S04.E01: Potential Energy

[Tara Ariano]

Quote

In the fourth-season premiere, Nick takes a gun to school after seeing Mariana kiss Mat, forcing the school to go on lockdown. Meanwhile, Stef and Lena struggle to process Callie's confession about Brandon amidst the crisis.

[Scarlett45]

I am looking forward to the show coming back. 

[Eeksquire]

Me too! I cannot quit this show even though it is often ridiculous.  The things it gets right somehow continue to outweigh the stuff it does terribly.

[ShortyMac]

I could quit this show if Teri and Sherri weren't so great as Stef and Lena. 

I really hope this episode delivers. It's been hyped like crazy. 

Sherri and Cierra will say a message in support of the Orlando victims before the episode airs. 

http://www.tvguide.com/news/the-fosters-address-orlando-shooting-season-4-premiere/

Edited June 18, 2016 by ShortyMac

[Eeksquire]

Quote

I could quit this show if Teri and Sherri weren't so great as Stef and Lena. 

I think that's pretty much 100% on point with how I feel, although there were also some great moments between Stef and Mike last season.  And Annie Potts... And Lena's mom (who is such a great actress, but I'm afraid I cannot spell her name for the life of me and don't want to get it wrong). 

Let's face it: the adults on this show make it worth watching - except for perhaps Mariana, I really don't care what happens in any of the kids' storylines: not Brandon's ridiculous apartment hunting for his single mom girlfriend or the drama about Juilliard, not Jesus's ongoing dumbness (although I do want to know what happened with his father, but again, that cliffhanger was more Mariana than Jesus), not Callie's ... I don't even remember what her storyline was at the end of last season.  The Girls United girls were almost all uniformly more interesting than the actual Foster-Adams kids.

[Scarlett45]

5 hours ago, Eeksquire said:

I think that's pretty much 100% on point with how I feel, although there were also some great moments between Stef and Mike last season.  And Annie Potts... And Lena's mom (who is such a great actress, but I'm afraid I cannot spell her name for the life of me and don't want to get it wrong). 

Let's face it: the adults on this show make it worth watching - except for perhaps Mariana, I really don't care what happens in any of the kids' storylines: not Brandon's ridiculous apartment hunting for his single mom girlfriend or the drama about Juilliard, not Jesus's ongoing dumbness (although I do want to know what happened with his father, but again, that cliffhanger was more Mariana than Jesus), not Callie's ... I don't even remember what her storyline was at the end of last season.  The Girls United girls were almost all uniformly more interesting than the actual Foster-Adams kids.

Lorraine Toussaint- she's an amazing actress. 

[possibilities]

How did Nick get to the Adams-Foster house if his car was at the school? I guess he could have taken a bus, but we never see that on this show.

What did Jude text to Connor? I froze my screen and was able to read "UThere?" during the lockdown, but I couldn't get good enough resolution to read what it said on the bus after, when Connor replied. (And does anyone know-- are they really going to bring Connor back, or are they just continuing to string us along without having actually done anything about the behind the scenes BS?)

I would have thought they'd sweep the school thoroughly before letting any of the classrooms out, especially since they knew a student was unaccounted for -- one who might be assumed to be a target, besides. It was crazy that they didn't check the bathrooms and find her FIRST THING.

I also would not be watching anymore if not for Stef and Lena. But once I watch, I do get pulled in pretty intensely.

[Valny]

Hmmm... for some reason,this wasn't as intense as I thought it would be...I didn't remember much of the preview, so I think I thought crazy Nick was going to be holding Mariana at the school.

But next week looks a lot more intense.

So Mike wasn't allowed to go out of the office and look for Nick? I guess the Swat Team takes precedence over the San Diego PD. I don't know how it all works.

Stupid sub teacher with the gun! And Nick with his friggin',gun hanging outside his pants in plain sight!

I see Jesus is still doing idiotic things. Watching with my sister, I totally told her that it was Jesus that was in pulling up in Nick's car.

I did like the part with the music and the family seeing each other.

And I had thought Nick killed himself in front of Marianna.... them I remember what I saw in the preview where

Nick is in Marianna's room.   He's a good hider or Steph's a bad finder.  :)

Edited June 21, 2016 by Valny

[AmeliaBedelia]

This episode held my attention, but also hit some sour notes. 

