S04.E18: This is Not My Beautiful House

[KaveDweller]

Quote

When Isabella wants to put the baby up for adoption, Gael decides what role he wants to play in his child's life; Malika is caught between her career and her beliefs; Mariana infiltrates Silas' cult to speak to Jenna face to face.

[KaveDweller]

This must have been the season finale, because things actually happened!

Davia and Dennis actually got together. I am not super invested in them, but am just excited to see plot movement. Also pleased that Dennis smartly avoided moving in with his girlfriend of 5 minutes and Davia walked away from the messiness of her boss whose wife returned. (Speaking of, was she really not his ex-wife? They weren't even legally separated even though she had left the country for months)? 

And Isabella has the baby. I thought she'd be pregnant for at least another half season. Of course she changes her mind after saying she'd let Gael's sister adopt her. Suggesting family adopt the baby is very messy, I knew it would not go well.

Meanwhile Marianna channels her inner Callie and does something stupid to rescue that girl. I just hope Evan doesn't end up shot over it.

Don't care about Malika and her girlfriend or her quest to save the homeless.

Alice's audition made me laugh. I loved her comment about how the guard who believed she was Sumi should be ashamed of himself and how after she finished and left, the casting people just kind of nodded like it was a totally normal rant.

[MaryHedwig]

Are we to believe that the paramedics removed Isabella's afterbirth.? Of course, she belongs in a hospital right now.

Edited September 3, 2022 by MaryHedwig

[circumvent]

I don't think the episode was too bad but the first thing that comes to me is this: Malika says she is poly but said she doesn't want to get involved with the other guy because she is still in love with someone else. But wouldn't she be open to try to get to know someone? I mean, not as a substitute but isn't this the whole poly thing, to be open to feelings and sex with multiple partners? If she had several relationships going and one ended, would she then end all others? I am confused by this story and also annoyed that they cannot get it more consistently.

I wish it was this easy to stop the pigs from destroying the lives of people who already had their lives torn apart. The councilwoman would have no power to authorize or stop the sweep. 

[KittenPokerCheater]

Glad Davia and Dennis are together. It's about bloody time.

Isabela needs to leave the show- the poor women needs help and NO ONE in the coterie can give it to her.  Also, Gael is in no way ready to be a parent.  

I know Callie will be okay- but I worry that Evan's going to get nicked by a bullet.

[possibilities]

The captions said there was the sound of a body thudding to the ground, so I guess for sure someone was shot, but Evan is waiting in the car. The potential people who got shot would be Mariana, Joaquin, and Jenna, his sister. Unless Evan got out of the car and was approaching out of frame and we didn't see it, he will probably be safe.

---

People who are adopting children do sometimes lose them after the birth, especially in situations that are informal like what the show is portraying. I personally know someone this happened to. The birthmother changed her mind. It's really a tough situation.

I find Isabella super-annoying and I think she is right that she's not capable of being a parent, and I also get how irresistible the baby can be once you hold it, especially when your hormones are off the charts. Some people will say that with enough supports, she could grow into the role. But I don't see the supports being there, and she's someone who loses her cool and acts out violently when insecure or otherwise triggered. She's just too erratic and she doesn't have the support system--- I don't see Gael and his co-parents being able to also essentially monitor and support Isabella at the same time.

Giving up a baby can be really hard. I still think it should happen and I also think it really would have to mean Isabella leaves the show. She can't stay there and watch Gael and his sister and his sister's partner raise the baby while she watches. She's just not equipped to stay detached enough. So I guess by giving up the baby she was also breaking up with Gael, though I don't think they actually said that explicity (unless I missed it).

My friends who lost their first adoptee (when the birthmother changed her mind after the birth) later adopted another child from a woman who was not mentally equipped to be a parent. They had an arrangement where the birthmother was able to continue to have visits from time to time, and get to know the child as he grew up, in a non-parenting role. The kid knew she was his birthmom, and that his adoptive parents were his moms. Everyone defined clearly what that all meant, and as far as I know they all stuck to it.

