Recap: Good Trouble 1×08 “Byte Club”

One of the things Good Trouble has excelled at this season is highlighting some of the struggles women are facing in the workplace solely because they’re women. But not everything in this week’s episode is as serious, as the other half of our favorite set of twins is reunited with his sister. Let’s break down this episode, shall we?

Just Because It Happened Once, Doesn’t Mean It’s Okay

Remember how two weeks ago I said that the situation with Wilson’s son was going to present some moral quandaries for Callie? Well we’re starting to see that play out this week. The episode starts with Judge Wilson and his son having it out in his office. When Callie realizes what she’s walked in on, she tries to leave but not before the son walks out and Wilson realizes someone has overheard their conversation. But first, we flashback to the rest of the episode.

Wilson’s case this week features a women who was let go from her job with no explanation after she reported sexual harassment in the workplace. Rebecca is clerking this case and plans to put in her memo that there is no real case. Callie calls her out, asking her, as a women, if she feels she owes the woman the benefit of doubt. But Rebecca feels that, as the clerk on the case, it’s more important to give Wilson a recommendation based on the law.

At a clerk happy hour, Callie and Rebecca meet a fellow clerk, Kate, who is clerking for Rebecca’s old boss, Judge Handleman. Rebecca noticeably freezes up when Kate mentions that and quickly excuses herself from the conversation. Ben tells Callie that Rebecca transferred out of Handleman’s office simply because Handleman is less respected; he also says that’s why she’s so sensitive when someone brings up how she got the clerkship with Wilson.

As it turns out, that’s not why Rebecca transferred to Judge Wilson’s office or why she froze when Kate mentioned who her boss was. As it turns out, she was sexually harassed during her time working for Judge Handleman — or Handsy-man as he’s also known around town. When Rebecca told her family about what happened, her grandfather pulled some strings to fix the situation, but also told her to keep quiet about what happened. Callie is worried about whether or not it could be happening to Kate, but Rebecca says there’s nothing she can do about it; she won’t come forward as she wants to continue to protect her family’s name. Rebecca does, however, end up writing her memo in favor of the woman, but asks Callie not to mention her secret to anyone.

Back to the scene in Wilson’s office from the beginning of the episode, Wilson comes out and Callie probably thinks he’s going to fire her… again. Instead, he gets personal with Callie, asking her about how she was able to stay the course and not screw up her life. The conversation turns into Wilson admitting that he blames himself for his son’s screwups, but also that character plays a big part and that it’s something you’re either born with or not. Callie uses this opportunity with Wilson feeling vulnerable to ask him a question, presumably about the Rebecca/Judge Handleman situation. I love that Callie cares and wants to make sure that Judge Handleman doesn’t hurt anyone else, but I have a feeling this is going to come back to bite her in the ass if she’s not careful.

Welcome to Byte Club

Mariana kicks off the first night of her women in tech support group, or as she’s calling it: byte club. The wine is flowing and the feelings start pouring out. Mariana mentions her problem with Raj — without naming him of course — and unfortunately everyone else has similar stories. So the ladies come up with some solutions to the common problems they all seem to encounter.

Mariana implements some of these tactics in her next team meeting and gets a small win when Josh acknowledges her idea. She shares her excitement about it at happy hour with Callie, Jesus and Dennis, but Jesus kind of goes off on her, saying she’s never been one to settle for scraps. Mariana gets just as upset at Jesus when he shares his win and decides to remove herself from the situation. But she’s not actually pissed at Jesus’ success. How could she be? He’s her twin brother! She’s just mad because she thinks everything comes easy to him because he’s a guy. But Jesus tells her that’s not the case, that things are actually harder for him because of his TBI. He also apologizes for what he said to her at cocktails; he just doesn’t want to see someone as smart as her settling for mediocrity.

“It makes me sick how these guys are treating you at work,” Jesus tells her. “I want to kick their asses, but I know you and nobody can kick their ass better than you… I love you, Mariana, and all I meant was that I didn’t want to have to see you play down to their level.”

Hearing Jesus say that sparks something in Mariana. She realizes that the women of Speckulate don’t need to learn how to navigate the culture, they need to change it instead. She suggests that they start by closing the gender pay gap, that they walk into their upcoming end of year performance reviews and demand a raise. The way to go about it? Share salary info, find out what they pay the men and then demand the same. However, there is one hurdle: everyone signed an NDA in their contracts, so if they’re going to go through with this, they have to be discreet about it.

Mariana asks Raj for his help with this undertaking, since he’s still eager to make it up to her. He agrees to share his salary info and even takes it one step further: he goes to HR and tells Angela about how Alex left Mariana off the new social network project. Angela calls Alex out in front of the entire team, so he relents and lets her work with Raj. So far, Mariana is coming out victorious. But I have a feeling this spreadsheet with salary info is not going to stay a secret for long.

To The Boy I Loved Before: Jesus Adams Foster

Jesus Adams Foster was hands down my favorite character on The Fosters, so to say I’m glad he’s found his way to Los Angeles is an understatement.

Professionally, things aren’t going that great with the tree house business. Stef and Lena apparently think that he should go work for another contractor and Callie and Mariana seem to agree. But Dennis, of all people, takes Jesus’ side and tells him to stay true to himself and not compromise. This prompts Jesus to share his idea of building tiny houses, but he needs an investor to help him make this dream a reality. Dennis and Jesus go out for a drink and Dennis tells Jesus he might know someone wanting to invest in Jesus’ idea.

But in typical Jesus fashion, he goes to talk to a girl he sees across the bar. They bond over horrible pick up lines and Jesus ends up in her bed. It turns out to be Rebecca (!!!!!) of all people. Prior to this week’s promos, I would have never dreamt up this pairing. Anyway, Jesus sees her again the next night at the same bar when he, Dennis, and Mariana crash clerk happy hour. Yet neither of them have managed to put together that Callie is Jesus’ sister and that Rebecca and Callie work together.

The episode ends with Rebecca coming to the Coterie to meet Jesus for dinner. Callie turns around to see who Jesus’ mystery girl is and lays eyes on Rebecca. Considering Noah Centineo is not slated to appear in another episode this season, I wonder where episode 9 will pick up. My guess is that Callie and Rebecca will discuss it and then move on, leaving it as a one night stand. But I guess we will find out next week.

Episode Notes:

• Although we didn’t see either one of them in this episode, apparently Gael and Bryan are now exclusive. Did Gael actually want to be exclusive with Bryan? Or was this more of a “Callie doesn’t want to see me anymore so I guess Bryan is the next best thing” kind of decision? I guess we will soon find out.
• Dennis and Jesus meet with Dennis’ old friend, Nathan. But when Jesus excuses himself to use the restroom, Nathan shares that he’s been seeing Jennifer — yeah, Dennis’ soon-to-be ex-wife. Dennis says he’s cool with it, but the look on his face says something completely different.
• Callie runs into Jamie at the bar. They end up making out in the bathroom, knocking over everything in sight. I still really like them together, but the sexual chemistry is nowhere close to what she has with Gael.
• Mariana thinks Ben is cute, but Callie shuts that down before she can even think about acting on it. I’m with Callie on this one. Mariana, stick with Raj and Evan.
• When Mariana, Callie and Jesus are having their sibling moment, Mariana and Jesus knock heads and Jesus jokes about having another concussion. NOT FUNNY JESUS. NO MORE CONCUSSION/TBI JOKES PLEASE.

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