S03.E05: Because, Men

[possibilities]

This episode description comes from the Freeform website:

Callie questions Kathleen's methods regarding Jerod's case; Mariana and the girls pitch their new app idea; Malika learns a surprising fact about Dyonte; Davia deals with her feelings towards Dennis; Gael struggles with his boss's demands.

[TVForever]

I like Evan. And for some reason, I’m liking him for Mariana. I’m not sure why, still working on that😊

Aww, Davia got a win!

Gael set some boundaries!

But best of all, somebody FINALLY gave Callie some home truths, and reminded her that she is NOT the smartest person in the room! And I am HERE! FOR! IT!

i thought her Legal Aid boss was going to be the one to teach her, and the storyline seemed to be on that path, then Callie abruptly quit, and that whole set of characters is gone. I liked Legal Aid boss, but if Kathleen can get the job done (knocking the know-it-all Callie down to size), I’ll go with this new direction.

[DearEvette]

Another enjoyable episode.  In my previous post (a few weeks ago) about balance -- this is what I meant.  Last week epsiode with the family was a real nice change of pace and palate cleanser from the heavier stuff.  This one had a good mix of the social awareness/justice stuff with the personal character/romance stuff.

From favorite to least favorite:

Davia/Gael - This was really good.  Nice call back to let us know that even though she did the video re: her weight, she isn't miraculously ok and a lifetime of insecurity doesn't get solved that quickly.  Liked seeing her connect in a real with her students and finally understanding what restorative justice means and a nice object lesson for the students. Gael's pep talk to her was great.  And some movement on Gael's own story. 

Malika - Again a nice mix.  Her continued work in her social justice stuff but an interesting turn in her flirty work relationship with Dyonte. I thought it was so funny that Dyonte turned out to have an open relationship considering the actor who plays Isaac also played a character (named Dro) on HBO's Insecure who was in an open relationship in that show(supposedly there was a lot of debate if that was true and made his character somewhat shady).  I like how Isaac is so openly communicative and isn't shy about saying how he feels.  No beating around the bush for him.  Also, Malika's idea at the end about funding a child care center was a good one.  She is a better woman than me because those BeBe's kids would have had me doing more than one little snap.

Callie - Ok,  I love how Kathleen schooled Callie all over the place.  It  was nice to see Callie's assumptions turned on her head and by someone in a position to let her know that she's not as righteous and smart as she thinks she is.  Also, while Jaimie may have gotten rid of his 70s pornstache, he more than made up for it with the 70s porn hair.

Marianna - Rowr, girl power, Rowr.  Yawn.  But I liked her last scene with Evan.

Missed Alice.

Edited March 18, 2021 by DearEvette

[sara416]

I think Davia is my favorite character on this show. And I think the show strickes a really good balance between making her body image part of the plot and also making her just a human character who is not definied as her body image. So many times shows use a plus sized character to run a plot based entirely around being plus sized. Davia gets really good storylines about this, but she also gets stroylines about normal stuff, like her career, and friendships. She's a good friend, and really cares about her students. And I loved the scene with her and Gael at the end. It was the best of both of them. 

I am also totally here for Callie getting schooled that she doesn't know everything, and it is possible that a lawyer who has years of experience on her actually knows what she is talking about. 

[tennisgurl]

I thought this was a good episode, I appreciate that they combined the social justice issues with more personal plots. It wasn't so damn heavy, like every single issues that could ever happen was happening to this group of people all at once, this feels much more natural. Plus, its so much easier for an audience to connect with an issue when they can see how it affects people, instead of just getting a lecture. Malika seeing the struggles of the family she was babysitting for and talking to the teenage daughter about it was so much more affective than just giving us a lecture and quoting stats about how much women who are in prison struggle to provide for their family. 

That's probably why I was pretty meh on Mariana and her tech start up this week, its just so much with the lectures and the girl power, and even the return of the terrible tech bros who just exist to be avatars of the worst of sexist tech culture. I like Mariana starting her own app with her squad as an idea, but I hope that we can chill with the speeches for awhile and just see what its like for an all female team to create a successful App. I do still rather like her and Evan, who I like a lot, but you can see the problems they will have. Evan is really literal, blunt, and can barley understand sarcasm, while Mariana has a bad habit of lying, being passive aggressive, and is very sarcastic, especially when she gets annoyed, so they could have some real communication issues. 

Like I said, I liked the Malika plot, and how it fitted both into her activism and her personal life. It was also a lot more light hearted which I was happy to see for her, and I like the way things played out with her co-worker. Isaac is a really good guy, he is very honest and direct but without being insensitive. The struggles of families with single parents who are dealing with legal issues isn't something you see a lot on TV, so I am glad they explored that. 

I also like the bond between Davia and Gael that has been growing, they both gave each other a lot of good advice and were really supportive of each other. Nice to see Davia get a win with her students, and that she is still struggling with her self esteem. She can be proud of her body but also have insecurities, especially with her mom always being in the back of her head telling her how she needs to loose weight to get anyone to want her. Still not sure where the painter that Gael is interning with is going. Will it be a tough but ultimately rewarding experience where the guy is really strict and not very nice but does help Gael, or is he just going to be an asshole? 

Callie got seriously schooled, and it was great to see. Its almost like a famous lawyer knows what she's doing or something. I do agree with Callie and the guys sister that the client should be involved in deciding how his case goes, and it’s messed up that Kathleen was apparently not interested in what he would want, but its clear that Kathleen knew what she was doing and wasn't going to just let him rot in prison. She also wasn't wrong that Callie leaving two jobs in her first year out of law school looks pretty bad to future employers, and if she loses this job its just going to look worse. 

