Good Trouble – Re-Birthday

By: Marnie Faith

It’s Davia’s (Emma Hunton) 25th birthday on this week’s episode of Good Trouble! Not only that, but she’s marking this as her “re-birthday,” which she defines as the year in which she reinvents herself. It seems she’s going to start loving herself more and taking life by the throat! This is all very well and admirable, but I think the other residents of the Coterie will never wish to hear the phrase again after she takes it upon herself to tell them all about it, even when they just want to shower in peace. Brandon (David Lambert) makes an appearance this week, too! He’s a taxi driver who’s running (or driving) away from the insecurities his lack of solid employment coupled with the fact he can’t bring himself to ask his wife for money are bringing him. Finally, the ever-present love triangle between Callie (Maia Mitchell), Gael (Tommy Martinez) and Jamie (Beau Mirchoff) comes to a halt this week as everyone’s forced to face up to their realities whilst the rest of the Coterie work on stealing a disco ball from a club. As usual…there’s never a dull moment in the Good Trouble bubble!

To keep her mind off the fact that Jeff (Chris Sheffield) is seemingly ignoring both her birthday and her general existence, Davia devises a Re-Birthday Bar Crawl in which plus ones are a must, Davia buttons are to be worn at all times and there’s no prize at the end of the Davia related trivia that sends the group running to various locations in Los Angeles. On the premise, it seems as though the Coterie gang have a really fun night ahead of them until Sumi (Kara Wang) goes ahead and invites herself as Alice’s (Sherry Cola) plus one and it all goes a bit pear shaped from there. With Jamie as Callie’s plus one, Bryan (Michael Galante) as Gael’s, Raj (Dhruv Uday Singh) as Mariana’s (Cierra Ramirez) and Isaac (Sarunas J. Jackson) as Malika’s (Zuri Adele), the eclectic mix of personalities is sure to promise nothing but a good night right? Of course, Dennis (Josh Pence) spends the night riding solo amidst his settlement of divorce from Jennifer (Annie Little). Not due to the fact that all his dates are too young to get into bars without fake ID’s, as Davia jests. The first activity is to race to a specific bar they’ll only know if they know Davia well enough, so Uber’s called and the group rush off into the night to see who’ll win the first prizeless challenge!

Having stolen team Strawberry’s Uber, team Kiwi’s fun appears to begin when it turns out Brandon is their driver. With little time for family catch ups due to the fact they’re in a race with the other team to make it to the bar first, Brandon is encouraged to “stop driving like an old man” by Mariana and put his foot down. Regardless of Brandon’s speeding, team Kiwi are still second to the bar, giving team Strawberry a head start in the Davia trivia leaderboard! Once at the bar, the teams are put into a hot-wing eating competition – it’s Gael and Sumi that come out victorious. High on her spice induced victory, Sumi continues to flirt with Alice and reminisce on their trip to Mexico they embarked on whilst still together. Thankfully, Alice is saved from her misery by the news that the group are moving to a gay bar.

Once at said gay bar the night really does start to become interesting. Davia offers ten points to every person who’ll kiss someone they’ve never kissed before. Not wanting to mess around, Malika goes straight in for the kill with a kiss to the birthday girl herself! However, the biggest shock of the night comes from the fact Gael takes it upon himself to kiss Alice…who then is kissed by Sumi as a “palette cleanser.” Things basically heated up really quickly from there when Mariana kisses a random stranger and Bryan kisses Callie. Though it was evident that a game like this was only ever going to end in tears, I didn’t see this drama coming. Having admitted to Jamie, Alice and Sumi that he’d asked Gael to become exclusive with him, Bryan’s tactics of kissing Callie seemed to be more than just earning his team ten points. He does it in a place where Gael and Jamie (who’s currently dancing on a podium with a male stripper) can clearly see what’s happening and it’s evident that it’s not just Brandon’s insecurities that’re flying high that evening. Of course, Bryan chooses to instigate this kiss only minutes after Jamie gives Callie the ultimatum that he’s done being friends with benefits on her terms because what’s a little extra stirring going to do to the pot, right?

After it appears that everyone’s done kissing everyone else, Malika confronts Alice about the kiss. She’s angry by the fact Sumi is continually stringing her along and pushes Alice as to why she won’t pursue Joey (Daisy Egan). Alice reveals that it’s down to the fact she doesn’t know how Joey will react to the fact she’s still not out to her parents. Thankfully, Malika assures her that this isn’t something that warrants ignoring her since Joey is a grown up able to make her own decisions and Alice will never know what they are until she pursues her. Finally, someone’s speaking some sense tonight!

Away from the party, Dennis heads back to Brandon’s cab and asks to be driven around the block a few times. It’s here that the pair exchange their heartbreak to each other. Brandon reveals how his wife is away a lot, pursuing a successful career whilst he’s left at home. He’s taken up taxi driving in order to earn his own money, against his wife’s wishes to focus on his music. It turns out he doesn’t mind driving. He actually enjoys the fact he can earn his own money whilst still have people to talk to when he gets lonely. Dennis reassures him that he has to talk to Eliza and explain that he needs some financial support to be able to get his music career kick-started. His perspective is that if it was Eliza that wouldn’t talk to Brandon because she viewed it as ‘his money’ opposed to their money, he wouldn’t like being kept in the dark. The entire sentiment is rounded off with Derek realizing, “I don’t know much about keeping marriages, but I know how to ruin them’. It’s a very vulnerable scene for both of them; it’s clear that both men are struggling with heartbreak as well as dealing with some internalized toxic masculinity, so to be able to see them work to dispel their issues was really heartwarming. It appears that this conversation does both the men some good as it later leads them to open up further. For Brandon, it helps him confide in Callie and receive some much needed guidance from his little sister, whereas for Dennis it leads him to texting his ex-wife requesting half of the money from the house sale. He says it isn’t about anger or getting back at her for dating his friend. Instead, it’s about respecting himself. See what good can come when we talk about our emotions!

When Brandon and Dennis finally arrive back at the club they’re greeted to a scene that is nothing short of chaos. The gang successfully fulfilled Davia’s challenge of stealing a disco ball from the club, which Mariana and Raj later take selfies with. Although, Mariana is quick to let Raj be the one to take it home as a souvenir from their evening, due to the fact she doesn’t want to be the one handling stolen property. Meanwhile, Davia finally finds out why it is Jeff has been ignoring her birthday. Earlier in the episode we see him arriving at the Coterie to surprise her for her birthday and is instead greeted by Dennis. Or should I say, Dennis and his swift right hook. After receiving a literal blow to the face, Jeff is quick to make himself scarce. Meanwhile, Davia is none the wiser that any of this even happened. When the truth finally comes out Davia is in tears and confronts Dennis, clearly livid by his decisions. Though it’s arguable that he did it out of a place of care for Davia, it doesn’t stop her ending the night in bed with Jeff.

As Davia’s alarm clock reads 00:02, Jeff makes her aware that it’s no longer her birthday and questions how it feels to be twenty five. Upon the realization that it’s no different to twenty-four, Davia has a light bulb moment. She realizes that her rebirthday isn’t going to start out successful if she continues sleeping with a married man that only wants to acknowledge her when he’s in town and wanting someone to hook up with. So, in a genuinely shocking turn of events, Davia tells him to leave. In a last ditch attempt to make Davia want to keep him around, Jeff reveals that he’s planning on leaving his wife. Whether it’s the notion that she’s contributed to a marriage breaking down, not wishing to be the other woman anymore or a mixture of both factors, Davia sticks to her guns and tells Jeff to leave. So, whilst it may not have been the kick off to her year of rebirth that she imagined, it was still pretty successful.