Freeform’s The Fosters’ spin-off Good Trouble is very good on its own. But, one giant question has hung over the dramedy since it got a premiere date: when will Noah Centineo show up? Before Centineo was stealing hearts as Peter Kavinsky, Jamey, and the internet’s new boyfriend, he was Jesus, the beleaguered middle son of the Adams Foster household and twin brother to Mariana (Cierra Ramirez, Good Trouble co-lead). Considering Centineo’s brand-new star power, fans wondered if the 22-year-old would have time to hang out with his OG TV family.
Well, Tuesday night’s Good Trouble episode, “Byte Club,” finally ushered Centineo's Jesus into the brave new world of downtown L.A. and his sisters’ community loft. Unsurprisingly, the Calvin Klein model's character — who is now thriving while still dealing with his Fosters-days traumatic brain injury — immediately found his way into some major romantic trouble.
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Good Trouble, seemingly knowing exactly what the denizens of Twitter want, debuts Centineo as an unquestionable romantic lead. Within the first five minutes of “Byte Club,” the camera pans into a bright, airy bedroom; a sleepy-eyed, shirtless Jesus is splayed out on some Pinterest-ready bedding receiving a mug of coffee from a new lover. It’s an idyllic situation for Jesus, who doesn’t know what the audience knows: He’s waking up with Rebecca (Molly McCook), work frenemy to fellow law clerk Callie Adams Foster (Maia Mitchell). Yes, Jesus has been in Good Trouble for roughly five seconds and he’s already sleeping with his sister’s sometimes-rival.
Only the Fosters family.
From there, “Byte Club” works to explain how Jesus and Rebecca ended up in bed together and then teases out the inevitable awkward moment Rebecca and Callie will find out they now have Jesus in common for wildly difference reasons. The first aim is accomplished pretty easily and sensibly. Over a series of now-classic Good Trouble flashbacks, viewers learn Jesus and the Adams-Fosters’ Coterie-mate Dennis (Josh Pence) went to local bar Duoro for a spontaneous boys night. There, Jesus saw Rebecca across the bar, approached her, and turned on the kind of Centineo charm that made Peter Kavinsky an instant rom-com hero. After a few bad pickup lines and a feminist bit of banter on drink buying, Rebecca was taking Jesus home with her.
Obviously, this is a hookup that is going to make things uncomfortable for Callie and Rebecca in Judge Wilson’s office. However, Good Trouble keeps both women from realizing their new connection throughout the episode, despite the fact that they both end up at Douro with Jesus. In a series of very sitcom-y twists, Jesus runs into Rebecca and mentions he’s at the bar with his sisters… but doesn’t mention their names. Then, some familial frustration causes Mariana and Callie to both leave their table with Jesus (and later pushes him to talk about his TBI). At the exact moment the Adams Foster sisters exit the scene, Rebecca approaches Jesus. She never catches a stray glimpse of his siblings.
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Towards the end of “Byte Club,” when Jesus announces his new love interest is meeting him at the Coterie, he refers to Rebecca as “Becca.” There was a never a chance either Callie or Mariana was going to realize the surprise twist lurking in Jesus’ new love connection. That is until the last few seconds of the episode, when Rebecca comes striding into the loft to see a shocked Callie staring at her.
While that cliffhanger hints there could be some drama over “Becca” and Jesus’ fling, various other pieces of evidence confirm there is no end in sight for this new tension. The synopsis for next week’s episode, “Willful Blindness,” teases, “Callie is on edge about how much Rebecca knows of her living situation.” Rebecca has all of those anxiety-causing details precisely because Jesus unwittingly invited Callie's on-again, off-again ally into his sister's home. Then there’s the matter of Jesus himself, who now has a permanent reason to come back into his siblings’ and Rebecca’s life. As a B-plot reveals, Jesus' tiny home construction plan quickly gets backed by a venture capitalist. So Centineo’s Freeform alter-ego can come blowing back into DTLA whenever his busy schedule permits.
Buckle up, Good Trouble fans, it’s going to be a whoa-worthy ride.
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