Good Trouble – Imposter

By: Marnie Faith

We’re officially six episodes into Good Trouble and Mariana (Cierra Ramirez) is still dreading getting out of bed for work. Honestly, I feel you sister. Although, who can blame her? Alex (Dustin Ingram) is still being his offensive, misogynistic self and Spekulate is yet to do anything major in regards developing her career progression or her confidence. Not exactly an ideal working environment. In an opposite state of affairs; however, Callie (Maia Mitchell) can’t seem to get into work quick enough! After realizing that Ben (Ken Kirby) will have noticed her and Malika (Zuri Adele) live in the Coterie together, which could pose a threat of conflict of interest for Callie to continue clerking the Jamal Thompson case, Callie ensures that she’s the early bird who gets the worm this week.

Landing us straight into Spekulate’s fifth anniversary party, Mariana and Raj (Dhruv Uday Singh) are seen to be bonding over their growing distaste for Alex. Raj laughs off the predictability of his costume to Mariana, explaining how Alex “made me be the black guy…it’s basically brown adjacent.” They’re both able to share a unified loathing towards their supervisor, regardless of how much Raj plays along as one of the boys. Mariana is growing continually more tired of being left with menial maintenance tasks, as well as the fact Alex is nothing but condescending towards her all the time. He reminds her that they aren’t in high school anymore so he won’t be giving her a B+ for her efforts and that her work isn’t up to a standard he appreciates. In short, Mariana is well and truly the outsider of the Spekulate bubble.

When news breaks that head of the company, Evan (T.J. Linnard), has assigned their team the job of preparing their new social network project Mariana hopes that this will be her chance of at last integrating with the rest of her team. Unfortunately, her hopes are short lived as Alex spouts that she’s too inexperienced to take on a role on such a big project and the guys don’t have time to “hold her hand” through it. The misogyny is rife in the office and Mariana is, understandably, reaching her breaking point. Things only continue to get worse for her as the day continues; when in the meditation room with Casey, she accidentally lets slip the fact that her team were given the project. Casey (Chloe Wepper), feeling defeated by the fact she lost the project to Alex, vents her frustrations toward the the company at Mariana which unfortunately ends up as her sounding a lot like Alex. Despite entering the meditation room with every intention of becoming more relaxed, Mariana is only left more vulnerable than ever.

She eventually finds solace in the fact that the blue team is in shambles over picking what costumes to wear at the company’s anniversary party. Sam (Max Cutler) wants them all to go as Star Trek characters, much to Alex’s dismay due to the fact it’s more “dork than geek.” This leaves Sam hurt, stating that “just once, he wants to feel heard.” Alex doesn’t take lightly to this, telling him that he may as well dress up as Mariana because he sounds a lot like her in that moment. Of course, that point of the conversation is exactly when Mariana walks in. The poor girl can’t seem to catch a break this week! With Sam’s feelings hurt and Alex’s ego wounded at the fact anyone thought low enough of him that he’d appear wearing a Star Trek costume, the office is in disarray. Raj takes to texting Mariana over the office computers asking for her help in the project despite Alex’s refusal to let her participate on it.

Things appear to finally be looking up – she’s found a friend who believes in her enough to ask for help! Not just any friend – Hot Raj! However, much like everything else in Mariana’s life this episode, their brainstorming session quickly goes south. Raj completely misinterprets their evening and leans in to kiss her. Quickly deflecting his advances, Mariana is left baffled at the fact she didn’t see this coming and disappointed that Raj felt the need to go to such lengths to make his move.

Meanwhile for Callie she’s faced with a race against the time (and LA traffic) to attempt to beat Ben into the office. Following Stef (Teri Polo) advising her to make Judge Wilson (Roger Bart) aware of her familiarity with Malika, she becomes set on the idea. She just needs to do it before the Judge can hear it from Ben instead. Thankfully, she’s able to tell him before she’s rumbled. Though initially fearful of it leaving her benched from the Jamal Thompson case, or even fired, Judge Wilson appreciates her honesty and advises her that as long as she keeps her distance from Malika there’d be no reason for her to be off the case. Of course, this outcome is too simple for Callie. Instead of celebrating her small victory of keeping the case, she instead confides in fellow lawyer/lover Jamie (Beau Mirchoff). She explains her situation, as well as the fact she knows the Judge’s son is on an ankle tag. Ultimately, she’s left debating as to whether Wilson is allowing her to keep the case so she won’t tell Ben and Rebecca (Molly McCook) about his son. Though a perfectly valid worry, Jamie assures her that even if that is why Judge Wilson is being so understanding she should just celebrate the victories as they come.

