The Fosters – Meet the Fosters

By starrymag | June 10, 2018

By: Taylor Gates

 

 

Stef (Teri Polo) makes a toast, celebrating recent college graduates Callie (Maia Mitchell), Mariana (Cierra Ramirez), Brandon (David Lambert), and Emma (Amanda Leighton) as well as Jude (Hayden Byerly) for finishing up his first year at UCLA. Lena (Sherri Saum) makes Jude promise to share his final grades as soon as he gets them. Stef also congratulates Jesus (Noah Centineo) for getting his contractor’s license and starting his own custom-built treehouse business called Out on a Limb with Wyatt (Alex Saxon).

 

Finally, they all celebrate Brandon and Eliza’s (Abigail F. Cowen) impending wedding, which is now less than a week away. Stef thanks Eliza’s parents Jim (Robert Gant) and Diane (Susan Walters) for the destination wedding at Turks and Caicos. They also introduce Eliza’s brothers Carter (Spencer List) and Jamie (Beau Mirchoff) as well as their foster son Corey (Dallas Younger). Jim and Diane apologize for traveling so much and not getting to know the Adams Fosters well yet. When Corey plays a prank on Jesus, they look at them disapprovingly.

 

Mariana announces that she has a few job offers but is going to spend the summer backpacking around Europe by herself first. Jesus doesn’t think she can handle it, but Mariana reminds him he still lives at home. Jesus announces he and Emma found a studio apartment together, so he’ll be moving out soon.

 

Jamie, who’s a corporate lawyer, asks Callie about getting her degree in only five years. She says she’s interviewing with a few judges, admitting she’s hoping to get the one with the more progressive judge. Jamie teasingly asks her why she clearly thinks all corporate lawyers are shallow and she wonders why he feels the need to mansplain her career. Aaron (Elliot Fletcher) shows up, and Callie smugly informs Jamie he works at a nonprofit.

 

Callie tells everyone her video interview with the judge was going well until Mariana came in and pronounced that Mat (Jordan Rodrigues) was a “bag of dicks.” Mariana explains to Jamie that she’s on bad terms with Mat because they got back together in college, but once Mat graduated he found someone else while playing bass in a band and then gave her crabs.

 

Lena and Stef talk to Jim and Diane about their jobs. Lena is on the public school board as well as remaining principal of Anchor Beach. Stef now runs a nonprofit child welfare agency and shelter for abused women and children. Stef and Lena say they must be so proud of Eliza for being asked to join the LA philharmonic full time. Eliza’s parents are skeptical of Brandon’s job prospects since the entertainment industry is so competitive. Stef brings up the fact that Eliza is thriving despite classical music being such a tough job, but Diane says with women there’s much less pressure to provide.

 

Wyatt stops by for dessert, telling Mariana in some hostels she can cook in exchange for a bed. She jokes that he should just come on the trip with her and be her tour guide/body guard.

 

Emma tells Mariana she’s nervous to share that she got a job offer in India with Jesus. Mariana reminds her that he was on board when they were in high school, and now that they’re older and more mature, he’ll definitely be able to deal. Emma still considers not telling him.

 

Corey is excited about being a groomsman in Brandon’s wedding. Stef and Lena watch the interaction between them and Jude, wondering whether to tell Corey some updates about his mom. They also notice that Jude has been acting a little strange lately.

 

Aaron doesn’t see why Brandon and Eliza are in a rush to get married, but Callie thinks he doesn’t want to waste any more time after Grace (Meg DeLacy). She doesn’t think her parents would be cool with them just living together, either. Callie admits she’s still on the fence about Eliza, as she’s somewhat immature, especially since she’s letting her parents control the entire wedding.

 

Eliza is worried that Mariana and Callie are talking about her behind her back. She asks Brandon if Callie ever told him not to marry her, but Brandon promises that Callie likes her and lies about not having told Callie the secret about her parents not wanting Stef and Lena to perform their wedding ceremony.

 

Aaron notices that Jamie seems to have a crush on Callie, encouraging her to put herself back out there. After all, she hasn’t dated anyone in five years. Aaron says that whatever happens at weddings, stays at weddings.

 

Jude gets an email from the dean of UCLA telling him his GPA dropped below 2.0 and he is in danger of losing his scholarship. Jude goes inside and pours himself a drink, and Carter joins him. Although he’s at Princeton, Jamie is definitely the golden boy in their family. Jude says he doesn’t go home much, as he likes to party on the weekends. He’s not sure what he’s studying yet, but he’s thinking maybe psychology. Carter, who studies the classics, says his girlfriend is studying psychology. This disappoints Jude, as he was feeling a spark between them.