For starters, I could not read any of the texts! The print was tiny and my vision is poor.

I did not like the inept substitute having a gun and actually firing it.

The diabetic girl immediately needing sugar was unnecessary.

Stef should face disciplinary action for running into the school the way she did. Not smart.

I wish Mike and Lena had had more to do.

I did want to see more from Nick's perspective.

My favorite part of the ep was Jesus saying "Mama" repeatedly which is odd because Jesus has never been my favorite anything.

Next week has more Nick but looks like a horror movie parody.

One Tree Hill and Buffy pulled off the school shooting concept better than The Fosters imo.

[KaveDweller]

59 minutes ago, possibilities said:

How did Nick get to the Adams-Foster house if his car was at the school? I guess he could have taken a bus, but we never see that on this show.

What did Jude text to Connor? I froze my screen and was able to read "UThere?" during the lockdown, but I couldn't get good enough resolution to read what it said on the bus after, when Connor replied. (And does anyone know-- are they really going to bring Connor back, or are they just continuing to string us along without having actually done anything about the behind the scenes BS?)

I would have thought they'd sweep the school thoroughly before letting any of the classrooms out, especially since they knew a student was unaccounted for -- one who might be assumed to be a target, besides. It was crazy that they didn't check the bathrooms and find her FIRST THING.

I also would not be watching anymore if not for Stef and Lena. But once I watch, I do get pulled in pretty intensely.

Nick could have walked. It can't be that far from the school to their house. 

On the bus Jude just texted back to Connor that nothing was wrong and he was just saying hi. I think Taylor's bitchy friend is right that she's going to get hurt. But I do like seeing Jude explore his sexuality a bit.

The promo they've been showing for weeks (which apparently happens next week) kind of spoiled a lot of the tension here.

[omgsowicked]

Well, I enjoyed this! Intense! I didn't realize it would continue past this episode (didn't watch any previews/check any spoilers)... boy oh boy. I'm thinking Nick is about to be dunzo. Also, Nick's dad lost that attitude real quick, didn't he? Ha.

Why didn't Callie tell Brandon she told moms because they were outted? Was she in "It's All My Fault" mode? She acted like it was her own choice to spill the beans. If anything, he should know what's going on so he can keep his mouth shut if/when reporters start hounding him. Wonder what they're going to do about all of this.

Nice Foster Family Moment at the end... especially liked Jesus rushing out to Mariana (and Mike pulling Brandon in for a side hug as they walked off). I was so unsure about the actor switch but I like him a lot. Also enjoyed the little Lena/Mike moment, they don't interact too much. Smart of Stef to sweep the house first but she wasn't thorough enough. :( How'd Nick get in, anyway?

I was very uncomfortable when Nick laid back on Mariana's bed with the gun in his jeans! I mean, in reality, it's unloaded (and maybe nothing would have happened anyway? I don't know about guns) but still! Ah!

Still not sure where they're going with this Jude/religion thing. Oh yeah, and that sub with a gun! What an idiot.

[luckyroll3]

I can't with these shooter episodes.  Way too intense and emotional for me right now.  I bawled through the whole thing!

I'm so confused about the sub.  Why did he have a gun in a school?  And why did he shoot it?  Did he shoot it when the SWAT guys banged on the door?  Either way, complete idiot.  I kept saying to myself, why isn't the adult in the room checking on the children. 

[Lady Calypso]

All I could think by the end of the episode was that the sub was probably going to lose his job and never become an actual teacher. What kind of idiot brings a gun to school in a classroom? My god, man. That being said, I won't be surprised if the show randomly makes him a recurring character. 

The episode wasn't as intense as I expected it to be. I know, a shooting episode not being intense? I guess I didn't really feel much until the end, with Mariana and Stef walking out of the school. Actually, it was Jesus bolting past the officers to hug Mariana first that got to me, followed by the rest of the hugging. Congrats New Jesus. From now on, I'll will just call you Jesus, because you're officially much better than Old Jesus. Less romantic drama, more family scenes.

I'm kind of weird, but I also thought that those bus seats were extremely small at the end of the episode. I'm just used to two people sitting in a seat from my high school days. 

