The Fosters – Forty

By starrymag | July 28, 2016

By: Taylor Gates

 

Lena’s (Sherri Saum) parents Dana (Lorraine Toussaint) and Stewart (Bruce Davison) are in town for Lena’s fortieth birthday bash. Stewart suggests canceling their room at the hotel and staying at the Adams Foster house to spend more time with their grandkids. Jesus (Noah Centineo) says they could stay in Brandon’s (David Lambert) room, as he has moved in with Cortney (Denyse Tontz), much to Dana’s disapproval.

 

Dana bluntly shares her opinion with Lena on the matter while Lena fixes up Brandon’s room for her and Stewart. Lena explains that Brandon is eighteen years old and there’s really nothing they can do to stop him. Lena tells Stef (Teri Polo) she should be the one to invite Cortney to the party since she’s the one she’s afraid of. Stef tells Dana she doesn’t think the air mattress is going to fit in Brandon’s room and Dana tells her to put it in the living room instead. Lena voices concern about her parents’ marriage and with good reason—Dana tells her that Stewart is having an affair.

 

Brandon (David Lambert) hangs up posters around the school advertising piano lessons to earn some money since rent and Cortney’s divorce are going to cost a fortune. He also takes a number from a poster asking for tutoring.

 

The robotics club advisor (Michael Traynor) announces they have enough money to enter the regional robotics competition. They’re going to hold an in-club competition to see which team of three will go on to represent their school at the contest. Mariana (Cierra Ramirez), Emma (Amanda Leighton) and the only other girl in the club decide to group up and work together.

 

Aaron (Elliot Fletcher) teases Callie (Maia Mitchell), asking if her boyfriend actually exists. Callie assures him that he does, but he says he won’t believe it until he sees it. The two are at the juvenile detention center visiting Callie’s old foster brother Kyle (Adam Irigoyen), who doesn’t get a lot of visitors besides his mother. Callie tells Kyle she and Aaron are there to help him. They need evidence to get the people who worked on his trial to reopen his case and ask him about the supposed eyewitness. Kyle tells them Patrick Molloy worked at the rec center where he was the night of the murder. Kyle promises that he didn’t commit the crime, and Callie says he believes him.

 

Lena’s father shows up to her work, telling her he needs to speak to her privately.

 

Brandon meets with the kid from the tutoring flier. However, the kid doesn’t want SAT tutoring—he wants Brandon to take the test for him the next day for $1,000 cash.

 

Kyle insists he just forgot to write his name on the rec center sign-in sheet the night of the murder. He remembers it vividly: it was raining and they were all watching a basketball game on TV and yelling at the refs. If they can track down one of the employees, maybe he can get a new trial. Callie also brought a gift for Kyle—a favorite childhood book they and Jude (Hayden Byerly) shared. Kyle turns eighteen years old next month and will be moved to an adult prison, but Callie promises to track down the witness and visit again.

 

Lena tells Stef that Stewart isn’t having an affair after all; instead he’s putting a video together for Dana’s retirement party. Lena debates telling Dana to put her mind at ease, but Stef says that would ruin the surprise. Lena ultimately decides to keep quiet and stay out of it.

 

Dana gives Mariana’s robotics team a little STEM girl power pep talk. They promise to kick some boy butts for her. Jesus tries to help/steal Emma away for some alone time, but Mariana quickly sends him away.

 

Stef asks Mariana to edit Lena’s birthday video, but Mariana is too busy. Instead, she guilt trips Jude into helping. Taylor (Izabela Vidovic) suggests they recruit Noah (Kalama Epstein) to assist, as he has editing experience.

 

Stef goes to Cortney’s house to officially invite her to Lena’s 70’s themed birthday party. Cortney accepts the invitation. She gets a phone call from work and when she goes to the other room to talk to her boss, Stef snoops a bit where she finds a check Brandon wrote for $5,000.

 

Callie and Aaron go to the car wash to speak with the witness – Patrick (Chad Todhunter). Patrick doesn’t remember Kyle being there that night, but wishes he could help as he always seemed like a nice kid. Callie is disappointed, but Aaron tells her not to give up hope. Callie reminds him that she really does have a boyfriend, but Aaron wants to help her anyway.

 

Noah is teaching Jude how to edit videos when Taylor announces that Connor (Gavin MacIntosh) is coming to San Diego. Jude, looking hurt, informs Noah that Connor is his ex. Later that night, Jude stalks Connor’s Facebook page, seeing he has just uploaded a picture with another boy.

 

Jesus has solved one of Mariana’s robotics team’s dilemmas, showing them a part he made for their robot. The next day at the robotics trials, one of the boy teams has a robot that can lift the cube into a box in nineteen seconds. They scoff when Mariana’s team sets their robot in the arena, but their design completes the mission in nine seconds. The club votes for the boy team to win, but Mariana and Emma fight the decision and the supervisor eventually overturns the club’s decision and declares their team the winners. Sucks to suck, Team Sexist.

 

Brandon follows through with taking the SAT for the other kid. He puts his headphones in on the way out, not hearing his moms’ friend Jenna (Suzanne Cryer) call his name.

 

It’s finally party day! In keeping with Adams Foster tradition, it starts off with some awkward tension. Lena gets a phone call about a house appraisal and Stewart admits that was his doing—he and Dana are switching financial advisers and putting all their ducks in a row for retirement. The new guy wants a list of all their assets, including Stef and Lena’s home since they’re co-borrowers on it. Lena admits she’s pretty psyched for her mom to eat some crow when she finds out what Stewart’s really been up to, but Stef is more concerned that he is listing their house as an asset.

