The Fosters - Recap: Panic at the Bistro
Recap and review of The Fosters - Season 2 Episode 9 - Leaky Faucets:
A leaky faucet is a common household problem, and also one of the more annoyingly persistent. It's a problem you can't really get rid of until you deal with it head-on. You might try to find ways around it, like placing a pan underneath the leak. But that's not really a solution. It's just a way of putting off confronting the problem. The Fosters is rife with characters putting off dealing with the larger problems in their lives, and "Leaky Faucets" is an episode that succeeds in exploring the inevitable confrontation with those issues.
Credit: ABC FAMILY/Ron Tom
Basically, Brandon (David Lambert) invites Callie to come along to the Santa Cecilia festival in town -- a Mexican cultural faire that is one of the town's more popular events. Naturally, Callie brings Wyatt along, and it finally seems like Callie is getting back to some semblance of normalcy. She has a cute bet with Wyatt where they eat as much food as they can at the festival, and whomever can't finish has to pay for it all (not sure how this works, since I've never heard of a festival that allows you to pay for all your food after like it's some kind of bistro, but whatever). As they make their way through the festival, Callie admits that she was hesitant to come due to the huge crowds. However, Wyatt simply being there has given her the confidence to venture out. Put simply, Callie tells Wyatt she needs him, and needs to be able to depend on him right now. And because Wyatt is crazy about Callie, and generally a decent human being, he assures her he'll be right beside her. Yet sticking to that promise proves difficult when Wyatt spies Liam at the festival.
In a fit of rage, Wyatt leaves to follow Liam, bumping into Brandon along the way and getting him involved in the process. Ultimately, when Wyatt catches up, and hears Liam brag about having sex with Callie, a fight breaks out that Brandon tries to stop. But Liam fights back, giving Brandon a cut just above his right eye, and that's when all hell breaks loose, as Brandon and Wyatt are suddenly double-teaming the accused rapist. The cops break it up, but the damage is already done. Callie has seen the whole thing, and although Wyatt tries to rationalize his actions by saying he was simply trying to protect her, Callie doesn't want to hear it. She tells him she doesn't think he even knows how to protect her, and storms off, possibly ending their relationship. And I can't say I blame her. Wyatt deciding to beat up Liam wasn't for Callie, he was doing it for himself, because he needed to extract some measure of revenge for what Liam did; because he was angry at Liam and wanted to teach him a lesson. Callie needed Wyatt to stay by her, but he didn't, instead allowing his emotions to overrule his better judgment. For once, Brandon had the right of it: nothing good could have ever come from Wyatt attacking Liam, and the result pretty much bears this out. Callie struggles to make sense of it all with Stef (Teri Polo) in a wonderful moment towards the end of the episode that illustrates the mother-daughter bond that has formed between the two. Yet, while Callie's panic attacks might slowly go away as she learns to trust herself again, that trust comes with a cost, as she realizes Wyatt isn't as dependable as she hoped he'd be.
Credit: ABC FAMILY/Ron Tom
The other stories this week about people putting off the inevitable resonate in different ways. Brandon is still struggling to deal with his residual guilt over what happened with Dani, and this is causing any potential relationship with Lou (Ashley Argota) to fall by the wayside. At the Mexican festival, she basically throws herself at him, and becomes incensed when he doesn't pick up on the cues. He insists it isn't her fault, and that it has nothing to do with Callie either, instead stating that he's going through something. And, to her credit, Lou understands. But admitting there's a problem isn't the same as dealing with the problem. It isn't until Mike (Danny Nucci) forces Brandon to confront his anger that progress can begin, as Mike acknowledges that he let Brandon down and that he's right to be angry at him. However, he states they need to move forward together if there's going to be any sort of future free from bitterness at all, and it's a poignant lesson here that brings the episode back to the nature of how nothing is gained by putting off one's problems. At the very least, Brandon learns it, even if, say, Jesus (Jake T. Austin) doesn't. Jesus tries to take Hayley (Caitlin Carver) out on a date, but his idea of a date is a private get-together in the garage where they first hooked up. Hayley is furious, but Jesus is able to save himself briefly by stealing Brandon's idea about going to the Mexican festival. Unfortunately, once Hayley learns that Jesus stole the idea, and that he never had a real date planned, she storms off, leaving Jesus to desperately wonder what he can do to prove his commitment to Hayley. And, because Jesus is a sucker for bad decision-making, he gets a tattoo of Hayley's name on his torso at the festival. Which I'm sure will end well once Stef and Lena find out.
As for Stef (Teri Polo) and Lena (Sherri Saum), they're both at different stages of grief regarding the loss of the baby. Lena, who is still on a camping trip with Jude (Hayden Byerly), has mostly processed what has happened and is attempting to move on. Stef, however, is still in a form of denial about it, trying to get around actually dealing with the problem. That is, until the titular leaky faucet ends up giving her all sorts of trouble, spraying water all over the house. In the rush to find towels, she comes across a lion blanket that was intended for baby Frankie. In that moment, Stef finally breaks down, telling Lena over the phone that she misses Frankie despite having never even met her. It's a heartbreaker of a story that also serves as a kind of catharsis for the characters, who are still processing their feelings over the tragedy several weeks back. It's difficult to face anything head-on, and this episode goes out of its way to illustrate that.
Credit: ABC Family
Case in point, Mariana (Cierra Ramirez) struggling to confront her Latina heritage once Mat (Jordan Rodrigues) brings her to the Mexican festival. She's offended that he would seem to think she'd want to be here, but Mat insists he didn't mean offense. He also insists that Mariana clearly does care about her heritage, given the emotional response it triggers. But what he doesn't know is that, after briefly separating at the festival, Mariana ran into Mike, who is with Ana (Alexandra Barreto). The confrontation, in which Ana tries to apologize, leaves Mariana shaken. But after making amends with Mat, who helps her to admit that she does enjoy being Latina, Mariana decides she wants to give Ana a second chance. This is primarily motivated by Mat's story about his absentee father, and how he wishes he could have the catharsis of hearing his old man apologize to him for leaving. Mariana realizes the damage that can be done from running away from one's problems. So, when she returns home from the festival, she not only tells Stef that she knows about the letter Ana wrote, but reveals she actually wants to meet with Ana to hear her out. Naturally, Stef is understandably worried; but then, confronting your own problems sometimes means making it hard every bit as hard on others as it is on yourself.
Credit: ABC FAMILY/Ron Tom
"Leaky Faucets" is terrific, insightful TV that helps us to understand where each character is at in their own emotional stages. Not everyone has been able to process the litany of emotional trauma they've suffered, but it's clear that each character is trying, in his or her own way, to no longer put off the business of confronting their issues. And that makes them immediately more compelling as characters, in addition to making The Fosters a much more powerful show for having such characters in it.