The Fosters – Line in the Sand

By starrymag | February 5, 2018

By: Taylor Gates

 

 

The Adams Foster family congratulates Lena (Sherri Saum) on becoming principal. Although balancing her new duties along with her vice principal tasks and aiding Jesus (Noah Centineo) is going to be difficult, she’s up for the challenge. Poppy (Nandy Martin) gets a text saying her lawyer has located her parents. They’re in a detention center around forty minutes away, and she’s allowed to see them as early as that afternoon. Unfortunately, it’s still too risky for Ximena (Lisseth Chavez) to leave the church and join.

 

Jesus and Mariana (Cierra Ramirez) hang out at the roller derby rink while Poppy scrimmages. Mariana is still benched until she makes the team during tryouts in two weeks. Emma (Amanda Leighton) video chats Jesus, frustrated he is able to spend time at the rink but not with her. He plans a movie date to make it up to her. Mariana is impressed that Jesus has managed to learn the derby rules so quickly and encourages him to become their stats manager to regain his confidence. His difficultly with schoolwork is starting to take a toll on him.

 

That night, Poppy tearfully tells Jesus that her parents were moved to a detention center in Arizona. He asks Emma if they can watch movies with Poppy at home so as not to leave her upset and alone. Emma already feels slightly threatened by Poppy, and this mixed with the news that he’s about to be spending even more time with her as a derby manager doesn’t help.

 

Emma falls asleep during the movie. When it’s over, Poppy thanks Jesus for canceling their plans to stay in with her. Jesus wakes Emma up, apologizing for making her angry by canceling their plans. She says she’s not angry about that—she’s mad he seems to have time to do everything except be with her. He tells her he wants to be a derby manager because it’s fun and easy; she can’t be the only thing in his life that makes him happy. Emma understands, and Jesus promises to make more time for her. Emma also shows up to the rink a few days later, asking to try out for the team because Mariana and Jesus seem to love it so much.

 

Grace’s mom (Nia Peeples) announces that when she was a student, they put the principal’s car on the roof of the school. This gives Grace (Meg DeLacy) the idea to encourage Brandon (David Lambert) to do a crazy senior prank. Wanting to give her the high school experience she never got to have, he agrees.

 

Brandon recruits Callie (Maia Mitchell) and Mariana as well as seniors like Wyatt (Alex Saxon), Mat (Jordan Rodrigues), Zoe (Anna Grace Barlow), and Talya (Madisen Beaty) to help him with the prank. They’re going to haul in sand from outside to create a beach inside Anchor Beach. During the setup, Tayla gets close and personal with Brandon, which causes Grace to inquire about their history. She feels especially awkward when she finds out Talya was his first.

 

Grace tells Brandon she feels like he’s doing everything for her and nothing for himself. She doesn’t want him to miss out on things because of her. Brandon promises her he’s doing exactly what he wants and she shouldn’t feel guilty. She agrees to stop feeling guilty if he promises to stop feeling pressured to make her every wish come true. She tells him her T cells are back, which is good news for her treatment, but he won’t be able to see her for a few days because of it.

 

Brandon drops off a few gifts for Grace outside her door, including a jar full of sand to remember her senior prank by and a goofy picture he took for his senior photo along with his senior quote, “a little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.”

 

Mat tells Mariana he’s cool with taking it slow but doesn’t understand why she’s dating multiple guys—if she doesn’t know in her heart she wants to be with him, what’s the point of dating? Mariana takes what he says to heart and talks things out with Callie. She makes the decision to break up with Wyatt and Logan (Christopher Meyer) in order to be all-in with Mat.

 

Unfortunately, Mariana is thrown back into indecision when Wyatt makes her laugh and shares his senior quote about there being better things to look forward to. Mariana overhears Mat telling Brandon about being nervous for college and worrying that high school is the best it gets. The next day, she breaks it off with Mat. She thinks they should be looking forward to the amazing adventures they’re going to have instead of holding onto the past.

 

Dean (Reggie Austin) comes over to borrow a wrench and asks Stef (Teri Polo) if she’s still down to have dinner with Tess (Kristen Ariza) and Jenna (Suzanne Cryer) that night. Suspicious that something is going on with Tess, Dean asks Stef to talk to her. Stef starts feeling sick and begs Lena to go to the dinner with Tess and Jenna in her place, afraid to leave them alone.

 

The dinner is immediately awkward. Tess and Jenna flirt like crazy while Stef constantly texts Lena questions about what’s going on. Jenna and Tess both send major signals to Lena that they’d love to be by themselves, but Stef tells her to stay. Lena tries to get Tess to talk about Dean, but instead Jenna launches into a spiel about her divorce and how she wishes she and her ex would have walked away as friends instead of hurting each other. Lena swoops in and says that sometimes it’s better to try and fight to save your relationship.

 

Lena gets a call from Anchor Beach security saying that someone left all the lights on in the school. She reluctantly leaves the dinner in order to find out what is going on and catches the kids setting up the prank. Later, she angrily rants to Stef about their disrespect during her first day on the job. Stef suggests that she gain the respect of the student body by showing that she has a sense of humor. Lena takes her advice and shows up to school the next day dressed for the beach. However, she tells the kids that it all better be cleaned up by the end of the day.

 

Tess stops by the Adams Foster’s with the intention of talking to Stef about their conversation during prom. Stef, on the other hand, has no interest in exploring that anymore. She asks Tess what she’s doing with Jenna, informing her about Dean’s confusion. She tells her she needs to be honest with herself and her husband or else things are going to get messy.

 

Ximena’s lawyer advises Callie to hunt for footage of Ximena making her immigration speech at the rally. With that, she might be able to get a stay while her DACA status is being renewed, which would mean she could leave the church and ICE wouldn’t be allowed to target her. The only caveat is that the only group who recorded the footage was the conservative student union. Callie tries to appeal to their humanity, but they’re adamant about not sharing the video.

 

Callie checks out a camera from the college’s technology department and shoots Ximena’s defense statement. Although it’s powerful, without the footage of her speech it’s still her word against ICE. Callie reads the rules that come with the camera kit she checked out, as it looks exactly like the one the conservative student union used to film the protest. One of the guidelines states that all footage shot on the camera is property of the school and therefore fair use for any of its students. With the video, the judge rules that nothing Ximena said threatened the security of the United States and grants her a stay.

 

Stef and Lena allow Ximena to stay with them until her DACA status is renewed and she can become Poppy’s legal guardian again. It all seems to be going perfectly according to plan, but a mysterious car ominously follows Callie as she drives away.