Saying Goodbye to Good Trouble, Which Helped Shape the Ethos of an Entire Network

It's the end of an era for Freeform as Good Trouble comes to a close this week. Mariana (Cierra Ramirez) and Callie (Maia Mitchell) said goodbye to The Coterie, ending a 10-year journey for the characters after five years on The Fosters before heading off on their new adult adventures in the spin-off series.

The Good Trouble creative team wasn't aware the show was ending when they originally crafted (and shot) the Season 5 finale. Freeform made the announcement during the season's post-production and allowed the crew to film additional scenes to wrap up the story. Despite only having a few scenes to pull together a series finale, the final episode of Good Trouble was representative of everything fans have loved about the show, from outlandish plots to heartwarming family moments.

Mariana and Joaquin (Bryan Craig) made one last trip to the farm in hopes of finding evidence of wrongdoing that would put cult leader Silas (Graham Sibley) in jail for good. Thanks to a tip from Jenna (Maiara Walsh), they caught him moving Madison's body, but not before a near fight to the death. Despite being hit by a shovel, then a truck, and then being shot, Silas survived to be sentenced for his crimes. Mariana, Joaquin, and Jenna all lived to tell the tale, with the former two making it back home just in time to learn that their communal building, The Coterie, was shutting down.

The extended finale allowed Callie, Mariana, and the other Coterie residents to say goodbye to each other with one last found-family dinner. The round table scene, which took place after a three-month time jump from the majority of the episode, allowed each of the characters to explain where they'd be going in their post-Coterie life, revealing how much they had grown since Callie and Mariana moved into the building.

Malika (Zuri Adele) revealed she was likely to win her race for city council president, finally giving her the leverage to create some real good in the city. Luca (Booboo Stewart) landed a job dancing on tour with Olivia Rodrigo. Davia (Emma Hunton) was days away from flying to New York to star in the off-Broadway production of her musical. Alice (Sherry Cola) finally convinced the network to let her host "America's Funniest Ferret and Friends." Gael (Tommy Martinez) was hired to paint a mural in downtown Los Angeles, cementing his path in street art. Joaquin told the table he'd been offered a book deal to turn all of his reporting on cults into a published manuscript. Callie confirmed she was still a lawyer at the ACLU in D.C. and Mariana remained co-CEO of Spekulate. The finale did not have time to explain how that would work with Mariana and Evan (T.J. Linnard) also in a committed relationship, but we have to trust they figure out how to make it work.

The life updates were a reminder of Good Trouble's central mission, which was to encourage young people to be the change they want to see in the world and tell stories about how new adults are shaping the future. It's a mission handed down from The Fosters, the flagship series that was a cornerstone of Freeform's image when the network rebranded from ABC Family in 2016.

The Fosters premiered in 2013, a time when centering a show on a biracial lesbian couple and their blended family wasn't novel, it was groundbreaking. Over five seasons and 104 episodes, it won a GLAAD Media Award and a Television Critics Association Award for its thoughtful depiction of an LGBT couple and inclusive family.

The series didn't set out to be political, but having a biracial woman (Sherri Saum) and her white cop wife (Teri Polo) at the center pushed hot-button conversations that affected the family unit to the forefront. That included LGBTQ+ issues, but also branched out to adoption rights, sexual assault, school shootings, sex trafficking, traumatic brain injuries, undocumented residents, and so much more. The Fosters became so adept at weaving headline issues organically into the lives of their main characters. It's no surprise that Callie went from a delinquent teen dropping slurs like "dyke" in the pilot to being a disginguished civil rights lawyer in her adulthood.

Mariana also went on a whirlwind journey on The Fosters, developing from a seemingly vapid gossip queen into a robotics-obsessed MIT graduate (though she kept her love of gossip throughout The Fosters and Good Trouble). The Fosters shaped both Mariana and Callie into ambitious do-gooders, but Good Trouble picked up the torch and showed how their upbringing helped them navigate a more complicated adult world.

The term "good trouble" was famously coined by Civil Rights activist and congressman John Lewis; the decision to use it as the title for the show signaled to the audience that Mariana and Callie would continue taking on the tough issues as they moved into a communal loft space with other dynamic 20-somethings. Good Trouble continued The Fosters' ethos of tackling tough issues. Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors not only guest-starred in the show's first season, but advised the series and served on the writing staff before exiting to be executive director of BLM. So Good Trouble was on the front lines of anti-police brutality protests two years before the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in 2020 made Black Lives Matter a household name.

In the show's subsequent seasons, it tackled mental health, trans rights, the gender pay gap, body dysmorphia, and so much more. The tactics of Good Trouble didn't always match the altruism of the characters on screen, but the show did ardently try to provide a voice to the marginalized and underrepresented. It didn't shy away from the difficulties of new adulthood, like navigating credit card debt, trying to land your dream job, or balancing a romantic life with a burgeoning professional career. But it created a space where young people working hard had a real impact on the world around them, and it encouraged its viewers to follow in the footsteps of the ambitious characters.

Of course, Good Trouble also inherited The Fosters' penchant for over-the-top drama. The flagship series frequently featured Callie's attempts to be featured on an episode of Dateline, including breaking into a suspected murderer's house and getting in a van with a known sex trafficker. Good Trouble saw Mariana almost trapped in a cult, and her boyfriend get amnesia after he was shot while trying to rescue her. These high-octane storylines kept the viewership up while both shows promoted their good Samaritan, liberal messaging.

With Good Trouble over, and Freeform's other new-adult staple, grown-ish, ending later this spring, the network is at a crossroads. After years of being a destination for new adult entertainment, Freeform's only upcoming series are a hodgepodge of unscripted fare. With The CW officially catering to an older audience, it leaves many to wonder: Is there any place left for young people to see themselves and their plights on linear TV?

"Do you think that anyone will remember us, that we were even here?" Dennis (Josh Pence) questions as The Coterie residents sit around the rooftop pool in the Good Trouble's final scene.

It's a parallel question that the characters ponder about their lives in their final night in their communal apartment space, but one the audience must wrestle with as the show many people grew up with comes to a close. It's a question that doesn't have a clear answer. For now, all episodes of The Fosters and Good Trouble live on Hulu, for current fans to revisit and rewatch or for new fans to discover. But as streaming services continue to cull their libraries in favor of tax write-offs, there's no guarantee how long the series will stay.

"I like to think so," Callie answers Dennis, with Gael adding, "that we had some sort of impact." For over a decade, The Fosters and Good Trouble helped shape the ethos of an entire network with messages of inclusivity and empowerment, and made entertaining television while doing so. It's unclear whether the shows will have a lasting imprint on TV as a whole, but it does feel safe to say they made a difference while they were here. And they will definitely be missed as Freeform heads into a new, not-so-defined chapter.

The Good Trouble finale is now streaming on Hulu. You can join the discussion about the show on our forums.

Megan Vick is a pop-culture reporter whose byline has appeared on TVGuide.com, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Reuters and more. You can find her on the internet talking about K-pop or screaming about teen romances.