When Callie sees AJ doing something unexpected, she sets out to reconnect with her boyfriend in this episode of The Fosters, titled “Diamond in the Rough.” Plus, Stef starts her new job, Lena deals with the administrative politics of Anchor Beach, and Mariana and Jesus come up with a brilliant project that could help jump-start Jesus’ progress with his traumatic brain injury.
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A Diamond Under Pressure
Stef starts work in the human trafficking division at the police station. Through that, she meets a young girl, Diamond, a sex worker picked up by the police whose “John” managed to get away even though she didn’t. Stef talks one-on-one with her and tries to connect, eventually giving her her phone number under an alias business name to call if she needs her or is interested in getting off the street.
It’s a good thing Stef did that because not long after, Diamond gets roughed up by another client, and the cops are called to the hotel room they’re in. She calls Stef for help, and the officer tells her that Diamond can help them build a case against her pimp, Russell, and get him off the street. She promises they can keep the girl safe, but Diamond says that if she’s sent to juvie, Russell has gang connections inside and she won’t ever be safe there.
So Stef arranges for the girl to be sent to Girls United, the group home run by Rita that Callie once lived in instead. She brings Diamond around when Callie and many of the girls are getting signatures for foster care reform outside of a market and later tells Callie to keep an eye out for her. But on one of the days the girls are getting signatures, Diamond sneaks Callie’s phone out of her bag and manages to make a call in the bathroom to Russell, with Callie oblivious outside the door.
Diamond’s Deception
Russell tells Diamond that in order to get back in his good graces, she has to bring him one of the other girls so he can use her in his operation. The last we see of Diamond, she’s chatting up another Girls United member, Cristina, after hearing her sing to herself, and she tells her that her “boyfriend” knows a music producer that can help her get a record deal. Uh oh.
And that’s after Diamond tells Stef that she’s willing to help get Russell off the street, so Stef and Callie are likely to be even more disappointed than ever if Diamond truly goes back to her pimp. We’ll see how that all turns out.
AJ and Callie Reconnect
Early on in the episode, Callie goes to meet up with AJ where he’s playing basketball, only to see him kissing another girl, Dawn, who we met in a previous episode of The Fosters. She leaves without confronting him but later talks to Mariana about the situation.
They decide together that maybe AJ is feeling neglected, and Callie resolves to make him feel reassured of their relationship. She goes over to his and Mike’s place and, when Mike leaves, goes to surprise her boyfriend in the shower — but she’s quickly rebuffed by AJ and clearly confused and hurt by his reaction.
When AJ goes to talk to her, he claims she just took him by surprise, but she then confronts him about whether they are “okay.” She admits that she’s been in her own world and maybe not paying enough attention to him and gets him to open up. He talks about not wanting to hurt either Mike or his brother, Ty, over Mike’s offer to adopt him, and Callie reassures him in a different way — relating the situation to her dealing with her biological father, Robert.
Callie tells AJ that she chose what felt like “home” and says that he too needs to do what’s best for him. Then they kiss, and there’s your basic switch to another scene that implies that the two of them then did a lot more than reconnect emotionally.
AJ’s Confession
Callie later tells her Girls United friend that everything is okay between her and AJ, but later when the couple is being flirty and playing basketball together, Callie makes a comment about being sporty too. AJ then questions whether she saw him and Dawn kiss, and she admits that she did.
But when Callie relates it to Aaron kissing her and it not meaning anything, AJ can’t agree that it’s the same sort of situation because, as it turns out, it did mean something. AJ likes Dawn because it’s “easy” with her, as opposed to how hard things are with Callie. Though he admits that he loves her, it’s unclear where these two lovebirds will go from here.
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Jesus’ Big Project
Jesus is still struggling with his traumatic brain injury, and Lena reveals early on in this episode of The Fosters that she knows he can’t read. He admits that he’s really tired of the whole thing and emotionally asks why no one can “fix” him. Poor kid.
Jesus gets glasses to help him read, though Lena explains to Brandon and Mariana that it’s his brain that needs help, not his eyes. Brandon makes a stupid comment about them that embarrasses Jesus, and Mariana spends the rest of the episode trying to make her twin feel better about having to wear them.
