The Fosters – Exterminate Her

By starrymag | July 24, 2017

By: Taylor Gates

Stef (Teri Polo) informs Callie (Maia Mitchell) and Lena (Sherri Saum) that the kidnaping charge against Russell is going to be difficult considering Callie willingly got into a car with him, knowing he was a pimp. Callie looks on the bright side—at least he’s off the street. Stef isn’t nearly as optimistic, saying she could have gotten assaulted or killed. The DA also hasn’t dropped the breaking-and-entering case against Callie so she’s not out of the woods yet.

 

Despite Stef declaring that Callie’s actions are no reason to celebrate, Robert (Kerr Smith) and Mariana (Cierra Ramirez) decide they’re going to do just that. Much to Stef’s dismay, they throw Callie a welcome home party complete with a cake.

 

Emma (Amanda Leighton) and Jesus (Noah Centineo) sit together—Emma refuses to talk to Mariana and Jesus refuses to talk to Brandon (David Lambert), which adds some tension. Emma is happy that Mariana is no longer on the robotics team and warns Jesus that she’ll try to take over and micromanage his treehouse project. This gets Jesus feeling nervous and he tells Mariana that he’s going to talk to Drew and try to do the project by himself to prove he can do something alone. Mariana is crushed and suspicious that Emma put him up to it.

 

Robert apologizes for springing the party on Stef and Lena, but it doesn’t feel as if it was a bad idea. After dinner, the three of them sit down with Callie and tell her that Robert wants to be a bigger part of her life. Stef and Lena feel like they’re at their wits end with Callie, unable to constantly watch her and keep her from making bad decisions. She also needs to get a start on her college applications, starting with the art college she was considering. Stef says she needs to decide who she wants to be because the current her is unacceptable.

 

Lena and Stef struggle to figure out what to bring the new neighbors—a plant, wine and a birdhouse are all shot down by Lena. Lena worries that involving Robert more is a mistake, but Stef reminds her Callie will be eighteen years old in six months so it’s not an issue. Stef’s “it takes a village” attitude surprises Lena and Stef admits ever since Callie’s latest stunt she has no idea what to do.

 

Mariana barges into the garage and ambushes Gabe (Brandon Quinn). She tells him he needs to tell Jesus he’ll only help him with the treehouse if Mariana is also involved.

 

Taylor (Izabela Vidovic) shows Jude (Hayden Byerly) the front page the school paper is planning on putting out that blames the students for the protest. He in turn shows Lena who confronts Drew (Jared Ward) about it. Drew claims it doesn’t technically assign blame for the protest, but rather shares one student’s opinion on privatization and what happened that night. She tells Jude, Mariana and Taylor that they’re fighting the vote with the board but that they have to let the newspaper situation go. However, Mariana gets a bright idea to send a new file to the paper’s print.

 

Callie visits art professor Helen (Emily Kosloski) in her classroom. When Helen tells Callie she’d need a portfolio of at least twenty outstanding art pieces to apply to the college, Callie gets discouraged. She can’t wait to apply next year and asks Helen to help build her body of work. Unfortunately, Helen doesn’t have the time to commit and Callie doubts that she’s even meant to be an artist. She tells Karen (Karis Campbell) they can dump her senior project.

 

Gabe asks Stef why she hasn’t yet told Jesus he might not be a senior next year. He’s worried that it could blow up in their faces when he finds out. Stef disagrees, not wanting to worry Jesus with all the unknowns. Gabe clearly thinks keeping the secret is a bad idea, but apologizes for overstepping by questioning their judgement. New neighbor Dean (Reggie Austin) asks if he can fix a rotting fence post between their yards and Stef agrees. The two plan to get their families together for dinner.

 

Stef tells Lena about their interaction as they’re putting groceries away, saying she’s excited about the prospect of having neighbors they can be friends with. Stef also tells Lena about Gabe’s unsolicited parenting advice, hoping the treehouse will be done soon and he can be on his way. Callie runs downstairs with the good news—Helen has changed her mind and is allowing her to audit her classes so she can apply for college this year.

 

Brandon congratulates Callie on her art school news while filling out job applications. She asks how things are going with Grace (Meg DeLacy), but he says nothing is going on there. She’s in college and he’s a Senior not going to college so things would be too hard. Callie tells Brandon he’s going to get into a great music school eventually.

