In Tuesday’s episode of Good Trouble, Callie’s forced to confront some perceptions about herself, Mariana’s close relationship with Evan sparks rumors at Speckulate offices, and Alice’s first encounter with one of her idols at a queer comedy club goes horribly wrong.
Let’s dive right in, shall we?
Mariana
We pick up right where we left off with Raj going back to the blue team. He and Mariana have decided to still keep their relationship under wraps by saying the plan was always for Raj to work on the back end of the app and once that was done, Claire would work on the front end.
We also get to see how Mariana and Evan’s night out for drinks went. The whole reason he wanted to go for a drink with her is to talk about dating, not dating each other but what she thinks of it in general.
He opens up to her about why he feels he’s struggled in that department. “My whole life I’ve had trouble connecting with people,” he tells her. “When I was a kid they called it Aspergers, but now they say I’m on the spectrum.”
Mariana ends up offering to help Evan set up a dating profile, which seems to really make him happy.
But everything goes to shit at one of the grievance committee meetings. Everyone’s phones start buzzing and as it turns out, they received a picture of Mariana and Evan having drinks… so did everyone else at the office.
Back with the blue team, Alex makes some very lewd comments about Mariana after seeing this photo and Raj loses it, punching him in the face.
Raj understandably doesn’t want to talk to Mariana after she lied to him about getting drinks with Evan. She impulsively decides to get on a desk and set the record straight: she’s seeing Raj, not Evan. Raj is presumably embarrassed by the whole thing, because we see him walk out without saying a word to her.
We also see Raj and Alex having a heart-to-heart while they’re drinking at the office late that night. Raj asks him why he didn’t tell Angela it was actually Raj who started the fight. For a second, it looks like Alex might be a real person with feelings, as he tells Raj, “Because we used to be best friends, until Mariana showed up and you chose her.” But I lose all sympathy for him after Raj calls him out for being a “racist, sexist dick” and he doesn’t seem to really understand that jokes hurt.
Mariana calls and texts Raj countless times to apologize to him, but he won’t pick up. She’s venting to Callie over wine and says she should have just told Raj about having drinks with Evan in the first place. But when Callie asks her why she just doesn’t tell Raj the real reason behind her and Evan having drinks together, she’s not willing to tell anyone – even her boyfriend – like she promised Evan.
Callie and Gael
Callie is forced to confront some perceptions about herself in this week’s episode.
It all starts when Jamie asks her to go to some fancy lawyer networking mixer. She’s hesitant to accept at first, as she’s supposed to work that day. But she does end up accompanying Jamie, calling in sick to work. So naturally, she ends up running into Marcus, one of Legal Aid’s lawyers, at this event.
Callie thinks Marcus just assumes she’s some entitled rich girl who can get away with whatever she wants. When she confronts him later on, Marcus says she doesn’t have to explain herself to him. “What I think about you doesn’t matter,” he tells her. “The only thing that matters is what you think of yourself, that you know who you are.”
The whole time she’s at this event, Callie finds herself thinking about whether or not this would be her future with Jamie should they stay together. She even imagines a future version of herself — married to Jamie, not working, taking care of the kids — and it freaks her out.
When Jamie comes and finds her later, Callie tells him she’s scared. “I’m never going to fit into your world, and I don’t want to,” she says. “I don’t want to quit my career to raise our kids and remodel our home. I can’t be the wife you need to succeed in all of this. I love you… but I don’t think we want the same thing.” But as it turns out, that entire scene was a day dream. When Jamie actually comes over to her and asks her if she’s okay, she simply says she’s fine and the two of them walk away together.
There’s also the Gael of it all. Callie asks Alice whether there are some odd jobs she can do around the Coterie for a break on rent. Turns out there is: fixing up/painting some of the walls… with Gael. They’re still friends and it’s not awkward as Alice wants to make it seem. Plus, as Gael says, they do work well together.
Callie, of course, has to bring up Elijah while they’re working and Gael says things are going well. He mentions to her that the guy who wrote Elijah’s review now wants to interview him, but his gut reaction is to turn it down as he’s just not confident in the pieces he has now.
