Recap: The Fosters 5x18-5x19 (Jesus)

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This will be the last Fosters recap until the three-part series finale airs (starting June 4th.)  Tara and I saved the Jesus recap for last, not because it was handled any better than the previous two, but because he's our favorite character.  See below for some video clips.  I'll do my best to summarize what happened, and then Tara and I will answer the questions below:

Disappointingly, Jesus was not present at all in 5x17.  The only way in which he is alluded to at all is when Mariana goes into his room and finds a maze Jesus has drawn.  It inspires Mariana to build a robot that can go through a complex maze which will help Mariana get into the summer internship she and Emma are both competing for.

We find out in 5x18, that the Mariana has kept the maze diagram.  Jesus is wondering where it is because it's Emma's idea for the summer internship.  Jesus drew the maze.  He's upset at her for stealing Emma's idea, and Lena asks if Mariana stole it.  Mariana said no.  Lena says it is what it is.  Jesus keeps insisting that she do something else.

While Stef talks to Brandon in his room, we can see clearly that Brandon's bedroom door is still patched with cardboard.  18 episodes (and at least a few months) later, no one has bothered fix the door.  It remains a painful reminder of 5x01 and everything awful about 4B-5A and how Jesus was treated.

Later, Mariana and Emma are both working with their robots at school.  Mariana's runs well, but Emma has trouble.  She doesn't want to change her robot because then hers and Mariana's will be exactly the same.  Jesus appeals to Mariana saying, "You could help her, you know?" But Mariana doesn't because helping Emma will hurt Mariana's own chances.  Mariana admonishes Jesus not to step on her robot as he leaves.  He doesn't.

In 5x19, the family is gathered for Brandon and Callie's graduation, but neither has shown up yet.  Jesus says, maybe they should give the seats away if Brandon and Callie are not showing up.  Then it flashes back to two days earlier and we see this:

Mariana wakes up Jesus, telling him Moms asked her to get him to help clean up the back yard.  He doesn't want to get up.  He's failed junior year.  Mariana says he worked his ass off and should be proud but he has to get up, because the yard needs to be cleaned.

In the next scene, we see Jesus coming out in the yard.  His entire family is there, including his birth father, Gabe (who Moms sent away around episode 5x08 very suddenly, when they also made the unilateral decision to take away Jesus's treehouse he and Gabe were building together.  It was meant to be his senior project but was not approved by then-principal because of ableism.

Stef says that his senior project is worth four credits, which is what he'll need to retake math as a senior.  She tells him, "We're building a treehouse, babe!  Get your toolbelt on!"

We see the family all setting to work on Jesus's treehouse.  He stops by and talks to Gabe, who apologizes for just taking off.  Jesus says, "Don't worry about it.  We have the best family in the world."

Mariana does not get the summer internship, but Emma does, after Mariana helped Emma figure out her original idea for her robotics project.  Mariana is let down and is sitting in the treehouse, now complete.  Jesus climbs up to join her.  He tells her "We always wanted a treehouse, and now you've got one."  He tells her she is the most single-minded person he knows.  He gives Mariana the credit for his treehouse, and essentially, for his graduation because she is "the one who made it happen."  Jesus tells her, "You're gonna be just fine.  I know it."

Brandon and Callie arrive for their graduation, and in a flash forward two years later, we see Jesus graduating, too.  On time, with Mariana and Emma.  Lena congratulates him and says she's so proud of everything he's been able to accomplish.

Another two years ahead, Jude has graduated, and afterward, everyone gathers in the Adams Fosters' kitchen.  We see Jesus hanging out with the family, reacting to Jude's graduation and Brandon's engagement to someone named Eliza.

Did you like Jesus's TBI storyline?  Why or why not?

Tonia:  I mean, I liked the idea of it.  I liked the idea that there was going to be some representation.  I was glad to see the end of 5x11 where Jesus went to a support group with Moms.  I was glad to hear them at least mention ableism on TV.

But overall, I feel like the storyline did not do anyone any favors.  Jesus was horrendously abused through 5x11.  (Essentially an entire season of the show.  I look at him now and instead of seeing my favorite character I have a low-level panic response of "What's everybody going to do to him now?"  Because he's been yelled at, manipulated, intimidated, dismissed, lied to...  He's been forced to keep taking medicine that made him feel suicidal.  He was pushed past cognitive fatigue with abusively long, back to back hours long tests for school re entry, without accommodations.  

He was threatened with institutionalization by his own mother.  And as of 5x08, Moms were actively planning to bring Jesus to LA to have some doctor out there perform shock therapy on him.

I cannot forget these things.  And I cannot on good conscience look at a show like this, and say that because Moms apologized one time and said the word ableism that all is okay now between them.  Because after that conversation?  Jesus's brain injury essentially disappeared.

He was absent for two of the nine episodes in 5B.  And when he was present, his disability sure wasn't.

Tara:  It pains me to say it, but no.  Aside from the support group moment, I feel like there was nothing redeemable.  Even Moms'  apologies for ableism was very one-and-done, and after that? We saw very little evidence of Jesus's TBI.  It was as if the writers did not know how to write about Jesus's TBI without relying on ableist views.