I don't really care about the Callie/Brandon stuff. I just think that the moment Callie got officially adopted was when they should officially drop any hints of Callie/Brandon, so hopefully this is just the fallout and nothing else. It would really suck more if they revoked the adoption (it's a tv show so I figure they can do whatever they want, realism be damned) so they can get together. I kind of stopped paying attention during their scenes.

Jude texting Connor makes me think that Connor could actually come back. Again, television show and I know Jude has still unresolved issues with Connor, but it's possible he could come back. 

Stef! Come on, I was hoping you'd do a better sweep of the house! I'd be checking every closet, every bed, every inch of the place. 

[luckyroll3]

16 minutes ago, Lady Calypso said:

I'm kind of weird, but I also thought that those bus seats were extremely small at the end of the episode. I'm just used to two people sitting in a seat from my high school days. 

They were!  I thought the same thing.  But then, in the seat in front of Daria (?), the two largest kids were sharing the same seat.  Lol!

[possibilities]

I think it seemed less intense because we've all been dealing with a real life massacre for the past week. This was less intense than that.

AmeliaBedelia, extreme stress can cause a diabetic's blood sugar to go haywire. It's actually extremely dangerous, so that seemed very real to me. I would have thought the girl would be carrying emergency supplies with her, though, so there being no one in the room with any food seemed strange. Maybe she's one of the kids whose backpack got left in the hall, but even so, you'd think another kid would have something on hand. Or maybe everyone was just panicking and didn't know which pack was hers and she was too out of it to say?

I'm still hung up on how, if they had a way to send electronic messages to the office, no one emailed that Mariana was in the hall locked out of all the safe rooms. Mat clearly knew it was her. The teacher could have sent a message instead of just writing her off.

[Glade]

I really didn't buy the flimsily written pretext whereby Nick's father happens to show up and Stef psychically guesses for no reason at all that he could have a gun.  It would have been more believable and more dangerous if someone actually saw the gun while it was plainly visible in the back of his pants.  I thought the whole point, furthermore, was to get rid of Nick ASAP, not give him a multiple-episode arc! 

Most of this episode was just wasted on the PSA aspects to supposedly educate viewers on the proper school lockdown procedure, as if no one's ever done that before.  I was really surprised to see that the teacher who donated sperm to Lena is actually still at the school since he disappeared for all of season 3, but of course he was passed over in order to highlight a nameless substitute teacher who was psycho enough to bring a gun into the school...  I didn't feel it was intense or dangerous at all once the lockdown began, since it seemed obvious that Nick wasn't going to do anything--he passed up his oppurtunities to shoot Matt or Marriana. 

It is interesting that Connor still exists via texting.  But I really hoped that was the end of Jude's 'i'm not gay' religious storyline.  It can't possibly end soon enough for me.  It was fun seeing Emma, and the Brandon/Callie stuff was good, but too bad it was all superseded by the lockdown.

Edited June 21, 2016 by Glade

[Cassandre]

1 hour ago, Glade said:

  I was really surprised to see that the teacher who donated sperm to Lena is actually still at the school since he disappeared for all of season 3

 yeah Timothy. I was surprised too. 

[Lady Calypso]

2 hours ago, Glade said:

I really didn't buy the flimsily written pretext whereby Nick's father happens to show up and Stef psychically guesses for no reason at all that he could have a gun.  It would have been more believable and more dangerous if someone actually saw the gun while it was plainly visible in the back of his pants.  I thought the whole point, furthermore, was to get rid of Nick ASAP, not give him a multiple-episode arc! 

 

Honestly I thought the janitor who came to tell Mariana and Nick to get to class would have seen the gun. I agree that it seemed rushed to jump from Nick acting weird to Nick has a gun and is planning to hurt someone. Lucky I guess that his father conveniently keeps the gun in his car instead of in his home! 

[AmeliaBedelia]

7 hours ago, possibilities said:

AmeliaBedelia, extreme stress can cause a diabetic's blood sugar to go haywire. It's actually extremely dangerous, so that seemed very real to me. I would have thought the girl would be carrying emergency supplies with her, though, so there being no one in the room with any food seemed strange. Maybe she's one of the kids whose backpack got left in the hall, but even so, you'd think another kid would have something on hand. Or maybe everyone was just panicking and didn't know which pack was hers and she was too out of it to say?

