The Fosters season 5 episode 8 review: Engagements in many forms

Through most of The Fosters season 5 episode 8, we watched with this prevailing sense of dread that something awful would happen. However, by and large we would say that in the closing minutes tonight, we uttered a sigh of relief. Callie didn’t get arrested at the campus rally, Gabe didn’t cause Mike and Ana to split up, and while Jesus and Emma may not be together anymore in his mind, it doesn’t feel like the relationship between the two is over by any means.

Jesus, instead, was acting out after the only broken engagement in the episode: Emma’s. She told Jesus that she didn’t want to marry him, but it wasn’t out of malice or any sort of disdain that she had for him. Instead, it was more out of a fear that she was the only reason that he wanted to better himself, and that is a whole lot of pressure (or, too much pressure) for a young girl to have to take on. He’s lucky that she is as mature as she is so that they can get past this.

Many of the other kids are finding themselves in some of their own relationship pickles at the moment, even if they are struggling to be fully aware of them. Take, for example, Jude realizing that Noah gave him some bad advice when it comes to how to handle his new gaming gig — all of a sudden, he may be forced to lie, and that’s not easy when you think about him trying to have a career on the internet. Meanwhile, Callie doesn’t quite realize the anxiety that Aaron is starting to have about AJ being back around; he’s got a chance to take on a great summer gig in New York, and he’s probably feeling very uneasy just because of the feelings that these two had for each other. Callie, for the record, invited AJ to the protest and he came. That’s where he saw the two of them fighting together.

Finally, Brandon made a success promposal to Grace, but the problem that went along with that is that Grace’s mom caught him in the act — and also handcuffed to the bed. The fact that either one of these two is young enough to consider prom is still very much a surprise in its own way.

The challenges for the adults

For Stef and Lena, their role this week was more as facilitators. First, they managed to facilitate Emma coming clean in terms of how she was feeling about things with Jesus. Following that, there was also a heart-to-heart over Callie’s activism, where she realized that she was not being banned from taking part in the event as she feared.

This episode may end up being the last one for Gabe, given that he seemed to skip town at the very end of the episode over him admitting his feelings for Ana, and them not being properly reciprocated. Jesus admittedly sent him down a dark path, and we’re not sure how much more of his biological father we’re going to see on the show moving forward.

Overall Take

This episode of The Fosters delivered in diverting some expectations, especially since for the vast majority of it we just assumed that the most terrible thing possible was going to happen at around every turn. On the flip side, we do think that the show could pacing some of its stories faster, especially when it comes to Brandon and Jude. They really haven’t made all that much progress in either one of their lives recently. Grade: B.

Where will The Fosters go from here moving into the next new episode?

If you are to head over to this link, you can get some additional scoop that includes a preview for precisely what is coming up next on the show! (Photo: Freeform.)