‘Good Trouble’ 2×06 recap: Malika’s party causes some tension

Tuesday night’s episode of Good Trouble might be my favorite episode to date. Normally, the storylines stay pretty separate, but in “Twenty-Fine”, every storyline overlapped as all the Coterie residents celebrated Malika’s 25th birthday.

Malika’s party

Malika and her party were the main focus of the episode. She made invitations for her friends, but asked them to “express themselves” in different ways.

I loved Malika and her friends’ performance of “Dear Black Girl”. It was about loving yourself and being comfortable in your own skin; it was truly beautiful to watch and perfectly fit the overall theme of the episode, and the show. As they said on the show, it was #BlackGirlMagic.

Callie and Mariana: Bickering sisters

You could really feel the tension between the two sisters this week and that’s in part to the brilliant acting by Maia Mitchell and Cierra Ramirez. Neither one of them was innocent in this whole situation. Mariana was testy with Callie all episode long over about a myriad of things, including shooting down ideas for the skit for Malika’s party, not spending enough being stuck paying the majority of the rent. She claimed that none of this bothered her because they are family, but in the end it seems like most of it really did. Callie essentially retaliated by letting it slip during their improv set that Mariana was having sex dreams about Evan in front of the entire group at The Coterie.

Callie is also facing issues with her relationship. Jamie notices that Callie has been distant with him ever since she found out he is a registered Republican. They discuss the differences between the two parties and Callie actually gets Jamie to think about whether or not he can truly support a party that no longer holds the values it once did. Jamie ends up burning his voter registration card, telling Callie that she is right. He can’t support a party whose morals he doesn’t agree with just for the sake of the name of the party. He also asks Callie to move in with him, which made her smile. I can’t say enough how much I love Jamie and Callie together.

Sister troubles wasn’t the only issue for Mariana either in this episode. She also had relationship woes as Raj is still extremely insecure about their relationship. After it was revealed that Mariana had a sex dream about Evan, Raj informed her that she had a text from Evan saying “DTF?”. If you don’t know what that means, Google it. But as it turns out, Evan was simply asking her what it meant.

The two argue and Raj says he knows he is not Mariana’s type. It really looked like the pair were on their way to breaking up. However, at the end of the episode, they make up as Raj promises to try and be more confident in their relationship and what they have.

Davia and Dennis: Hidden feelings surface?

Dennis drops the bombshell that viewers saw two weeks ago about him having sex with her mother the first time she came to town. But Davia laughs it off and tells him that he didn’t. Apparently her mom was drunk and wanted to trick him into thinking they slept together so that maybe he’d go back for another round. How manipulative! But the reason Dennis cared so much about coming clean to Davia? That he wanted her to trust him again.

As the two are rehearsing their skit for the party, you can sense something between them. I’ve been shipping them since the end of last season. You can truly tell there’s something there when they perform a beautiful rendition of “Falling Slowly”. Can we get the full version of that? C’mon Freeform!

All in all, there were massive hints dropped in this episode about their feelings toward each other. As we get closer to the mid-season finale, I have a feeling we’re going to go deeper with these two.

Alice: Be you and do you

One of my favorite characters on this show is Alice. She is basically one of us; someone who has had some tough breaks and has struggled, but she always finds a way to come out of it okay. We saw that again on Tuesday as she and Joey had some issues of their own to deal with.

Joey began binding themself to feel more comfortable with who they are. Since Joey is feeling themself, they try and get Alice to feel sexier. She clearly feels uncomfortable, so she makes jokes about herself to divert how she really feels. Joey takes this as a dig at them and gets upset.

Later on, we learn that Alice deals with a lack of confidence, regarding both her relationship and her sexuality in general. Communication is key in any relationship. Alice and Joey have great conversations on this show, which is why they are such a great couple. Tuesday night saw that again with the pair discussing this issue and how to correctly move past them.

Episode Notes

• It was nice to see Dennis and Malika have a conversation. As the season goes on, I hope we get to see these two talk more. I feel they may have a lot more in common than they realize.
• I really loved the final scene of everyone jumping in the pool because it was one of the rare times you see the residents of The Coterie all genuinely having fun.
• While I do agree with the fact that the Republican party has become a shell of itself, we are in 2019. I felt like Callie was being very picky about Jamie being a Republican. I mean, was it really that big of a deal? We see couples have different political views all the time. With that said, I do like how the show dealt with the political differences of the characters in a way that was respectful and honest.
• With the couples becoming a bigger part of the show, I want to know more about Isaac, Elijah, Joey, and Raj. We already know a lot about Jamie since he was a part of The Fosters series finale.

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

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