My issue wasn't the diabetes, it was (as Glade said) that the low sugar episode was included solely to illustrate that each classroom has a backpack ready to go. I don't buy that the students didn't have any food in their backpacks especially if this took place before lunch.

[Cassandre]

Compared to everyone else I liked the episode. I didnt expect it to be this intense. This was so emotional and I liked everything about it. People are saying that The Fosters is turning into an horror story and this is not about family anymore, but come on. It was all about family. When Jude sees Stef and before she goes he says "Mom... I love you". to what Stef responds "I love you too sweetheart". The same thing will happen with Jesus. They all  just killed me. What about Lena almost fighting Mike because he won't let her go find her baby ? (talking about Mariana yes!) And that moment when Stef comes back with Mariana and Lena is like Stef when in her dream she had found Mariana after that car accident. They hug. And this is beautiful. The music, the actors. Everything. This is family to me.

I didn't like Jesus though. I love Noah but this is so not Jesus. Bradley tweeted again about the fact that they had to recast him and that Noah is a nice human being or something. I don't care about them recasting a character if they have to but, why did they have to change Jesus character personnality. Noah is not playing Jesus, he is being Noah! I don't see the difference between Noah himself and the character  he is playing while he is supposed to be Jesus. To me Jesus is dumb, he cares a lot about Mariana and his all family. How come he is making jokes during this whole situation ? I know some people truly laugh when they are stressed but still I didn't like anything that was going on with Emma.

[Ljohnson1987]

This episode was a great way to begin the season. And with the recent events in the world, very timely.   I hope Jonnor are reunited. They're a  cute couple.  This episode was very realistic, and I commend the producers, writers, creators and everyone else involved for making this real, and not skirting over tough issues. Cannot wait for the rest of the season.

[Lady Calypso]

18 minutes ago, Cassandre said:

I didn't like Jesus though. I love Noah but this is so not Jesus. Bradley tweeted again about the fact that they had to recast him and that Noah is a nice human being or something. I don't care about them recasting a character if they have to but, why did they have to change Jesus character personnality. Noah is not playing Jesus, he is being Noah! I don't see the difference between Noah himself and the character  he is playing while he is supposed to be Jesus. To me Jesus is dumb, he cares a lot about Mariana and his all family. How come he is making jokes during this whole situation ? I know some people truly laugh when they are stressed but still I didn't like anything that was going on with Emma.

You know, I initially thought the same thing. I didn't know Noah before this, but I was very reluctant to accept a new Jesus and I didn't want a total change either. He's different from Jesus, but...I actually like him better now. He may not be saying as many dumb things, but he's kind hearted, still reckless, but he loves his family.. Old Jesus it was always give or take and Jake T Austin, as much as I actually like him, played Jesus in a more smug way. Just as an example, I don't know if Jake would have had Jesus bolt toward Mariana the way that Noah had Jesus do in this episode after the lockdown. I can see Old Jesus strolling over, but not running full force toward his sister. I basically don't mind the change because I've finally accepted Noah as Jesus, and I seem to like him a lot better. 

[izabella]

Why did Mariana hide in the bathroom?  When she couldn't get into whatever room the kids in were in, why didn't she walk out one of the many doors the school has?

[possibilities]

Entertainment Weekly interviews Peter Paige about this episode: http://www.ew.com/article/2016/06/20/fosters-gun-school-season-4-premiere

Rave review in Vulture: http://www.vulture.com/2016/06/fosters-recap-season-4-episode-1.html

I thought that Stef asking about the gun was pretty much a standard operating procedure, not magical intuition. They know the kid is in distress, they suspect he might be involved with the warehouse arson, he has a history of being impulsive and reckless, and he's not where he's supposed to be and no one can find him. First things would be to find out where he is and whether he's armed.

I have a friend who's a pediatrician and she was taught in medical school to ask every family that comes through her office whether there are firearms in the house and if they are kept in locked cases, along with the rest of the routine screening questions she does about whether they've been vaccinated, and other health concerns. It's become so routine now, with all the gun deaths in this country, to always investigate their presence.

So Stef, who's a police officer who has already dealt with a lot of volatile situations where guns were fired, would certainly have that on her mind immediately-- at least rule it out if you can, and be prepared for it just in case.

