Let's Stay Together

The promise of the lovey last episode was fulfilled in the season finale of The Fosters, as Lena (Sherri Saum) and Stef (Teri Polo) followed through on Stef's proposal and got married in their back yard, and it was a beautiful, perfect moment that was deepened by the wrangling that preceded it, and threatened by the impetuous decision that followed it, all in all making for a mid-season finale that, even when it was frustrating, felt...right.

First, the happy couple. I love that the show not only brought back Lena's mother (Lorraine Toussaint) but introduced her father, the suddenly everywhere Stephen Collins, and gave him the duty of officiating the ceremony, because who better than RevCam? The class-based clashes between Toussaint's Dana and Sharon (Annie Potts), Stef's mom, were treated with typical subtlety, and underlined what hadn't quite been spelled out before: Stef's beginnings are a little humbler than Lena's, and as in the planning of any other wedding, this is going to make the mothers of the spouses-to-be touchy and territorial but ultimately get over themselves.

Underlying all the questions about the wedding itself -- will Lena and Stef walk down the aisle? will they write their own vows? -- is the hesitancy on Stef's part that has delayed the wedding to this point: partly, we can chalk it up to her having been (unsuccessfully) married once before, but also, the all-lady format is leading her to question/dismiss the traditional elements of the ceremony and make Lena feel like shit. When Stef finally figures out that the reason she's been so critical of the event is that she's been hearing her father's negativity in her head, she's able to confront him about it and move on to the happiness she deserves, and the reconciliation between her and Lena is sweet but also...unexpectedly sexy for this mostly pretty chaste show, and good for ABC Family for not being too chickenshit to show two women in bed, post-coital and shirtless, not even with the Bullshit Bras Of Bowing To Idiotic Network Standards.

Having confirmed that they really do for sure want to marry each other, Stef and Lena move on to the resolving the precipitating event that launched the series, telling Jude (Hayden Byerly) and Callie (Maia Mitchell) they do want to adopt them after all. This is very happy news for Jude, who has been little seen this season but who seems to be settling in with the family pretty well. It's less welcome news for Callie. Lena and Stef have supported her through the legal proceedings she's brought against former foster brother Liam (Brandon Jones) for raping her years before -- and by the way, more kudos to this show for children for (a) calling it rape and leaving no doubt that's what it is; (b)   portraying a depressing yet realistic version of what would probably happen under the circumstances, in terms of the case having virtually no chance of success; and (c) not capping it off with a fake feel-good ending, but instead respecting the audience enough to trust that even its youngest and most sensitive members would rather watch something truthful than something sanitized. Callie seems to love Stef and Lena and even refers to them as "Mom" in this episode, which seems like a big deal, so her being adopted by the family should be great news for her, too. However, in the last episode, her sort-of boyfriend Wyatt (Alex Saxon) figured out that she really has a crush on Brandon (David Lambert), and encouraged her to pursue Brandon on the grounds that Stef and Lena aren't "keeping" her anyway. Now that they are, Callie and Brandon will just cut off all that crackling sexual tension like it never existed, right?

Screen: ABC Family

Well, no. But at least no one found out about it, right?

Screen: ABC Family

Wrong again!

Of course the prospect of suddenly being brother and sister didn't ice up Callie and Brandon's hot pants because what could be hotter? On TV, I mean -- I'm not advocating incest, not even among non-biologically-related relatives, in real life. BUT: I do think the reason it's become prevalent in pop culture (see also: George-Michael and Maeby on Arrested Development; Nancy and Andy on Weeds; Clare and Jake on Degrassi; Serena and Dan on Gossip Girl; this is going back a ways but Margot and Richie in The Royal Tenenbaums) is that acceptance of all sorts of sexual expression -- while great for society -- means there are hardly any taboos anymore, and this is a big one. And technically no one is breaking any natural laws. While I would never argue that Callie and Brandon aren't about to be siblings because I don't need the wrath of the adoption community raining fire on me, they've also technically only been about to be siblings for, by my estimation, four or five hours. If they want to get down, who can really blame them?

Okay, Jude can -- and does, or rather, he blames Callie for being selfish by potentially messing up the only family that would probably ever want to adopt them both. And Callie agrees not to be selfish anymore...which in her interpretation means packing up her things and taking her bindle to Wyatt's, setting off with him to parts unknown (that's what I call the midwest). As we leave the other Fosters, in their separate untroubled slumbers, Callie thinks she's doing them all a favour by taking off forever, so assumedly when the season resumes, it will be about Lena and Stef showing her that they aren't better off without her.

All in all: great. My one criticism is of how recessive Jesus (Jake T. Austin), Mariana (Cierra Ramirez), and Jude became as the season wound up; presumably they could still have interesting plotlines even if they're not in crisis -- although with Lexi (Bianca A. Santos) about to depart San Diego with her parents, all of them undocumented and with no plans as to how they might return, Mariana and Jesus may have more to do when the show returns. But I truly found everything else pretty perfect, and since I know that the Callie/Brandon thing can't continue if this is still going to be a respectable show, and since its producers haven't shied away from tough outcomes before, I am dying to know how they write their way out of this one.