“The Fosters” can be a deeply frustrating show sometimes. There are times where it brilliantly tells stories unmatched by anything else on television. Yet, its need to amp the drama up to artificial levels plays other moments as fake. The finale amplified both the good and the bad of the series.
“The Fosters”
B
Season 2 Finale
ABC Family
The series has mostly done well by its two main characters, siblings Callie (Maia Mitchell, “Teen Beach Movie”) and Jude (Hayden Byerly, “Parenthood”), and the finale was no exception, bringing both of their season-long arcs to their natural conclusions. The moment between Callie and her father, Robert (Kerr Smith, “Life Unexpected”), allowed their relationship to deepen to a point where they actually felt like father and daughter. Over the course of the season, the series did an excellent job portraying the relationship between Jude and Connor (Gavin MacIntosh, “Parks and Recreation”). The moment when Jude finally calls Connor his boyfriend is a beautiful payoff to their love story.
However, what didn’t work about the finale was the cliffhanger ending involving Mariana, Jesus and Anna crashing their car. The episode took a slow approach, showing them driving, then Anna going into labor, then the decision to continue driving despite that, then the 911 call stating there was “one confirmed fatality.” It was a maddening way of building tension, ultimately ending in a crash that wouldn’t have been there if it wasn’t the finale. It felt artificial and out-of-place from the rest of the episode.
It’s a shame that the series had to force a cliffhanger ending, because the other stories involving Callie and Jude were lovely closings to their arcs and the season as a whole.