Falling In Love and Waiting (Fosters Episode 9)

(RECAP AND REVIEW)

THE FOSTERS

EPISODE 9 "VIGIL"

NETWORK: ABC FAMILY

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: JULY 29th 2013

SPECIAL GUESTS: Alex Saxon as Wyatt,
                           Alexandra Barreto as Ana 
                          

SYNOPSIS: A loved one lands in the hospital, and the extent of Mariana and Jesus' lies affect everyone. Meanwhile, Callie opens up to Brandon about her mom's death and her life as a foster child; and Wyatt warns Callie that she's growing too close to Brandon.

      

   

RECAP AND REVIEW: WARNING *SPOILERS AHEAD*

Episode nine picks up just minutes after episode eight ends. Stef and Mike are at Anna’s house looking for Jesus they knock on the door, it opens and they see drug paraphernalia on the table so they enter the house guns drawn. They split up to clear the house, and not even five seconds later shots ring out, Stef is shot on the floor, and Mike enters and shoots two more at the suspect. Mike calls in an officer down. (I was actually really proud of mike here; he did what he was supposed to do without hesitation.)

Jesus tries to do right by his birth mom by getting her into a women’s shelter, she once again abuses her kids and begs for more money from them, lying through her teeth. (Can you tell I don’t like her?) Jesus calls to check in with his moms, but the gig is up and Lena demands to know exactly where he is. (And she calls Stef a Momma tiger…lol) With the address in hand Lena and Mariana drive off to pick up Jesus. Once she has both twins in the car, she starts in on what I am sure was going to be a long and painful lecture and come to Jesus (I mean the Jesus in heaven here) talk, when her cell phone rings and the conversation starts with “listen lena” (that’s like the universal signal for I have bad news).

Callie and Brandon both return to the house after their nights out, with their respective significant others. They make idle small chat, and Callie during which Callie confirms that the house is empty except for them. (Now I know Brallie shippers were happy about this, since I am not one I couldn’t care either way) Then they hear a knock on the door and two uniform cops are standing on the other side to give Brandon the bad news about his mom.

The entire Foster clan minus Jude head over to the hospital to see how bad Stef is hurt, as tension and worry grow; the twins bicker over who is the most at fault, and Brandon lays into them both for putting “his” mom in this situation. (In almost every episode Brandon has a temper tantrum; I think this one was probably one of his worse) Stef is in critical condition and in need of surgery but first the doctors have to stabilize her, which proves to be hard to do, after her lung collapses. As Stef stablizies Lena is allowed to go back and see her and the audience gets a flashback moment (I usually hate flashbacks but, since we were getting the origin story of the family…. I actually enjoyed it)

flashback moment:  Stef and Lena meet for the first time, When Stef goes to check out a school for her five year old son. The attraction is immediate and obvious.

The family is asked to move to the surgurical floor to wait for Stef. As they are moving Internal Affairs shows up to investigate the shooting and interview Mike he even gets a police escort until Stef is out of the woods since he’s not allowed to talk to her until they do. Since there will be no new news about Stef till morning, Lena has Brandon take everyone home after they all go sit by her bedside. The cops are trying to hunt down Ana who surprise surprise is not at the women’s shelter ( Is anyone shocked here? … I can’t even be mad at Jesus, he only got to meet Ana once and he tried to help without getting too involved. The situation just sucks all around) Lena stays at the hospital with Stef, and she apologizes for not being able to forgive Mariana and Jesus for their actions, but she promises to work on it.

    

 flashback moment: In this flashback, Stef meets Jesus and Mariana for the first time as they sit in a police station waiting for CPS to pick them up after their foster parents drop them off ( was anyone else surprised that it was Stef and not Lena who brought the twins into the family?)

At the house, Mariana decides to do some things that Stef has been getting on their case to do; including dig through boxes that were in a closet. Jesus decides to help her and they reminisce on their first few days at the Fosters, their life in the foster system and the day they were adopted! Looking through all their old stuff makes Mariana start to cry; between her bad behavior, Stef getting shot, Lena being mad at her and Brandon going off on both twins… old worries begin to surface and she wonders if Stef and Lena will still want her. (The fact that she has any doubt makes me cry with her.)

Upstairs Brandon looks though Stef and Lena’s closet trying to find clothes to bring to Lena the next day, when Callie goes into to check up/scold him. She tells him to lay off the twins and to essentially try and find some perspective and compassion. She reminds him that they all agreed to be a family; he has to live up to that. ( I am of course paraphrasing and reading the subtext here). He gets the picture and heads downstairs to apologize to the twins. They forgive him, and they all find something to smile about until there is a knock at the door. (This was one of my favorite scenes of the whole series, because it was one of the first time where these three looked, felt and behaved liked siblings)(Even I held my breath here, if there was another set of uniform officers…. I don’t know what I would have done) But its only JUDE at the door. He heard about Stef, left his sleepover and walked home. (Seriously why is this kid allowed to roam the streets at night… like it’s no big deal?)