 

Callie pressures Brandon to tell Stef and Lena about them not performing the ceremony anymore since they were so excited and honored to do it. Brandon tells her about Eliza getting the feeling Callie doesn’t like her, and Callie shoots back that she barely knows her. He’s barely brought her home and nobody really knows her yet. Brandon tells her Eliza isn’t comfortable around people, but Callie says they’re not just any people—they’re his family. Brandon pleads with Callie to help make Eliza feel accepted.

 

When the moms are interviewing Eliza and Brandon in order to personalize their ceremony, Eliza tells Lena that she offered to play a score Brandon wrote for a student film so he would notice her, but he never seemed to look her way. Brandon tells Stef he didn’t think Eliza even knew who he was since she was the star of the school.

 

They each remember asking the other out for coffee, finding out when they got to the cafe neither of them even liked to drink it. Once they broke the ice, they had so much to talk about. From afar, Brandon thought Eliza was full of herself, but he realized she was just shy, sensitive, and caring. He never thought he would love again after Grace, but Eliza proved him wrong.

 

Stef and Lena tell Jim and Diane they’ve been fostering Corey for a year and are planning on adopting him. Diane says that Eliza used to want to take in every stray animal she found, and the comparison mortifies Eliza. Brandon says that Mike (Danny Nucci) and Ana (Alexandra Barreto) couldn’t make it to the party since Ana is eight months pregnant and on bed rest.

 

Jim and Diane tell them about plans to do a family dance at the wedding where someone from one family gets paired up to dance with a member of the opposite sex from the other. However, they thought Jim could alternate between Stef and Lena so it wouldn’t be awkward. They also imply Stef and Lena wouldn’t like their friends because they’re too conservative and not as “interesting” as them.

 

Jim and Diane talk about the reverend that’s going to be marrying Brandon and Eliza, and Brandon pulls Stef and Lena aside, apologizing for the change of plans. Apparently it’s important to Eliza’s parents they be married by an actual minister, but he still wants them to do a special reading or toast. They assure Brandon it’s no big deal but are clearly disappointed. Stef is irritated, thinking Eliza’s parents might be homophobic, but Lena talks her down. She says the bride’s parents always get to run the show. That night, Jim hands Brandon a prenup and asks him to sign it before the wedding.

 

Jamie tells Callie that they’ve been paired up together for the family dance, and the two get a little flirty when he starts talking about being rejected at fifth grade cotillion. Callie excuses herself from the conversation when she sees Jude drunkenly stumbling into the house. Jude asks Callie if she gets a gay vibe from Carter, but she puts him to bed before the moms see him. While in his room, Callie finds a bottle of pills in his pocket.

 

Mariana tells Jesus about Emma’s job offer, and Jesus confronts Emma. He asks her why she even applied since he’s been waiting for her for four years and they had a future planned out. Emma assures him she’s not going to take the position and is choosing him but lets him know it wasn’t easy having a steady boyfriend all those years while all of her friends were hooking up and having fun. She asks him to go to India with her, but he says he doesn’t want to go since he’s started making a life in San Diego. He realized she’ll regret it if she doesn’t go, telling her to take the job. He, however, can’t wait around for her forever.

 

Mat sees Wyatt and asks what he’s doing at the party. He tells Wyatt he will always be Mariana’s backup plan, but Wyatt tells him he’s going backpacking through Europe with her that summer. Jesus is upset that Wyatt is abandoning him, calling Mariana a selfish bitch. Mariana says she was just joking when she suggested the idea, furious at Mat’s actions.

 

While crawling into bed, Stef and Lena muse that might have been the last party they’ll ever throw in the backyard. Corey comes in to say goodnight, asking if they’ve heard anything about his mom. They tell Corey she had a meeting with the judge that day but haven’t heard if she showed up. He hopes that she didn’t, as he wants Stef and Lena to be his moms. Stef says they want that, too, but assures him his mother still loves him though she’s struggling with addiction.

 

Callie looks up the name of the pills she found in Jude’s pocket and finds out they prevent HIV. Mariana announces that she might go to Europe with Wyatt to spite Mat. Irritated at her behavior, Callie tells Mariana she doesn’t have to shock everyone by playing games with Wyatt or announcing she had crabs at the dinner table.

 

Mariana softens and says she’s not trying to play games—she just thought she and Mat would get married someday and it hurts. Callie says they always think they’re going to marry their first loves, and Mariana realizes that Callie’s first love is getting married that week. Eliza, who is brushing her teeth in the bathroom on the other side of the wall, hears this and fumes.