Paige says in the interview that the lockdown protocol was taken from actual schools, and that doing active shooter drills is typical for students now-- which I guess I knew, but it's so different than when I was a kid. The only drills we did were fire drills, even though we had a few bomb threats over the years and were evacuated while the buildings were checked. It always seemed like no one took any of it very seriously. I remember kids goofing off and joking during the evacuations, and teachers rolling their eyes while they gathered up their papers and so on so they'd have something to occupy them while we all stood around on the lawn waiting for the OK to go back inside. Big contrast with today's world, where these things are taken very seriously and actively feared and no one assumes it's just some kid trying to avoid taking a scheduled math test.

[ShadowFacts]

Quote

How did Nick get to the Adams-Foster house if his car was at the school? I guess he could have taken a bus, but we never see that on this show.

I thought his car was gone from the parking lot, but if he had it, he didn't park it near the Adams-Foster house. 

Jesus is kind of on my nerves more than the old one, I wanted him to shut up in the office.  Maybe he's going to experience some growth now that the girl is making it clear he's pretty much a boy toy and he may not like it so much. 

I totally lost track of where AJ was when last we saw him.  Is he with still with Mike?  Go to a different school?

[ShortyMac]

49 minutes ago, ShadowFacts said:

I totally lost track of where AJ was when last we saw him.  Is he with still with Mike?  Go to a different school?

I forget who tweeted it last night (Bradley or Peter), but, they said that AJ goes to a different school and that he doesn't go to Anchor Beach 

Spoiler

yet.

[Lady Calypso]

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

Paige says in the interview that the lockdown protocol was taken from actual schools, and that doing active shooter drills is typical for students now-- which I guess I knew, but it's so different than when I was a kid. The only drills we did were fire drills, even though we had a few bomb threats over the years and were evacuated while the buildings were checked. It always seemed like no one took any of it very seriously. I remember kids goofing off and joking during the evacuations, and teachers rolling their eyes while they gathered up their papers and so on so they'd have something to occupy them while we all stood around on the lawn waiting for the OK to go back inside. Big contrast with today's world, where these things are taken very seriously and actively feared and no one assumes it's just some kid trying to avoid taking a scheduled math test.

I remember when I was in the ninth grade (which was...wow, nine years ago), we had a situation with a student possibly carrying a gun so our school went into lockdown protocol. Even nine years ago, there are some differences that I noted (mind you, I come from a Canadian town so different countries could call for different protocols). I remember when we had our lockdown procedure, none of us thought it was real for a good half hour. We didn't have cell phones either (I think only two kids in our class had actual cellphones that they could use, but there was never any good service in the school besides by the window) but we had a computer that we could use to email our parents during the whole thing. We were also stuck in the classroom for three whole hours, because they had to get police and other personnel to the school, sweep the school and figure out how legit the anonymous tip about the gun was, locate the person who supposedly had the gun, and then start evacuating students once it was 100% certain that it was safe. Then they evacuated by floor and I was in the basement portion of the school, so we were one of the last to be evacuated. Another difference is that once it was deemed safe, even though we were stuck in the classroom still, they had an officer escort anyone who needed to go to the bathroom. They also had dogs sniffing our backpacks on our way out as a precaution for any bombs or any other illegal weapons and items. We also didn't stack chairs and desks up to the door like that. We moved some in front of the door, yeah, but we didn't stack it like a game of Jenga. 

I guess in this case, since there was the logical assumption that gun in car being missing and agitated teenage boy who has been said to be acting weird by several people equals a possible gunman situation, that protocols were different. 

1 hour ago, izabella said:

Why did Mariana hide in the bathroom?  When she couldn't get into whatever room the kids in were in, why didn't she walk out one of the many doors the school has?

The bathroom is what we were taught to hide in when a lockdown starts and all the classrooms are locked. I remember they told us that going to the nearest room is the safest and to hide out there, because trying to walk out any of the doors could be risky, as the threat could be anywhere. So I suspect that's what the students have been taught to do and Mariana was just following protocol. I know Stef was helping to escort some students out of the building, but I think it helps that they were right by the doors to the outside. Mariana, as far as I'm aware, wasn't near any outside doors and she had no idea where Nick could be. After all, she had just seen him so she figured he was wandering the hallways. 

[marceline]

I hope that all of Jude's stories this season won't be about his sexuality. To me that would be just as tedious and boring as the non-stop Braille nonsense. At this point there have to be a lot of other stories out there for him. I'm not up for an entire season of "Is he or isn't he?"