 

Lena and Mariana run into two more of their new neighbors: mom Teresa (Kristen Ariza), an orthopedic surgeon, and her son Logan (Christopher Meyer) who is a football player. Mariana asks Logan where he’s going to school and he says he’s not sure. It won’t be Anchor Beach though since they didn’t hear good things. When Lena reveals that’s where their kids go, Teresa backtracks—it’s probably lovely and they likely won’t go to any charter since they’re more private school people. Mariana savagely says they might like Anchor Beach after all.

 

Brandon gets a call from Grace on the way to his job interview, asking him for help out of a tricky situation. When Brandon arrives at her apartment, she is handcuffed to her bed. She says she was trying to make a bold move by inviting her ex over to hook up, but they got in an argument and he left her stranded on the bed. When Brandon tells Callie this story, Callie laughs. She knows Grace was trying to have sex with him and probably made up the story about her ex once the situation backfired.

 

Drew furiously enters Lena’s office holding the latest issue of Anchor Beach’s newspaper. Included in this issue is an unauthorized article telling the other side of the protest. Drew is suspicious that Lena’s kids were the ones who did this, but since he can’t prove anything they can’t be expelled. They also don’t quote anyone so it’s just another kid’s opinion. Drew finds a way to punish them anyway by suspending the opinion section of the paper and refusing to fund Juniors doing their Senior projects early.

 

Robert gives Callie a new art set before dropping her off at Helen’s class. Callie will be shadowing Ximena (Lisseth Chavez) who won an award for her multimedia piece the previous year. Callie embarrasses herself by dropping her supplies, but Ximena doesn’t laugh at her. Instead, she asks Callie why she chose art supplies as her defining object. Callie says it’s because she wants to be an artist, but Ximena says she already is. After all, Helen is letting her audit her classes which has never happened before.

 

Jesus shows Gabe the tree Mariana found—it’s a large oak and the house would be for a foster family with a lot of special needs kids. Gabe lets it slip that he has to work with Mariana or else he can’t do the project because he might not be a senior next year. Jesus storms into the house, yelling at Stef for not telling him. She sends both him and Mariana upstairs before telling Gabe to start respecting their authority as the twins’ parents or to move out. Emma drops by, but leaves before talking to Jesus after spying him destroying his own room.

 

Callie wonders if Robert pulled strings with Helen to get her into the art class. She confronts Helen, asking if her father wrote a big check to the school. Helen hesitates, saying she did talk to Robert, but she gets sidetracked by another student before she can finish. Callie asks Ximena to give her a ride somewhere because she doesn’t want to go home. Ximena takes her to roller derby practice, saying she loves the sport because it lets her blow off steam and anger. Callie wants a place to do that too and Ximena tells her to use art as her outlet. Plus, if she pretends to be someone she’s not, she’ll never be happy or have anything to say as an artist.

 

Gabe apologizes to Stef and Lena for going against their wishes and telling Jesus about his academic status. They all sit down together to talk and Lena breaks the news about Drew suspending any junior project funding until they figure out what’s happening with the school. Gabe offers to hunt for scrap wood and get donations from his brother to make the project happen anyway.

 

Callie tells Karen she wants to keep her project after all, but Karen informs her they already took it to the dumpster. When Callie gets home, Stef, Lena and Robert are waiting in the living room for her. She tells Robert she can’t be the girl with the rich dad who gets her into art school, but Robert promises all she did was talk to Helen and remind her of the extenuating circumstances in Callie’s life. Helen still truly does believe in her since she agreed to take Callie on as a student. Callie doesn’t feel like Stef and Lena believe in her, bringing up the fact Stef called her unacceptable. She apologizes for not being able to just forget about all the stuff that happened to her. They lead her to the backyard and show Callie her art project they saved. They don’t want her to forget her past—they just want her to stop repeating past mistakes.

 

Jesus video chats with Emma, who says she won’t be able to see him before she goes to the robotics championship. She promises to call him once she gets there, but it’s clear there’s something off with her. Jesus follows Mariana into the bathroom, saying he’s going to ask Emma to help him with his project. Mariana is clearly hurt.

 

Brandon visits Grace, apologizing for not interpreting her signals correctly. He admits he’s afraid that if she knew certain things about him she wouldn’t want to be with him anymore. He tells her about getting into Juilliard and then getting rejected since he took the SATs for someone else. Grace says one mistake doesn’t mean she doesn’t want to date him. She breaks out the handcuffs again and hooks the two of them together, which gets awkward when he tries to kiss her. They go on the hunt for the keys.

 

Callie sends Ximena a picture of her mother’s necklace, sharing the story of it and how it’s an object that defines her. Stef and Lena make their way to Dean and Teresa’s house. It turns out Teresa is actually Tess: a woman Stef used to have a relationship with.