Edited March 19, 2021 by tennisgurl

[possibilities]

I thought this was one of the better episodes, too.

I think the Callie story was more nuanced than  just Callie was wrong-- she did need to learn some humility and get better at strategy vs just going rogue. But it was also extremely unethical AND ILLEGAL for Kathleen to decide her client didn't have a right to know what his options were. If she thinks he's incompetent to decide, she needs to formally get him declared so, rather than paternalistically decide on her own and do an end run around his legal rights-- which is exactly what his sister said after Callie brought her in. If Callie had not done something, Kathleen was perfectly willing to abuse her power, and that itself is something that could get her case thrown out, and threaten her license to practice, in addition to just being morally wrong.  Also, if Kathleen wants to teach, she needs to tell her mentee what the plan is, and not just do something illegal and unethical and expect to not be challenged on it.

I liked that all the stories this week were somewhat nuanced. More of this, please!

[SnarkEnthusiast]

While Kathleen was also very in the wrong, it was refreshing to see Callie brought back to reality for once. Too often the show turns her into an untouchable social justice Mary Sue.

Davia remains too immature to be a teacher. Gael was very kind and supportive. For a second I thought they would actually have sex even though they've set up her coworker as an eventual love interest. I'm very tired of the Dennis pity party and honestly I'd be fine if he were written off permanently.

Mariana and her heavy-handed "girl power" storyline became extremely cringe this week. It's very paint-by-numbers feminism. It felt like one of those 1980s sex ed PSAs except about sexism, lol. I get what they're trying to say, it's just...painfully unsubtle.

Of course Jaime is working Yvonne's case. Apparently LA has 15 lawyers.

 

[KaveDweller]

17 minutes ago, possibilities said:

I think the Callie story was more nuanced than  just Callie was wrong-- she did need to learn some humility and get better at strategy vs just going rogue. But it was also extremely unethical AND ILLEGAL for Kathleen to decide her client didn't have a right to know what his options were. If she thinks he's incompetent to decide, she needs to formally get him declared so, rather than paternalistically decide on her own and do an end run around his legal rights-- which is exactly what his sister said after Callie brought her in. If Callie had not done something, Kathleen was perfectly willing to abuse her power, and that itself is something that could get her case thrown out, and threaten her license to practice, in addition to just being morally wrong.  Also, if Kathleen wants to teach, she needs to tell her mentee what the plan is, and not just do something illegal and unethical and expect to not be challenged on it.

Yes, I agree, Callie wasn't entirely wrong. Even though the guy did agree that he wanted to go to trial, Kathleen should have asked him to begin with. And would it have killed her to mention to Callie that she was going to get Jared transferred? Plus it is a bit bitchy to criticize her for quitting her last job when she is the one that told Callie to quit that job and work for her. But, it was still good to see her tell Callie off for going behind her back.

I guess they found a way to keep Jamie on the show....

[circumvent]

I am getting tired of this show. There are some interesting stories but mostly I am tired of Mariana's double plays, always hiding something from someone and she will screw everyone up pretty soon and be all tears. The writers seem to be running in circles with almost every character. Callie continues to be righteous, even when she is right. By that I mean that she was right that Jerod had to be informed about his options but she goes behind Kathleen's back to "fix" everything because Callie is the fixer. And she should know that he is either legally incapacitated or not, so all her well meaning extra time looking for the sister was only her ego talking. She could have tanked the whole case. Not to mention that no one in her position would have extra time. I wish the writers realized that she is in the wrong profession. People like Callie either become a little corrupt to fit the system, or fail. She is fighting for the right causes but she wants the rules of this dirty game to change, She will lose, always.

But YAY! for disabled people deserve agency! Such an obvious thing, rarely used on TV

[possibilities]

1 hour ago, circumvent said:

But YAY! for disabled people deserve agency! Such an obvious thing, rarely used on TV

That's what I liked about it, too. 

The thing I like about Mariana's story is that she and Evan are actually communicating with each other and setting boundaries, finally. He told her the truth about the socks and the refrigerator, and explained why he was giving bad advice-- and she heard his point of view and also explained hers, and nobody flew into tantrum mode or pouted. It was refreshing. I agree her relationship with her APP team is terrible-- the deception, the unsubtlety of the plotting... I it's a total drag. 

 

[circumvent]

15 minutes ago, possibilities said:

The thing I like about Mariana's story is that she and Evan are actually communicating with each other and setting boundaries, finally. He told her the truth about the socks and the refrigerator, and explained why he was giving bad advice-- and she heard his point of view and also explained hers, and nobody flew into tantrum mode or pouted.

Yes, that was good too. And it is a stark contrast to her actions towards her partners

The writers seem to have found a disabled advisor this season.

Edited March 19, 2021 by circumvent

[yourmomiseasy]

Callie is always so sanctimonious and self-righteous that it was very satisfying to see her get a smackdown.  

I'm not a lawyer, but it seems weird to me that Jamie would bounce around between corporate law and criminal law so quickly.  I guess the same could be said for Callie bouncing between civil and criminal, but she's so new in her career that maybe it makes sense. 

I ran out of TV and Hulu suggested I watch The Fosters and I hadn't before, so I am.  I'm still on season 2.  I like teen Callie much better than Good Trouble Callie.  Teen Marianna is pretty annoying.  She still has bad qualities, but seems to have grown up a lot between Good Trouble and where I'm at in The Fosters.