Everyone deserves a second chance. Whether it’s a small or huge problem, we deserve the chance to re-write our wrongs. Prove we want to be better people. As depicted in the recent episode of “Good Trouble,” Mariana is given a chance to show she’s changed.
Spoiler Alert
In “Opening Statements,” Mariana and Callie unexpectedly run into Raj and Claire (who are dating) and catch up on what’s been new in their lives. According to Claire, Bulk Beauty is thriving, and according to Mariana, she enjoys working at Kathleen’s law firm.
She’s spearheading investigations and might start a true-crime podcast. But it’s all lies. Mariana has spent days at the firm sitting in a silent room, taking photocopies of herself, and speaking to strangers, and the girls are struggling due to companies passing the app. Though, you can’t blame them both for lying because I don’t think anyone wants to be looked at as a fool when running into an ex-co-worker.
Mariana and Claire meet up again, but this time it’s with all the fight club girls members, Rachel and Gina, suddenly meeting at a coffee shop. The girls need a coder, and Mariana is miserable at the law firm, so Callie and Raji helped them meet to work out their issues and that Mariana could apply for the position as a coder. The girls never offered it, but Callie then convinces her to ask for the job so they can work together again.
Mariana: Going from partner to employee is a big demotion
Callie: Maybe that’s what you have to do, to prove you’ve changed, if you really want your friends back
By letting go of her ego and taking a risk to fix the friendship, Mariana goes to the Bulk Beauty location and asks for the job, and the fight club girls accept.
“I don’t mind taking a demotion and a cut in pay if it means that I can work with a product and people that I believe in.”
Mariana
I’m glad the girls let Mariana come back. Mariana has a chance to prove she’s changed and can work herself back up to partner and gain their trust back.
Falling Into the Trap
It’s intriguing watching this court case go on in “Good Trouble.” We see Callie, Kathleen, and the rest of the team work their magic as badass lawyers and defend a young adult whom I believe didn’t commit this murder. His girlfriend seems suspicious to me, she might be the killer.
In this episode, we see the opening statements and the arguments of the defendant and prosecution, both convincing, detail-oriented, and well thought out. During the witness testimony, the night Zack died, a witness reveals he recorded a video of a fight between Tommy and Zack. The whole courtroom was surprised and caught off guard. As well was I.
But the only person who wasn’t was Marc Rothman, the leader of the prosecution team. Marc knew about the video because he was secretly smiling while watching. He knew what he was doing and purposely let the defendant (Callie) question the witness to reveal the video. He kept evidence and only wanted to reveal it to benefit his team and win the case.
Supposedly, the defendant team knew the witnesses were testifying that there was a fight that night, so they walked right into the trap. It was a clever move, but I’m still on the defendant’s side. Tommy was on the verge of tears seeing that video. There’s no way he killed Zack.
“If this video gets in, we lose all credibility and probably the case.”
Kathleen
The Comedy Group finds out the Truth
With the showcase coming up, Scott has the list of sketches chosen for members to perform. That list includes Alice’s unicorn sketch. When acting out the sketches Scott dislikes them and takes out the funniness, social and cultural commentary and over-corrected it.
After Scott’s rewrites, he starts to like it and laughs, but the members don’t. The members should be free to perform their sketches how they want, and it should be up to them whether to edit, add, or take out anything, not up to Scott.
“We can do these jokes because it’s our experiences and our risk to take”
As a result of his rewrites, the members get frustrated and want to quit. Alice then convinces them to discuss the issues with him and fight for the showcase they want to do. However, the meeting takes a wrong turn. Feeling tired of being the director of this program, Scott quits, which is good news because everyone hated him, including me. He was a horrible director, wasn’t a positive influence, didn’t let members be creative, and shut down any new ideas, thoughts that the group had.
He revealed that Alice only got into the program because she was sleeping with Ruby, the casting director. From hearing this news, members are now questioning whether to trust Alice. And worse, the program is now derailed, and they might cancel the showcase.
Even more, Alice is dealing with the kiss she and Sumi shared in episode 15 during the Lunar Year celebration. When coming home to the Coterie, Alice walks in on Sumi and Lindsay having a conversation and shockingly she finds out about the breakup between them. Sumi broke up with Lindsay because the relationship wasn’t working, and they shared different beliefs. But I also think it was because she has feelings for Alice.
Later on, Ruby walks in, wanting to talk with her, and finds out she was asked to resign from the job and wants to be in a relationship. Alice must make a choice, and I hope she chooses Sumi. Sumi had her back and helped her numerous times while Ruby hadn’t. Ruby didn’t stick up for her when standing up to Scott, and she’s been sending mixed signals and not being direct with her feelings. Sumi’s the better choice.
Taken Advantage Of
Working two jobs and barely sleeping, Malika goes through a lot during this episode. And still, she managed to put someone she cares about before herself. While working at their internship, Malika and Dyonte applied for a grant to fund their mini-campaign. Malika then offers to look over Dyonte’s essay for his application, which is a kind thing to do. She’s dating Dyonte and wants to help get the funding for his campaign on rest. To raise awareness on how rest is not a reward, it’s a right.
But the predicament is she stayed up all night revising and editing his essay and didn’t have time to go over hers. That led her to submit her application without looking over it and risked the chance of not receiving the grant. Instead, Dyonte got the grant. Between them, only one will obtain the full-time position at the activist organization, and they are practically competing. Malika needed to prioritize her time more or maybe not even offer her time at all. And let family or friends show up to help when needed.
Episode 16 was great, important conversations and topics came up, unanticipated truthfulness came out, and we have an Asian love triangle going on. Only three episodes left until the season finale. I am excited and nervous about what’s to come.