For Ben the outcome isn’t so sweet. Though there was some ambiguity towards whether his wish to meet with Judge Wilson was to tell him of Callie’s familiarity with Malika, his intentions eventually become clear. Callie brings up a conversation in which she informs him that she did recognize Malika due to the fact they live in the same building. The smirk on her face as she assured him Judge Wilson was aware of this was incredible – ever-scheming Callie, I love you so. Conveniently, following this exchange, Judge Wilson’s secretary informs Ben he’s free to meet with him. Ben declines the meeting as “he answered his own question.” This whole season I’ve been toying with whether I should trust Ben or Rebecca, if either, and this week’s episode has really solidified my gut instinct to trust the girl power in the show.

Elsewhere, Jazmin (Hailie Sahar) is back in town. She asks Gael (Tommy Martinez) for help with a lawyer due to the fact she needs assistance in changing her name and gender marker on her birth certificate. This, of course, comes after her completely shooting down the news of his promotion at Spekulate. She believes he shouldn’t get sucked into a corporate job under the guise of benefits offered, as it’ll lead to his art becoming a non-priority. Though Gael clearly loves his sister to death, he becomes weary of her in his life. He explains to Callie that he’s tired of her inability to keep down a job, as well as the fact she continually runs to him for money. Though she’s explained that she struggles with holding down jobs due to the fact she’s transgender, hence wishing to change her birth certificate, he reveals to Callie that he can’t help but think that she sometimes brings it on herself. Callie explains that she shouldn’t need a lawyer to change her birth certificate, however it turns out that Jazmin has been withholding the fact she needs legal assistance due to the fact she has a felony. The felony comes as a result of allegedly resisting police arrest. Callie thankfully understands her situation, and offers to help her in any way she can.

Back at Spekulate’s party Jazmin shows up as a waitress. She’s proving Gael she can hold down a job! Everything appears to be going well for her – she even meets someone! A fellow server, Zeke (Spencer Neville) ,asks her out for a drink sometime after they taunt employees like Gael for attempting to be the next Bill Gates. When she reveals she’s trans, Zeke simply asks her out again. However, they don’t stay in their heart-eyes emoji bubble for long when the manager of the catering company offers Zeke work for the following weekend, but not Jazmin. It’s initially unclear why. That is until a close up shot of Jazmin’s payslip explains all. It’s addressed to her dead-name and the manager tells her that he doesn’t wish to employ her as her presence may “make people uncomfortable.” Gael witnesses the exchange, which nearly ends with him punching the transphobic ass. Thankfully, instead it ends with the siblings, Callie and Jamie sat around Gael’s kitchen table deciding the best way to sue the catering company for being transphobic and discriminatory. They agree that it’s worth the fight, as Jazmin doesn’t deserve to have to endure this anymore, thus Gael subsequently decides to take up Spekulate’s full time position offer in order to help pay Jazmin’s legal fees. The end of the scene circles back to one of the main mysteries of this season – Callie’s love triangle. Her and Jamie are seen by Gael to be making out in the elevator.

Towards the end of the episode Mariana and Evan share an awkward conversation in her office. Raj interrupts their chat to apologize and it’s here Mariana finally snaps. She tells him what he did was inappropriate and disrespectful; explaining that he had no right to make her believe he needed help, as well as make her feel as though she had a friend. She shouts about the fact she already feels vulnerable in this company and his worming around doesn’t help her feel any different. She ends her rampage with a short but sweet “sorry doesn’t cut it.” 

We also see Dennis (Josh Pence) and Davia (Emma Hunton) share a moment together before the pair go off to deal with their separate troubles. It seems Davia is going to be forced to make a decision regarding whether or not to cut Jeff (Chris Sheffield) off in the next few episodes. Following a visit from his soon to be ex-wife, Dennis is focused on his son. It seems the anniversary of his death is really playing on his mind, so it’ll be interesting to continue learning more about the mysterious man as he continues to open up to the Coterie group. Ending the episode this week was Mariana looking for supporters to join her Female Fight Club in Spekulate, aiming to provide a safe space for the women of the company. It looks like Spekulate is finally going to learn a thing or two about acknowledging the female voice….