Good Trouble Season 1 | Episode 5 “Parental Guidance Suggested” Review

Y’all, this is probably my favorite episode of Good Trouble thus far. “Parental Guidance Suggested” has the perfect combination of laughs, drama, and nostalgia for The Fosters. Callie and Mariana’s moms stay at The Coterie for the weekend – such a sweet spot for The Fosters fans – and things go a bit haywire. There’s a lot to cover so let’s get to it.

Good Impression of The Coterie

When you move out on your own, you want your parents first visit to leave a good impression. That especially holds true for Mariana and Callie. While Callie takes the time to clean every square inch of The Coterie, Mariana chooses to redecorate their loft. When Stef and Lena arrive, the girls do their best to make it seem like everything is better than it seems, including their jobs and the safety of the building. However, things just keep popping up. Like a guy coming to say that the building is uninhabitable, random people coming in and out of the building, an older man in the communal shower with a younger woman, and pot cookies. You know, the usual.

It all adds up to an explosion of revelations and emotions.

The Creepy Older Guy

While giving Stef and Lena a tour, Mariana and Callie show their moms the communal bathroom – every parents’ dream for their kids, right? As if on cue, a stranger, a young woman named Aria, comes out of the shower followed by Dennis, the oldest male resident of The Coterie. This immediately sets off another red flag for Stef who’s had her concerns since stepping off the elevator.

Stef doesn’t hold back when it comes to Denis. During improv, a stoned Stef repeatedly asks Aria how old she is and all kinds of questions. At dinner, though, we see a flashback of Stef and Dennis in the bathroom. Stef explains that she used to be a Human Trafficking Detective, so seeing him with Aria set off a trigger. Plus, she’s dealing with letting go of her kids. Maybe he’ll understand that one day. Surprisingly, Dennis uses this time to reveal his personal life. It turns out, Dennis used to have everything… a wife, a house, a corporate job and even a kid who would have been 8 this week. Sadly, his son died from cancer at 6 years old, and he just couldn’t live that life anymore. He knows he’s not going to be a rock star, but the music and the girls is how he copes with loss and feeling alone. Stef reminds him that he’s not alone, he’s surrounded by people who really care about him. Her words seem to resonate with him, but he still asks that she not tell anyone his story. He’s okay with being “the creepy older guy.”

Trippin’ On Pot Cookies

When Stef and Lena run into Dennis and Aria in the bathroom, Aria offers them some cookies she left on the table. Stef and Lena happily eat some. Little do they know, when Aria returns to the plate of cookies, she fixes the she put beside them… they’re pot cookies. You better believe this makes for some hilarious scenes. Like Stef and Lena’s giggle fits when they meet Gael and Bryan by the pool. Or Stef’s attempt at improv, which is when Davia reveals that the cookies were made with pot.

Just when they learn that, they also realize that Lena has disappeared. She’s ends up in Malika’s room. There, she sees a powerful poster of Elizabeth Eckford that reminds her of when she was campaigning for state assembly and a racist white man yelled and spit in her face. This comes up in conversation later as she talks with Stef, Malika, Callie and Mariana. It’s why she’s considering dropping out of the race. The girls convince her, though, that they need someone like her to represent the minorities and fight the good fight. This right here is one reason why this show is so great and so needed. We need television shows to, not only entertain us, but do so in a relevant way that represents what’s going on in the real world.

This Thing Isn’t Just Casual

Early in the episode, before Stef and Lena arrive, Mariana asks Callie what she’s going to tell them about Gael. Callie says nothing because it’s not like they’re in a relationship. Flash to a beautifully shot steamy montage of her and Gael in the bathtub, making art, and sharing personal stories signifying that whatever they have is anything but casual. After the moms arrive, Callie and Mariana are giving them a tour when Gael and Bryan pop up making out in the pool. Later, when Gael gets asked to stay for dinner, we get a flashback of Callie telling Gael about her mom’s coming and that she doesn’t want them to know about their casual hooking up. Gael goes along with it, but he looks visibly disappointed.

In the middle of dinner at The Coterie, Mariana blurts out that Callie is hooking up with Gael, then Jamal Thompson’s mother shows up, sending Callie running down to the theater. Gael finds her. He understands why she ran out because it’s complicated for her to live with Malika. Callie says it’s complicated living with him too, and that seeing him with Bryan hurt. He apologizes before admitting that it hurt when she said she didn’t want to introduce him as anything to her moms. He also says that, for him, “this thing isn’t just casual.” Callie says that it isn’t for her either.

We’ll Always Need Our Moms

If there’s one thing that holds true, it’s that no matter how old we get, we can always use advice from our moms. Callie and Mariana realize this in this week’s episode. They were trying to be so prideful in being adults who aren’t struggling, but we know that’s not true. It all comes to blows when Callie returns after running away from dinner to learn that Mariana told their moms that she’s working the Jamal Thompson case. Callie, in return, reveals that Mariana is $20,000 in debt (yikes), to which Mariana argues that maybe she’s spending all this money to make up for not being able to spend time with Callie. ☹

The whole argument leads to a much-needed heart-to-heart with their mothers and Malika about Callie disclosing that she knows Malika, Lena’s struggle while running for state assembly, how Callie and Mariana hate their jobs, and how it’s okay to need each other. Stef and Lena tell their daughters that they miss them, and that they never have to hide their struggles. I loved this moment because it reminded me of the heart of The Fosters, family, which is really turning out to be the heart of Good Trouble as well.

Good Trouble airs Tuesdays at 8/9c on Freeform!

Episode Still from SpoilerTV