Trust us, we couldn't be happier that the Fosters is back on TV, but we definitely wish things could be happier for the Adams Fosters themselves! Some time has passed since the turmoil-laden season one finale, and everything almost seems back on track. Brandon has just about nearly recovered from getting viciously attacked by Vico n' Friends, Lena's pregnancy is going full-force, and Mike has asked Dani (who, remember, slept with Brandon) to move in with him. Jude's also just received his birth certificate, a happy moment darkened by the fact that, despite doing everything they can to fight it in court, Callie can still not be adopted until she turns 18 or her birth father, Robert Quinn, who may not even know she was ever born, is contacted and gives up parental rights himself. Oh Callie, surely this is the season where things finally start really looking up for you, rather than starting to go well and then plummeting off a cliff!
Curious about what happened immediately after Brandon's attack last season? You're in luck, because it's flashback time! Stef and Lena show up to the hospital, where a badly beaten Brandon is lying groggily in bed. The worst news is that one of his hands is completely crushed- not exactly ideal for a pianist who just got into junior symphony. Luckily, we jump into real time rather quickly, and the doctor is pretty sure that Brandon, who's back to his old bruise-free, brooding self, will be able to play piano again just like he did before. Not bad for a guy who previously looked like this:
Heavens forbid we forget about Mariana! She's preparing to audition for the school's oddly talented dance troupe, lead by a cute new girl with mad Step Up skills. Apparently an important plot point here is that the school lost their gym, so the wrestling boys/Jesus' official GF Emma must share a space with the dancers now. The boys are also trying to keep a group paintball outting from Emma, who used to be 'one of the guys' pre-Jesus. But most importantly of all, Mariana is blonde now. What on earth would we have done without that development?!
Back at work, Mike discovers Stef is trying to locate Jesus and Mariana's birth mother Ana again. She claims she wants to keep an eye on her after everything that happened with all the kids, and while Mike tries to shut her down, it's not impossible to see why this may not be the worst thing. We all know things tend to get complicated when Ana's involved, especially considering that when we left off last season a bloodied Mike hinted at potentially having murdered her. Speaking of complicated, Callie and Brandon are actually semi-successful at being bro and sis rather than boyfriend/girlfriend.
They share a brief heart-to-heart where Callie explains she'd rather wait till she's 18 to get adopted than try to find her birth father. Brandon and Callie's official boyfriend Wyatt then share a quick heart-to-heart while Wyatt waits for Callie to get dressed. It's awkward, but not as awkward as Callie and Wyatt necking at her new job. Come on, you crazy kids, this is a food handling service!
Turns out there is kinda a point behind the whole Mariana's bleached hair situation, everyone. Stef suggests Mariana go back to her natural color, but Lena's Team Bleach, explaining she understands what it's like to want to fit in with the other girls in school. If they let Mariana live out these life choices without a fight, it'll save relationships from potentially imploding. But, shockingly, Mariana's hair is the least of anyone's problems. Just as the Adams Fosters are sitting down to one of their classic family dinners, a social worker arrives to inform them of basically the worst news they could get - their fostering license is up and since they weren't able to adopt Callie she's got to move out ASAP. I feel like The Fosters does enough research for this to actually be how this might work, but wow. This is just far too rough, and poor Callie was so damn close to happy.
Stef and Lena clearly feel pretty terrible about this whole mix up and insist that they'll get an emergency foster-renewal from the judge the next day and have her home by tomorrow night (wanna place bets this won't go well?). Callie's still forced to move out that night, and the heartbreaking cherry on top of the tragedy cake is Jude's attempt to leave with her. Ah, but he's adopted now and can't leave, and so Callie is sent to live with a seemingly pleasant enough older foster lady for the night. In the 'your problems really aren't that bad' corner, Emma confesses to Jesus that she feels like she lost all her friends after going from just another guy on the wrestling team to Jesus' Girlfriend. She wasn't even invited to paintball with them. Okay, Emma, you're darling, but now is really not the time.
It's a rough night for everybody. Brandon, whose new pastime of choice is sitting at his keyboard while listening to old piano tracks, confesses to Stef that Mike starting drinking again and ending up bloody in his bathroom after the dance from last season's finale. He thinks its his fault, but even though Brandon's made a lot of massive mistakes recently, his father's emotional descent isn't one of them. To cap off this wonderful evening, Callie is locked into her room by her new foster mom, who wants to keep up her track record of never having a runaway. I swear, at least 30% of this show is just Callie's incredibly crushing crying face.
In More Bad News Land (it's really only Bad News Land this week), the family is pretty bummed to hear that Vico only got two years probation and a transfer to military school for nearly murdering Brandon. Can't win 'em all (or apparently any of them, in this week's case). Jesus tries to make things right with Emma by quitting the wrestling team, but of course she's not cool with him making such a drastic change in his own life to make her happy. She won't let him quit the team, and insists on talking to the guys herself. And because more bad things come in threes, the back-to-brunette (in flashback) Mariana who should be celebrating officially making the dance team, overhears a girl telling her friend that Mariana only made the team "because she's Latin. They have to have diversity." Can no one celebrate anything these days?!
I lied! Bad things come in hundreds, because after waiting for the judge to talk about Callie coming home, Stef learns he left for the day and now Callie will have to spend the weekend at her new foster home. But Stef will not be treated so passively! She finds the judge before he leaves and pleads with him to let Callie come home. The judge doesn't totally love being so aggressively approached and tells Stef she needs to think very carefully about what she's going to say next. Apparently she chose wisely, because next thing we know Stef and the social worker storm the foster home and Callie is returned to the Adams Foster household! Well, we've overcome one problem. What's next? But sadness aside, the entire family gathers to listen to an adorable essay Jude wrote about the rocky quest to his 'Forever Family.' His essay is so inspiring (and Callie's life so stressful) that she announces her new decision: to find Robert Quinn and get officially adopted, so that she can no longer be torn from her home.
Brandon shows up at Mike's, and he's got some bummer news. Not that he slept with Dani (we'll save that one for later), but that he in fact can't feel some of his fingers and isn't sure he'll ever be able to play piano again. Mike sits him down for some practice, but Brandon breaks down over not being able to feel the keys. I never thought I'd feel sorry for Brandon, but this is pretty tough. Get better soon, bro!
In surprisingly uplifting news, Stef learns that Callie's birth father has been located and served with abandonment papers. Stef then goes forth to continue her quest to find Ana and finally learns from a witness what we all suspected; Mike did get into some sort of altercation with Ana, but we still don't know if it ended in murder. But apparently that's not a chilling enough cliffhanger, and so we instead leave off with Callie serving a mysterious generous and mysterious fellow at the restaurant she works at. We can pretty much tell from the get-go that this is Robert Quinn, but the real surprise happens when he gets into a car with a slightly-younger-looking version of Callie played by guest star Bailee Madison. Say hello to Callie's half-sister, everyone! And say hello to what is sure to be one hell of a second season...
