really want to know who thought it would be a good idea to end the season with Callie about to get raped and possibly murdered. That is just not okay. Someone please inform the writers that this show is The Fosters and not Law and Order SVU.

    • Exactly. I see so many non SVU shows doing these story lines and I just can’t handle it. I’m not trying to turn a blind eye to this devastating real life issue but there are certain shows that can pull it off and many that can’t. A show like SVU it’s usually a 1 episode thing (but multiple episodes of it) but with the Fosters it’s an arc and they go deep into the world so to speak and I just can’t watch that.

    • When Emily Nussbaum (TV critic for the New Yorker-who did a great write up of the first season and name checked GaydyBunch) tweeted she was done with the show, Joanna Johnson was quick to assure her that season 5 will be more like season 1. I will believe it when I see it.

      • The reviewer over at Vulture is also sick of the direction the show has taken. I tried to reach out to Bradley via twitter DM (he follows me)and he was pretty dismissive. He said they had lots of mom focused scenes but that’s crap. Also, he defended the human trafficking story when I didn’t even bring that up so he must be getting crap from others about this story because it involves Callie. I told him we are sick of the Callie in jeopardy all the time nonsense. For me personally the glacial timeline is making me feel disconnected with all the characters because no way would that many things be happening with every family member in the short amount of time the show is operating on.

        • I would love to see these Moms storylines, I hope they listen.
          A lot of People on The Fosters Facebook page are sick and tired too. There were lots of complaints. (Also lots of people asking for Brallie, so there’s that)

    • From the above linked article

      Final thoughts on what to expect next season?

      Season 5 is a little bit of a reset to our family, our home, and the sort of simpler and brighter and happier times that our family really needs.

      The Fosters season 5 kicks off on July 11 at 8 p.m. on Freeform.

  5. I know my teenager empathy is in the shop (permanently), but what is the rough time Jude’s having again? He’s a 14-year-old who doesn’t know how to have sex, isn’t allowed to smoke weed and kind of got bullied twice? Or Jack?
    I’ve been feeling just the same way about the show, but it just hit me like a ton of bricks over the last 2-3 episodes; it feels weird to admit I don’t really like this show I’ve been so obsessed with, that the kid I could stand is now an idiot.

    • Besides what you mentioned Connor moved to LA?
      But it’s probably that They never got #JusticeForJack

    • He’s had to deal with a lot of crap (I think homophobic bullying would be enough, honestly), it’s just that it feel insignificant compared to all the extreme and surreal drama the show have put all the other characters through…

  6. Lucy we fully understand your frustrations and wondering if you will recap the show next season. We stopped watching the show after season 2, but kept reading your recaps. Mainly because we love your recaps and in them we hoped to see if the show had moved on from the over dramatics and terrible storylines/plots.

    We and many friends used to love the show. But now only 2 friends still barely watch (via Stef and Lena scenes, read yours and others reviews and recaps). From our friends, reviews/recaps and social media we agreed the show has really gone “off the rails.” We may not be the target audience for the show, but in season one, they acted like we were a big part of the important viewership they wanted. In season one, the show mom bait/lesbian bait/queer bait (whatever people want to call it) that kept us watching. Then came season 2 (we agreed they got season two because we all watched) and we and others were like what happened!! This is not the same show.

    “There is a big piece of me that will always be glad this show exists even if I think it has flung itself off the rails so far that I don’t know if I can keep watching it.” We fully agreed with this, and are pretty sure there are many others. We find it very unfortunate that a show that seemed to have such promise would go so far off the rail. And moreover the show runners/producers do not seemed to want to notice or care as they keep moving along the same trajectories with the terrible storylines, plots, over dramatics, etc.

    Whatever your decision we fully understand and do not have enough words to say Thank You for your recaps. Your honesty, real world personal analysis and humor was always refreshing. We know how frustrating and sometimes stressful the Fosters was for us, as we felt somewhat obligated to watch/support show runners/producers from our community. But we decided we couldn’t keep watching the show because of this. It just wasn’t enough anymore and was not worth the frustration. So, we truly understand and sincerely hope you find what’s best for you in this situation, to recap or not, and not feel obligated as we did. We wish you peace in whatever you decide. Thank You, Lucy! Peace.

    • Thank you for your kind words. We will see when June rolls around if I am up for another 18 episodes of this show or not.

      It’s heartening to know that there are people who still enjoy the recaps even if the show is a disaster.

  7. On the one hand I agree with you Lucy, this show was never gonna be about the parents but on the other hand isn’t this kind of what we’ve been waiting for; a TV show where the “leads” are gay and that is the least interested/focused on part of the show?

