Recently, I discovered ABC Family’s The Fosters on Netflix and immediately fell in love with the multi-cultural family drama about an interracial lesbian couple’s struggles raising a large family of adopted kids. It has become one of my new obsessions. After a drama filled mid-season cliffhanger, the show returns this week, as part of ABC Family’s 25 Days of Christmas promotion, with its very first Christmas Episode.
Generally, I’m not a fan of special episodes that aren’t connected to the current plotline, but I was pleasantly surprised when the episode picked up right where the fall finale left. I actually kept checking the screener to make sure that I was watching the X-Mas special and not the winter premiere.
We get a mini-resolution to the controversial Callie (Maia Mitchell)/Brandon (David Lambert) kiss. Callie, reeling after finding out that her bio dad, Robert isn’t going to allow Stef and Lena to adopt her seeks comfort in her potential foster brother Brandon’s arms.
I’ve never been a fan of Braille; until this episode the show hasn’t done much this season to show that the two are even friends much less star-crossed lovers. Looking back at Season 2, you can see what the writers were trying to do – show them maintaining respectful distance from each other and trying to move on. Brandon tells Callie he needs some space to think. He flashes back to the first Christmas Callie and Jude (Hayden Byerly) spent with the family.
At this point the episode becomes a standard “moment in time” Christmas episode with most of the special taking place in The Fosters house. Lena (Sherri Saum) is upset that her parents chose to spend the holidays with her half brother instead with her and Stef (Teri Polo) is upset that her father left his life insurance money to her mother (Annie Potts) instead of her family who needs it more. Meanwhile Callie, Brandon, Jude go X-mas shopping while Jesus (Jake T. Austin) becomes obsessed with winning the neighborhood Holiday decorations contest. Marianna (Cierra Ramirez) doesn’t do much this episode.
Once again we get an entire episode of the show where Callie and Jesus don’t say anything to each other. Is there some off screen drama going on between Maia and Jake or are the writers trying to create a new drinking game “Have a drink every time the two are in the same room but don’t speak directly to each other?”
It seems like they are going all in with Braille in the 2nd half of the season, there was more interaction between Brandon/Callie in this X-Mas episode than we’ve seen during the entire first 10 eps of the season.
Brandon helps Callie resolve a sensitive situation with her friend Daphne (Daffany McGaray Clark) and there are a lot of nice little moments with the two just hanging out, talking, laughing and generally being friends. After viewing the special, I found myself thinking that maybe they wouldn’t be horrible as a couple. It felt forced in season one before they abandoned the idea. If the creative team goes down this route they need to have a lot more moments like the ones shown here to get the audience to properly buy into the relationship.
The rest of the episode feels like filler. Stef arguing with her mother over her dad’s estate and her worries for the kids’ future seemed a bit out of place or at the very least retroactively applied to the last few episodes of the season where we see Stef berate Lena for quitting her job over the Jude situation. It feels like money and their ability to take care of their kids is going to become a bone of contention when they fight Robert for custody of Callie.
It was also strange to throw in the idea that Lena has a half-brother that she doesn’t get along with. Seems geared towards foreshadowing a parallel between Jude and Sophia (Bailee Madison). Especially when she uncharacteristically lashes out to Stephanie about her half-brother not being “real” family, which Jude overhears.
As far as stand alone Christmas specials go, this was a pretty solid outing for the Fosters family and does a lot to push the plot forward, or at the very least give fans a small taste of what’s in store for the 2nd half of the season.
Final Grade A-