Recap: ‘Good Trouble’ 2×03 “Doble Quince”

We spent the first two episodes of Good Trouble season two dealing with the aftermath of season one. But “Doble Quince” is the first time this season we’ve seen really seen the heart and soul of the show on full display, as evident in one of my favorite scenes in the show’s history so far.

So without further ado, let’s break down this episode!

Gael and Jazmin

Tonight is all about Jazmin as she is finally getting the quince she always wanted but never got to have. But to Jazmin, it’s more than just a party that she missed out on as a teenager; she’s fought hard to be accepted for who she is. “Too often, we focus on the trauma of transgender lives,” she shares with the crowd while welcoming them to her event. “So I wanted to have this double quince, with my beautiful damas, to celebrate our thriving lives.”

The quince also allows us to finally learn a little bit more about Gael and Jazmin’s family life. We flashback to a meal at the Martinez family household that probably took place just a few days prior to the quince. Gael so much as mentions Jazmin and everyone gets quiet and immediately changes the subject. He tells them that Jazmin wants her dog tags back for the quince, but their father refuses, saying that they belong Alejandro. 

Later on, at that same dinner, we get one of the series’ best, and most memorable, scenes to date.

Gael’s father: “I was proud of Alejandro, my son. I miss my son. But she took him away from us. She killed him.”

Gael “She didn’t kill anyone, Dad. Your child is still alive.”

Gael’s father: “We only have one child now. One son who hasn’t brought shame on us.”

This prompts Gael, who up until this moment had been hesitant to share his sexuality with his parents, to finally tell them the truth. 

Gael: “If Jazmin is no longer your child because she’s trans, then I guess you have no children at all, cause I’m bisexual.”

As I previously mentioned, I think this was honestly one of the series’ best scenes to date. It not only highlighted an issue that is unfortunately prevalent in many families, but it also was such an important moment for Gael as a character. The fact that he would sacrifice his own relationship with his family for his sister speaks volumes about him. Only Good Trouble could flawlessly pull a scene like this off.

In quite the turn of events, Gael and Jazmin’s abuelo ends up coming to the quince. He even brings her the dog tags, saying that she has served her country with honor and deserves to have them. Gael later tells Callie that if their abuelo can accept Jazmin for who she is, then it gives him hope that their parents might be able to one day too. Also, quick side note: the song that plays while Jazmin and her abuelo are dancing is the perfect song for this scene. Kudos to Good Trouble’s music supervisor for such an awesome selection.

As Gael walks their abuelo out, he mentions how much it means that he showed up at all. Their abuelo brushes it off, saying, “You don’t turn your back on family. I don’t have to understand everything to accept it.” 

But it’s kind of hypocritical statement for him to make as he’s clearly still not fully accepting of Gael, saying that he has a choice on whether he breaks his parents’ hearts or not because he can choose to be with a woman if he wants to.

I have a feeling this won’t be the last we see of Gael and Jazmin’s abuelo and their parents and I’m excited to see where this story goes over the course of the rest of the season.

Malika

We pickup with the aftermath of Malika storming into her birth father’s apartment. Apparently, he was in jail because he got pulled over for some “bullshit” traffic violation and they planted crack in his car. It also probably didn’t hurt that they were taking a Black Panther off the street either. So it seems like Malika’s passion for activism runs in her blood.

“I don’t regret my choice to fight,” Malika’s father honestly tells her. “But I do regret not being there for you and your mother and your brother.”

Also remember how Malika said she was done with being an active activist? Yeah, that didn’t last that long. After presumably being inspired by her talk with her biological father, she goes to a local Black Lives Matter meeting, saying she wants to get more involved since this work “speaks to her soul”. But let’s be real — did we really think Malika could stay away?

Since she’s re-telling her encounter with her father to Issac as they lie in bed, he asks her how Dom feels about it. But all Malika says is that he’s not ready for all of “this”. 

Malika walks Dom out after the party is over and their biological father shows up and tells her that he’s being evicted. Dom, of course, is not happy about Malika betraying him and walks out on all of them.

Mariana

Mariana is beta-testing her Act-ivism app at Jazmin’s doble quince. Besides organizing and promoting the event, guests can use the app to place bids on auction items and make donations, all of which benefit transgender service men and women. Evan tells her his board of directors isn’t supportive of the app, but he re-assures her that he continues to believe in her and her idea. Every scene between Evan and Mariana makes me ship them just a little more and this one was no different.

However, the launch is the opposite of smooth-sailing. The app is crashing and Mariana enlists Raj to help her fix it before anyone notices. Mariana and Raj argue when Mariana blames Raj for the code being wrong in the first place and Raj says the error should be blamed on her since she won’t delegate tasks to anyone else on the team. 

Although they later apologize to each other and fix the problem, it’s turns out that it wasn’t the only problem with the app. Jazmin announces later on that they raised close to $20,000 in one night. The leader for the Center for Transgender Veterans comes up to Mariana and tells her that with a crowd of that size, they expected to raise half as much money. Mariana soon realizes that there was a big mistake in the code: it literally doubled the donations. In reality, they only raised $10,000, not $20,000. Yikes. I’m not sure how she’s going to get out of this one, but if anyone can get out of this problem, it’s going to be Mariana.

Episode Notes:

• Tommy Martinez absolutely SLAYED this episode. Wow – what a performance.
• Alice makes a joke about Joey’s pronouns in her routine and it ends up sparking a bigger conversation about their relationship. It ends with Joey and Alice both admitting that they’re falling in love with each other. Cue all the awwwwwwws. 
• The group dance – a quinceañera tradition – was awesome. I love a good dance sequence.
• I also absolutely love that Jazmin and the co-worker she met at Speckulate’s costume party in season one are still together and blissfully happy. Love is love is love. 
• Callie, Callie, Callie….when will you ever learn? Lying just causes you more problems.
• I low-key love that Jamie actually has Gael’s piece hanging on his wall. I really hope that one day we get to see Gael finding out that it was Jamie of all people who bought it.
• Zuri Adele tweeted, “The eye contact between Gael and Callie gets me pregnant.” I could not agree more; their eye contact says it all, other relationships be damned. 
• Speaking of Callie and Gael, Callie going over and squeezing Gael’s shoulder as he looks on at his abuelo and Jazmin dancing together is EVERYTHING.
• Issac calls Malika his “woman”, so I guess that means these two are now official. I freakin’ love these two.
• Gael and Elijah finally end up kissing. All I want is for Gael to be happy. And if he can’t be with Callie and Elijah makes him happy, then I’m all here for this. 
• No Davia and Dennis in this week’s episode. I guess their not close enough to Jazmin to get invited to her quince?

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

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