Mariana's Moms CAN'T Forbid Her From Ruining Her Hair?

After a cliffhanger-filled S1 finale, The Fosters has returned for its second-season premiere, bringing with it a whole raft of questions we hope will be answered in the episodes yet to come. Let's dig into some of them.

How believable is the "racist dance team member" storyline, and where can it go?

Maybe I'm super-naïve (or super-Canadian), but is it really credible that a teenaged student at a school in liberal southern California would openly tell another student that the only reason Mariana got on the Anchor Beach dance team is that she's Latina? I mean, in the one bitch's Lexus on the way to get Ice Blendeds after school: sure. But, in the hall? At school? Even taking into account the fact that most TV shows expect you to believe that voices don't carry if the speaker and potential listener aren't facing each other, two feet apart, that's a pretty brazen thing to say when literally anyone can hear you, including the person you're talking about, and her mother is the school vice-principal. Which leads to part (b) of my question, which is how is this plotline going to resolve itself? I feel like a show aimed at teens can't just let bigotry air without repercussions, but on the other hand, what repercussions can there really be? Is this an expellable offense for Paula Deen Jr.? Or will behind-the-target's-back shit-talk be classified as bullying and get addressed in some kind of toothless assembly, never to be mentioned again? Then again, maybe it's not really about the other student at all....

Also...Mariana's moms CAN'T forbid her from ruining her hair?

...and maybe it's more about Mariana overhearing the aspersion cast on her successful dance team audition and responding in a way that brings her own internalized racism to the surface. Stef's response to seeing Mariana touching up her roots is to threaten to tell Mariana she needs to quit dyeing it, which opens the door for Lena to tell her a story from her own childhood, about all the money and effort she spent straightening her hair and the wedge that drove between her and her mother; Lena doesn't, at this point, lean into the racial aspects of both her and Mariana's efforts to change their natural hair, but it feels like a conversation that will come at some point (and is an issue the show hasn't shied away from before). And Mariana is lucky that Lena is there to stick up for her as Mariana works through her own hair/identity issues, because my mom would have had nooooooo problem if I'd tried to dye my hair blonde when I was in high school and if I had a kid I wouldn't either! (On the other hand, Executive Producer Jennifer Lopez isn't exactly rocking the hair she was born with, so maybe this will turn out to be a non-issue.)

What's with the casting on Callie's bio-dad?

Hats off to whomever had the idea of casting Trophy Wife alumna Bailee Madison as Sophia, the half-sister Callie never knew she had. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if one or another of the producers of The Fosters was watching Trophy Wife one night and came up with the idea of giving Callie a sister when he or she saw Madison's dark hair and eyes and sweet round face. The only problem is that Kerr Smith, who plays their father (biological only, in Callie's case) and thus is supposed to have supplied the DNA they share, looks absolutely nothing like either one of them. Why cast that dude when a perfectly good Greg Grunberg is just sitting at home?

Exactly how bad are we supposed to feel for Brandon?

It would certainly be terrible for Brandon if the smashening Vico delivered on his hand kept Brandon from ever playing the piano again. And violence is never the answer to any kind of dispute. Buuuuuuut maybe Brandon shouldn't have gone into the fake ID business with a sketchy dude with anger problems? Sometimes we bring heartache on ourselves. (Also hand-ache.) Furthermore, Brandon is really testing the limits of my empathy for his situation by slut-shaming Dani for sleeping with HIM. Don't get me wrong: Dani is not a well woman and all Fosters will be better off when she clears out of their lives and returns to This Bitch Island, but if Brandon is not prepared to force the issue for Mike by telling him she's not so much with the fidelity and also how he knows that, then maybe he shouldn't be so judgy that she's not being honest about the situation either. Basically, I'm sick of Brandon's mopey hangdog face. Quit making eyes at Callie and go do your hand PT exercises, OFFSCREEN.

Where can I place an order for more Daphne?

It's not that Callie doesn't have good reasons for self-pity, because she does -- especially this week, what with the temp foster mom who LOCKED HER IN HER BEDROOM OVERNIGHT. It's that it's useful for all of the show's characters -- even Wyatt -- to have regular interaction with someone who'll remind them that there are people who would LOVE to have their kind of high-class problems.