    But you’re right a teen show is a teen show and this show is on a teen network, it was never going to be about the moms unless they are embarrassing the kids. Not that this show is by any means realistic of teen lives, I mean who is arrested that many times in 1 year (or has the show actually spanned 2 years now?)? And I don’t get why every teen show needs a central dangerous mystery at its center. Like Riverdale (not watching it but I heard about it) and Archie and Co. are legendary characters and even that show has a murder mystery or something at the center, why?

    But anyway on to the hot mess that was this episode. Okay we spent almost 2 seasons on this Martha Johnson murder, then last week they kind of red herring-ed us by Kyle sort of taking the blame or at lease having Kyle believe he did but then this week Troy finally confessed to it.
    What annoys me about the writing/story telling on this show is that they pick the wrong story to tell. Instead of spending months and months with Callie shouting from the rooftop that Troy killed his grandmother, they should have arrested him after the car crash and then made the story about why Grey tampered with evidence and why they pinned it on Kyle. That to me is more interesting. And yes I want this story to die but I would at least like Grey to be taken down.

    I have the same issue with the school story, is it wrapped up already? How are we supposed to hate Drew, we barely know the guy. Did Nick’s dad plant him in the school to have the leverage to take over, like what happened there? But no let’s spend weeks on everyone know Emma was pregnant and had an abortion and no one telling Jesus because of his TBI.

    And Mariana tweeting I totally thought it was going to be a stalker/cyber bully situation but no, she deleted the page done, nothing more to see here.

    Why would Sharon tell Jesus (so disappointed in her), she told Emma that she could tell him when she was ready and then she just tells him. He was fishing by saying that Emma wanted to know if he read the whole letter but Emma knew that Sharon read the letter to Jesus and that he couldn’t read it himself, makes no sense. And I think he was a bit overreacting when he finally confronted Emma and Brandon, why didn’t we talk you about it, you were having difficulty telling the difference between a hammer and a screwdriver, like you would know how to handle a life changing decision like abortion?

    Okay now I have to talk about Callie. If you are ever stuck with a choice ask yourself WWCD, What Would Callie Do and do the exact opposite. Let’s back track for a second to Diamond escaping, I blame Stef for that because there was 19,000 mistakes with that stakeout. Now back to when Daphne and Callie rolling up on Diamond and Christina. I was disappointed that Daphne was so soft, the old Daphne would have been like “bitch get in the damn car” and dragged their 2 asses back to GU. Diamond was scared that Russell was going to kill her but going back to GU was her best bet, that area was too hot for him to be hanging around looking for her anymore.

    And now for everything that Callie did wrong in that situation. 1-agreeing to go, 2-not calling her mom IMMEDIATELY to tell her her plan. it was day time, by the time Russell showed up it was night, Stef could have arranged another stake out in that time for the new location. 3-putting her cell phone in his bag rather than that abyss of lost items that is under your drivers seat. I cannot tell you how many times something has dropped under there that I didn’t find until weeks later. 4-drinking the drink, okay i get she wanted to go along with it but she’s already gambling why not take the chance that he’ll stay sweet on her because she’s new if she doesn’t drink, etc.

    The most gasp inducing moment was when they showed Stef drive past the motel. My hope is that she catches the guy with the bag and he gives up the motel quick before anything happens to Callie.
    Look I get that this is a terrible issue in our country and abroad but it really creeps me out to watch it on a “family” show, keep it on SVU. I doubt, pedophile, drug dealing pimps are watching TV like, where is our representation?

    Anyway that’s it, I know I am in the minority but I will probably stick with this show, I can’t help it, I’m stuck now.

    • It’s you and me until the end, buddy! Let’s drink Foster’s Australian beer while watching The Fosters.
      But seriously, I agree with so much of what you say here and I was almost screaming at the TV telling Callie to put the cell phone under the seat.

      • It takes a lot for me to give up on a TV show. If this show keeps being this annoying I will definitely not make it a priority but I’ll still watch it.

        • I’m here until the moms aren’t here anymore. I didn’t give up when Brandon and Callie had sex so…

  8. Ugh this episode gave me so much anxiety. I don’t know if I can handle anymore of the drama!

  9. “isn’t this kind of what we’ve been waiting for; a TV show where the “leads” are gay and that is the least interested/focused on part of the show?”

    Very true, on media representation don’t think most of us wanted a TV show to focus on the fact that the leads were “gay”. But we wanted the story telling to be realistic as possible about the human experience. Depicting a family that experiences many of the same things any family might, regardless of their sexual orientation, ethnicity, religious background, life experiences, etc., and their being L/G/B/T/Q heads of the households or families is not the focal point. The human experience is the focus. Raising a family, no matter whether you are a same sex or straight couple, Black, White, Latino, Asian, you will have some of the same human experiences and wants for your family. Representation, showing we (same sex couples) are no different than any other family.

