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Warning: The following contains spoilers for Tuesday’s Good Trouble series finale. Proceed at your own risk!
The Coterie has closed its doors.
Good Trouble wrapped up its five-season run on Tuesday with a series finale that was recut and expanded to 90-minutes following the show’s cancellation in December 2023. In the added scenes, the Coterie residents said goodbye to each other and their home, which was being sold by the landlord.
As the group gathered for one last meal together three months later, everyone shared life updates: Malika was making strides in her campaign for city council and was back together with Angelica; Alice and Sumi were buying a house, and Alice was now the host of America’s Funniest Ferrets & Friends; Gael (who was still with Jay) announced that he’d been contracted to paint a mural in downtown LA; Luca revealed that he was going on tour to dance for… Olivia Rodrigo!; Davia was leaving for New York as the star of an off-Broadway musical, but she and Dennis were committed to a long-distance relationship; and Joaquin was mulling offers from different magazines and planning to visit his parents once Jenna — who helped him finally get Silas arrested and saved Mariana’s life when she shot Silas — was done with rehab.
That brings us to our original Fosters sisters: After moving on with Joaquin, Mariana was dealt a curveball when Evan revealed that he’d gotten his memories back. As the group dinner continued, Evan joined the festivities, and Joaquin made room for him to sit by Mariana’s side. Callie also came back to LA to bid adieu to The Coterie, sharing an emotional moment with her sister by the pool.
“It’s been quite the journey,” Mariana remarked, to which Callie replied, “It certainly has. And there’s no one that I would have rather done it with.”
But that wasn’t the ending showrunner Joanna Johnson originally envisioned for the series, she reveals in the following Q&A.
The EP also discusses how the season finale shifted into a series ender and mulls the possibility of a TV movie. (Plus, get scoop on whether Hulu might rescue the show.)
TVLINE | What did you end up adding to the finale? Was everything after Alice finds out the landlord is selling the building a new addition, and that was the original cliffhanger?
No, that wasn’t the original cliffhanger. The original cliffhangers were really on the Silas storyline, and Mariana and Joaquin and our triangles that we had. I did have to go in and cut some of those scenes that we had shot that we weren’t going to be able to pick up in a Season 6. It didn’t make sense to kind of boot those stories since we weren’t going to be able to resolve them. So I went back in and recut the finale and added these scenes, which are very moving and beautiful. Everybody was a trooper, and everybody was so happy. All the actors and the crew, everybody was so happy to have a couple of days to come back together and say goodbye, and it was really quite beautiful.
TVLINE | Is there anything you would’ve done differently or included if you’d had more time or more money?
I really wanted to do Jamie and Callie’s wedding. I really did. I’d always felt that that was going to be the series finale to the show, whether it was Season 6 or Season 7, who knows. So I was really sad, but we just couldn’t afford it. We just didn’t have the money to do it. I wanted to bring back every Fosters person and bring some surprise Easter egg characters back from The Fosters for people, and also from Good Trouble that we haven’t seen in a while. But unfortunately, we just didn’t have the time or the money to do it.
TVLINE | For the longest time, I thought that maybe Callie and Jamie’s wedding was going to be the finale, and I even said to Cierra Ramirez when I interviewed her, “Callie and Jamie met during an engagement. It seems fitting that this would end with their wedding.”
Yes, I know, but at least we had their engagement party [in Episode 18], where we got have our Fosters there and the moms. So that really served, for me, as at least a goodbye to them. Thank God we had that episode.
TVLINE | Were there any scenes cut with Lena and/or Stef from the series finale? I got the impression from talking to Sherri Saum that she was in the series finale.
No. When wanted to try to do the wedding, we definitely pinned them. That’s like when you call up and you just kind of pin an actor. But when we couldn’t afford it, we had to not do it.
TVLINE | Well, you did manage to get Maia Mitchell back. Why was it important for you to have the series end with Callie and Mariana and that final scene of the two of them by the pool?
I felt that Good Trouble started with the two of them coming to LA, and I felt like it needed to end with the two of them. So once all the other characters say goodbye, I thought it was important that just the two of them were on the roof for the final [scene] and by the pool, where they were in the first episode. It just kind of felt like the right thing.
TVLINE | That scene by the pool with everybody and then just the two of them, how much was real life bleeding into fiction in the dialogue in that scene? Or was that all scripted?
It was all scripted, but I wrote it so that when they say, “Do you think anyone will remember us?” that’s about the show, basically. And then Gael says, “I think we made an impact.” I’d like to think we made an impact of some sort. I was really writing about the show, itself, and all those actors and their journeys. Will we be remembered? Will people still talk about the show five, 10 years from now? Did we make any impact? And so that’s what that was all really about.
Everybody was crying, and everybody was trying to hold back the tears. Maia and Cierra were like, “I don’t know… How far do you want us to go? What do we do?” So we did a few takes where we told them to hold it back, and then we did a take [like], “Just let it go,” and we used the more “let it go” one. But there were so many tears. That cast loves each other, and they are really close and have always been amazingly supportive of one another and really grateful for the journey. And then, of course, Maia and Cierra, which is why we decided to do little flashbacks.
TVLINE | Oh, my God. That destroyed me.
Right? I mean, Cierra was 17 during the [Fosters] pilot, and Maia was 18, 19, and so, they grew up on this show. They were incredibly emotional. Maia said this was harder than when she left as a series regular, because she always knew she would be coming back, and that the show was still there, and that it was like home, and she could go and touch back in. She said this was harder, knowing that it was the end.
