The Fosters - Recap: Bad Romance

But beyond that, it deals with relationships in a way that doesn't feel overly melodramatic. Its naturalistic approach to teen drama is one of the best elements of The Fosters, making for a series that is as edifying in what it says about the universality of teenage emotions, as it is compelling in its depiction of those emotions. Kids will always remain outcasts for being different, teen girls will always go through a phase of changing themselves to impress a boy they like, and teen boys will always carry a possessive, tortured chip on their shoulder about a girl they can't have.

Credit: ABC Family

Granted, there were certain aspects that bothered me, such as Stef (Teri Polo) taking so long to make up her mind about what to do with the morning after pill, since Jesus (Jake T. Austin) made a point of reminding her that they were on a ticking clock, but it didn't bother me because of a writing choice. It bothered me the way it should bother anyone: Stef has been put in a tricky, if not impossible, position. Lexi (Bianca A. Santos) is not her child, so who is she to decide on what the girl puts in her body? Yet, by the same token, she has a responsibility to act. She can't simply leave Lexi twisting in the wind, nor is it necessarily fair to keep Lexi's parents out of the loop. I'm really not sure what I would have done in that situation. And that kind of drama is what makes this a show to be reckoned with, in many respects.

So Jesus and Lexi do the deed, creating a domino effect of drama the morning after. Jesus pays a stranger to purchase emergency contraception from the pharmacy, where Stef just happens to be filling Jesus's prescription. She catches Jesus in the act, and is confronted with a decision: does she allow Jesus to give Lexi the morning after pill anyway? Or does she hold back and risk Jesus becoming a father at fifteen? Or, more questionably, does she go directly to Lexi's parents with the truth, risking that the ultra-conservative parents will force the teen couple to wed? The latter point seems over-the-top. Sure, Lexi makes a point of saying that her parents would never forgive her for her transgressions, but it's a huge logistical leap from freaking out to forcing marriage. But this doesn't change the fact that Stef is faced with a truly difficult conflict, and Lena (Sherri Saum) is just as uncertain of what to do next. However, a decision is necessary sooner rather than later, so Stef makes the tough call to give Lexi the pill without telling Lena. Her intention, as she explains later, was to spare Lena being placed in the impossible position, as vice principal, of giving a prescription drug to one of her students. But Lena is still upset about being cut out of the decision, and it feels like a very natural place for the conflict to go. But much like Jesus and Lexi's issue about whether sex matters to their relationship, the problems between Stef and Lena are quickly resolved. The reconciliation is motivated, in large part, by the impending divorce of one of two of Stef and Lena's oldest friends, a lesbian couple with a son who's caught the eye of Mariana (Cierra Ramirez).

Credit: ABC Family

While Mariana is my least favorite character in the show (through no real fault of her own, but simply that I find just about anybody else more interesting), I did enjoy her storyline tonight, in which she attempts to make changes to herself to impress the boy, whom Mariana has not seen in a year. It's a relatively fleet storyline that illustrates just how normal Mariana is, despite all the trouble she keeps getting herself into. It's also nice to see her bonding with Callie (Maia Mitchell) over boy talk, since their interactions have never really been all that positive before. There are some other decent scenes tied to this story as well, such as the poetry slam where the boy performs a soulful, moving monologue about his parents' divorce, or his later talk with Mariana in which he tells her that while the nose piercing she gets is cool and all, she's pretty great just the way she is.

Credit: ABC Family

Another great facet of this episode is Jude's (Hayden Byerly) search for acceptance. After Mariana paints his fingernails blue in an attempt to bond with the introverted kid, Jude gets teased at school by some bullies. The only friend Jude has made fails to stick up for him, prompting Jude to stick up for himself, in one of the episode's best moments. Jude also sticks up for himself to Callie, who orders her little brother to remove the nail polish, rationalizing that it will only encourage others to beat him up. She wants to protect Jude from being hurt, believing it to be a bad thing if Jude gets to thinking that the outside world is as understanding as the Foster household. But Jude states he's already hurting, and he simply wants to enjoy the wonderful new home they have now, even if it is just temporary. It's heartbreaking stuff, but deeply felt, as Byerly imbues Jude with a real sense of youthful angst, and the desire to simply be understood. Lena, for her part, has assured Jude that he will always be accepted within the Foster home, and even admits that she and Stef don't kiss or hold hands in public that often, since people are so quick to judge. This knowledge that even adults go through issues of judgement seems to imbue Jude with a certain self-confidence, the belief that it's better to be oneself and face being judged than to pretend. As Jude's story wraps up, the friend who'd failed to stick up for him shows his solidarity by sitting with Jude at lunch, his own fingernails painted blue. It's a wonderful little story bolstered by tender performances from Byerly and Sherri Saum.

Credit: ABC Family

But I suppose the biggest storyline to come out of this episode is the developing love triangle between Callie, Brandon (David Lambert) and bad boy Wyatt (Alex Saxon), who had a past sexual history with Brandon's ex, Talya (Madisen Beaty). Long story short, Wyatt takes Callie out on a date to what he says is his parents' unused beach house, but that isn't the case at all. Turns out it's a house he'd worked in during a construction job, and the owner is none too pleased to find teenagers making out on his beach front property. The cops are called, and suddenly Wyatt and Callie are on the run, hiding behind a dumpster until Brandon can come to the rescue. After they drop off Wyatt, Brandon continues to act passive-aggressive and bitter with Callie. When she asks why, he states it's because he doesn't want her dating Wyatt. Hell, he doesn't want her dating anybody, for that matter. David Lambert does solid work communicating the angst of a jealous kid, Callie's subtle, subdued "I can't" is Maia Mitchell's best moment in the series so far, taking material that could have been played melodramatically, and finding a more honest, simple way of portraying rejection. Callie explains that even having this conversation with Brandon could get her and Jude kicked out of the house, and while Brandon swears his parents would never kick them out, Callie knows all too well that this isn't always the case.

Credit: ABC Family

Callie recounts how, two years previous, she and Jude were with a wonderful foster family, the best foster home they'd ever been too before the Fosters. Unfortunately, that family had a son, and the son developed an attraction to Callie. When the couple was caught, he blamed it all on Callie, and she and Jude were sent packing the very next day. I assume this is the "Liam" guy that keeps getting referenced, and it'll be interesting to see how the series deals with this wrinkle in Callie's past as we move forward. However, I worry that the show might have rushed the whole Callie/Brandon dynamic. This just feels out of character for the relatively subdued Brandon at this point. If Callie has affected that kind of change in him, it might have helped for the show to better illustrate that effect. I don't know if Callie has really been around long enough to change Brandon so drastically.

With that said, any such problems could theoretically be waved away by referencing teenage hormones and emotions running high. If nothing else, the love triangle looks to get more angsty, as Callie forgives Wyatt at school the next day and allows him to kiss her while Brandon watches on from down the hall. Again, it might all prove to be a terrific storyline when it's all said and done, but it feels early to be hinting at a potential romance between Callie and Brandon, although at least the series is taking a slow-burn approach on Callie's end of things. It would be all too easy to have her be the one making things difficult for herself, as opposed to having Brandon make the first move. With each week, I respect the choices the series makes, even the ones with which I might not particularly agree. "The Morning After" is the best episode yet of The Fosters, a series that just might be one of the summer's most welcome surprises.