Last week’s episode struck a more somber note than usual with the loss of Lena‘s unborn baby, Frankie, but The Fosters 2×07 saw the family get right back to their busy lives – with, of course, the requisite amount of drama along the way. Read on for our recap of “The Longest Day”:
As the title of The Fosters 2×07 suggests, this episode takes a “day in the life” format. The family’s Saturday begins with the hubbub of Mariana and Jesus getting ready to head to school for dance and wrestling practice, respectively, while Callie and Jude prepare for a day out on Callie’s biological father’s yacht.
The only reference to Lena’s loss is made by Brandon. He asks how she is when she comes to his room to check up on him, and she says she’s “as good as can be expected.” There’s no time to dwell, though – with the rest of the kids out of the house, Lena thinks it’s the perfect time for Brandon to sit down with Stef and Mike and come clean about his tryst with Dani.
The twins face personal and professional challenges
At wrestling practice, Emma acts cold toward Jesus. She says he should be apologizing, so he says he’s sorry that Mariana told her about Hayley. Wow, he’s really bad at this. Emma characterizes Hayley as “everything that I’m not and nothing that I want to be,” then says she and Jesus should never have dated in the first place. When Jesus reminds Hayley that his coach is hosting a team dinner that night, she asks if Emma will be there. Who else isn’t surprised when, later that day, she sabotages those plans by coming to Jesus in tears about her parents getting divorced? After he misses the dinner, Mariana tells him the news is several months old.
Tensions are also high on the dance team. Competition season is coming up, and team captain Kaitlyn doesn’t think there are enough funds to transport every member to Los Angeles. She singles out Mariana as needing to step it up. When new girl Tia offers to help, Mariana lashes out, suggesting she try to blend in rather than making everyone else look bad. “What, should I dye my hair?” Tia counters. Sick burn.
In a bid to secure more funding, Mariana calls Lena, who’s still the acting principal. Lena shoots her down, and she in turn shoots down Brandon’s bandmate, Matt, when he asks her out on a date. When Mariana heads back to the gym and apologizes to Tia, the other girl agrees to help her.
Out on the water
On the good ship QuinnTessence (yes, really), Callie and Jude get to know Callie’s biological father, his wife and daughter a little better. There are some awkward moments (when half-sister Sophia refers to Robert as “our dad,” Callie corrects her, saying she and Jude already have a dad), but it’s obvious everyone’s trying really hard, especially Sophia. Robert makes a particular effort to bond with Jude by allowing him to sit in the captain’s seat and check out the engine room. He tells Jude that he’s not going to try to replace Donald and he’d just like them to try to get to know each other.
Later, Robert shows Callie some photos of her mother, and they talk about his offer of setting up a college fund for her. At the beginning of the episode, she told Stef she didn’t want Robert’s money, but after he points out that it will take years of her working at the burger joint to even afford a semester, she reconsiders.
The secret comes out
Back at home, it’s Zero Hour for Brandon. He’s been hiding what happened with Dani all season, but The Fosters 2×07 is when it all comes out. Before he spills the beans, Lena makes Stef and Mike promise not to leave the house until they agree on a way to handle things together. From the buildup, Stef guesses what he’s going to say, but Mike wants to hear it from Brandon and makes him spell it out. When Stef says he was seduced, Brandon disagrees, claiming, “I was drunk and I wasn’t thinking; it’s my fault.” When Mike and Stef start fighting with each other, Brandon storms off, leaving Lena to be the mediator.
Stef eventually heads after and tries to explain that Dani was the adult and he was the minor, making him the victim. She wants to prosecute Dani for statutory rape, but Brandon says he’s humiliated and won’t talk to the police. When she returns downstairs, things get heated with Mike and he goes off to sit in the garden. Lena consoles Stef, noting that she takes things personally when one of the family makes a mistake, and issues involving Mike are particularly hard because of the guilt Stef feels for divorcing him.
Stef: “Well, don’t I sound like an ass?”
Lena: “You’re not an ass, honey. Not even a little bit. You just love hard. That’s a good thing.”
Once Mike cools down, he and Stef talk. She says she can’t blame Brandon for what happened, and asks what Mike would do if it were Mariana in the same situation. Mike says he’d lock up the person responsible, and Stef asks why Brandon is any different.
Cut to Mike approaching Brandon in the garage. He warns his son to be careful about drinking given the family history, then addresses what happened with Dani: “You may not feel this way, but what she did was illegal, and we have to do something about it.”
At the end of the day
After Callie gets back home, she bumps into Brandon and asks how his day was. “Long,” Brandon replies. Nice tie-in to the episode title, writers. Then she checks in with Jude, and Jude is honest with her, saying he wishes she’d never found out about the Quinns. Callie says she doesn’t have to see them again, but Jude isn’t finished.
“I wish you’d never found out about them, but that’s not going to change anything. It sucks that I have to share you but I guess if I learned how to do it with the Fosters, then I can do it with Sophia too. And Robert and Jill? They seem pretty nice.”
Jude’s the best. Callie says so; I concur.
In a rare scene that doesn’t involve any of the show’s major characters, Robert and Sophia are seen processing the events of the day as well. Sophia says she wishes Callie could live with them.
“She’s only been with [the Fosters] for a few months,” she muses. “Maybe if she knew us longer, she could learn to love us too.”
Alarm bells, anyone? Or maybe those were just flashing lights, because The Fosters 2×07 ends with Dani getting arrested while Mike looks on.
What did you think of this episode?
Leave a Reply
Your email is safe with us.