‘Good Trouble’ Returns & We Have Your Guide to What Happened Last Season
Ready for Good Trouble Season 3? As the theme song goes, you and me, bel ami. The Freeform series — a grown-up spinoff of the teen drama The Fosters — returns for its third season on Wednesday, February 17, nearly a year after Season 2 ended. With a hiatus that long, you might need a refresher on the Coterie crew’s latest drama.
Season 2 ended with “Trap Heals,” an episode co-written by Black Lives Matter (BLM) cofounder Patrisse Cullors. Cullors also appears as herself in the episode, as do BLM’s Melina Abdullah and Trap Heals founder Damon Turner, as much of the episode takes place at a Trap Heals party centering on Black self-care and Black Lives Matter activism.
Malika (Zuri Adele) is deejaying that event, and she invites three of the most important people in her life: Her brother, Dom (J. Mallory McCree), her father, Joseph (Richard Brooks), and her boyfriend, Isaac (Sarunas J. Jackson).
Dom still hasn’t forgiven Joseph for being an absentee father even after his prison term, so Malika encourages her dad to speak to Dom, even giving him a model Mustang that Joseph once wanted her to give his son.
So Joseph gives the gift to Dom himself, and Dom grudgingly reminisces about the time father and son spent fixating on cars. Joseph apologizes to Dom, saying that he forgot how to be a father during his time in prison. He asks if they can rebuild their relationship with baby steps, and Dom hugs him.
Isaac, meanwhile, seems overwhelmed by the party, partly due to his anxiety. But Malika leaves him to his devices — saying she can’t expect him or her brother or father to be there for her in the states that they’re in — and he ends up getting some Reiki healing at the event.
Freeform/Christopher Willard
Later, Isaac tells Malika he’ll talk to someone about his mental health. And she informs him that the city attorney dropped the plea deal about her restraining order violation — from that time she inadvertently came face-to-face with Judge Curtis Wilson (Roger Bart) during a BLM protest — and that she’s going to trial. Isaac says he has her back.
Meanwhile, Callie (Maia Mitchell) and Jamie (Beau Mirchoff) hit a breaking point over a buyout deal — and, more generally, their differing ideologies. Through her work with Los Angeles Legal Aid, Callie is representing the South Salano apartment residents, while Jamie is one of the lawyers representing the development company that is offering the residents cash vouchers to move out.
Through a little briefcase-snooping, Callie finds out that one of the proposals for the site redevelopment is a psychiatric facility she believes to be a mental health jail. Jamie defends the proposed facility, claiming some people “need to be forced to get help.” (Oof.)
Callie weighs her relationship with Jamie against her morals, and we learn what she decided to do when an activist tells the residents about the mental health jail prospect and they vote down the cash voucher option.
Jamie knows Callie interfered, and they mutually agree that she should move out. She tearfully moves back into the Coterie, crashing on the sofa since Mariana (Cierra Ramirez) gave her bed to new roommate Isabella (Priscilla Quintana).
But the move is good news for Mariana, who confessed earlier in the episode that she missed having her sister as her best friend. The move might also be good news for Gael (Tommy Martinez), who seems happy to see Callie when she finds him swimming on the rooftop pool.
Speaking of Mariana, she has her own relationship drama in this episode. She confesses to her boyfriend, Raj (Dhruv Uday Singh), that she has occasional feelings for her boss, Evan (TJ Linnard). And he confesses that he has occasional feelings for Isabella… and he’s not sure he doesn’t want to.
Mariana accuses Isabella of pursuing Raj, and Isabella accuses Mariana of throwing Raj at her to feel better about crushing on her boss. Enraged, Mariana tells Isabella to move out, but Isabella refuses.
And it gets worse: Davia (Emma Hunton) tells Mariana she believes Isabella had sex with Raj. So Mariana goes back to the Speckulate office and hooks up with Evan right there on the office floor. (HR reps, look away!)
Speaking of Davia, she breaks new ground with Coterie roomie Dennis (Josh Pence) in this episode. Dennis spends the episode reflecting on his relationship with his late son, Jacob, telling the other members of his support group that he’s haunted by a time he snapped at the boy.
But both the group and Davia help Dennis realize that even wonderful fathers have bad moments. At the end of the episode, Dennis tells Davia he loves her, and even though people tell him not to trust his feelings right now, he thinks that’s bull. And they kiss!
Elsewhere, Alice (Sherry Cola) is gunning for a “two-night-stand” with new love interest Ruby (Shannon Chan-Kent), who’s encouraging her to apply for the Comedy Be TV diversity program. Fellow comedian Lindsay (Rhea Butcher) encourages her not to apply, though, saying Alice is too inexperienced and Ruby was just being charitable.
So, what does Freeform say about Wednesday’s Season 3 premiere? The synopsis of the episode “Capoeira” reveals that Callie is getting to work to defend Jerod (Blake Webb), the homeless man arrested in Jamie’s apartment in Season 2.
“With Jerod’s case on the line, Callie takes a job with a high-profile defense lawyer,” the synopsis reads. “After sleeping with Evan, Mariana has to make a decision regarding her relationship with Raj. Meanwhile, Malika’s future is on the line with her impending trial.”
Good Trouble, Season 3 Premiere, Wednesday, February 17, 10/9c, Freeform