Edited June 21, 2016 by marceline

[Perfect Xero]

Nick's 10 years of Special Forces training really payed off, allowing him to elude every cop in Northern California and vanish inside one's own home.

Who keeps a gun in their trunk? That's literally the worst place you could keep a gun for personal/home/car protection.

Edited June 21, 2016 by Perfect Xero
Because the word is elude, not allude ha

[izabella]

1 hour ago, marceline said:

I hope that all of Jude's stories this season won't be about his sexuality. To me that would be just as tedious and boring as the non-stop Braille nonsense. At this point there have to be a lot of other stories out there for him. I'm not up for an entire season if "Is he or isn't he?"

1000x times this.  He is one-dimensional and all of his primary story lines are about his sexuality. 

[ShadowFacts]

1 hour ago, izabella said:

1000x times this.  He is one-dimensional and all of his primary story lines are about his sexuality. 

Is it just me or are all of the kids' story lines more about sexuality than anything else?  Mariana is more well-rounded, but each of them has one thing (music, wrestling, foster kid-dom) and SEX.  In neon lights.  This is not how teens really are. 

[Eeksquire]

I thought this episode was well done (and I'm really, intensely glad that this turned out to be a "false" alarm in that nothing actually happened at the school), but the previews for next week do not give me hope - why the jump cuts like a horror movie? I hope that's just the preview and not the way the actual show is - I can't take The Fosters Goes Blair Witch.

[maraleia]

6 hours ago, izabella said:

Why did Mariana hide in the bathroom?  When she couldn't get into whatever room the kids in were in, why didn't she walk out one of the many doors the school has?

They were locked from the inside and outside. They do this so the swat team is the only one with access to the building to get people out. The bathroom was the only safe place because all the other doors were locked.

[KaveDweller]

17 hours ago, possibilities said:

I think it seemed less intense because we've all been dealing with a real life massacre for the past week. This was less intense than that.

AmeliaBedelia, extreme stress can cause a diabetic's blood sugar to go haywire. It's actually extremely dangerous, so that seemed very real to me. I would have thought the girl would be carrying emergency supplies with her, though, so there being no one in the room with any food seemed strange. Maybe she's one of the kids whose backpack got left in the hall, but even so, you'd think another kid would have something on hand. Or maybe everyone was just panicking and didn't know which pack was hers and she was too out of it to say?

I'm still hung up on how, if they had a way to send electronic messages to the office, no one emailed that Mariana was in the hall locked out of all the safe rooms. Mat clearly knew it was her. The teacher could have sent a message instead of just writing her off.

Someone did email about Mariana being in the hallway. They said they heard her after they locked the door, but assumed she got into another classroom.

[ShadowFacts]

27 minutes ago, maraleia said:

They were locked from the inside and outside. They do this so the swat team is the only one with access to the building to get people out. The bathroom was the only safe place because all the other doors were locked.

The locking of doors worries me -- what about a fire?  The thinking has evolved from when my kids were in school where they taught "flee the kill zone".  Now it's lockdown.  This is tough stuff, it made me edgy, as it was supposed to.  But I really blanched at Mariana in that bathroom, after what just happened in real life. 

[angora]

Maybe it's because I work at a school (never been in a real lockdown situation, but we have several lockdown drills every year,) but I was kind of appalled at how much noise everyone was making in the rooms.  Obviously, having it happen for real is going to be different than a drill, and I totally understand uncontrollable stuff, like the one girl who couldn't stop crying, but why are these kids discussing their personal problems in the midst of an active shooter situation?  Our lockdown drills are dead silent, and that's just practice.  Every one of those kids should've been majorly shushed immediately. 

I would have appreciated seeing more creative ways to move the story forward without relying on so much dialogue in the locked-down classrooms.  Brandon and Callie could have sat next to each other, opened text on one of their phones (on silent, of course,) and typed their "Why?" / "I couldn't lie anymore" exchange back and forth without sending anything.  He could have beckoned her to the computer and pointed to the "take roll" message, then held up the class list, and she could have grabbed a pen and passed it through the classroom, indicating for kids to check off their names.  It still gets the points across - talking about the Brallie reveal, helping out in a crisis - without making me want to yell, "Stop talking already!!!" at my TV.  And really, doing an episode with so much silence could have heightened that sense of fear.