Callie shares a little piece of advice with him (which we later see is exactly what Marcus told her at the networking mixer): “Bottom line, you can’t let what anyone thinks of you mess with your head. All that matters is what you think of yourself and your work. The only way the world will believe in you is if you believe in yourself.”
What is presumably a couple of nights later, Gael finds Callie and tells her he did the interview; he’s so nervous that he can’t even bring himself to read it and asks her to do it for him. She proudly reads to him: “Everything about the work of Gael Martinez shows the promise of an artist ready to break out and shake up the art world. If you don’t know him now, you will.”
Gael is elated as evident by the grin that breaks out on his face. In this moment, Gael is epitome of a precious bean that needs to be protected at all costs. He picks Callie up and spins her around. As a hardcore Gael/Callie shipper, it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Callie wants to celebrate with him, but Elijah calls and interrupts their moment. Callie definitely seems sad about that. She also seems hurt when Gael brings Elijah up to his loft for a steamy hookup at the end of the episode.
I’m not Callie, but if you don’t see a future with Jamie, and you seem to get sad every time Gael brings up Elijah, maybe you’re with the wrong guy?
Alice
Alice is really embracing her comedic chops and goes out to the comedy club to check out some acts and to hopefully make some connections. There, she spots Lindsay Brady and fangirls hard, but she also wants to play it cool, so she decides against going up and saying something.
However, things go wrong for Alice very fast. She makes what she presumes to be some innocent comments to her friends during Lindsay’s set. But she doesn’t realize that Lindsay can hear every word that comes out of her mouth. They end up calling her out and insulting her in front of the entire audience.
The next day, Alice is telling Joey about how terrible the whole experience was; it was apparently so bad that she dined and dashed — something she never does! Joey says they’re not surprised cause they know Lindsay and they’re not exactly in line for the world’s best person award. They tell Alice that she shouldn’t let “some mean girl get in her way”; in fact, they encourage Alice to go back to the club and not let what Lindsay did to her stop her from making connections, especially if this is something she’s really passionate about.
Alice takes Joey’s advice and goes back to the club. People start laughing at her as soon as she walks in, so she immediately bolts to the bathroom. Like it was scripted or something, she runs into Lindsay in there. Lindsay surprisingly apologizes for calling her out the other night AND even takes a second to compliment her, saying that she’s funny.
Later that night, Alice sees that Lindsay followed her on Instagram and liked one of her comedy videos, so she’s stoked. Joey, however, doesn’t seem to thrilled about it, especially after Lindsay humiliated her in front of everyone.
“You’re the one who told me to go back out there and make connections,” Alice reminds her. “Lindsay Brady is a huge connection.” Joey hesitantly relents, but still doesn’t seem so happy about the whole situation. So how will they react when they find out that Lindsay messaged Alice about helping with her tight five and Alice accepted?
Episode Notes:
- Just how much does Jamie make? The view from his apartment is INSANE and I’m sure that can’t be cheap.
- Gael keeps making comments about the art piece he sold in 1×12, aka the one Jamie bought and has hanging up in his apartment. I cannot wait to see what Gael’s reaction is when he finds out it was Jamie.
- Back with Callie and Gael, Gael asks her whether she regrets giving up art for law? Callie says she regrets giving up a lot of things.
- Jamie’s a registered Republican but didn’t vote for Trump. I approve.
- The awkward bathroom photoshoot with Alice, Alice’s friends and Lindsay is EVERYTHING
- ELIJAH PAID FOR BOTH HIS AND GAEL’S REVIEWS?!?!?! WHO IS THIS GUY?
- Gael really does need to invest into some curtains. He’s lucky Mariana and Callie chose to excuse themselves from the scene this time.
- Raj calls Mariana the “best con artist” he knows. I’m not sure if I should be impressed at how clever that diss was or pissed because how dare he say that about Mariana?
- The heavy reliance on the flashback/flash-forward technique in this episode was not my favorite.
What did you think of the episode? Let me know in the comments below!
Good Trouble airs on Tuesdays at 8/7c on Freeform.