‘The Fosters’ season 4, episode 4 review: Mariana visits Nick; Brandon and Cortney’s party

Who thought that Brandon having a party with Cortney on Monday night’s new episode of “The Fosters” was going to be a good idea? These two already have about a billion different things on their plates, and they still tried to get away from it all for just a few hours while Mason was away.

Unfortunately, in the process things went from bad to worse. First, Cortney heard Brandon downplay his role as a father to Mason (something that couldn’t have been great to hear); while he did apologize for it later, that did have us worried. The same goes for the realization that Mason’s dad was suing her for full custody of the child. These two are still together, and Brandon seems committed to being with her. Yet, at the same time we don’t see them being endgame. We just hope that in the event the two of them end, it’s not because Cortney is a bad person or someone cheats. Sometimes people just break up.

Elsewhere over the course of the hour, we saw Callie and AJ go on a tour of some of her past foster homes, which forced her into looking at her past. Specifically, she had a hard time when it comes to dealing with a former foster brother in Kyle who was convicted of a crime he did not commit.

Mariana concluded the episode by paying a visit to Nick, who she realized she had to make some harsh confessions to, including that she did not actually want to be with him. We cannot imagine how difficult this must have been for her to be there, and massive kudos to the writers for being delicate and real with this. Unfortunately, it became all the harder when he admitted that her confessional of love was the reason why he didn’t kill himself. She couldn’t bring herself to tell him the truth.

Through the midst of all of this pain, there was still a moment of happiness: Gabe being removed from the registered sex offender list. Hopefully, this will help Lena in the struggle to keep her job, as well. This was another great episode that continues the trajectory of a really strong season. Grade: A-.

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