Good Trouble review: Hearts were made for breaking

Good Trouble returned this week and hearts were breaking all over the city. Here’s our review of what turned out to be a pretty complex episode.

I really do love Good Trouble. I love how progressive the stories are and how necessary it is that they’re being shown on television right now, but I am having some trouble with following every single story each episode. Especially this one.

At the beginning, it was easy to follow them because I was in the “honeymoon phase” with this show. Everything was new and exciting, and I needed and wanted more. Then, we had some bottle(ish) episodes where we focused on one or two characters specifically. Those were nice. It made me have enough time to focus on their story but also crave knowing what the other characters will be up to next week. This episode was hard because it told so many stories over the little amount of time it had. I couldn’t follow a lot of them and I found myself re-watching it multiple times before I even knew what the main plot points were.

With that being said, I decided to focus on a few of them for this review — the ones I think were most critical and entertaining.

Malika

My heart breaks for her. Her face lights up when she sees that her brother, Dom, has tracked her down at work. He turns out to be there just to deliver a letter. Their mom’s clean, he says, and she wants to make amends. But Malika isn’t buying it.

After a talk with Mariana about how Mariana dealt with her own birth mother’s drug addictions and it actually paying off in the end, Malika decides to make a trip out to see her mom. She swallows her pride and basically lets her mom “forgive her” for all she’s done. It’s gut wrenching to watch, and we were all right there with her after, sobbing in the car. To make matters worse, she sees Dom run out to the corner store and bring back a bottle of booze for the mom. This relationship is clearly not going to change anytime soon. All Malika wants is to be close with her brother, but his loyalty seems to be closer with their mom. Malika can’t catch a break.

She ends up sitting next to Sandra Thompson in court even after Callie asked her not to, claiming that she shows up for the people who show up for her. Malika is clearly missing a mother figure in her own life, and Sandra is providing that for her. Who could blame her? Will this come back to haunt Callie though?

Rebecca

As sad as I am to see Rebecca go (at least I think she’s officially off to Denver now?), I’m really happy with how the episode wraps her story up. She showed a true character arc throughout the few episodes she had, and I think it was really moving to watch. She went from being a bitter, conservative, snarky, and privileged woman from a very rich family to someone who actually cares about the opinions of others. She stands up to her family at the end and decides to prove her own worth in this line of work.

Before she goes, she tells Judge Wilson about the other judge she worked for and nudges him to do the same. She leaves Callie a bit of a thank you/goodbye letter on stationery that only Rebecca would have.

I’ll admit that I’ll definitely miss seeing them interact with each other, especially with Ben involved.

Callie

Callie truly has a way of changing people’s minds. I’m really enjoying the scenes of her with her coworkers and in the court; I just wish we had more of them. The last few episodes of Good Trouble  have been pretty heavily focused on Mariana and her time at Speckulate, and as much as I’m here for that, I also want to see Callie in action.

Her plot lines are very much centered around Gael and Jamie in most episodes and to be honest, it’s getting a little old. I was so used to seeing Callie kick butt in The Fosters that I didn’t expect her to be a bit boy-centric in this spin off. She and Mariana have almost switched roles. Mariana’s story often revolves around work and changing the politics and culture at a toxic work environment while Callie is the one thirsting over guys. Can’t they both focus on work for a little bit!?

Alice

Alice. Oh, Alice. She was doing so good. SO good. What happened!? I thought we were over Sumi. I thought we were moving onto Joey! This is where I’d enter in the Tyra Banks’ “I was rooting for you; we were all rooting for you” GIF.

Alice finally asks for that second date with Joey. Joey first invites Alice onto her talk show, which Alice pretty much bombs at first. But like, of course, she bombed. What kind of a radio host starts off the conversation with “What’s on your mind tonight?” C’mon, Joey. Do better. Alice deserves better. Thankfully she gets into the swing of things once she starts talking about Sumi, making fun of her a bit. You know, as comedians do. Of course, Meera is listening to the talk show.

Maybe Alice shouldn’t have brought that up while she and Meera were planning Sumi’s surprise bridal shower. They get into a huge fight about it which Sumi then walks in on. What a mess.

I was excited that Meera and Alice were bonding a little bit at the beginning of the episode over how crazy Sumi is. Guess that backfired. But then again, I’d be mad if someone were on a talk show making fun of my fiancé. Even if it was all in good fun.

Alice, you’re still in love with Sumi. Do you want to talk about it?

Final Thoughts:

• Bryan is so annoying. That’s it. That’s the tweet.
• Davia was fine this episode, which is funny because she didn’t say much. Probably why I didn’t mind her. Where’d you get your bathing suit though?
• Good for Malika for sitting with Sandra Thompson. Callie, you’re asking for a lot from her, and not sitting with Sandra at the trial and being that support system for her is too much in my opinion.
• What in the world was that preview for next week? Brandon is an Uber driver now? Does he even live in LA? Oh, TV magic! Nonetheless, I’m looking forward to next week.

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