Maybe the show will arrange something like that.

I also don't understand how Gael was planning to do the co-parenting. Was he going to leave the Coterie and move in with his sis and her hubs? Were his sis and her hubs going to move to the Coterie? Was it going to be like divorced couples who share custody and the kid goes back and forth between homes? Has anyone even begun to baby-proof the Coterie??

If they plan to really have Isabella parent, and show us how that goes, I will be pissed if giving birth magically cures her of her issues, so either they need to show us what a mess it is, or they need to show us radical interventions that really don't happen in the real world most of the time-- though if they want to be aspirational I might accept that if they do it well... which I don't trust them to do. 

[gesundheit]

18 hours ago, possibilities said:

I also don't understand how Gael was planning to do the co-parenting. Was he going to leave the Coterie and move in with his sis and her hubs? Were his sis and her hubs going to move to the Coterie? Was it going to be like divorced couples who share custody and the kid goes back and forth between homes? Has anyone even begun to baby-proof the Coterie??

If they plan to really have Isabella parent, and show us how that goes, I will be pissed if giving birth magically cures her of her issues, 

I didn't understand the co-parenting plan either and, while I'm sympathetic to this heartbreak, the fact that she heard a two-sentence "plan" and agreed to it immediately was a bad thing for all of them to rest their future on. It seemed pretty obvious she's not stable enough to make a decision.  The magical cure has been my fear this whole time, but I feel optimistic that since the pregnancy was not the miracle cure it had seemed to be, motherhood won't be either? But yikes.

Hey, at least no Bulk Beauty! I continue to find Evan incredibly annoying. He thought Mariana abandoned her job to bang some guy? Not that she abandoned her job for anything wise, of course. I really thought the showrunners had learned their lesson from trying to turn The Fosters into a crime thriller considering how abruptly they turned it around the final season, but I guess not.

Annnnnd Alice is able to orgasm now, speaking of magical cures! It's that easy! That monologue at the audition was silly. I guess we were meant to find it empowering?

At least Davia and Dennis are finally resolved. I guess? Unless of course we open next season with Davia having disappeared from town this time. I love them together but I'm not interested in watching any more obstacles to their union, so hopefully it's a done deal.

[tennisgurl]

I don't think that Isabella is at all ready to be a mom, she might be glowing in the baby buzz now, but I worry that the baby might be collateral to one of her temper tantrums, even if its by accident. I don't know about Gael's sister and her husband taking the baby either though, family adaptions sound complicated in the best of circumstances, and these are pretty lousy circumstances. 

The cult stuff sounds like its from a totally different show, like a thriller plot has somehow snunk into our social justice and romance based dramady. 

Glad that Davia and Dennis have finally gotten together.

[Scarlett45]

I know I’m so behind on this show, but as I start this episode I’m missing Raj. He was my favorite of Mariana’s boyfriends, he actually had a personality and he fit with the storyline. 

On 9/6/2022 at 4:27 PM, tennisgurl said:

The cult stuff sounds like its from a totally different show, like a thriller plot has somehow snunk into our social justice and romance based dramady. 

Couldn’t agree more. Joaquin is nice to look at, and Mariana is so charming they make a cute duo but they feel like their in their own little show. 
 

I think Gael is a good guy and a good person. I see nothing wrong with Gael raising the baby with Jasmine/her husband if people want that. Intra family adoption is popular in many cultures, including mine  (so it’s something I’m familiar with).Adoption of infants is competitive (ugh I hate that word) and as a Latina trans-person I can see it would be hard for them to be chosen.   @possibilities If that worked out, the baby would be in the custody of Jasmine/Spencer and know that Gael is her bio father (he would be able to see her and spend time with her) and he would be involved in raising her but not have primary caregiving duties. 

I don’t think Isabella is ready to be anyone’s mother or primary caregiver- for a variety of reasons. Loving your baby doesn’t always make you able to take care of it.