[Scootman]

I liked the tension of this episode, partly because they filled the screen with people who could get killed. I mean, you knew no one in the immediate Foster-Adams Family would get killed (and Mike too), but there were plenty of characters that we knew but were recurring (aka expendable): Emma, Tayler, Monte, Matt, teachers, etc. Still, glad that everyone got outside OK, with the exception of Brandon ... WHO CAN DIE AT ANY TIME.

I'll buy that Nick made his way to the house. Not so much that he got in. A house where a cop lives isn't locked and the alarm isn't set?

[maraleia]

BTW everyone their last name is Adams Foster without the hyphen. The only ones with just the Foster last name are Mike and Brandon.

[MaryHedwig]

Quote

Nick's 10 years of Special Forces training really payed off, allowing him to elude every cop in Northern California and vanish inside one's own home.

Just for your interest, this show is set in Southern California: San Diego.

[possibilities]

Someone did email about Mariana being in the hallway. They said they heard her after they locked the door, but assumed she got into another classroom.

I thought they only did that after the office specifically asked if anyone had her. I wanted them to do it as soon as they realized she was out there.

[Perfect Xero]

4 hours ago, MaryHedwig said:

Just for your interest, this show is set in Southern California: San Diego.

Thanks, I thought it was set in the Bay Area for some reason. Oh well.

[KaveDweller]

6 hours ago, possibilities said:

 

I thought they only did that after the office specifically asked if anyone had her. I wanted them to do it as soon as they realized she was out there.

The teacher said they assumed she got in another classroom after that, so he probably figured another classroom had emailed their attendance with her on there.

The teacher probably felt guilty about leaving her out there that they convinced themselves of the other classroom idea to not have to worry (or have to feel guilty).

Edited June 22, 2016 by KaveDweller

[Cassandre]

On 21/06/2016 at 5:25 PM, Lady Calypso said:

Just as an example, I don't know if Jake would have had Jesus bolt toward Mariana the way that Noah had Jesus do in this episode after the lockdown. I can see Old Jesus strolling over, but not running full force toward his sister. I basically don't mind the change because I've finally accepted Noah as Jesus, and I seem to like him a lot better. 

I agree. One of my favourite scene.  

Speaking of Jesus. He, Emma, Monte, Lena and Mike were outside when they learn that Nick has a gun and that they need to lock down the school. Why did they have to go back into the school ?  Don't know if someone already mentioned  it.

Edited June 22, 2016 by Cassandre

[MaryHedwig]

Quote

  I was really surprised to see that the teacher who donated sperm to Lena is actually still at the school since he disappeared for all of season 3

I was pleasantly surprised to see Timothy, although I think he was the one who refused entrance to Mariana. I thought he should have given her more direction when he spoke to her through the door, and immediately let those in charge know via text that she was in need of help.

I was also concerned that they had brought Timothy back just to make him a red shirt: a character whose primary purpose is to be killed to let the main characters know just how dangerous things are. On Star Trek they often wore red shirts.

Edited June 22, 2016 by MaryHedwig

[AmandaPanda]

On June 21, 2016 at 0:26 PM, possibilities said:

Paige says in the interview that the lockdown protocol was taken from actual schools, and that doing active shooter drills is typical for students now-- which I guess I knew, but it's so different than when I was a kid. The only drills we did were fire drills, even though we had a few bomb threats over the years and were evacuated while the buildings were checked. It always seemed like no one took any of it very seriously. I remember kids goofing off and joking during the evacuations, and teachers rolling their eyes while they gathered up their papers and so on so they'd have something to occupy them while we all stood around on the lawn waiting for the OK to go back inside. Big contrast with today's world, where these things are taken very seriously and actively feared and no one assumes it's just some kid trying to avoid taking a scheduled math test.

I thought the lockdown procedure was very true to life. We have to do active shooter drills at least once a year. Even in summer school right now, we have to do a fire drill and an active shooter drill during the course of summer academy. There have been a couple of instances this school year alone where an elementary school student has brought a gun to school at different schools in my district. We've also had a lot of instances with switchblades at schools. 

