The Fosters – Girl Code

By starrymag | August 18, 2016

By: Taylor Gates

 

It’s a characteristically hectic night in the Adams Foster home. Stef (Teri Polo) and Lena (Sherri Saum) show the house to a condescending realtor (Beth Littleford), Brandon (David Lambert) practices piano, Callie (Maia Mitchell) makes out with AJ (Tom Williamson) on the porch and Mariana (Cierra Ramirez), Emma (Amanda Leighton) and Jesus (Noah Centineo) work on their robot. While the realtor leaves, police officers arrive and ask about Callie’s history with Patrick Molloy.

 

The moms are angry that Callie went by Patrick’s work—he is accusing her of harassment, which is a serious allegation. Stef says they can’t jump to conclusions about what went down with Molloy’s charges and Callie can’t be accusing him of child molestation at work. Regardless, Stef reminds Callie that she’s the cop and she’s the one that’s qualified to look into it. Lena tells Stef she doesn’t want Callie working on this anymore, as she already has enough on her plate with school. Lena also shades Stef, saying she would love for her to be more focused at home too. While Callie packs up Kyle’s boxes, she opens a case file that questions a curb painter.

 

The next morning, Stef sees that Brandon has slept on the couch. She gently covers him with a blanket.

 

At the robotics competition, Craig (Michael Traynor) reminds the Anchor Beach Anchor Bytes about the spirit of competition. The regional champions for the past four years—a group of adults from Palomar Academy led by an aerospace engineer—swagger in, intimidating the Anchor Bytes. Aiden (Adam Kang) and his cronies are there to “support” the team, but they clearly rattle Mariana. She tells the team that losing is not an option.

 

A competition monitor weighs the robot and discovers that it’s half a pound overweight. The team suggests taking their hanging arm off, as it doesn’t work, but Mariana says its appearance makes them more of a threat. They put holes in the body of the robot to detract weight.

 

The realtor shows a young couple the house. When the three of them walk into Callie’s room, she and AJ are awkwardly there reclothing themselves. Callie jokes that the universe doesn’t want them having sex.

 

During the autonomous rounds, the Anchor Bytes robot does not move, meaning they will have to make up a lot of ground to place. They can’t get it to drive manually either, leading Palomar Academy’s coach (John Ayles) to yell insults at them since they are the Anchor Bytes’ alliance partners. Lena heads down to confront the coach, who tells her to either go back to the bleachers or take her useless team home.

 

Cortney (Denyse Tontz) takes Mason (Benjamin Freitas) to Anchor Beach to visit Brandon. Cortney says she missed him at home the previous night and Brandon says that he was at the Adams Foster house practicing late. He feels like he’s cramming for the biggest test of his life. Cortney asks if they’re okay after the Brallie bomb she dropped on Mike. Brandon tells her he doesn’t have time to rehash this conversation again. Callie meets Brandon at his locker and he tells her that Mike now knows about the two of them. Callie thinks that explains a lot.

 

Mariana screams at Jesus for messing up the robot; Jesus shoots back that he made them eligible and saved the day. Emma tells them to stop blaming each other and start checking their wires before the next round. Lena pulls Mariana aside, asking her if this is really the kind of leader she wants to be. Mariana tells Lena that her presence is stressing her out.

 

Callie and Aaron (Elliot Fletcher) go interview one of Mrs. Johnson’s neighbors about Kyle’s case, but she can’t remember anything to help them. Aaron asks Callie what the plan is even if they can find the curb painter. Callie says maybe they can prove the detectives never followed up on any other suspects other than Kyle. They could also try to find someone else with a record or motive to create reasonable doubt and convince the JJC to take his case.

 

The team captain of another all-girl team (Emma Dumont) wishes the Anchor Bytes luck, but Mariana doesn’t buy her sweetness.

