Good Trouble – Unfiltered

By starrymag | July 15, 2019

By: Marnie Faith

 

 

This week we become reacquainted with VegLover2, that one specific Instagram troll on Davia’s page, as seen on The Coterie. She was the troll that was quick to remind her that “if you didn’t put yourself out there like this, you wouldn’t be attracting all of this negative attention.” How does she re-enter the Good Trouble picture you may ask? Simple – she doubles as Davia’s mother. Bonnie (Reagan Pasternak) is back in LA for a cosmetic procedure and seems determined to make Davia (Emma Hunton) as uncomfortable as possible before going under the knife.

 

From the minute Bonnie arrives it’s evident that their relationship remains strained. Davia admits later in the episode that it’s her mother’s own projection of her insecurities and self-loathing that both drove their relationship apart and remains the core reason for Davia’s insecurities. In a flashback of the pair the first time Bonnie visited the Coterie, we see her gift Davia a lovely yet expensive dress. Davia adores it from the second she sees it. The gratitude is short lived; however, due to the fact that Bonnie is quick to remind her that “if you just lost 30lbs, guys would be all over you.” This clear equation of weight to worth that Bonnie holds is something a lot of viewers will presumably carry – it’s almost like watching an angel/devil on your shoulder interaction play out. Davia is quick to spring back to always remind Bonnie how happy she is in her own body, regardless of her weight. The angel always wins, after all.

 

Outside of degrading Davia, Bonnie has history with someone else in the Coterie. Another flashback shows the first time she visited Davia with her shamelessly pining over Dennis (Josh Pence) in a bar whilst out for mother/daughter drinks. She later ends up sleeping with him – something that Dennis admits to being too blackout drunk to ever remember. There’s a lot of potential for a lot of things to go wrong with Bonnie’s visit and, of course, they do.

 

Bonnie proposes that Davia and Dennis join her for dinner. Dennis is undoubtedly quick to decline said offer. Davia; however, agrees. Prior to their evening she confides in Dennis how much she hates eating in front of her mother as a result of the continual degrading comments Bonnie makes towards her and her weight. This is enough to convince Dennis to attempt to come and save a bad situation. 

 

The pair go for dinner (both ordering a Kale salad) and discuss the latest happenings in their lives. Jeff (Chris Sheffield) quickly becomes the topic of conversation, as a result of his former fiance’s mother telling just about everyone in Wisconsin how rotten he is for breaking up with her. When pressed on their current situation, Davia admits that she’s no longer in love with him, but hasn’t got the heart to tell him. Bonnie won’t accept this, hastily urging her to rethink her decision. She tries to reason with Davia, reminding her that she shouldn’t “do something you’re going to regret in ten years when you’re still single and your biological clock is ticking.” 

 

Their dinner date goes from bad to worse with Bonnie deciding to make a mockery of Davia’s influencer work. She questions, “Are these body-positive girls really proud of their bodies or are they just pretending to justify overeating and being unhealthy?” These continuous quips are constant reminders to Davia that her mother disagrees with just about every aspect of her daughter’s life. These remarks come at a vulnerable evening for Davia too as earlier in the episode we see her and Dennis taking pictures of her for Instagram. She doesn’t like certain pictures as they’re “too real,” due to the fact they show her body more proudly. Instead, she opts for a well angled, well lit picture that she can easily Facetune in order to smooth her stomach and enhance her complexion. Despite trying to justify this by reminding Dennis that “no one likes ‘too real,'” it’s clear that she’s not as confident as she makes out to be. 

 

Just after her mother has managed to pass negative comments on both her love life and her work, Dennis shows up. Trying to fix the situation in his own manner, he proceeds to order one of every small plate the menu offers, as well as a copious amount of sides. He goes as far as telling Bonnie that he thinks she’s too skinny (although that isn’t enough to deter her from passing him a room key for her hotel and offering him to spend the night whilst Davia is in the bathroom). He offers them both a range of foods from his order, insisting Davia have some fried artichokes because they’re her favorite. Though he means well and only wants Davia to be able to be authentic in front of her mother, it’s clear how uncomfortable she’s growing. 

