The Fosters – #IWasMadeInAmerica

By starrymag | January 29, 2018

By: Taylor Gates

 

 

Tess (Kristen Ariza) brings Stef (Teri Polo) a bottle of wine, thanking her for keeping an eye on Logan (Christopher Meyer) while she and Dean (Reggie Austin) went on vacation. She asks Stef if she’s doing anything for her birthday that weekend, and Stef feels obligated to invite her to the combined party she’s having with Jenna (Suzanne Cryer) in their backyard.

 

Lena (Sherri Saum) shows up at Nick’s (Louis Hunter) door, skeptical that he wasn’t just trying to lure Mariana (Cierra Ramirez) to his house and give her false hope about the school. She demands to know the information he has that will help save Anchor Beach, threatening to call his parole officer if he doesn’t cooperate.

 

Nick hands over a flash drive and promises he’s truly sorry for scarring Mariana, adamant that he never meant to hurt her. Lena says if he was really sorry he would stop contacting and retraumatizing her. Nick admits he’s the one who destroyed the model because he hates his father. He’s worried about the repercussions of handing over this information, and Lena encourages him to talk to his therapist or parole officer. Nick says there’s nobody he confide in.

 

Lena rushes into the board meeting, showing them blueprints for high-end condos Craig Stratos (Mark Totty) is planning on building in place of Anchor Beach. The academy is a total scam. Craig uses the excuse that he was planning on pitching the idea in order to fund the endowment for the school in a different location, but Lena tells the board members not to fall for it. Lots of the board changes their minds, including Drew (Jared Ward).

 

That night, the Adams Foster family celebrates the fact they saved the school. Lena says she waited with Nick until his parol officer showed up and took him to a halfway house. Mariana is getting a new phone number just to be safe. Stef and Lena tell the kids they need to change the way they talk to Jesus (Noah Centineo). Expecting him to control things he can’t and underestimating him by keeping big information a secret is ableist, and they’re going to need to be more patient in the future. Jesus promises to communicate his needs more clearly.

 

Lena spies Jenna’s party guest list, laughing at the fact they’re all women. Stef says she invited Tess and Dean as well, and Lena suggests she invite Timothy so Dean won’t be the only guy. Stef is visibly stressed, aggressively scrubbing a pan while doing the dishes. Once Lena leaves the room, she has a hard time catching her breath again.

 

Drew apologizes to Lena for going along with Craig. He promises he had no idea he was planning to build a condo and really thought he was doing what was best for the school. He wants to start over, giving Lena an outline of her responsibilities including student discipline and welfare. She can pitch any ideas, but at the end of the day all decisions will be up to him.

 

Because Jesus’ paraprofessional didn’t work out, Lena agrees to take over his responsibilities and help Jesus manage his work. Though well intentioned, she unfortunately gets a little overbearing, sitting in on classes with him and giving his teachers files about his injury. Jesus confides in Brandon (David Lambert) about the situation being awkward.

 

Jude (Hayden Byerly) tells Taylor (Izabela Vidovic) the good news about Declan (Tyler Alvarez) telling the gaming company to let her join them. She’s hesitant at first, but Jude promises he won’t let her feel like a third wheel, and she warms up to the idea.

 

Jude, Taylor, and Declan set up their gaming stream in the Adams Foster garage, and Noah (Kalama Epstein) stops in to say hello, making Declan jealous. While they’re playing, all three of them wittily banter, but Declan is especially harsh on Jude, making him feel left out. Jude tells Noah about this, and Noah tells him he needs to stick up for himself. He does just that, and the next time they play their conversation gets very flirtatious. Noah angrily calls him that night, informing him all the commenters are already shipping Declan and him. Jude reminds him he’s the one who told him to stick up for himself, which makes Noah even more irritated.