On June 21, 2016 at 7:52 PM, angora said:

Maybe it's because I work at a school (never been in a real lockdown situation, but we have several lockdown drills every year,) but I was kind of appalled at how much noise everyone was making in the rooms.  Obviously, having it happen for real is going to be different than a drill, and I totally understand uncontrollable stuff, like the one girl who couldn't stop crying, but why are these kids discussing their personal problems in the midst of an active shooter situation?  Our lockdown drills are dead silent, and that's just practice.  Every one of those kids should've been majorly shushed immediately. 

Absolutely! I used to work with a Head Start program and almost all of the preschoolers were English as a Second Language students. Even with their limited English, we were able to get them to be quieter than these freaking high schoolers were. 

[LisaM]

Stef...worst house search ever. A bit surprised that Stef didn't have the precinct sweep her house given Nick's connection to Mariana. Really liked the Adams Foster family reunion at the end. 

[butterbody]

I can't believe I'm about to type this, but Glee did a fabulous lockdown episode, complete with Britney in a stall, standing on a toilet, trying to be silent. I think it was about 20 minutes that the show was completely quiet. No words, no background music. There was not a single sound for what seemed like an eternity, and it was grueling to watch.

I was at the edge of my seat though, at that moment when Stef was sweeping the house and you could see her reflection in the little mirror and just knew that crazy guy saw her. Why is she such a bad looker? She's a police officer!

I like the new Jesus, but I never really understood why everyone hated the other one. They're kind of expendable to me.

Agree 1000000x about Jude. He's such a good actor, he deserves better than this!

[alexvillage]

I am watching on Netflix now, so bear with me when I vent. It was probably discussed here but this episode was so badly written, I almost gave up

There is a lockdown. Lena, the principal, Mike, and two students are OUTSIDE the school. Then they are sent INSIDE? WTF show? The safest place is outside and Stef (I assume) tells people to go inside and lock themselves in a room, stay very quiet, so that the SWAT team can go in and break the door, and then make them walk out with their hands in the air?

Seriously, what happened to this show?

Edited because I've just read the thread and the only person who mentioned it was Cassandre

This bugged me so much, I cannot believe it just slid by

Edited October 1, 2016 by alexvillage

[balmz]

45 minutes ago, alexvillage said:

I am watching on Netflix now, so bear with me when I vent. It was probably discussed here but this episode was so badly written, I almost gave up

There is a lockdown. Lena, the principal, Mike, and two students are OUTSIDE the school. Then they are sent INSIDE? WTF show? The safest place is outside and Stef (I assume) tells people to go inside and lock themselves in a room, stay very quiet, so that the SWAT team can go in and break the door, and then make them walk out with their hands in the air?

Seriously, what happened to this show?

Edited because I've just read the thread and the only person who mentioned it was Cassandre

This bugged me so much, I cannot believe it just slid by

agreed that was so stupid even by this show's standards

 

it made me wonder, what if they sent the two home, then jesus heads home alone without emma, later after the lockdown is over and nick's not there they realize that they may have sent jesus right into nick's path, the finale scene of the episode is jesus alone and we see nick in the shadows or behind jesus

[ChocButterfly]

Hey, I'm just starting the season now. I liked this episode, but I'm very surprised with the whole lockdown thing. Not only that it seems to be standard procedure, but that many posters here have actually practiced the drills when they were in school.

I think that is a very smart approach the US schools have taken, given the many cases of school shootings. But it's also so sad that this is the status quo!  I mean, watching the episode, all I could think is how paranoid  they all seemed and I couldn't believe that they had a protocol with computer instructions and everything!! But I gues it was the right call. It's just sad that this is the new normal for US schools. I don't think there has ever been a single  school shooting in my country ever. We have drills,  but for earthquakes. I'm sure no one would have the slightest idea of what to do in a shooting. I guess, in that sense we're lucky.

On the other hand, not letting Mariana in was the dickest move!! I don't care what the protocol says, because if it says that, then they are just supposed to abandon the slowest kids who couldn't make it on time inside the classrooms to their fate?? That's cruel and idiotic. I mean, what are they striving for, survival of the strongest and fuck the rest?

Also, Stef, if you're smart enough to check the house before letting the family in, at least be smart enough to do it well!! Nick is suposed to  be a high school student, not a special ops agent or a trained assassin who's able to fool a cop.