    The finale, actually most of the episodes the last several seasons were not very good. Nor were they realistic or believable. We do hope the show gets better with the story telling, which hopefully will lead to good episodes. However, based on the previous seasons and the story lines going into season five (based on the finale), really don’t think it will.

    Especially, if the show continues to favor as it tends to do the over dramatize melodrama. That is, mainly fast paced stories or plots that do not make much sense but is a means to an end, no matter how incredulously unrealistic and/or irrational/foolish the plots or story lines may be. Thus creating stories that are all over the place focusing on drama for drama sake while losing the essence of good story telling. Leaving viewers with so many bad emotions (frustration, anger, stress, etc., causing many to stop watching).

    • Realism with this show went out the window when they’ve been in the same year for the past 5 seasons and when Callie got arrested for the 5th time in as many months or anything Brandon, etc etc.
      Where Stef can recover from a gun shot wound in a week and her cancer in 2 weeks but Brandon’s hand still needs therapy.
      I read something that said (paraphrasing) “Shonda Rhimes doesn’t think it’s realistic for couples to be happy yet plane crashes, loss of limbs, killed by a bus, PTSD, near death experiences, etc.that happen to the same group of 15 people is totally believable.”

  10. I have been reading these recaps for a bit now, and I haven’t seen this season, I don’t have “real tv” and I haven’t made time to tune in weekly online buuuuuuut I feel like all I need is the recaps! Too much drama, but the recaps are so great!!

  11. Important thing to note. This show got 18 more episodes to reach 100 episodes so they can syndicate it and make more money. It will be canceled after season 5 just like they did with Switched at Birth. When the Freeform suits realized Switched at Birth would reach 103 episodes in 5A they canceled it. The only Freeform show to go past 100-103 episodes is Pretty Little Liars. Everything else has gotten canceled prior to that number.

    • So let’s enjoy it while it lasts! What HASNT happened to that family yet? Plane crash! Terrorism! Something good and positive!

    • I know 100 episodes is the magic syndication number but I don’t
      Know any ABCFamily/Freeform show that they’ve actually sold to syndication? Is Freeform still part of the ABC/Disney family? I’ve seen old ABC shows air on Freeform but never the other way around meaning Freeform is the syndication channel.

      • The only two shows they can sell in syndication are PLL and Switched at Birth and they might have a deal that reruns can’t air anywhere other than Netflix until the shows are over.

        PLL will end with 160 episodes and a ratings drop from like 3.5 million viewers to about 1.25 million viewers in season 7A.

        Switched at Birth only had 500,000 viewers for each episode of its last batch of episodes.

        The Fosters season 4B averaged 700,000 total viewers for each episode. This is not good especially when the first two seasons had on average 1.5 million viewers for each episode.

        Bradley, Peter and Joanna are clearly doing a lot of wrong things like Marlene King and Lizzy Weiss did with PLL and SAB that caused lots of viewers to flee.

        I hate that Bradley won’t hear what I’ve been trying to tell him over twitter DM about our concerns. That’s the epitome of tone-deafness.

        ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!

  12. Personally, I love the show even though it’s totally ridiculous. My friend told me the other day she doesn’t think the actresses who play Stef and Lena have any chemistry, but that doesn’t bother me much. None of the teens the show is intended for care about the mom’s anyway, like you said.

  13. This is gonna sound dumb but seriously, I thought I was the only one! I started watching the show for Stef and Lena and had a pretty hard time trying to ignore the bizarre Callie/Brandon drama, even though I wasn’t that bothered by Mariana’s and Jude’s storylines. But I dropped the show halfway through this season because it’s just not working for me. You said it all: “It makes me feel used and shitty to have to wade through 37 minutes of teen crap every week for the promise of maybe a single scene where Stef and Lena are in the same room.” This is exactly how I felt, and as much as I think this show is important, I just can’t. It’s clearly not for me, and that’s fine. But it’s also so sad because I love Stef and Lena SO MUCH! Ugh.

    And oh my god, the captions on the screenshots! I laughed so hard. SOMEONE GET EMMA ON WYNONNA EARP ASAP.

  14. So I had missed the second half of this season, and discovered it on Netflix and binge-watched the rest this weekend. There were some sweet and realistic moments with Stef and Lena, and the storyline with Jude and gay sex ed was pretty good (except how he met a stranger in a motel for sex…creepy!). But with everyone else, it seemed like just a parade of lies and secrets and that just got old real fast…just tell the truth for once, and things would be a lot less complicated!

    And Callie…I guess I’m happy that her suspicions all along were vindicated about Troy Johnson being the killer, but it also would’ve been interesting to see her deal with her compassion getting the better of her and being played by Kyle (if that’s what had happened). But seriously, how stupid was it for her to get in that van? And not tell her mom? And why the hell did Daphne let her?! That final scene where she’s in the motel room with Russell was really hard to watch…a little too intense for this show. Let’s hope next season is better.

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