 

Mariana tells Poppy (Nandy Martin) that she doesn’t see why she can’t go out with Wyatt (Alex Saxon), Logan and Mat (Jordan Rodrigues)—it’s all new, and she doesn’t think she needs to choose one just yet. Since they don’t run in the same circles, she doesn’t see why she would need to tell them what she’s doing either. She makes plans to go out with Logan and Wyatt and invites Mat to Stef’s birthday party.

 

Mariana gets a text from Mat saying he can’t wait to kiss her again but accidentally assumes it’s Logan since she just got a new number, which leads to an awkward exchange. At the party, Logan also comes up to Mariana while she and Mat are talking, which makes things even weirder. To make matters worse, Wyatt drops by with a giant calendar, outlining when he’s free to spend time with Mariana. She tells them all she wants to date all of them one-on-one because she’s not ready to be tied down. Logan and Wyatt are cool with this, but Mat isn’t.

 

Later, Mat tells her that the two of them aren’t new. They’ve already been together, and he already knows that he loves her. Mariana sticks to her guns, saying the only way she’s even willing to consider things is to take things slowly. He understands and agrees.

 

Jenna makes all of her friends invite a single woman to her birthday because she is recently divorced and on the market. Stef thinks they all look too young, but Jenna thinks that’s a good thing. They need younger friends or else everyone will be dead by the time they get old. She and Tess meet by the drinks and Jenna starts heavily flirting with her. While they’re chatting, Stef attempts to make small talk with Dean.

 

The party clears out and only Stef, Lena, Dean, Tess, and Jenna are left. Dean wants to call it a night and Stef wants to go to bed, but Jenna and Tess want to stay and continue drinking and chatting. Stef finally drops a not-so-subtle hint to Jenna that it’s time to leave, and Jenna and Tess make plans to have dinner. Jenna calls Stef a party pooper, and they get into a fight. Stef tells Jenna she constantly acts embarrassingly and inappropriately, especially by flirting with Tess in front of Dean. She thinks that, since her marriage was broken up by cheating, she would care about doing that to someone else’s. Jenna coldly leaves and waits for a car to pick her up.

 

Callie (Maia Mitchell) gets in line for the Q&A at Shiloh McCullen’s (Kathryn Winslow) anti-immigration rally. She tells her that her facts are incorrect: you can’t get DACA if you have any violent criminal history, and out of 800,000 recipients, less than 1% have gotten their status revoked because of crime. Callie and her friends stand up and open their pro-Shiloh signs to reveal pro-Ximena (Lisseth Chavez) ones. Callie asks Shiloh what makes her more of an American that Ximena, who has lived in the US since she was two, pays taxes, works, and loves the country. The crowd boos, but Mariana records it all to hopefully get Ximena publicity.

 

Callie goes to the church to see Ximena, showing her the poster she made for the rally. Ximena tells her to put them in her portfolio. She tells Callie she always gets in her own head too much. When she doesn’t try to make art, that’s when her best work happens. Callie sees that Ximena’s story has made Huffington Post, and Ximena kisses her.

 

Timothy tells Lena the teachers all came to him to let him know they think Lena is overstepping by working with Jesus. She can’t be a productive administrator and an involved parent like this, especially because she’s their boss. However, everyone agrees that she should be principal and want her to fight for herself.

 

Lena storms into the board meeting, saying she was a founding member of Anchor Beach and she saved them all a world of embarrassment by exposing Craig Stratos before it was too late. She tells Drew he needs to resign and allow her to be principal—a job she rightfully deserves. Timothy and the other teachers walk in with a petition. More than 3/4ths of them support Lena.

 

Brandon gives Stef a coupon for her birthday that entitles her to one hour of piano playing. When he was little, she would lie on the couch and listen to him play when she was stressed out. He realizes how much they count on her for and wanted to help. He suggests she use it right now, and she agrees. She lies back on the couch and cries while he plays.

 

Stef has difficulty breathing while she and Lena are in bed together. She wakes Lena up in a panic, telling her what’s wrong. Lena asks if she needs to go to the hospital, but Stef tells her she just wants Lena to hold her.