Good Trouble Season 1 | Episode 8 “Byte Club” Review

Another Adams Foster family member comes to visit Callie and Mariana in episode eight of Good Trouble. Mariana’s twin brother, Jesus (played by the internet’s boyfriend, Noah Centineo), pays a visit to his sisters, and boy is he busy. Not only does he land a backer for his new business endeavor, but he also gives Mariana some of brotherly advice about her job and meets a girl that no one was expecting, especially Callie. Speaking of Mariana and Callie. Mariana starts fighting for the women at Speckulate while Callie learns a secret about Rebecca and overhears an argument between Judge Wilson and his son.

“All abuse is bad.”

Early in the episode, Rebecca and Callie clerk a court hearing about sexual harassment in the workplace. Rebecca doesn’t believe the woman has a case, but Callie thinks she deserves the benefit of the doubt. As much as Callie tries to convince her, Rebecca doesn’t budge on her opinion. Later, at clerk cocktails, they meet fellow clerk, Kate. Once she says that she clerks for Rebecca’s old boss, Judge Handleman, Rebecca clams up and walks away. It turns out, the reason Rebecca transferred from “Handsy-man” (as he’s known as) because he’d continuously sexually harass her.

Callie gets Rebecca to open up about the situation by recalling her own rape and how her rapist never paid the consequences. Rebecca details Handleman’s actions but brushes it off as not being as bad as rape. “All abuse is bad,” Callie states. Rebecca had no one to file a complaint with because judges don’t have bosses or HR departments. So, she told her family, but after pulling some strings to get her in with Wilson, her grandfather advised her to stay quiet about the whole thing and Handleman wouldn’t get anymore female clerks. Callie worries that Handleman’s doing the same thing to Kate, and encourages Rebecca to come forward, but she won’t because she wants to protect her family’s good name. She does asks Callie not to tell anyone either.

Changing the Culture

Remember at the end of last week’s episode how Mariana sent out an email to her fellow female coworkers about starting a group for each other? Well, they have their first tech fight club meeting, or as Mariana likes to call it – “Byte Club.” The ladies are slow to open up at first, but once the wine starts flowing, so do their similar stories of feeling belittled at Speckulate. Mariana states that they need to fight back and not just vent. So, they come up with tips on navigating the common problems they all experience in the office. With the help of another female co-worker, Mariana implements these tips into a meeting, and she finally gets acknowledged and appreciated for her ideas! You go, girls! Raj comes up to her after the meeting saying how great her ideas are and he wants her help on the social media project, but Mariana declines because Alex doesn’t want her working on it and she won’t do it anonymously.

After being called out and encouraged by Jesus, Mariana meets with the girls again to declare that they need to change the culture, not just navigate it. Their first step? Demanding equal pay. She suggests they share their salaries and find out what the guys make before demanding the same for themselves. However, everyone’s signed NDAs, so they have to go about it anonymously. Mariana asks for Raj’s help, but he’s hesitant at first. We’re actually led to believe he goes to the head lady boss, Angela, to warn her of Mariana’s plans, but thankfully that wasn’t the case. Angela comes into the team office and calls the team out, specifically Alex, for not including Mariana. Alex, of course, is butt-hurt and blames Mariana for tattle-telling, but Raj admits it was him and tells Mariana he’ll help with the salary spreadsheet. Woohoo! Maybe there’s hope for you yet, Raj!

Tiny Houses & Brotherly Advice

Jesus was hands-down my favorite character on The Fosters, but I wasn’t really a fan of his career being a treehouse contractor. It’s unique and all, but I just felt like he could do more, even with his TBI. Anyways, he talks to his sisters and Dennis about possibly working for someone else instead of himself. At first, Dennis doesn’t think he should because he hated his own corporate job. However, Jesus has this idea of building tiny houses, but he’d need a huge loan. Dennis thinks he knows just the person. They meet his ex-colleague, Nathan, and things go really well. So well that Jesus later tells Callie and Mariana that Nathan loved his idea and he’s going to back him. His excitement is poor timing, though, as Mariana had just told him about finally being acknowledged at work and Jesus accused her of settling for scraps. The whole conversation bums her out, so she goes home.

Callie and Jesus follow her, and Mariana explains to Jesus why she’s upset. Everything seems to come easy for him because he’s a guy. Jesus is quick to argue that nothing’s come easy for him because of his TBI. His comment about settling for scraps wasn’t meant to hurt her. He just hates how the guys are treating her, and he knows and loves Mariana. She’s way smarter than those guys, and he doesn’t want her playing down to their level. Awww! I love Mariana and Jesus’ sibling bond so much. 😊

Notable Mentions

• Jesus and Rebecca??? I’m not sure how to feel about this. They have chemistry, but I’m pretty sure Jesus won’t be sticking around on the show. So it’s kind of weird to tease a possible relationship. If it was just a one-time thing, that’s fine, but it seemed like it was going to be more. Also, what happened to his girlfriend from The Fosters, Emma?
• Callie and Jamie making out in the bar bathroom at the clerk cocktail party. The way he looks at her and kisses her again before having to leave. UGH! I am officially 100% all about this ship.

• The dynamic between Callie and Judge Wilson is really interesting. He seems to really believe in her and her values, and it shows in their conversation after Callie overhears his argument with his son. Wilson is curious as to how she succeeded without screwing up in law school after such a rough childhood. Callie credits her adoptive moms for making her feel wanted and like she could achieve anything. Wilson then confesses that his son has no respect for he and his wife because he’s privileged. He takes partial blame for that, but also believes character is something you’re born with or not. He tells Callie that she has character and to not compromise that as she moves forward in her career.
• Dennis being sad that his soon-to-be ex-wife has moved on with his old cooperate colleague. ☹
• Davia telling Callie about Gael and Bryan’s newly “exclusive” relationship and Callie clapping back with all the sass was amazing.

Good Trouble airs Tuesdays at 8/9c on Freeform!

Featured Image: SpoilerTV