Good Trouble Season 1 | Episode 12 “Broken Arted” Review

One thing I love about Good Trouble is that mostly every character gets their time to shine in their own storylines. However, that’s also like a double-edged sword because that also means there’s so much going on, especially with continuous back and forth sort of flashbacks, that it’s hard to keep up with in some episodes. “Broken Arted” is one of those episodes. It centers around Gael’s art show, but then focuses on each character’s own arc leading up to that night. For instance, there’s the love-square between Gael, Bryan, Jamie and Callie. Then there’s Sumi not being over Alice, Malika’s protest and her brother, the Jamal Thompson case, Mariana’s pitch for Speckulate and the pay gap spreadsheet, Davia still being with Jeff, Dennis’s struggles. This isn’t even everything. So, instead of running through every plot point, I’m going to touch on the ones that stick out the most.

Muse

Callie may be exclusive with Jamie, and Gael may be exclusive with Bryan, but that doesn’t mean the chemistry and sexual tension between Callie and Gael is totally gone. It also doesn’t mean they’re entirely over each other. Gael calls upon Callie for help in making a new art piece for his art show in less than 24hrs because he needs eight pieces and his current eighth piece isn’t great. So they put their creative minds together and stay up all night making a wonderful piece. Gael even admits to Callie that he hasn’t felt inspired in months, insinuating that she’s his muse. Everyone at the art show loves the piece, including the gallery owner. Jamie even buys it anonymously so as not to make Gael feel weird about him being the one who purchased it.

The catch, however, is that no one knows that Callie helped him. They let everyone believe that he did it on his own for obvious reasons – i.e. Bryan’s super jealous. A lot of good lying does them, though, when they both forget to wash their hands of the evidence. Bryan spots the clay mud stains (or paint stains, I’m not sure) on Callie’s hands. He doesn’t confront Gael about it until after the show – at least he has the decency to let Gael have his moment –, and it’s then that Gael admits that they should never have become exclusive. Bryan saw this coming because Gael’s been “shut off” since the beginning. He’s bitter and advises Gael that if he keeps approaching relationships the same way, they’ll never last.

Wrong Intentions?

We’ve seen how Evan interacts with Mariana. He’s seemingly different with her than any other Speckulate employee. Maybe it’s the fact that she doesn’t really shy away from him and she’s not afraid to take initiative in the office. Either way, Mariana seems to be helping him become less socially anxious. He doesn’t say as much at the art show, but he does admit that he’s trying to become more social and work on his social anxiety. They get around to talking about Marian’s upcoming app pitch. The problem is her first idea had to be scrapped because apparently, it’s something Speckulate’s done before and Evan nixed it. She has a second idea, but she’s not sure he’d like it. – Side note: I think it should be noted that Casey is the one who told Mariana about her first pitch being done before and that Evan probably won’t like the second one because it doesn’t fit the brand or something like that. I know Casey is typically on Mariana’s side, but I got a weird vibe from her when it came to this. – Anyways, Evan says that the only way to know if he’ll like the idea or not is for her to pitch it right then and there in the gallery. So she does. It’s an app called Activism that helps activists through the process of organizing events such as protests. She seems to have gotten this idea after helping Malika with the Jamal Thompson protest.

To Mariana’s surprise and excitement, Evan absolutely loves the idea. He even sets forth a plan to start meetings and production. Now, you’d think her friend, Raj, would be just as excited for her, but nope. Instead, he voices his concerns about Evan’s intentions. This is a real rich comment coming from him considering how he tried to kiss Mariana while they were working on a project, and Mariana doesn’t hesitate to throw that in his face. Typically, I wouldn’t be concerned with this kind of comment, but Josh and Angela also mention Evan’s interests not being totally professional and another incident involving another woman. I don’t trust Josh and Angela because they’re trying to put an end to Mariana’s pitch, her spreadsheet and even possibly get her fired. That being said, I do need to know more about this illusive other incident involving Evan.

Speaking of Mariana’s spreadsheet, there’s a rumor going around the office that Angela knows about it. If that spreadsheet gets out, Mariana’s job is dunzo since she’s the only one, besides Raj, who put her race down. Raj promises that if she goes down, he’ll go down with her. Maybe they don’t have to worry, though. Back at the office, Angela meets with Mariana and shows that she knows about the spreadsheet. Instead of chastising or firing Mariana, though, Angela hands her a flash drive with the men’s salaries. Hmmm… can we trust Angela after all?

Carrying the Sadness

Dennis doesn’t have a ton of scenes this week, but the few that he does packs a dang punch, I tell you. At first, it’s just his usual banter with Davia about her still being with Jeff and planning to move back to Wisconsin with him even though he hasn’t left his wife yet. – Let’s be clear, she does clarify to him in this episode that she’s not moving to Wisconsin to be his mistress. – Back to Davia and Dennis, before walking away from her at the art show, he tells her to make sure that Jeff takes care of her and that she takes care of herself. This isn’t typical Davia-Dennis banter, and it seemed to throw Davia off a bit too, but she did appreciate his kind advise.

As the episode goes on, however, we see a couple of scenes with Dennis and his old colleague – the one who’s dating his ex-wife and made a deal with Jesus. This guy is backing out of the deal with Jesus because Dennis decided what he wants out of the divorce. Apparently, his ex-wife isn’t too happy about this. She shows up at the lunch and calls him a shitty husband and father. Obviously, this would send almost any man to his knees, but it hits Dennis a little harder. We’ve seen how much he’s carried the sadness of losing his son, but he’s never mentioned it to his Coterie roommates. So, when his ex-wife shows up at the Coterie looking for him, Davia’s confused, especially when she hears a voicemail from Dennis saying he wished he’d died instead of their son. At the revelation of this information, Davia recalls his interactions with everyone at the art show – he was happy and playing along, but she realizes maybe it was his goodbye. As the voicemail is playing and as Davia tries repeatedly calling Dennis, we see Dennis in his car on the top of a parking garage, alone, leaving the message. ☹

Notable Mentions

• On the eve of the Jamal Thompson protest, Malika finally hears back from her brother… something’s wrong.
• Sumi and Meera’s wedding is in a week, but Sumi also admits to Alice that she’s still in love with her.
• Jazmine, Gael’s sister, ultimately decides to take a settlement deal for her discrimination case instead of going to trial.
• Jamie’s investigator gives him and Callie some information regarding the Jamal Thompson case. The police chief at the time of Jamal getting shot was forced into retirement because an investigation discovered he would go around saying it’s “easier and cheaper for the department to let victims of police shootings die.” YIKES. Also, Judge Wilson saw Jamie and Callie talking to this guy.

The Good Trouble Spring finale airs Tuesday at 8/9c on Freeform!