 

Lena calls Stef, saying she’s worried the robotics team on top of the Nick situation might be too much for Mariana to handle. Stef says after that day, she won’t have to worry about it anymore. She tells her to keep her updated before hanging up and listening to a voicemail. The voicemail explains that the charges against Molloy were dropped because the victim, Benjamin (Niko Guardaro), withdrew. Stef gets out of her car and goes to knock on Benjamin’s door. Stef explains that she is a police officer and asks Benjamin why he withdrew his complaint. He is reluctant to answer her questions at first, but she eventually coaxes out the fact he was fourteen years old when it happened. She says she’s trying to put Molloy away, but she needs his help. Benjamin admits that Detective Gray (Alex Skuby) threatened to have his parents deported unless he changed his story.

 

Callie and Aaron go talk to another witness. He explains that the guy who painted his curb was an aggressive scammer and jackass. Lucky for them, he also points the two in the direction of the painter’s house.

 

The Anchor Bytes kill it in the next robotics rounds, shooting balls and lifting bridges and doing a ton of awesome robot stuff. In the last round, the other all-girls team pins the Anchor Bytes robot against the wall—it should be a penalty, but the ref isn’t watching closely enough.

 

Callie and Aaron go to a dilapidated house with an unkempt lawn. Their plan is to ask the man who lives there about painting Mrs. Johnson’s curb. The man doesn’t answer, much to Aaron’s relief. Callie checks the information on a piece of the guy’s mail and find out his name is Doug Harvey. The two peek inside a window, but a dog quickly scares them away.

 

Craig tells the team they did great regardless of how they place, but Mariana threatens to smash someone in the face if they don’t make it in the top six. Stef texts Lena, asking if they made it to the next round. Lena savagely replies that while they don’t know yet, she hopes they don’t: Mariana is out of control. Anchor Beach gets eighth place and while that’s the best the school has ever done, it’s not enough to get them in the finals. Mariana marches over to the other all-girls team, Baby Got Bots, and persuades them to pick them as their alliance. She convinces them by reminding them of the fact their robot has a hanging arm, which they need. Mariana admits it doesn’t work, but they all agree to put their heads together and make it work before the next round in an hour.

 

Stef brings Brandon a sandwich as he continues pounding on the piano keys. She asks if he feels prepared, but he admits that he doesn’t feel as confident as he probably should. Stef apologizes for contributing to his stress and blaming everything that happened with Callie solely on him. Stef tells him she would love if he came home, but he can’t leave Cortney and Mason. Stef makes him promise he won’t hold back on his audition because he feels like he has an obligation to Cortney, but Brandon promises he wants to go to Juilliard more than he wants anything.

 

Aaron asks Callie if he should be concerned that she’s a magnet for trouble. Callie explains why she was in juvie twice and, while she had her reasons, she still makes some bad choices. Aaron says even if that may be true, he knows she isn’t a bad person. The two see a pickup truck pull up to the rundown house. Aaron asks Callie if she wants to go in, but Callie wants to leave that up to the detectives now.

 

Using some complicated reserve psychology, the Anchor Bytes spread the word that their arm now works. They huddle up and chant that “bitches get things done” before beginning to drive their robot. Their strategy works—nobody believes their arm is really functional, which leaves the tower wide open. They score the bonus to win the competition.

 

Mariana passionately recaps the competition at dinner that night. She tells the whole family they should go see them at worlds if they can raise the $5,000 fee they need to get there in under three weeks. Lena thinks Mariana should pass on worlds, as she hasn’t even started studying for her SATs. Jesus and Emma suggest to Mariana that she let other people help since she always tries to do everything herself.

 

Stef announces they have an offer on the house that is 10% above their asking price. The big problem is that, should they take the offer, they have to be out by the end of the month.

 

Callie talks to Brandon in the living room. He asks her what she meant earlier about Mike knowing about them “explaining a lot.” Callie admits she doesn’t think Mike wants her dating AJ, but she refuses to let his feelings stop her. She’s tired of people making her feel wrong all the time. She wishes Brandon luck, saying she’s happy for him for going after his dreams. He admits he’s scared, but Callie promises he’ll kill it before answering a call from AJ.