The Expendable Fosters

After the midseason premiere of The Fosters, one of my biggest questions was what Jesus and Mariana were still doing here. Two episodes later, I think I have the answer: nothing much.

The worst part of my picking on a couple of fictional kids is that their dullness is not their fault. In fact, I think it's actually making a point. Before Callie and, later, Jude joined the Foster family, Jesus and Mariana were the ones who'd most recently lived in chaos, and one of Mariana's early storylines reflected that, as she stole her brother's ADHD drugs and sold them in order to funnel the money to the biological mother she was seeing on the sly. As a kind-hearted person, Mariana is trying to share some of the plenty she enjoys in her new family with the biological parent who couldn't take proper care of her children, and now can't take proper care of herself. These are the actions of a child who, years after her placement in a stable family, still feels her loyalties divided, but the resolution of this plotline for both her and Jesus served to put them fully on the side of their adoptive parents and sibling.

But the addition of Callie and Jude to the mix kind of meant that the two of them took over from Jesus and Mariana in the Most Troubled slots, as we've certainly seen in the few episodes since the show returned with new episodes earlier this month. Callie is so determined to act out that she's acted all the way out of the house: running away, getting picked up for shoplifting, being placed in a group home, and immediately breaking house rules by shoving another resident and then canoodling with Brandon, her current forbidden love/maybe future brother. Meanwhile, Jude is struggling with the effects of Callie's short-sighted selfishness, from guilt for having seen her and Brandon kissing and making her take off in the first place to fear that her actions will result in Stef and Lena changing their minds about adopting him (leading to his preparatory food hoarding in the latest episode). Mariana and Jesus would have to get pretty creative with their bad behaviour in order to be competitive with the Jacobs.

And the point is, Mariana and Jesus shouldn't be as disruptive as Jude and Callie. Having been adopted when they were younger than Jude is now, they shouldn't still be having the same sorts of problems as when they first arrived. It's important for a show like this, when it takes on the challenge of a difficult issue like foster care, to portray it thoughtfully for viewers who have no direct experience with it. In other words, raising a social issue on a scripted show carries with it an inherent element of social responsibility. Just as important as showing the problems that new foster kids would experience is showing that adopted foster kids can, with the help of a loving family, grow up into normal teenagers who have normal teenage problems. So that's where Mariana and Jesus are: she's getting turned into a scapegoat by a jealous girl, and he's getting hazed on the wrestling team. It's fine? But it's no getting a restraining order taken out against you BY YOUR OWN PARENTS so you stay away from the foster sister you claim to be in love with, you know?

So while I admire (what I assume is) the theory behind giving Jesus and Mariana plotlines with fewer fireworks than their siblings', the practical effect is to make the time we spend with them feel eminently fast-forwardable — particularly since they don't seem to have any relation to any other characters' in the family. Last week, when Mariana invited Jude to sleep in Callie's bed while she's away, I had hoped it was the prelude to a new phase in their relationship, with Jude learning what it's like to have a big sister he can depend on and Mariana learning to be protective of the new "baby" of the family. But then it was back to a school-play love quadrangle (which, by the way, the Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead-quoting sewing machine repairman is straight? Please). As a person, I'm happy that, after some recent hiccups, Mariana and Jesus have integrated so well into their adoptive family. As a viewer, I'm less interested in them than I am in their brother, who's totes getting catfished by a transboy.