Mariana is drowning right now, and nothing can prepare us for the inevitable moment when she breaks.
Mariana is hanging onto her emotional well-being by a thread, but it may have just snapped by the end of Good Trouble Season 5 Episode 8. But how on earth will she be able to pick up the pieces, and who does she have to help her do it when it’s all said and done?
We were treated to another darker hour of the series as Mariana faced more hardships, Joaquin was back to feeling alone, new challenges of parenting while queer arose for the Martinez siblings, and Alice and the Ferret trio faced unemployment.
The series opting to use that darker, melancholy, haunting arrangement in the opening credits has done wonders with setting the mood and warning us about what type of installment we can anticipate.
In addition, the imagery of Mariana trapped in a smaller version of her room, ankle-deep in water like she’s at the bottom level of the Titanic, trying to plug holes gushing water to no avail, was fantastic.
They were such arresting scenes, inspiring that feeling of claustrophobia and near drowning, as every attempt she made to resolve one issue would be in vain as another arose.
Every time it felt like she got a handle on things, the corks would pop, more water gushing in, and she was standing alone in a dark room, a sinking ship, soaked and helpless.
It’s one of my favorite visual metaphors they’ve done on the series thus far, and credit to the DOP and co for the execution of it.
As has been the case for this season, my heart aches for Mariana and how she’s doing so much and trying to keep it together, and her story has been the most compelling of the season.
Fortunately, the hour had her mainly at the forefront of it, as she took more body shots in her fight to distract herself from the unprocessed trauma that ever so gradually wreaks havoc on her. She’s thrown herself into the cult investigation as she frantically tries to save Evan’s company at the cost of her own.
Mariana is NOT okay.
Interestingly, a few characters, namely Joaquin and, shockingly, the B.B. girls, have noticed that she’s not doing well. Still, she’s disregarding her emotional and mental well-being, setting her up for an inevitable fall that will be hard to watch.
We’re going to make a pact that we don’t go rogue. If we’re doing this together it means that we’re staying together.
Joaquin
Every time a new issue arose, and she’d get that look on her face, I was left holding my breath, wondering if that precise moment would be when her physical being would give out on her since she was ignoring all the signs.
The series isn’t hiding that Mariana has gone this long without processing her own trauma from the shooting. There’s reassurance that they will address it head-on at some point.
It’s interesting that Joaquin, specifically, has become the canary in the gold mine for her when he’s also someone who hasn’t processed everything that happened either.
He’s been attempting to keep Mariana out of everything for her safety because he couldn’t bear for something else to happen, and she’s fought him at every turn. He’s been the one to encourage her to seek help constantly, and that’s gone unheeded.
And at this point, he’ll likely be the only one to pick up the pieces of Mariana when she inevitably cracks under the weight of all of this, and it could be interesting how it bonds them, as their trauma connection is relatively strong.
But it also would be a tad offputting if it pushes into the love triangle angle again. The two of them have a challenging road ahead of them investigating Madison’s disappearance that does not shirk away from dangers, even as Joaquin sits across from Silas and lets him know he is looking into what happened to Madison.
Mariana is a great asset and seemingly missed a calling as an investigator. It’s worrisome that she opts to use this to distract herself from everything else and get justice for Evan.
Silas: Everyone is free to come and go as they please at the farm.
Joaquin: Is that why you locked my sister up at night?
Silas: Sometimes people aren’t missing. Sometimes they just don’t want to be found. Give Jenna my love.
It will take everything out of her, and right now, it’s like watching a train crash and being unable to stop it.
Now that Jenna has packed her bags and left for a rehabilitation center for cult survivors, Joaquin is alone again, and all he has is Mariana. They keep finding themselves in these situations where all they can do is lean on each other, and the level of codependency rooted in trauma is concerning for both of them.
Neither of them is okay, lest the immediacy and transparency of Mariana’s level of fragileness right now distract from Joaquin’s own fragility presently.
They make a good team; I don’t know if this is a worthwhile cause when neither of them is in the frame of mind to take down Silas successfully.
Evan needs to know he’s about to lose his company, and if you don’t tell him, I will.