Mariana also spends the episode on another mission — trying to get an idea for Jesus’ senior project approved. It might seem like they’re thinking about that a little early, and it’s true; the twins are only juniors, and most kids in their grade aren’t thinking about their project yet.
But Mariana catches Jesus sketching a tree house one night, and they talk about a book series about a magic time-traveling tree house that they loved when they were little. So Mariana goes to her moms with an idea — what if Gabe could help Jesus build a tree house based on his designs, in a park or something, as his senior project for school? She argues that some kids get started early, and Lena brings up the fact that such a project could actually help their son’s brain.
Another Secret
The project would be expensive, but Mariana has a solution to that. Some kids get funding through the school to help with the project if it goes towards something for the community. Lena agrees but says he would have to get the whole thing signed off by Drew, her replacement at Anchor Beach, in order for that to be approved.
So the twins go meet with the interim Vice Principal and seem to make a strong case for the project. However, Lena later breaks the news that Drew didn’t approve it, on the grounds that Jesus may not be a senior at Anchor Beach the next year — or ever, if he ends up having to attend a special school instead.
But Mariana, afraid of letting her brother down, lies to him and says he got approval but only if Mariana makes it her project too. She pulls off the deception, and there’s a cute scene that involves Jesus asking her to read one of the magic tree house books to him.
But afterwards, Mariana feels bad about the secret and tweets to her anonymous Twitter account — the one about secrets — about her guilt. Man, that thing is going to come back to bite her eventually, isn’t it?
Trouble at Anchor Beach
Lena is confronted by Monte and Drew about Drew finding out that kids without permission slips attended the same sex-sex education class Lena put on outside of school, and she promises to take full responsibility if there’s backlash about the situation from parents. Later, she confesses to Stef that she’s worried Drew is out for her job, based on a feeling she gets and the fact that he’s leaving her off of important work e-mails.
At a meeting about accreditation for the school, someone brings up the fact that there was, in fact, a parental complaint about the class. Lena takes responsibility and says the whole thing wasn’t affiliated with Anchor Beach. In a surprising twist, the class isn’t the problem; the fact that the kids needed permission slips from the school to attend, however, is.
The argument is made that the school is now liable as a result of the permission slips, and since Monte was the one who insisted on them, she’s asked to resign. Later on, another person in the meeting tells Lena that there was never a parental complaint at all; it was Drew who brought up the class and permission slips, and now he’s been made interim principal in Monte’s place. School administrative politics are messy, huh?
Mike’s Offer(s)
In another storyline for AJ, Mike brings up his offer of adoption again with the teenage boy he’s fostering. He’s not looking to pressure him, just to get a feel for where AJ is at with his decision. AJ admits that his brother, Ty, wants him to move in with him when he’s out of jail. And even though he initially brings up the fact that he thinks Mike only wants to adopt him so Ana can move in, Mike quickly reassures him that that’s not the case. He loves AJ, and the boy is family no matter what.
Mike tells him that AJ isn’t going anywhere, that he’s the priority even if he doesn’t want to be adopted, and he and Ana can deal with the situation without changing that. AJ, of course, brings up how badly he feels to Callie later, and he’s clearly conflicted about the whole thing for most of the episode.
However, later on, Mike brings up the idea of Ana and her baby moving into a one-bedroom apartment down the hall instead and suggests that when Ty is out of jail, he and AJ can move in there while Ana and her daughter move in with Mike instead.
AJ is hesitant, worried that he and Ty couldn’t afford the rent on the place, but Mike tells him he’s been saving up the money he gets from the state to take care of AJ and was planning to give it to him anyway so they could use that to cover the rent at first. That’s convenient, isn’t it?
AJ hugs Mike and thanks him for the offer, and it looks like that’s the option they’ll probably go with in the end. But who knows? This is The Fosters, after all, and anything can happen.
But questions still remain at the end of the episode. Emma texted Brandon about hiding her letter to Jesus, and though not much comes of it in this episode, will the letter be a problem in the future? Plus, when Mariana tries to call Gabe about Jesus’ project, his number is no longer in service. So what happened to their birth father? And are AJ and Callie done with their relationship for good? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
The Fosters season 4 airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on Freeform. Want more news? Like BuddyTV’s Facebook page.
(Image courtesy of Freeform)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
