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‘The Fosters’ Recap S5 E3: “Contact”

Everyone in the Foster family is trying to carve out their own path, and we picked up right where we left off with Callie. The roller derby makes a second appearance as we open with Callie, Mariana, and Aaron watching a game. Mariana asks Callie to help her slip her robe version of the school paper into lockers, but Callie turns her down because she doesn’t want to get in any more trouble. Mariana’s interest is peaked when Ximena (swoon) tells her they have a junior team for 14-17 year-olds, and she also reminds Callie that she needs to start on her self portrait, which Callie seems super uncomfortable with, because we all know she acts out because of the difficulties of looking inward. I got you Callie.

At the Foster family dinner table, Callie opens up about her hesitation to do her self portrait, but her siblings offer to take candid photos that she can choose from anonymously to decide which one best describes herself. She’s really getting more comfortable with this whole artistic expression thing, and it’s so refreshing to see the whole fam pitch in to help.

Stef and Lena have invited the new neighbors over for dinner, and Lena tells the kids that Tess was Stef’s high school girlfriend. After dinner we find out that Lena was simply teasing, but Stef did have a major crush in her. This sparks some snarky chatter about high school sexuality expression, which brings back one of the core elements of this show we don’t get to see nearly often enough. When the Moms acknowledge their sexuality and discuss it in a healthy way, The Fosters really shines. I mean, who doesn’t have a “straight bestie” story to tell, am I right?

The aptly named underground newspaper, “Rise Up”, makes its debut. Just as the group shows up early for school to slip the papers in the lockers, they witness the installation of security cameras in the hallways. At the board meeting, it’s determined that Monty was indeed the acting principal during the privatization vote, which invalidates it, but she’s up for termination due to the approval for the LGBT sex education class Lena held off campus. Of course this is coming back to bite her in the ass.

The full DOE board decides that Monty is still indeed the acting Principal of Anchor Beach, but the parent board threatens both Monty and Lena that they won’t stop until they find grounds for termination. I believe the exact words used were “I’m coming for you”, because the Anchor Beach saga is not an installment in Liam Neeson’s Taken franchise. Just after the meeting, Mariana uses a helicopter droid to release copies of “Rise Up” to the students outside. Unfortunately the chopper gets stuck in a tree just in the line of sight of Drew, who threatens STEAM Club’s existence and the cancellation of prom if another issue shows up. Mariana needs an outlet for her frustrations, so she forges Mama Lena’s signature to join the roller derby team, because obviously that’s going to go well and the Moms are never going to find out.

Grace invites Brandon over for a “study date”, and afterward they analyze one another’s bedroom abilities. It turns out Grace has lived a bit more of a sheltered life than she leads on. The next day when she proposes the two of them get together to jam, Brandon shows up without his guitar and ready to “study” some more, much to Grace’s chagrin. She asks him to leave, disappointed that he just expected sex from her even though that’s all she wanted the first time she asked him over. Girls are complicated.

Callie gets ready for her date with Aaron and she’s already pissed off because he instructed her to wear a dress. It doesn’t help that she now keeps getting photo bombed by every member in her family trying to capture the perfect Callie candid. She spends the entire date with Aaron carefully erecting every single one of her walls while he takes control of the whole evening. After the failed date, Callie commiserates with Brandon while she browses the candid photos her family has uploaded, trying to decide between one Aaron took of her guarded persona and one Brandon snapped of a happy, carefree moment.

For the second time lately, Callie brings Brandon back to reality and encourages him to continue playing music even though he’s down on himself about Juilliard. Is anyone else over this self – loathing pity party? He heads back to Grace’s house to reconcile and “study” some more. Meanwhile, Callie apologizes to Aaron for her lackluster date behavior and explains her disdain for surprises and lack of control even though she asked him to put together the date, and what do you mean women don’t ever say what they really feel? Apologies and smooches fix everything.

Meanwhile, Jesus keeps getting ghosted by Emma for video chatting so that time bomb is just ticking away waiting to explode. While he’s stewing after dinner with the neighbors, Tess upsets Lena by recommending Jesus be allowed to return to school with an IEP because he might feel less stress if he gets back into his normal routine with friends to talk to and goals to meet. Stef seems to like the idea, which is obviously the real reason for Stef’s saltiness. Add the extra layer of high school reminiscing over stealing cars to go see the Indigo Girls (no, no, Tess is totally not a lez), and Tess’s awkward come to Jesus (see what I did there?) moment when Lena tells her she’s the VP of Anchor Beach, and you get a recipe for one awkward dinner party.

In other news, Jude’s phone addiction clashes with Noah’s love for smoking weed, and the two agree to give up both for a solid week. Too bad they don’t sleep together though, because Jude can’t stay away from the tech even when he’s in REM.

Just before we bid the Fosters adieu for the week, Lena reveals that the real underlying issue is the genuine fear she’s beginning to feel toward Jesus and his angry, violent outbursts. The worst part of this whole conversation is Jesus’s proximity. He heard everything.

What did you think of this week’s episode? Will the tension between Lena and Jesus come to a head soon? What kind of trouble will Tess cause between the Moms? Let me know in the comments!

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