What's Robert Quinn Adding To 'The Fosters'?

ABC Family's The Fosters has been gaining traction when it comes to winning over the hearts of audiences with its genuine sentimentality. Going into its third season, The Fosters will also welcome Kerr Smith as Callie's biological father — though that welcome will not necessarily include open arms. So what should we expect from Smith's Robert Quinn this season? And what should we want?

Little is known about Smith's character at this juncture, save what we can glean from Maia Mitchell's interviews:

• He likely came from money (or, alternately, just makes a lot of money in his adult life); The Hollywood Reporter name-checked the "Big Quinn Mansion."
• He didn't know about Callie's existence until very recently — he might even find out onscreen this season.

It's also been made clear that Callie won't have much interest in getting to know him at the beginning — as Mitchell noted in an interview with TVLine, she sees her bio-daddy much more as a "sperm donor" and a barricade between her and the happy adopted life she envisions with the Fosters. But a lot of that path of thinking seems to come from Callie's deeper issues, namely her longstanding issues of abandonment and every other trust issues that's ben piled on her through her experiences with a callous world.

And so The Fosters has an interesting opportunity here: What if Robert Quinn is a genuinely nice guy? A genuinely nice guy who didn't know he had a kid until she came a-knockin' trying to join a different family, but who — now that he knows she exists — maybe wants to get to know this person he didn't know he made? Smith had a major role in The CW's Life Unexpected, a show that centered around a storyline pretty damn similar to that, so it's not like it's foreign to him. And if Robert Quinn's as rich as that "big Quinn mansion" suggests, he might have a lot to offer Callie if he combines that wealth with genuine kindness. God knows Calli could use more signs that the world contains some great people.

Callie has been yanked around endlessly since The Fosters began, so there's a lot to be said for if the writers choose to wrap up this bio-daddy storyline real quick and get her officially adopted by the Foster clan. But there might also be something to be said for Callie discovering a little bit more about her biological family — and setting up a genuinely win/win (and lose/lose) scenario where she has to pick. And so that has me hoping: Can we show Callie that there's more than one loving family out there? Can Robert Quinn please be nice?