Good Trouble – Twenty-Fine

By starrymag | July 29, 2019

By: Marnie Faith

 

 

The clue for the focus of this pisode hangs clearly in the episode title. Malika (Zuri Adele) is fine and she’s turning twenty-five years old. She also wants to celebrate in style.  Not wishing to “just get turnt,” like the rest of the parties in Good Trouble seem to end up doing, she opts to use her birthday as an excuse to get the Coterie gang back together for the first time in what feels like a lifetime. The group have understandably been distant lately – they all have their own stuff going on to worry about, and as a result haven’t had a family dinner in so long. To fix this Malika decides for her birthday all she wants is a Coterie family dinner. Of course, this isn’t just any family dinner as on the back of their invites Malika has given them all a word/phrase to base a performance on, in accordance to their general character. Malika justifies the theme of her birthday evening by saying she wishes it to be a chance for everyone to take a chance to utilize their creative experience, as a means for growth. 

 

For Malika the last year of her life hasn’t been easy – between losing her mother, the unjust ending of the Jamal Thompson case and struggling to find an equilibrium between her relationships with her brother and father. The universe seems to have had it out for her. So, it would appear this low-key party is a real opportunity for her to realign herself with her family, both chosen and biological, to ensure twenty five is her best year yet. 

 

Wishing to start as she means to go on, it’s Malika that offers to go first with her performance, in order to save anyone the pressure of being the opening act. For her performance it is herself and friends Yari (Candace Nicholas-Lippman) and Tolu (Ianthia Richardson). They perform a choreographed piece to Yari’s spoken word piece, entitled “Dear Black Girl.” What made their performance even more incredible was knowing that Candace wrote the piece herself! One of the lines reminds both the Coterie group and audiences that, “When society tries to pin light versus dark skin, we remind them that every shade of chocolate is divinely crafted. Black girl magic is more than a hashtag…it is a movement.” The words are crafted so elegantly & meaningfully, they were sure to leave more than just the Coterie’s audience members with their jaws on the floor. 

 

With big boots to fill, Gael (Tommy Martinez) offers to go second. His prompt was “light” and thus takes the chance to perform a number about how influential light is in the art world. Initially he begins his performance sat on a stool. That doesn’t last long as he swiftly rips his shirt off, replacing it for a jacket that looks as though it’s a thrift store finest, as well as a pair of fashionably questionable sunglasses. He then delves into a full blown rap performance on why light is so important to him. Of course, the Coterie love this. I mean, who doesn’t love the chance to see Gael with his shirt off? Boyfriend Elijah (Denim Richards) is clearly enjoying himself. He takes it upon himself to upload it to his Instagram, which sees thousands of adoring fans gushing over Gael. 

 

Prior to the party we see Gael introducing Elijah to his latest art series. He explains how it is based off the piece he sold at his last art show. Clearly overjoyed with the fact his boyfriend has finally found inspiration again following a very harsh critics review, Elijah suggests that now is the time to change his image. He explains how he can’t always be the brooding artist that shies away from social media and instead needs to think of reinventing his brand in order to continue to gain traction on his work and follower counts. It is apparent that a mixture of post performance adrenaline as well as the joy of being inspired is igniting in him. Gael decides to take the plunge after the party and Instagram Live’s Elijah cutting his hair. He admits he hasn’t cut it since college and is in need of a change. Regardless of the fact his locks are missing, he still looks as attractive as ever!

 

Next up is Davia (Emma Hunton) who’s accompanied by Dennis (Josh Pence). Davia’s prompt was “breathe” – something she struggles to consolidate into a performance. She understands that Malika is trying to urge her to calm down and to slow down, but isn’t sure how to translate that into a performance. Looking to Dennis for help they begin writing songs together in order to see if they can come up with anything Davia’s happy to perform at the party. In between songwriting Dennis finally admits to Davia that he slept with her mother…or so he thought. When the truth came out Davia couldn’t help but laugh — her mother is wicked and apparently wicked enough to make Dennis fall victim to her mind games. She explains to Dennis that the night they came home together, Davia spent the evening holding her mom’s hair back as she threw up her latest botox up into the toilet before helping her to bed. It turns out that she’s got a track record for this; sneaking into men’s beds and convincing them they slept together in order for them to keep them coming back for more.

