The Fosters Recap: A Disaster Disrupts Several Happy Endings on The Fosters Season Finale

The Fosters brought us a very upsetting season finale this Monday, and that's mostly because it was going so damn well for a while! So many plot points were wrapping up beautifully, people were getting what they wanted, even Callie was ending this season's stretch on an impressive high. So of course - of course - all the joy had to go down the drain in the last minute. But that's television folks, and we love every moment...even if we start to lose our voices from screaming at the TV.

First off in Foster land, the family tries to adjust to Ana's recent move-in. Anna's nervous about taking up space, especially because Brandon's not super thrilled about giving up his room for six weeks - but everyone seems generally cool with it and Ana and Mariana even start some pretty lovely bonding. Things the family's not cool with include Callie's going to spend the weekend with Robert, and Stef reminds her it's really important that Callie say nothing about their emancipation scheme. Lena's not about the secrecy, but that falls to the wayside as we're inundated with the cozy sound of the theme song. Does this really have to be the season finale? Where are we going to get our 'comforting imagines of cereal' fix until summer rolls around, huh?!

Now that the family knows about Stef and Lena adopting Anna's baby, this means there's a slight wrench in Mariana's plans to get the child adopted by Ana's parents. Mariana's pretty sure they'll be fine with the change of plans, since they're older and a baby would be a tough new development anyway. Speaking of grandparents and tough new developments, Robert invites his father and his father's wife over for a 'casual lunch.' Guess what's not casual at all? If you guessed 'the lunch,' you were right, because the moment Robert's dad starts attacking Robert for integrating Callie into their lives in a way that's possibly made Sophia feel worthless while simultaneously pointing out that Callie is happy at the Adams Fosters and shouldn't be torn away from that after her already highly stressful life, the lunch is no longer very casual. Additionally, it can probably be agreed Robert's dad needs a tutorial on what to say around your grandchildren (although shout out to Sophia for getting help with her personality disorder and being super sweet in this episode!). At least the conversation leads to Robert realizing that Callie really does need to stay where she's happy, especially as she assures him he will always be in her life as her father. It seems this conversation might end beautifully and really make for some positive change in Callie's life...and then Robert gets a phone call.

Okay everyone, it's time to talk about Jonnor. Jude, apparently on his own, decides to go visit Connor at the hospital. He's immediately shut down by Connor's dad, who makes him sit outside while he calls Lena. When Lena arrives, she consoles the distraught Jude and he ultimately tells her that there were no girls in the tent during the camping trip that got them in trouble, and now he and Connor are more than friends. He starts crying on her shoulder, and we cry with him. Connor's Dad and Lena have somewhat of a heart-to-heart, where he admits that he doesn't care if Jude is gay, but he doesn't want his son to be. Lena explains that he can try to freeze out any boy Connor might be interested in for the rest of his life, but all that will happen is he'll just get frozen out himself. Apparently this resonates with him, because in the next scene he lets Jude into Connor's room. Connor takes Jude's hand and asks why he's wearing nail polish again. Jude calls it "war paint," then settles in next to Connor on the bed to watch TV. But WAIT! As if that wasn't perfect enough, later on Callie asks Jude how Connor is doing and Jude confidently tells Callie that Connor is his boyfriend. If you heard the sound of unabashed celebration during the time The Fosters was on last night then this, folks, is why.

Is it truly an episode of The Fosters unless we talk about Mariana's dance team? Of course it isn't. To be fair, Mariana has had a lot of other stuff going on this week. Her attempt to convince her grandparents they don't really need Anna's baby didn't go so swimmingly, and they show up at the Adams Foster home to try and convince Anna to keep the baby and come raise it with them. Dilemma dilemma! Even more of a dilemma comes, however, when Mariana sprains her ankle on Jesus' skateboard and can no longer compete in the epic dance off that will determine whether her or Awful Caitlyn's team advances to state. Worry not, though. Since the combined powers of Mariana and Emma clearly equal unending amounts of super genius, the girls are able to create a sixth dancer using motion-capture robot/LED lighting technology and end up with what is probably one of the most amazing dances a high school team has ever done. Whether or not this sixth 'robot dancer' (they needed 6 people to have an official team) ended up being Kosher isn't exactly discussed, but they beat Caitlyn and her crew, so it looks like they're in the clear for many more literally genius dances in the future! Seriously, I'm not even sure if this is legitimately possible, but it was awesome.