And by the end of the series (so far), it is as if the TBI never happened.  Yes, at the beginning of 5x19, we hear a passing reference that Jesus failed his junior year. (Which, really, speaks to a failure in accommodations more than anything, in my opinion.)

But Jesus only fails so that his family and friends can come together to build a Pity Treehouse for his senior project - which would give him enough credits to pass.  (This was the treehouse that Jesus was building with Gabe that Moms arbitrarily took away as some sort of punishment.)  He was not allowed to finish the project the way he intended - with the work being solely his and Gabe's.  Instead, the project was commandeered as feel-good Inspiration Porn. The focus is on the (largely) nondisabled support system who are heroically helping Jesus pass his junior year.  Jesus has been relegated to a recipient.  (He is able to assist, but the story is not about him. And once the treehouse is finished, and Jesus and Mariana are sitting in it?  He tells her that it will take HER anywhere she wants to go.)

In my opinion, this storyline about failing junior year could have been done TBI notwithstanding.  The only thing that disability brought to the plot was Inspiration Porn.

Did you notice any harmful disability tropes, inspiration porn themes or other stereotypes in Jesus's portrayal in 5x18 - 5x19?  If so, which ones?

Tonia:  Yes, yes, 1,000 times yes....

Disabled People Are Violent:  By showing the door to Brandon's room again in 5x18 (still not yet fixed) we are reminded that back in 5x01 Jesus took a bat to Brandon's room.  Jesus was portrayed as unreasonable, scary and violent.  It's more than an eyesore, it's a reminder of how horrifically Jesus has been abused in this home where he is supposed to be safe.  

Nondisabled Heroes: Jesus's story, especially in these last two episodes is reduced to being about how good the people around Jesus (all nondisabled) are for helping Jesus build his treehouse.  (Which he should have been able to build with Gabe's help and approval by the school back in 4B-5A.)  Instead, Moms forced Gabe to leave and took the treehouse away, only to magnaminously "give it back" when THEY get to take credit for it.  

People as Props: Despite apparently failing junior year, in 5x18 we see Jesus helping Emma the entire episode.  No hint that he is failing.  He just exists to support Emma.  Likewise, when Mariana loses out on the internship, Jesus comes and sits in the treehouse that was his dream, his project and says it will take her anywhere SHE wants to go.  His project becomes all about what it will do for her.

Super Family:  Jesus even has the line: "We have the best family in the world!" while they are helping him build the tree house.  Its existence has essentially always been a pity project for Jesus, but it reached new levels when the family took over and "gave him" the project he should have been able to rightfully do himself, for credit.

Throwing Off Disability: Because after 5x11?  Jesus's TBI essentially vanished.  In the Mother's Day episode, he read and spoke and stood in front of his family, and delivered part of a speech almost entirely unhindered.  When confronted with their ableist writing, the writers veered away from it, but struggle to be able to portray disability in a realistic or respectful way, when they can't lean on harmful ableism to drive the story forward.  So, Jesus's TBI has been basically nonexistent for the last half-season.

Tara:  For tropes, I mainly noticed THROWING OFF THE DISABILITY.  Jesus's TBI became less and less apparent - less and less relevant - as 5B went on.  So that by the time 5x18 and 5x19 aired? It is as if Jesus does not even have a TBI - it just so happens that he is not that great in school.

And for Inspiration Porn themes -

1. ABLE-BODIED HEROES - The Pity Treehouse is built by nondisabled family and friends who will swoop in and save Jesus from having to repeat a grade.  He is seen languishing in bed before glimpsing the Able-Bodied Heroes.  According to the show, Jesus needs them to help him.  He was not able to complete this project on his own, due to Moms' meddling and ableism.

2. PEOPLE AS PROPS - Jesus is objectified as the recipient of Nondisabled Kindness.  The Pity Treehouse is Inspiration Porn. It is meant to stroke nondisabled egos and make them feel good by seeing people like themselves helping a disabled person.

3. SUPERPARENT / SUPERSIBLING / SUPERFRIEND - The focus of this aspect of the show is how great the nondisabled support system is.  Their help and sacrifices are magnified exponentially while Jesus is a recipient who is allowed to help out in token ways.  He is not given the dignity of having been able to finish the treehouse on his own terms, asking for help only if and when he needed it.

Would you have done anything differently with Jesus's TBI storyline?

Tonia:  I think, in order to have done this storyline any justice at all, it needed to be retold from the ground up.  I would have spoken at length with brain injury survivors and gotten their perspectives and framed the story from Jesus's perspective.  But the whole thing would need a massive overhaul, that exhausts me even thinking about all the wrongs that need to be righted, in order to even begin to tell the story in a way that shows respect and dignity for brain injury survivors.

Tara:  I would have done virtually everything differently.  This storyline just drives home the need for authentic storytelling.

What did you think about Jesus's storyline in the last two episodes?  Did you notice any disability tropes?  Would you have done anything differently?  Let us know in the comments.

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