 

This family could probably buy another house for how much Lena’s party costs. Stef, Len and Mike (Danny Nucci) joke on the dance floor when Gabe (Brandon Quinn) arrives. Ana (Alexandra Barreto) practically drools over him, which clearly bothers Mike.

 

Jude rants to Taylor about Connor visiting San Diego with his new boy toy. He’s insulted Connor didn’t even tell him he was coming. Noah arrives and Taylor snaps a pic of him and Jude.

 

Emma thanks Jesus for his help with the robotics team, flirtatiously saying she’ll find a way to pay him back. She also offers to start tutoring him again so he can get a head start on his SATs.

 

Jenna corners Monte (Annika Marks), saying she doesn’t want stuff to be weird between them. She asks if she’s dating anyone and Monte admits that she is. Their conversation is cut short; however, when Jenna spies her ex and her barely-pubescent girlfriend.

 

AJ (Tom Williamson) drags a reluctant Callie onto the dance floor when Cortney and a newly-permed Brandon arrive. Callie gets a text from Aaron and quickly leaves to answer it.

 

Brandon thanks Stef for inviting Cortney. Dana asks Stef why she doesn’t like Brandon’s new boo and Stef tells her that Cortney is taking advantage of him, mentioning the check she found.

 

Jenna jokingly thanks Lena for inviting all of her exes to the party. She then asks Brandon how the SATs went and Brandon lies and says he was just trying to improve his scores. Lena; however, still seems pretty suspicious.

 

Aaron brings Callie a file he dug up from Sheila’s garage containing notes from when Kyle’s lawyer interviewed Patrick. Kyle’s story matches up with Patrick’s—four years ago he said they were watching the Clippers vs. Warrior game together. AJ walks in as Callie is thanking and hugging Aaron, making AJ uncomfortable. At least Aaron finally has proof that AJ exists!

 

Jenna sees Gabe dancing and tells Mike that if she weren’t gay she would “climb him like a jungle gym.” She takes a big swig of alcohol and goes to jive with him.

 

Lena asks Dana to dance with her and Stewart, saying Stewart is just busy with the new business manager and not cheating on her. Dana is blindsided, as he hasn’t told her anything about getting a new business manager.

 

Ana asks Mariana if she’s okay after everything that happened with Nick. Mariana says she is, but she kind of wishes people would stop bringing it up. Instead they talk boys—Mariana says she’s back together with Mat (Jordan Rodrigues) and hints that Ana should get back together with Gabe. Ana says that she and Mike might be a thing now, which thrills Mariana. She promises to keep it a secret.

 

Jude uploads the picture of him and Noah, also changing his status to “in a relationship.”

 

Dana drags Cortney within three seconds of meeting her, calling her out for letting her high school aged boyfriend allowing her to pay for her divorce.

 

Lena tells Stef she thinks it’s weird that Stewart didn’t tell Dana anything about switching financial advisors. An intoxicated Jenna says that’s what her ex-wife did right before she left her. How reassuring!

 

Mariana asks Jesus why he’s not busting a move. Jesus says it’s because he’s too dumb, confusing Mariana.

 

Callie doesn’t understand why Patrick’s statement didn’t help Kyle and Aaron says he might have changed his story if he was intimidated by someone. Stef comes into the living room, telling the two and AJ they need to get on the dance floor. Callie briefs Stef on the situation and she promises to help after Lena’s birthday. She invites Aaron to stay, but he has to get going.

 

Mariana tells Jude and Noah that if they’re changing their relationship status, they need to come up with a good couple name. Noah, unaware of what Jude did, is caught off-guard. Noah angrily tells Jude to leave him out of whatever is going on between him and his ex. Jude apologizes, explaining he just didn’t want Connor to think he was sitting around crying over him. Noah understands, but he hates social media—he has been cyberbullied for being an openly gay pastor’s son. He also tells Jude that if he’s going to refer to him as his boyfriend he should at least ask him out first. Jude smiles and officially asks him on a date.

 

Lena pulls Stewart to the side, asking what’s up between him and Dana. Stewart admits to both his daughter and wife that he owes some money to the IRS. He didn’t tell them because he didn’t want to worry them and it’s nothing he can’t handle. Stewart just wanted an appraisal on the house so he could take out a line of credit on it. Lena says the only problem is they already took out a line of credit for adoption fees, work on the house and other miscellaneous things. He tells them not to stress, promising he can still work everything out.

 

Stef shows Lena the video everyone made for her. During the sweet montage, Cortney asks Brandon if he told Dana about paying for her divorce lawyer. Emma asks Jesus if he wants to slip out of the party and go upstairs, but Jesus says the whole friends with benefits thing isn’t working out for him.

 

The cops show up in the Adams Foster’s backyard, but they just turn out to be strippers there to give Lena a show courtesy of Stef’s mom. Casual.

 

Brandon confronts Stef about looking at his check and telling Dana about it. Stef owns right up to invading his privacy, having no shame.

 

Stef and Lena share a dance and, after some convincing from Mariana, Ana and Mike do, too. When Callie gets a funny video from Aaron, she decides to drag AJ onto the dance floor as well.

 

Mariana tells Jesus he should join the robotics team, as she thinks he would be a great asset.

 

Dana and Stewart discuss his financial situation and it’s worse than Stewart originally said it was. It’s so bad, in fact, that Stef and Lena could possibly lose their house.