Callie's Black Lives Matter Case Is Getting More Complicated On 'Good Trouble'

Fans of The Fosters must be finding plenty to love on Good Trouble, because the show is only three episodes in and has featured a few friendly faces to acclimate Callie and Mariana to their new surroundings. The latest? Jamie Hunter, the hot lawyer who had a flirty relationship with Callie on the last series. Callie needs Jamie’s help on Good Trouble, and right now, it’s strictly professional. Or at least, that’s what Callie is trying to believe.

Jamie first graced The Fosters in Season 5. He’s the brother of Eliza Foster, who is married to Callie’s brother, Brandon. That makes Brandon and Jamie brothers-in-law and Eliza and Callie sisters-in-law and Jamie and Callie vaguely related by marriage, but not really. Jamie and Callie verbally sparred when the Hunter family met the Foster family before Brandon and Eliza’s engagement party, because Jamie’s kind of law is the law that protects big businesses and special interest groups. Callie’s, as we know, is the polar opposite. But, as happens on dramatic television, Jamie and Callie got closer, eventually sharing a smooch and more flirting.

Callie is hooking up with Gael and doesn’t have time for a relationship, but Jamie couldn’t have stepped in to help her at a better time. Callie is currently clerking a very controversial police brutality case — the shooting of Jamal Thompson — for a very conservative judge, and she needs Jamie’s advice as to whether or not she should recuse herself or press on, knowing that she has the opposite viewpoint of the judge. She also needs to know if she needs to tell anyone that Malika, one of Jamal’s biggest supporters lives with her, because, hello, that’s a conflict of interest and possibly an ethical violation.

Callie may be in for some more trouble, given that her fellow clerks are starting to suspect that she knows Malika and something’s up. At least she’ll always have Jamie to take her out to dinner (he's fine) and give her legal advice. But what’s more important and interesting about Good Trouble’s major court case is that it’s highlighting the Black Lives Matter movement in a big way.

As Jamal’s mother says, the public has a short attention span, and they tend to move onto the next tragedy — five years have passed since Jamal was murdered, and the crowds have lessened. Good Trouble is showing what the process is like when — or if — those responsible for the deaths of men like Jamal are brought to task for what they’ve done.

Judge Wilson ultimately rules in favor of letting the defense ditch the 911 tapes but against dismissal, so this fictional trial will live to see another day. Callie will also have to fight her conscience another day, given that Wilson commonly rules in favor of the police and she believes in the opposite. Jamie will make a good sounding board for Callie, but ultimately, she must take how she feels about the Black Lives Matter movement and cast it aside, or she must choose to use her passion to make a change in the way Judge Wilson will rule. Finding your voice is part of growing up, and Callie's got to do a lot of quickly these days.