Post — Aaron Ngo

Major Spoilers are included in this episode review. Please read with caution.

Good Trouble allows the supporting characters to exist outside of Callie and Marianna. Davia, Alice, and Malika got scenes without Callie or Marianna, letting them be people outside of the sisters’ dramas. I’m excited to see where this development goes, especially with Alice and Davia, who are getting more content to work with. Malika already has a complex backstory, and she is mostly there to help Alice stand up to the other residents who take advantage of her.

Alice is easily becoming one of my favorite characters on this spin-off. She is such a nice person, but she has to learn how to take care of herself too. She also needs to cut Sumi out of her life. I also thought her moment in the bathroom was brilliant, when the toilet paper ran out. We need more Alice in future episodes, and I hope the show will deliver.

Davia is a plus-size character, but she isn’t defined by it, unlike say, Kate Pearson from This Is Us. The show also gave us a sex scene between her and a married man. It wasn’t as steamy as the ones with Callie and Gael, but it’s better than nothing. When Marianna tries to warn Davia about her friends with benefit being married, she throws us a twist by revealing she already knew about it. She doesn’t care, which tells me that this relationship will not last forever.

Marianna and Callie have their own separate dramas this week.

Callie is invited to Judge Wilson’s house for a BBQ, which turns into “Twenty Questions”, and that is filled with a lot of boring lawyer stuff. I’m not even going to pretend I understood anything they were talking about, but I recognize a sore loser when I see one. Judge Wilson kicked Callie, Rebecca, and Ben out of his house because he couldn’t guess their case. His wife was definitely not pleased. Then they ended up at a bar, which was an actual nice scene between the three of them.

Callie also learns Judge Wilson’s son has an ankle monitor, but does not disclose that bit of information to her fellow clerks. Knowing this girl, she’s going to find herself involved, make things worst, and maybe get a happy ending for the family at her expense. She’s always doing crazy stuff like that. I mean, just watch the first episode of The Fosters. Seriously, Callie will smash a car to get your attention.

Marianna is dealing with white, sexist / racist assholes who do not appreciate her. She is tired of trying to fit in and plans to tell the truth at the “diversity” job interview. However, she does not go through with it, and instead bonds with Raj over how they’re outsiders at the work place. They agree to become friends, and Raj misreads the signals (so did I, buddy) about it. He is visibly disappointed to find Marianna had brought along her friends to their “date”.

This episode was almost perfect. If I could change at least one thing, I’d take out the “fake-out” scenarios where the characters want to say something, but the “real” scene reveals they didn’t actually say any of that. This needs to be removed and never used again for the rest of the season. It’s annoying at this point, and the show did it multiple times in one hour.

Back to blog