Lawyer
The psychological and personal aspects of this arc are what do the heavy lifting in selling it, and Ramirez and Craig are great at bringing emotion to this.
Nevertheless, the cult story remains one of those stories that is still so out there and dragging and challenging to have any real investment beyond the ramifications of it on characters we know and love.
Jenna’s aspect of things has been largely unexplored, and sadly, she wasn’t exactly the most exciting character in the first place, so it’s good that they shuffled her offscreen. But Craig and Ramirez are elevating this arc that practically begs one to hit the fast-forward button otherwise.
And I cannot say enough how much Cierra Ramirez dazzles with these dramatic arcs this season. Sure, everything around hers is soapy, and that’s a matter of taste as to whether or not people dig it, but surely we can collectively agree that she’s been acting her ass off this season with all of this.
She keeps me glued to the screen and locked into what’s happening when she’s on, and she’s a marvel.
Mariana had to tell Evan the truth; there was no getting around it. And I wonder how Evan’s plan will work to his advantage when it seems the board wants him out for reasons beyond him flexing money.
His last ditch effort to dump all of his recent acquisitions, including Bulk Beauty, won’t save him, and, surprisingly, he doesn’t realize that.
It was also interesting to hear him assume the blame for being vulnerable and “weak” enough for the board to pull this move as if the onus was on him and not the people plotting against him.
We’re in new territory with this version of Evan because he’s unlike any version we’ve known before, even when we first met him. Sure, Mariana tipped the scales in leading Evan to become the person we know and love now, but he was never quite like this, which means he was doing some work before he met her.
The Evan we have now is a bit harder to navigate, and now, Mariana faces losing B.B. in her attempt to save him and Speckulate, which feels like a fool’s mission at this point, as it’s clearly going down.
Despite the B.B. girls actually being supportive and encouraging Mariana to seek therapy, showcasing that they’re capable of being decent friends for a change, I can’t say it’ll be any loss for the viewers if B.B. goes down. Respectfully, good riddance.
But it will further push Mariana to her breaking point, and at this point, she’s headed toward some form of breakdown, and I hurt for her. It will be a minor miracle if she doesn’t check herself into a facility or get a 5150 hold before the season’s end; she’s dangerously close to something.
Mariana has taken on too much at once; it’s too much stress and trauma for a single person.
I need to see you. I know what I have to do to save my company, and I need your help. Please come as soon as you can. I need you.
Evan
The darkness carried over to Luca as the past had a funny way of catching up to a person. It wasn’t surprising that the man who was taxing the unhoused came after him for his money.
And what started as a relief that Jeet interfered turned into anything, but when he paid another man to beat the crap out of the guy, and is now holding it against Luca.
Luca can’t tell Dennis and won’t, and Jeet continues to wreak utter havoc with Dennis none the wiser. He mentioned that Luca owed him as he stole booze for a party, and we know how Jeet likes to party. It’s disturbing.
Jeet is nothing but trouble, and Luca is far too vulnerable to have to associate with the likes of him. Ladle knows it, too, as she seemed to have her own feelings about Jeet even though she hadn’t voiced them.
But she is very fond of Luca, and they continue to have this flirty thing going on as he gets accustomed to working in a kitchen. They’re cute together.
Jeet will be the problem that takes Dennis’ restaurant down before anything else could.
The co-parenting arc with the Martinez siblings has its interesting moments, and we get to see how the trio navigates the microaggressions they would face as queer parents.
I wish I could be surprised at the boldness of the woman who couldn’t help but voice her feelings about trans and nonbinary people.
Her ignorance was clearly on display, and she would’ve done better just keeping her mouth shut in the first place because the thing is, you never know who you’re encountering at any given point. We have two eyes, two ears, and one mouth for a reason.
Her casual transphobia was so annoying in that way that unsolicited opinions about disenfranchised people always are. And Jazmin brought up a good point about how you go about discussing these things.
She shouldn’t have to out herself to address someone’s ignorance and prejudice, but she shouldn’t be subjected to it. Therein lies the conundrum and one of the hurdles as a disenfranchised person in spaces where everyone has an opinion about who and what you are and what it all means.
