Gosh there is a lot to unpack about this season finale, but first, we need a recap to understand what’s going on.
It’s a solid finale for a wild season that tackles the hanging problems, serious questions, and makes us think about what we all really want in the end. Watch it tonight on Freeform!
Season 3’s Rollercoaster
There are a lot of plots going on, but frankly here are the ones we care about:
- Margaret Cho (playing herself) is stepping in to help run the stand up showcase Alice is in.
- Alice took down the patriarchy and nearly got her showcase canceled, but instead found out that Sumi went to bat for her with Margaret Cho, and also broke up with her kind of girlfriend, Ruby (who used to work at the showcase and maaaaybe only gave Alice a chance because they were sleeping together).
- Malika decided to give love a chance with a woman – her coworker Angelica
Oh and there’s some drama with Gael’s one-night-stand (who was Mariana’s replacement Callie who went a bit bonkers) being pregnant, Callie and Gael being back together, Marianna and her conflicts with her fellow Spekulate-escapees, Dennis and Davia and mysterious weirdo Kelly … yeah everyone’s got drama. Anyway, we care about our Sapphics.
Alice (and Margaret and Sumi and Ruby)
Alice has had a rough year. She competed with Lindsay (Sumi’s partner at the time) for a spot in the showcase. They both got it, but Alice was sleeping with a director. That all blew up recently, with Chad’s ouster outing that relationship. Sumi and Lindsay also broke up, which accidentally paved the way for Sumi and Alice to kiss. Alice has held a torch for Sumi all this time, but they both decide to treat the kiss like it didn’t happen. Except it did. Which is why Alice breaks up with Ruby.
I think I need a flowchart …
Anyway. We get to the finale and after a tense “the show is canceled!”, Margaret Cho steps in to run it! Which turned out to be due to Alice and Sumi’s totally failed attempt to trick her (seriously it was like Spies Like Us — they were terrible spies). Sumi went back (the old ‘forgot my phone’ ploy) and managed to win Margaret over.
So here we are, ready to show the world their art, they’re making the sets and costumes and … news drops. Big news. News that will change everything and show us what friendship and doing the right thing really means.
Malika (and Angelica and polyamory)
I have loved Malika’s storyline this season. First she went from a typical relationship into polyamory. But she started out just being the single polycule off the side, especially since her existing boyfriend wasn’t okay with it and they broke up. It wasn’t until last week’s episode, “Blindside,” that Malika had a chance to step into how she felt about polyamory by dating someone new.
A woman.
Her coworker Angelica.
We all saw Angelica’s interest in Malika, but I didn’t expect them to actually give us a payoff. This is a realistic storyline about a topic that rarely gets talked about without negative implications, something Malika’s actress Zuri Adele talked about to TV Line:
I was really excited about it. What I love about Good Trouble is that it explores these lives of millennials in a way that sort of rejects labels and living conventional lives. So it feels like the perfect platform. And like you said, we haven’t seen polyamory explored in a way that’s not stigmatizing or fetishizing or making this the center of a joke. This is a way that’s really grounded in authenticity. I’m excited for us to get a Black millennial perspective on polyamory. Once our showrunner told me about it, I just got really excited to learn more. I also love that Malika is new to polyamory, which was really exciting because I’m also new to polyamory. I’m still learning so much about polyamory, so there wasn’t the pressure of portraying a character who has been practicing polyamory. I get to learn alongside of Malika, which is really exciting, and we have some really great experts who contribute to our writers’ room, and it feels great to be doing so in an honest way.
Good Trouble‘s Zuri Adele Talks Exploring Malika’s Sexuality and Her ‘Liberating’ Polyamorous Relationship – TV Line
It’s a real treat to have a show just take this as normal. That we all question our labels and what they mean to us. Especially since Malika had previously identified as straight, and now we have the absolutely normalcy of that too!
On top of all that, Malika’s boyfriend has been up for the same role she wanted at their NPO. Yeah, dating the guy up for the same job. Who’s in her polycule. Hoooooo.
Malika has to decide between love, work, and what kind of work she really wants to do.