 

Although relieved to hear he didn’t actually sleep with her mother, Dennis can’t help but admit how much the guilt has been eating him up. He confesses that he didn’t ever want to lose Davia or give her a reason not to trust him. Taken aback by his vulnerability, Davia is quick to reassure him that he’s her best friend and there’s little that could change that. When the performance comes around, the pair are clearly on different pages as to what song she should sing. Dennis accompanies her song with soft guitar music, only he plays the opening chords to a song she was hesitant to play. Choosing to embrace it, the pair share a soulful duet that sees sparks flying throughout.

 

For Dennis, his prompt was to share a secret, making him panic that Davia had told everyone about his divorce and his deceased son Jacob. She assures him she’d never do that, but he still doesn’t feel up to confessing his trauma to the group, especially on a night that’s meant for celebrating. Thankfully, when admitting to Malika he’s not ready to share his secrets just yet (but will one day soon) she is completely understanding of it all. 

 

Callie (Maia Mitchell) and Mariana (Cierra Ramirez) go next, whose tension this week was sharp enough to slice. The pair are clearly getting on each other’s nerves. Mariana is having to pick up the extra rent due to Callie going to a lower paying job. Callie is sick of feeling like a lodger who has to ask permission to stay in her own home….their living agreement has clearly hit a bump in the road. To make matters worse, when going to retrieve a scarf mid-party, Mariana discovers Callie’s $1,595 suit she bought ahead of her job interviews, hoping she’d be employed on a wage high enough to justify the price by now. The list of their issues in this week’s episode seems endless so, of course, that’ll only ever add to the entertainment for their subject of “sister act.” 

 

Understandably, it’s difficult to plan a sister act routine when there’s so much anger and frustration, resulting in the pair failing to plan anything. Opting for a quick fix, Callie suggests improv and with the prompt from Davia of two sisters on vacation the pair do exactly that. Their set gets real awkward, real quickly. Mariana shames Callie for not having enough to pay her share of the rent while Callie vents about the fact she’s being shoo’ed off to Jamie’s (Beau Mirchoff) so her and Raj (Dhruv Uday Singh) can sleep together. The final straw lies on Callie telling everyone that Mariana had a sex dream about her and Evan (TJ Linnard). After that confession Mariana calls “scene” rather quickly and everyone is left with mouths agape, unsure of how to receive that performance. 

 

Outside of the sister act tension, the pair are struggling in their relationships too. For Callie, she  flails when dealing with the revelation of Jamie being a Republican. She can’t seem to understand why it is he’d still openly support a party that has Trump leading the way. Though he tries to justify it by the assurance he supports what the party should be standing for, she is quick to remind him that it’s unethical to ignore what the party is actually standing for. Toward the end of the episode Jamie takes his voting ballot that he’s had since turning eighteen years old and burns it. He’s quick to remind Callie that this doesn’t mean he’ll be turning Liberal, but he’s open to suggestions as long as Callie is too. For Mariana, the issues appear to lie in Raj’s insecurities. He’s not dealing well with the fact Evan has turned to her for help in setting up his dating profile, due to her being socially tuned in for an engineer. Things only go from bad to worse when Evan texts her “DTF?” at the dinner table. Knowing Evan as well as we do now, it’s a safe bet to assume he didn’t mean what it actually translates to, but for Raj it’s enough to make him second guess whether or not he’s actually good enough for Mariana. Again, the end of the episode sees the pair resolve their issues and thus the #Miraj ship continues to sail.

 

Closing the show is Alice (Sherry Cola), whose prompt was “surprise.” When stuck on what to do for this performance, Davia is quick to remind her she couldn’t even surprise her parents when she came out, but thankfully her earlier disagreement with Joey (Daisy Eagan) is quick to inspire her. Toward the beginning of the episode we see Joey and Alice getting intimate, only for Joey to stop to reveal the fact they’re wearing a binder. They admit it makes them feel sexy, but when questioning Alice on what makes her feel sexy she turns it around and starts joking about it all. Joey admits they’re sick of Alice being so quick to make a joke of everything and wants to see a more vulnerable version of herself. Thus, the lightbulb moment finally sparked.

 

Interrupting Isaac’s poem to Malika, Alice and her two back-up dancers perform a raunchy dance number accompanied by busty bralettes and fishnet stockings – a complete 180 from the typical loose top and baggy jeans Alice we’re used to seeing. Regardless, it’s hot. Alice turned into a completely new version of herself.

 

The episode concludes with Callie and Mariana finally airing their grievances, which is cathartic until one of them pushes the other in the pool – though I couldn’t actually say who pushes who. Taking this as an invitation for a free for all, Davia is quick to follow. Eventually, the entire Coterie and their loved ones are in the pool together, laughing and soaking up the happiness their night has brought. The closing line is Malika exclaiming how blessed she feels.