They have an unorthodox situation with three parents raising this baby, with two of them being part of the LGBTQIA community, and even in a progressive L.A., they did need to think about what that means for them and their child and what would happen.
They told us that some people in the world wouldn’t approve of our family, but they also taught us that love isn’t something to be ashamed of. I think what was really important was that they didn’t hide who they were or make us feel like we needed to hide anything. I think if they weren’t out and proud, it would’ve sent us a message that there was something wrong with our family.
Mariana
Mariana was a great source for them as someone who two moms raised, and it was actually beautiful to see her take a moment away from everything going on with her to have a conversation with them.
Sometimes, the series will miss out on these little touchstone moments and ways of connecting the characters. Mariana, similar to how Callie was before she left, has become so isolated from the rest of the Coterie that it wouldn’t have been shocking if they never connected the dots there, but thankfully, they did.
And it was one of the best moments of the hour as she honestly and thoughtfully explained her experience as a child of a queer couple and how she handled a world that doesn’t always accept families like hers.
Her statement about how her parents’ pride supported their message that love is what matters and put their words into action resonated with the others.
While it’s still a choice that everyone has to make, and there’s no right or wrong answer to it, there is something to be said about living one’s life out loud unapologetically, so there’s no pressure to keep things secret or no shame.
They got to use that next class as a teaching moment for that woman who had the sense to apologize. It’s not Jazmin’s responsibility to lecture or prove anything to this woman. However, maybe that woman will learn how to see and respect trans people as people who are living their lives just as everyone else.
The whole thing was the inspiration that Gael must’ve needed to get back into his art since he claimed the only thing he’s been passionate about is Lyric.
But I had to laugh out loud when that resulted in him basically becoming his version of Banksy.
Street art is fire. I don’t knock the hustle or the social activism attached to it, and the mural was nice, and all, but baby boy is still broke AF, and while this will get him noticed if he chooses to come out and show his face if his street art takes off, he still needs something that’s going to pay the bills.
I’m just shallow enough to acknowledge that Gael looked hot, hooded, scurrying around in the middle of the night, tagging the side of a building with his activist art. The soundtrack was everything during that scene, too.
Alice’s arc with the Ferret trio was surprisingly better than I expected. They gave her great advice about how to navigate her relationship with Sumi.
Exploring the type of intergenerational friendships and bonds that form through work situations is an underrated thing. Alice and the Ferret trio are two generations apart from each other, but there’s something special there, and it has its sweet moments.
It is sad to hear that the show is getting canceled, and they won’t have that because it seems to bring that trio such joy.
It’s hard to say what can be done about that or where this storyline could go.
The Sumi and Alice stuff was a bit lackluster. It made no sense for Sumi to be upset at Alice for forgetting their first kiss anniversary from the first time they were together, not this time. They’ve known each other for half their lives, so it’s ridiculous to expect to honor all these weird milestones.
But it’s not fun when someone talks about your private information and lives with others. I could understand why that bugged Sumi, even if she behaved immaturely about it the whole time.
Sumi: Why are you sharing our personal life with your co-workers?
Alice: That’s what we do in writer’s rooms; we share personal experiences, and it helps us relate to the characters.
Sumi: You are writing for ferrets!
Alice: Ferrets are people too! Sort of.
Overall, though, Mariana’s storyline continues to carry this season, while some other bits are all over the place. Hence, parts of this installment were interesting to watch, while others felt like going through the motions.
Over to you, Good Trouble Fanatics. Are you worried about Mariana? How can they save Speckulate? Was Sumi overreacting? Hit the comments below.
You can watch Good Trouble online here via TV Fanatic.
Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is an insomniac who spends late nights and early mornings binge-watching way too many shows and binge-drinking way too much tea. Her eclectic taste makes her an unpredictable viewer with an appreciation for complex characters, diverse representation, dynamic duos, compelling stories, and guilty pleasures. You’ll definitely find her obsessively live-tweeting, waxing poetic, and chatting up fellow Fanatics and readers. Follow her on Twitter.
