The Fosters Review: Highs & Lows (Season 4 Episode 7)

In this week’s episode of The Fosters, Jesus pretty much wins MVP and all the other Adams Foster kids need a time out.

Seriously, I don’t think I could have written a more truer statement about “Highs & Lows” than that one. Let’s keep score.

Brandon is in over his head, and is more of a baby than the actual baby that he is tasked to look after. Mariana steals her brother’s ADHD medication and is kind of a jerk to everybody around her. Callie pulls some uncool holier-than-thou crap on Jude for smoking weed when she’s done much worse over the years.

And Jude, who is actually entertaining as the stoned teenager who has had enough of his older sister being a wet blanket, doesn’t contribute an awful lot to the episode, but he certainly wins points for calling Callie out.

But compare all this to the grade A episode that Jesus has. In order to protect Gabe and keep him in his moms’ good graces, Jesus starts finishing the remodeling for Gabe.

He gets hurt in the process (a nail gets lodged in his brain after hitting himself in the head with a nail gun), but because he’s unaware of it’s severity, he goes to S.T.E.A.M because he’s a good brother who shows up for his sis.

Later, Jesus is finally taken to the hospital for immediate surgery after collapsing in the living room floor. And after all this happens, Jesus is fine and joking and smiling because Emma decided she’s going to give him another chance after all. Really, could Jesus be more endearing? You know what? Probably.

It also helps that Noah Centineo, the actor who was recast as Jesus, brings so much empathy to his portrayal. He makes Jesus lovable even when he makes poor choices, which is really hard to pull off. Centineo is really great in the role and has completely made it his own.

Jesus’ story also brings up something more significant.

For a brief, terrifying moment, I feared that maybe they were trying to do a reversal on Gabe’s character – that maybe he wasn’t the guy we’ve grown to sympathize with and believe in. That maybe we’ve been had. But then I realized that I’m not giving the show enough credit.

In reality, The Fosters is committed to painting a more nuanced picture of a man who was just taken off the sex offender’s list.

Gabe is struggling. Gabe is probably suffering from depression. And that is entirely understandable and completely plausible. So, good on you show, for giving layers to this story.

Gabe is kind of a heartbreaking figure on the show, and I could probably dedicate an entire review on him alone because that’s how interesting he is to me, so it’s great that we’re getting these little pieces of him that feel purposeful and keyed in.

If we get to see Gabe’s depression explored more (which I hope we do) then I think the show will be touching on a truly powerful topic that doesn’t get talked about enough, especially in this context.

And lastly, a really important thing happens in this episode where Stef and Lena tell all the kids about their plans to sell the house. Naturally, nobody is happy about it, but I’m really intrigued to see what happens on this front.

Things that also happened, but like, who cares?:

-A.J. and Callie are having sex and Brandon knows. Whatever.
-Courtney tells Mike about Callie and Brandon, which could potentially be interesting later but Courtney was in the scenes, so I was only half-paying attention.
-Brandon pretty much calls Courtney a bad mom because her son spilled a drink on his keyboard and I’m still trying to figure out why this is even a story.

What did you think of this episode of The Fosters? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The Fosters airs Mondays at 8/7c on Freeform.

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