Everyone's been doing really well this week, right? Well, let's talk about some stress points. Turns out Robert's phone call was his lawyer telling him about the emancipation plot, and he's so hurt by it that sends Callie back home as soon as he learns the news. Stef tries to brush it off and act like he can't do anything, but Lena knows the second he brings this to the judge they'll lose any opportunity they had for Callie's custody. Robert does indeed call them in to discuss this, and while the family's preparing to be terrified, it turns out he took his dad's and Callie's advice to heart and has decided to sign the papers they needed for Callie to be adopted. Wait - did something good just happen for Callie? It totally did! And it didn't get ruined by the end of the episode (mostly because other things had to get ruined, but still, yay Callie). In less great news, Lena's been confiding in her new principal pal Monty a lot lately. They talk openly about relationship problems, bond over both having had miscarriages, and Monty even jokes about thinking about dating girls since men haven't been working out. In fact, Monty's been getting pretty friendly lately, and hasn't been happier this whole season than when she delivers the news to Lena that they received the grant they needed to keep the school running. Great, right? Wrong! Over champagne, Lena confides in Monty that she's not exactly excited to adopt Anna's baby, and in the moment of intimate revelation, Monty kisses Lena. And Lena kinda kisses back. No! Wait! No! Well, this wasn't exactly a surprise but it hurts nonetheless and we can be staunchly unhappy about it.

Oh! So Brandon had a subplot this week that we should probably mention. He's gearing up to audition for Idyllwild and he's actually doing really well, but Lou keeps trying to siren-song him into returning to the band. However, he still makes it in time for his audition and starts playing beautifully for the judge. His performance is near perfect, except for one pause that happens at exactly the worst moment in the show. Let's talk about that, shall we?

While driving Jesus and Mariana home from the dance competition, Ana starts getting stomach pains. She pulls over and the kids debate over trying to take over, but neither of them are comfortable enough driving yet. Anna tries to dismiss it, but starts to believe she's going into labor. The kids try to calm her down and get her through the rest of the couple block drive to the hospital, but instead a car slams into the passenger side. Next thing we know, Stef is getting a call about a nearby car crash with a definite fatality. Everything about this is chilling, from the actual crash to Brandon pausing his audition with some level of inner sibling knowledge to Stef going to help with an accident she doesn't know will personally effect her deeply. How deeply? We're not yet sure, but as we start the long wait for the summer season premiere, there are a few things we need to break down.

Okay, here's what we know: Jake T. Austin (Jesus, obvs) is definitely not returning as a series regular next season. He declared his done-ness on Twitter, but the publicity of it all seems too spoiler-y to confirm if Jesus was indeed the fatality in the car crash. In this episode, the family discussed the very likely chance he'd be spending next year at boarding school, so it's possible that's where next season will find Jesus. Or not find him, cause Jake T. Austin won't be around. One reason Jesus could have gone to boarding school might be to help distract him from the loss of Mariana if she was indeed the fatality, but the idea of it Mariana is something we don't want to entertain and are going to stop talking about right now. Ana seems like the obvious option for the car crash fatality, and it would put an end to all the grandparents/baby-nerves plot lines going on (unless Ana's baby survives, in which case get ready for some next-level intense plotlines). However, because Ana seems like the obvious option, maybe she isn't and it really is Jesus. And then hell, there's no WAY it's Mariana because we can't lose both Jake T. Austin and Cierra Ramirez at once, right? Right?! One thing we've learned with The Fosters is we've just got to let it take us where it will, even if it makes us cry and question everything and wait an entire season for answers. Regardless of what comes next, here's to Jesus. We've loved you and your random plot lines and terrible tattoos from day one, and we'll be sad to see you go!