Good Trouble 1×02 “The Coterie” Recap

We’re only two episodes in, but Good Trouble is really living up to its name as both Callie and Mariana find themselves in a little bit of trouble this week.

All Work and No Fun

It’s Saturday night and Callie is holed up working in her room while The Coterie is hosting a party. Mariana mentions that since Judge Wilson gave her the night off she should come out for a couple of drinks. Callie says no as she doesn’t have time for fun and has to avoid any appearance of impropriety. Cut to various clips of Callie in the future, at the party, doing all of the things she told Mariana she shouldn’t do. In one of these “future” clips, we see Callie leave her phone on the back of the toilet. Who calls her while it’s there? Why Judge Wilson, of course.

Turns out he’s calling about a motion that was just filed regarding the Jamal Thompson case; he wants her, Ben, and Rebecca to go into the office and write a memo on it. Ben and Rebecca go in, but it seems Callie won’t be joining them.

When Callie finally sees her phone, she’s not only annoyed with Mariana for purposefully keeping it from her, but she’s worried about her job being in jeopardy. 

On the other hand, the guys on Mariana’s team are still being complete jerks who have yet to keep her in the loop or include her in team activities. Mariana invites them to the party, thinking that getting drunk together will get them to include her more.

They don’t show up, instead posting their own adventures on Instagram which bugs the hell out of Mariana. Davia decides to go live on Instagram so the boys can see what they’re missing. However, she has no filter and calls Alex a “giant asshole”; The girls try to delete the video, but not before Alex sees it. Mariana, being her usual self, overreacts and calls him… multiple times.

Questions surrounding the girls’ jobs are left unanswered at the end of the episode. The last thing we see regarding either one of them is Rebecca writing the bench memo for Judge Wilson and leaving it on his desk. Will she throw Callie under the bus? Will Alex make more lewd comments to Mariana and continue to go out of his way to exclude her? I guess we’ll see in episode 3. 

Judicorn is back!

Being in the same city as your big sisters has its perks — like getting to attend cool parties you would otherwise never be invited to. Jude stops by The Coterie and ultimately convinces Callie to come out of her room for the night. It’s about time someone did! He also helps her navigate her conflicting feelings for Gael.

After she sees Gael with Bryan — the guy he hooked up with in the pilot –Callie asks Jude one too many questions about sleeping with guys who have girlfriends, which Jude takes as her being uptight about his sex life (a callback to The Fosters series finale). Jude mentions this to Mariana, who tells him the questions weren’t about him at all. Jude goes back to Callie and apologizes for what he said and asks her about Gael. Callie then comes clean about liking Gael but being confused about his also hooking up with guys. 

While trying to calm down about her job security, Callie has a one-on-one conversation with Gael and confronts him about hiding his bisexuality. Gael tells her he really likes her and things with Bryan are “new and casual.” Callie admits she likes him too and tells him she told Mariana about their hook-up. The episode ends with them making out in the pool. Looks as if they are on the same page about their budding relationship. This couple has easily become my favorite part of the show so far. I’m super invested in what happens between the two of them and I have no doubt this is the last time we see the two of them casually hooking up.

Episode Notes:

• On the one hand, I really like the flash-forward/flash-back technique; it makes the show unique in its storytelling. On the other hand, it can be really complicated to follow. This is definitely not a show you can just casually watch in the background or you’ll get lost real quick.
• I love that The Coterie has an anthem — “Party Rock Anthem.” It was really fun to see everyone who lives there drop what they were doing and go dance with each other.
• Callie and Malika’s relationship is complex yet super intriguing. As the Jamal case progresses, I’m excited to see whether they’ll be able to remain friends or get pulled apart. 
• Malika’s big brother shows up at the party to tell her their mom’s been sick. It seems as if she’s cried wolf before so Malika is hesitant to see/believe her. I’m curious to see this storyline play out in future.
• When Alice saw Sumi was engaged, my heart broke for her. And when she cried into the cake? ALL. THE. FEELS.

What did you guys think about the episode? Let me know in the comments below! 

Good Trouble airs on Tuesdays at 8/7c on Freeform.