Good Trouble sways from politics and gets personal with characters

The fourth episode of Good Trouble brought the story down to a personal level finally, swerving away from its naturally political based plot points.

One thing I absolutely love about this show is how many themes it can cover in any given episode. It goes from facing political to social constructs in a matter of minutes, giving a new generation of TV-watching kids and families something that’s constantly present and important. But not only does it cover these impactful issues, it is also a “family” drama at its core and covers friendships and relationships back at home amongst it all.

After three episodes of setting our main characters up for what their season will look like, we’re finally getting to episodes that offer a chance to see them on a more personal level.

“All of my friends from home are either married or the good kind of pregnant… on purpose!”

It was fun to see some of our sideline characters in the spotlight for once, especially Davia. What another mid-twenty-year-old can relate to the exact sentiment of comparing your life to the people you went to high school with who are settling down and having babies? Just last night I scrolled through a few engagement and pregnancy announcements in a row on Facebook, to which I decided that I should probably delete my Facebook.

Learning that Davia is seeing a man from back home who is married was heartbreaking, but it was even more heartbreaking to know that she was okay with it, to know that she settled for it. I think a lot of people can relate to her in that position — to think you’re in love with someone who doesn’t treat you as well as they should, and to believe that that’s what you deserve.

Watching her break down after he told her to stay in Los Angeles and not move home pierced through my heart, but I’m excited to see where this takes Davia. I’m beginning to think her self conscious mindset is rooted much further than she lets on and I think this season will bring that to the forefront.

“You are not the Mother Theresa of a–wiping.”

We’ve seen bits and pieces of Alice’s life throughout the past three episodes but I loved that this one really gave her a voice and a story. She puts a lot of pressure on herself because she thinks everyone relies on her as the Coterie manager, but Malika helps her to realize that she can’t always fix everything.

"“Sometimes you gotta break your commitments to take care of yourself.”"

Malika and Alice have an interesting relationship, as they’re complete opposites. It was brought up in this episode though that Alice truly saved Malika from living on the streets so they do have a unique bond that they share. Just like Alice once helped Malika, I think it’s now Malika’s turn to help Alice. These two are definitely a pair to watch out for down the line and it’ll be interesting to see how Alice is going to change through all of this.

“Why do we make them comfortable when we’re the ones getting hurt?”

It’s good to know that companies are making better strides at being more inclusive and diverse when it comes to sex, race, and religion. However, when companies do that just to make themselves look better is when I have a problem with it. During Mariana’s interview flashback, it showed a looped video on the screen of workers at Speckulate where people of color and women were not the exception, but the rule. In reality, Mariana faces daily discrimination against her when it comes to her gender and we’re seeing more and more that Raj is getting harassed because of his race.

When the company is being photographed and interviewed to update their “jobs” page, human resources chooses the minorities of the company to be front and center. But Mariana doesn’t stand for it.

"“The culture sucks, and so does this so-called ‘diversity.’ Most of our engineering staff are white guys, but who do they cherry-pick to out on the jobs page? The handful of women and people of color.”“So, what else is new? Every company, every school tries to advertise as ‘diverse’.”“Doesn’t it bother you?”“Does it bother me that eighty percent of tech execs are white and fifteen percent of engineers are women? Um… yeah.”"

Her plan is to tell it like it is during her interviews, as she doesn’t want to perpetuate the lie that Speckulate is a female-friendly work environment. However, she gets talked out of it by her female coworker.

“Blowing up your career is not going to change the culture around here, Mariana,” she’s told.

Mariana decides to stay quiet during her interview, perhaps because she feels she can make more of a difference while she’s still an employee than if she’s fired.

These four episodes have set her up for a much needed story to tell on TV right now. We often see the plot where a person of color gets the job and the white person gets mad over it, but we rarely see the repercussions of a person of color getting the job and how a company comes to that specific decision.

“I expect that information to stay between us.”

What an uncomfortable afternoon at Judge Wilson’s house. I was really rooting for him after he sided with Callie’s argument for why “expressive conduct should be protected.” But then the twenty questions game began, and things took a serious turn.

When his wife gave Callie the answer to the game, she decided to not “cheat” and threw her chance at winning. But when Ben actually guessed it right, Judge Wilson said he was wrong, keeping Ben from stealing the Jamal Thompson case from Callie.

Not only that, Judge Wilson is lying about his son studying abroad. His son is living at home and Callie catches a glimpse of him when she forgets her phone in the Judge’s bathroom. He has a patrol bracelet around his ankle and is clearly at odds with his father for some reason. She decides to not bring this up with Ben and Rebecca while they’re all out for drinks later that night.

Last Impressions:

• Is Mariana an idiot for saying she wants to climb someone like a tree after she invites Raj out for drinks? Yes.
• How will the fact that Ben now knows that Callie and Malika live in the same apartment building affect her clerking on the Jamal Thompson case?
• What’s the deal with Judge Wilson’s son?
• Will Alice ever get over her ex!?
• Where was Gael this episode? I can’t be the only one who missed him…

Good Trouble airs Tuesdays on Freeform at 8/7 p.m. CT.