 

Of course, the offer of fried food is enough to make Bonnie resort back to a conversation focused on weight and appearance. She quizzes Dennis on his opinions of plus sized girls, to which he assures her he thinks all bodies are beautiful. Overstepping the mark comes in the form of Bonnie asking how many plus sized girls he’s dated, to which he’s unable to answer. This is breaking point for Davia. Her resilience crumbles and the dinner date is over. Dennis follows her back to her room in the Coterie and it’s here that her walls finally come crashing down. She hysterically confides in him of how her mother was the cause of her anorexia, how she went down to 90lbs and had to be tube fed as a result. Although Davia knows Bonnie’s comments are a result of her own unhappiness in herself, she just wishes that she’d realize the on-going effect it has on her. 

 

It’s been a while since Davia has been at the forefront of a Good Trouble episode, but she really helped tell such an important story this week. Everybody watching this week will have struggled with body image and self esteem at some point, so to be able to see how dire the implications of constantly harbouring negative energies surrounding the topic can be was quintessential. On the positive side of the narrative – Davia went on to post a #nofilter photo of herself that she previously said she hated. 

 

Elsewhere, things continue to change for Callie (Maia Mitchell). She starts a new role as a research assistant for a law firm – a role everyone (including herself) know she’s too qualified for. In true Callie fashion, it takes all of thirty minutes of her being employed before she’s annoyed her boss. As shown through flashbacks, she tries to help Malika’s (Zuri Adele) father, who’s been served with an unfair eviction notice. The eviction comes as a result of both him falling behind on his rent and also because he went to Callie and Malika to try and get maintenance in his building to fix the lift. We see him having to physically carry wheel-chair bound residents down flights of stairs, highlighting how important up to date facilities are in apartment blocks, to ensure they remain accessible for everyone. 

 

Callie then has to go to her bosses to basically beg them to help her fix the mess she’s gotten him in. Thankfully, their vendettas against Callie aren’t high enough yet to refuse. Toward the end of the episode we see Callie’s boss serve a court order to get the lift fixed. Not only that, but the apartment block owner is made aware that he’s enforcing an unfair eviction and is court ordered to abide by the 30-day eviction process. This helps buy Malika’s father some time to get the rent money together. However, desperate to continue to nurture a bond with a father she’s only just discovered, Malika gives him the $800 he needs. Knowing he’d refuse to accept it from her, Malika sends Isaac (Sarunas J. Jackson) to give it to him, which he gratefully accepts. Their relationship as father and daughter continues to evolve this week. They establish that they’ll never have a paternal bond – too much time has passed for that to happen. Instead, they decide that they can be friends and go from there!

 

As for Callie, she ends her first week in her new job overhearing her bosses venting their frustrations about her as they believe she’s got too much ego and is too eager to change the world to be able to be molded into an ideal employee. Thankfully, her female boss sees something in her and vows to take her under her wing. 

 

For Mariana (Cierra Ramirez) and Raj (Dhruv Uday Singh), their week isn’t smooth either. First of all, one of the Byte Club girls accidentally discover them together and thus #Miraj is out of the bag. As a result of this, Mariana is forced to take Raj off her app development team. Her frustrations are valid, but she also understands that the rule forbidding team leaders dating their subordinates was put in place to protect the women of the workforce, so it’s a worthy loss to take.

 

Despite this, Raj is the one to go to Evan (TJ Linnard) to take the blame for the app glitch, which left Jazmin’s fundraiser total $10k short of the given total. He proposes to deduct it from his wages and be left at that. Mariana is furious when she finds out and goes to Evan to ensure it’s taken from her wage instead. Regardless of both their nobleness, Evan is the one to take the hit with the money. He reminds Mariana that he’s rich and $10k is like $10 to him. He goes one further and assures Mariana that he relayed to the board of directors that her app beta test was a complete success! 

 

The lines between their relationship blur at the end of the episode; however; when Evan invites Mariana out for a drink in order to discuss the app development and alarm bells start ringing. Throughout the episode Raj confides that he’s sure Evan is being nice to Mariana due to the fact he likes her. Mariana is, of course, dead set on proving he just wants to see her succeed. His drinks invitation though is enough to possible prove Raj correct and give Mariana one of the most uncomfortable evenings of her life.