Recap/Review: “Good Trouble” 3×06

One of the things I’ve loved about Good Trouble since it began is how timely the storylines are, despite them being written months prior to their air dates. It’s honestly like the writers room has a crystal ball. Alice’s storyline in this week’s episode is the perfect example of this and how the show has not shied away from discussing what’s happening in our society. 

This week’s episode also had a new roommate at the Coterie, some awkward interactions between Callie and Jamie, and Malika reflecting on her past.

So without further ado, let’s recap this week’s episode!

Alice

Alice now has everything she thought she wanted. She’s the star of the comedy diversity program and all the writers want to write sketches for her. The problem is that each of these sketches features Alice playing characters that heavily rely on Asian stereotypes. 

She talks about it with Lindsay of all people. “The problem is we don’t control how people appropriate our humor,” they say. “We show them that what makes us funny isn’t just what makes us different.”

Alice takes that advice and tries out some new characters. It seems to go over well with her fellow comedians, but it doesn’t go over that well with the writers, who still want to write sketches for her with stereotypical Asian characters because that’s what the big executives find funny.

One of her fellow comedians in the program points out the harsh realities of the situation. “These people are the gatekeepers between us and our careers,” he tells her. “We have to learn to play along until we can get through.”

Alice continues to go along with it, for now, but by the end of the episode, she’s no longer hiding how upset she is with the whole situation; it’s written all over her face.

As I mentioned earlier, this storyline is Good Trouble at it’s best. A person’s culture, heritage or identity isn’t what makes them funny. If Alice wants to, she should be able to speak to her personal experiences. But everyone else around her shouldn’t assume that’s the only experience or type of humor she can speak to. I wasn’t really feeling Alice’s storyline this season, but this episode changed that for me. I’m really excited to see where this storyline goes over the next couple of episodes.

Mariana

A few episodes prior, Rachel (one of the Byte Club girls that left Speckulate alongside Mariana) mentioned that she only had a few weeks left of her savings. Now that those few weeks are up, she’s decided she has to return home to Indiana until she can get herself back on her feet. 

Mariana steps in and offers for her to stay at the Coterie (without running it by anyone else of course), but doesn’t really know what she’s gotten herself into. Especially because Rachel doesn’t know about Mariana and Evan’s relationship and the only time they can hang out is after work. 

But Rachel isn’t dumb; she’s clearly on to the fact that Mariana has a new guy in her life. But Mariana is doing everything she can to avoid coming clean about her relationship, even if that means sneaking out of her own room to go be with Evan for a few hours. 

Evan offers to get Mariana and the rest of the Byte Club girls a meeting to pitch Bulk Beauty. Mariana hesitates at first, not wanting to mix business and her relationship like she has stated many times before. But after realizing how hard it is for them to even get their foot in the door and that sooner or later everyone will have to take a day job just to make ends meet, she reluctantly takes him up on his offer.

Callie

This episode might as well be known as the episode of awkward Callie and Jamie encounters.

We saw last week that Jamie was the new DDA assigned to her case. When she doesn’t like the deal that he offers her client, she goes around him to get a better one. 

Jamie clearly didn’t like that she made him look bad to his new boss, and even goes so far as to ask her whether or not she’s going to get him fired from this job too.

Ouch. I know Jamie and Callie are on the outs right now, but that can’t be nice to hear from someone you deeply cared about.

Then, they run into each other at a restaurant when Callie is out having a drink with a co-worker while Jamie is out on what Callie presumes to be a date. 

But Callie soon find out that it wasn’t a date; the woman was in fact Jamie’s supervisor at the DA’s office, which she finds out when she sits in on Kathleen and Callie’s pre-trial interview with the deputies from the jail. Thanks to some social media sleuthing, Kathleen and Callie were able to figure out that Jerod’s beating was actually part of some deputy gang initiation. 

After the DA’s office doesn’t want to admit the deputy gang is real, they end up dropping charges on Jerod’s case. And since it’s a pro bono case, he will get all the money from the additional cash settlement as well. 

The episode ends with Callie and Jamie trying to talk things out in a civil manner. “I don’t want to be angry with you anymore,” he tells her. Since it seems like they are destined to keep running into each other, they agree to keep things professional.

Jamie, however, drops a bomb on her before they part ways: Kathleen Gale is being investigated by the FBI. Callie refuses to hear anything he says after that, going so far as to accuse him of patronizing her. “I’m a big girl, Jamie,” she tells him. “I can take care of myself.” 

Jamie’s not my favorite character, but I disagree with Callie that he told her that just to justify working at the DA’s office and make her doubt her own judgement. He may not care for her in the same way he used to, but it’s obvious he still cares about her on some level and I truly don’t believe he would sabotage her like that.

This clearly isn’t over and I, myself, am curious to see whether or not Jamie is telling the truth about Kathleen being investigated by the FBI.

Other Thoughts

• MARIANA TELLS EVAN THAT SHE LOVES HIM. She tries to back track it but she said it. Evan didn’t say it back yet, but I can’t wait to see when he does. 
• I love how Malika’s storyline this week of her working on her campaign was tied into her reflecting on traumatic family past. “I never had any compassion for my own mother.” Just truly heartbreaking.
• Kathleen’s one-liners are gold. “I hope you liked the preview. Wait till you see the movie.” 

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

Good Trouble airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on Freeform.