All in desperate need of some shut eye, all the kids decide to bunk together in the family room. Callie wakes up early the next morning to make breakfast, where Brallie and Callie have a moment in the kitchen (barf! Lol) and Callie opens up as to why she and Jude ended up in foster care in the first place. Wyatt stops by with donuts for the family (aint he sweet) and decides to accompany them to the hospital. All the kids head to the hospital, as Stef goes into surgery to remove the bullet fragments. As they wait Mike learns that at most he and Stef will get a few days suspension, but his boss does call him out on his drinking. (which was good since he was mixing jack with his coffee)

 flashback moment:  Stef tells Mike that she is a lesbian and that there is no way to fix their relationship. After they go their separate ways… Mike gets in his car and pours some Jack into his Coffee. (this can’t be where his alcoholism started but it probably intensified it, otherwise why was Mike drivin around with a flask of alcohol in the first place…ijs) 

Callie and Wyatt head outside for air, and Wyatt decides to push Callie toward Brandon… he knows that she has feelings for him and he’s like YOLO. (but actions have consequences Callie remember that, and not just for you) After getting the go ahead from Wyatt, Callie decides to go and tell Brandon how she feels until she sees him with Tayla. (oh well).  The Doctors are back and they promise that Stef is going to make a full recovery, as they all hug and celebrate, Brandon gets a wiff of Mike’s drink and knows that he is sneaking alcohol and calls him out on it. (Mike has to face his demons)

flashback moment:  Stef tells Lena that she came out to everyone that was important to her, and says that she’s a lesbian and that she just wants to be with her. (awwwwww)

As the flashback ends, we see Lena with Stef as she begins to open her eyes, and her first question is will you marry me? (YAYYY!) and her second question is about Mariana! So Lena goes to talk to her daughter and instead of avoiding her. She reaffirms how much she loves her, and she tells her that she understands her wanting to connect with her birth mom. She tells her that she cant imagine ever giving up her kids and she and Jesus chose Stef and Lena and they did the same and that makes their bond even greater. 

  

She gives her a hug and delivers the line that has become synonymous with The Fosters Series “DNA doesn’t make a family, love does.” (Lena handled this beautifully and the writer wrote an amazing scene here)(3rd best scene, on any other day 1st place but it was a emotionally charged episode) Its been a long day, so Lena hustles her 5 kids home and as they leave they see a police cruiser pull into the hospital with Ana in the car. Lena immediately gets in her face and warns her to stay the hell away from her children. Mike is informed that Ana, is claiming to have been in the house at the time of the shooting and that Mike killed the suspect in cold blood. 

(how that can be possible after he shot a cop… who knows). IA interviews Stef and her story matches Mike but she’s leaving something out and in a final flashback; flashback moment:  We get another look at what happened the night of the shooting…and it’s a little confusing. It looks like the boyfriend just dropped his gun after shooting stef, and then Mike shot him. (this is not going to end well)

  REVIEW: Ok I am going to start with a side note, the music in this episode was on point the entire way, timed perfectly right to rise and fall with the emotions of the characters. The music was so memorable I had to comment on it which doesn’t happen often. Now to get into the juicy parts, I must say this is one of my favorite episodes of The Fosters, with limited external drama, this episode felt like we had reached the peak of a mountain. Every storyline including the flashbacks were about relationships, and in my opinion that is what makes a drama truly power… to accurately portray how relationships evolve, dissolved, develop and change as the situations change and life happens. The Foster siblings are beginning to feel like real siblings instead of a set of twins and that brooding, anger filled, musically talented guy that lives two doors down. The sibling relationship Callie and Jude was present and easily identifiable from the first second these two were on screen together and every scene since, I can feel the connection there. I could never feel that connection between the three Foster kids, it took almost five episodes for me to buy into Jesus and Mariana being Twins, cuz they just didn’t interact that way but its gotten better. It has always been lacking between the three of them but it finally felt genuine this episode. There is no doubt that Stef and Lena love all there kids equally, and that was simply reaffirmed this episode, you can tell Stef knows her kids and knew that Mariana would be having the most trouble, it was nice to see that side of her. All in All this was a phenomenal episode…. This is what good dramas are made of and I’m glad I stuck around for this.

SCENE STEALER AWARD GOES TO: 
“although though we didn’t give you the gift of life, life gave us the gift of you…… What if they don’t want us anymore?” – Mariana with Jesus going through old boxes on the family room floor (I loved this scene b/c it wasn’t a lot of drama, and you could feel how at least a little part of her believed that her moms and even Brandon would give them up b/c of her actions and no one should ever have to feel like that..she was vulnerable.. they both were and a large part of that was due to the dressing down Brandon gave them.. Which was completely out of line)

“this reminds me of our mom… its Stef going to die” – Jude

“No their family isn’t like ours… they are lucky” – Callie

(second runner up for scene stealer,  twice my heart broke in this episode… and these two scenes are the reasons why)

THE LINE THAT MADE US PAUSE AND REWIND OUR DVR’S: “you don’t know what its like to not have enough, to not be wanted…. No it means that you don’t know what its like to wonder why… why the people who brought you into this world, the people who were supposed to love you more than anyone else.. didn’t, so don’t be a jackass” – Callie ( well put and very heartfelt)

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT?

Spectacular Episode!  and can't wait till the next episode!  (Best episode this season) A++





DID YOU FALL IN LOVE WITH THE FOSTERS?