No matter how hard you might try to hide from Monday morning, it always finds you. After the big Coterie party, both Adams Foster sisters are suffering from some extreme Sunday Scaries. Mariana’s replaying the dozens of drunk messages she left for her asshole boss (Davia’s word on Mariana’s Instragram Live, not mine), while Callie stresses about the repercussions of being too drunk to go into work Saturday night and allowing Rebecca to write an important bench memo on the Jamal Thompson case in her stead. Okay, I guess she isn’t too worried, since she spends all of Sunday night in the arms of Gael (seriously: when does Callie sleep? I know she’s young and the sex is hot but please, for your health, take a nap), but she’s a little worried. The good news is that neither of our girls get fired as they had feared, but there are some unforeseen repercussions for both of them.
As soon as Mariana gets to the Speckulate office and Alex acts as if he never got her numerous (so, so numerous) drunken voicemails, you know something’s up. This dude is shady as hell and aside from repeatedly (purposefully) mispronouncing Mariana’s name, he’s oddly polite. Mariana seems to take it as a win, but you in danger, girl. Alex’s evil plan eventually reveals itself: When their supervisor comes in, he praises Alex for his genius idea — the same idea Mariana brought up in one of her voicemails. When she confronts him about stealing it, he denies, denies, denies.
Mariana’s powerless to fight him. She’s also powerless to do anything about the fact that her team would rather goof off at work than, you know, actually work. She knows she could be getting a lot more done and complete projects faster than Blue Team’s current output. Davia gives her some advice that unfortunately backfires: she tells Mariana to work to her full potential — as long as her boss looks good, she’ll only be impressing him. So Mariana does just that, but when Alex learns that she “took initiative” and finished their build in a much shorter time than they ever have, he’s livid. Now they’ll be expected to work that fast on every project. He’s the boss and she shouldn’t forget that. You guys, I’m already chilling some champagne for the day when Mariana’s made Team Leader over Alex. It will be the most satisfying.
Mariana must be on the same bubbly wavelength as me, because back at the Coterie, she’s popping bottles. She’s giving up the fight at Speckulate, and instead leaning into the idea that she’s getting a huge paycheck with very little work responsibilities attached to it. It’s time to party.
The move feels very un-Mariana like, and I suspect it won’t last for long. Much more like the Adams Foster we know, however, Mariana ends up telling Raj off with a triumphant “being a nice guy behind [Alex’s] back, doesn’t make you a hero” burn. Put it on a T-shirt, because our girl is right. Raj is the only one on the team who acknowledges that she is a human with a brain, but he never stands up to Alex, either. I know this is much less important than Mariana’s fight against workplace misogyny, but, um, is Raj going to be Mariana’s love interest? Because that warms my cold, dead, tired-of-the-patriarchy heart.
Callie has the opposite journey of her sister. After Rebecca saves Callie’s ass by telling the judge that they all wrote the memo together, Callie decides that from now on she’ll only be writing memos from Wilson’s point of view. She’s going to tell him what he wants to hear. That plan lasts mere minutes. Wilson can tell Callie had nothing to do with the memo — although he assumes she simply caved to Ben and Rebecca — and he wants her to write another one, from her point of view.
That’s a problem for Callie. She’s petrified that what Rebecca said about her being the “counter clerk” is true, and she doesn’t want to prep Wilson with the liberal argument so that he’s then able to knock it down in court. She’s stuck. When writer’s block and crises of conscience strike, what does a hot, young lawyer do? She calls up that other hot, young lawyer she knows and gets a healthy dose of both legal advice and sexual tension. Jamie’s back, you guys!
If you didn’t watch The Fosters, a quick explainer: Jamie is the older brother of Callie’s new-ish sister-in-law Eliza, married to Callie’s one-time lover, full-time adoptive brother, Brandon. They met before Eliza and Brandon’s wedding and then made out during wedding festivities in Turks and Caicos. She, a liberal do-gooder, he, a corporate lawyer — their chemistry was palpable. I love Callie and Gael, but I also love Callie and Jamie. A love triangle: what a treat!
Although I laughed watching Callie in a suit playing pool in a swanky Los Angeles bar — sometimes her “adulting” is just too much — Jamie does give her some good advice as her newly hired lawyer: she should write that memo. He thinks she let her competition get into her head about the whole “counter clerk” thing (he’s right), and Wilson seems to be on the fence — her memo with the progressive argument could make a difference. She also seeks advice about living with Malika. Jamie tells her that as long as Malika isn’t directly involved in the case or close with the family, she doesn’t need to disclose that they live in the same building. He also asks if maybe they could have a meal not shrouded in attorney-client privilege. She says no. FOR NOW.
So Callie writes the memo about Jamal Thompson’s mother’s motion to prevent the police from destroying 911 calls from the night of the shooting. She hands it over to Wilson, and quickly learns that Jamie’s right about the “counter clerk” stuff. When she brings up the idea to Wilson, he pretty much laughs in her face. He’s an experienced federal judge, he already knows the liberal argument. He simply likes to spar with lawyers who share different beliefs, and believe it or not, he likes to teach young lawyers about preparing sound arguments. He’s not the bad guy!
He further proves this by surprising everyone in court. Sure, he dismisses the motion preventing the police from destroying evidence, but he doesn’t dismiss the case outright. Jamal’s mother will get her day in court. That’s a win. Callie’s obviously happy about that, but things are about to get much more complicated. Because of all the protests she’s been organizing, Malika’s gotten much closer to Jamal’s mother, Sandra. So close, in fact, that she’s sitting next to her in the courtroom now. Ben notices Callie go on edge at the sight of Malika next to Sandra. Even though Callie and Malika agree to steer clear of one another for the duration of the trial, somehow, some way, this is going to blow up in Callie’s face.
Family Dinner
• Don’t think Mariana’s run-in with head honcho Evan Speck will just be dropped. Working late one night she literally bumps into him, spilling coffee everywhere and cracking his phone. He doesn’t seem to mind much. Later, in a meeting, he recognizes her as the girl who had some ideas for him, but his assistant lies and tells him she flaked. Everyone’s trying to hold our girl down — not for long, patriarchy!
• Casey still has Mariana’s back, although most of her advice boils down to: you have to pay your dues. She also tosses out a Harry Potter reference in an everyday work conversation, which, like, respect.
• This trial thing is getting in the way of what could be a wonderful friendship between Callie and Malika. Not many people would understand what they went through in the foster care system. Malika, who can’t believe Lawyer Callie went to juvie, is still avoiding her sick mother. (We also get a flashback to a young Malika and her brother Dom getting separated by CPS.) Callie would be a good support system for what she’s going through. Alas, the complications of the law!
• Sex god Gael is very sad this evening! He set aside some money to have a few of his pieces bronzed for an upcoming gallery show. Then he meets with his sister Jasmine, who’s leaving her job after being discriminated against for being transgender and needs help paying her rent. Gael’s too good of a person to say no. Good-bye, art show.
• He might also be sad because while he’s out with Bryan (who is being extra-possessive now that he knows Callie’s back in the mix), he runs into Callie all dolled up to meet Jamie for dinner. Yes, she changed her mind on the meal. Next stop: kissing?