The Fosters Review: Time for Important Decisions

In a rare occasion this week’s episode of The Fosters takes place on different sides of the country. While the Adams-Foster family prepares to leave the only place they’ve called home, Brandon contemplates what he wants his future to look like. Bouncing back and forth between San Diego and New York shows stark contrast in the autonomy each member of the Adams-Foster family has. Unlike the rest of his family, Brandon has a great amount of control over what happens next in his life. The question is whether or not he takes advantage.

Stef and Lena have to make some tough decisions for their family. Everyone if flooded with memories as they pack up the house. It’s a total shock when Lena’s mother calls to tell her daughter that she has figured out a way to fix the money problems without selling the house. And that’s all after they tell the kids they are filing for divorce. Don’t worry, it’s not what you’re thinking! Stef and Lena only plan on filing for divorce so that their assets will be frozen and they don’t have to lose the house.

Mariana is coming unhinged little by little. She can’t even talk about Nick or her schoolwork without getting stressed. The last straw is discovering Stef’s old journal and finding out her mothers didn’t originally want to adopt the twins. Lena makes it very clear that feeling was brief due in part to her own issues of nurture with her mother. There is no doubt her greatest gift has been her children.

I’m not exactly sure where Jude’s recent attitude came from. Perhaps it’s just him finally embracing those teenage hormones since he thinks he’s ready for certain things now, like taking drugs and having sex. Just because you reach puberty doesn’t necessarily mean you’re ready for so much so fast. Parents are even less prepared for this quick transition with their kids, as evidenced by Stef and Lena’s shocked faces when they find Jude smoking pot with Noah.

People should know by now that Callie is a very passionate, loyal person. She is fully committed to getting justice for her foster brother Kyle, but how she’s going about it doesn’t particularly please AJ. The part that AJ is most uncomfortable with is all the time Callie is spending with Aaron. They don’t even need to worry about that particular conversation after they overhear a very revealing confrontation between Mike and Stef. The good news is that Mike already thinks of AJ as his son, and says so outright. The bad news is that he thinks Callie is a big problem in both of his sons’ lives. Callie had no malice in any of her actions, but from Mike’s parental perspective, it’s emotionally difficult when you can point to something or someone and know that intentional or not, it changed your child.

As for Kyle’s case, Aaron does manage to get his hands on DNA evidence which was kept out of the original case which proves that there was at least one other person’s DNA on the murder weapon besides Kyle’s. After learning what Callie and Aaron have been up to Stef and Mike decide to pay a visit to the curb painter who could have seen something about the murder. He definitely has a role to play in all of this given his shrine to the crime in his home. What’s more troubling than this scene is the corrupt detective from the original case coming by the Adams-Foster home to not so subtly tell Stef to back off. When Callie gets a call that Kyle is officially being moved to Folsom prison since he is no longer a minor, she brashly takes matters into her own hands and steals DNA from the curb painter for potential evidence.

While his family is dealing with everything in San Diego, Brandon travels to New York for his Juilliard audition. A change in perspective is exactly what Brandon has needed. It’s really important for him to get away from all of the pressures he’s been under the the last few months and take a few days to be selfish. It’s his time to find his peace, to breathe. While there he meets a dance student named Ari who shows him that he can’t go into this audition halfway. If he wants Juilliard, he needs to commit 100%, even if that means leaving Courtney behind. So as cruel as it may seem, Brandon write Courtney a “Dear John” letter to let go and commit to his dream. There’s no guarantee that Brandon will get in, but if he does we can probably assume that he isn’t coming back.

Does Brandon deserve a fresh start?