TVLINE | I wanted to also touch base on the love triangle that you had established this season between Mariana, Evan and Joaquin. We finally get a resolution in the series finale. Why did you decide that Mariana has to end up with Evan?
For me, it just felt like that’s the long love affair, and they’re so cute together, and they were adorable in Episode 18. I love how T.J. [Linnard] plays Evan. She loves him first, you know? I think she had real feelings for Joaquin, but I don’t know… And I think most of our audience wanted to see her with Evan.
TVLINE | When you think of their future together, do you imagine that they’re still working alongside each other as co-CEOs of Speckulate?
I do, yeah. Absolutely. I think they make a good partnership. Maybe in the TV movie, one day, we’ll do a double wedding, and we’ll have them get married, too.
TVLINE | Since you brought it up, what are the chances that you’re going to be able to revisit these characters someday?
Well, I would do it in a heartbeat, but you know, unfortunately, it’s not up to me. So I don’t know. I know that on Hulu, we’ve been trending for the last few weeks in the Top 15 of what people are watching. We’re number 7, and we’ve been there for a couple of weeks. I do think that there are people that do love the show and would watch a TV movie, but I just don’t know if people make those anymore, you know?
TVLINE | I’m really happy to hear that Dennis and Davia are going to try the long distance thing. I did wonder, though, if maybe there was going to be a marriage proposal. Was that something you ever considered? Or are they the type of couple that don’t need marriage?
I see them getting married sometime down the road. He said in the finale that he wants to be together for the rest of their lives. So I think they’re endgame for each other.
TVLINE | And you, basically, wrote almost an entire musical for the Davia storyline. Has there been any discussion about making it into a real musical?
Well, that certainly would be fun. The composer of the music, Heather Reid, who’s a wonderful musician and singer and composer… I think it would be a fun play to put on, but it’s a lot of work, and theater’s not easy. So, no, we haven’t seriously decided that we would do it.
TVLINE | Finally, what do you hope the legacy of the show will be?
I wish more eyes had been on this show and more people had been aware of it, because I don’t think there’s another show out there like it. I hope that the legacy is that the show was forward-thinking, that the show may have introduced people that watched it to people that might be different than them. I think that we have a strong LGBTQ presence in the show. We’ve talked about racism. We’ve talked about so many important issues, and I hope that those open some people’s minds. And mostly, I hope that people felt it was a place that they could turn on the TV and see their favorite characters and be entertained, and have a sort of heartwarming experience, watching the show. Ultimately, you want to entertain, and you want to open and warm people’s hearts. That’s what I want to do in my work.
Good Trouble fans, what did you think of the series ender? Grade it below, then hit the comments!
Gonna miss this show! Hopefully we get a follow-up movie on Hulu someday, but I’m also still waiting for a Greek tv movie as well
Still waiting on Young and Hungry follow up as well. FF makes vague noises about a follow up movie, but that is only to quell fan anger. They count on our short attention spans to make us forget about this. Even when folks remember, there isn’t the fan cohesion to really agitate for anything.
I’m happy with everyone’s ending except Mariana. She deserved better and honestly it was super disrespectful to her character to have her end up with Evan and hurt Joaquin like that when they’ve been building Mariana and Joaquin up all season, and they gave them all this screen time. She didn’t even want Evan at Callie’s engagement party and only invited him out of pity. Mariana didn’t even care about Evan this episode, she choose Joaquin again blowing Evan off, ran over Silas to save Joaquin. Just for her to switch up not even 24 hours later all cause Evan got his memories back? Like who cares, like they weren’t just saying in the last episode in the scene at Speckulate they weren’t compatible and are different people All they do is argue and be unprofessional in the work place, creating a unprofessional work evironment. There’s a reason they didn’t work once already. So lame and corny them romanticizing Evans memory loss. What happened to “I’m ready to move on” ??? Terrible writing and fan service. Joaquiana should have been endgame after all that build up for the last two years, and Mariana should have left Spekulate behind to start her own company. She’s better than Evan and Speckulate. She’s always been too good for him.
Yah it was a toss-up, but like she said, most people were team Evan and Marianna (me too, he is RICH!!!!!).
That’s a terrible reason to make them endgame. Total fan service when most the audience has terrible taste in ships. I mean that’s proven even more so by all the people I saw who wanted Malika and Isaac to get back together too. Lol, they’re not smart and don’t have good taste in ships. Who who cares if he’s rich, yet another horrible reason why to start a relationship. Mariana is way too good for him and always has been. It was truly a disservice to her character and a regression to be honest.
Please stop posting this verbatim rant on multiple platforms.
I started with the Fosters very first episode. I loved that show and was so excited when I read about Good Trouble. Great writing and heart felt! I was so sad to hear it was the ending. My question was why? Poor decision.
At least Freeform gave this show a proper conclusion, that almost never happens. Debra, it ended because Disney has to cut back due to losses they’ve had in the last couple years — poor box office/tv ratings, Disney+ is still at a loss and it will be a few more years until that service makes a profit, and Disney gotten big from all of their mergers, and the strikes didn’t help matters. Corporate doesn’t really want to admit it publicly, but that’s the reason why Good Trouble and Station 19 are ending and why they’ve done company wide staff reductions and cancellations for other series and projects over the past year, it’s all about getting lean and keeping the stuff that’s making money, and sweeping the other stuff, and in WB’s part: making some of their projects as tax write-offs; survival of the fittest as they say or a fancy Ivy League board game of reactions to justify their actions…. They’re not the only ones, Paramount, Universal and Fox are all in the same boat too, makes me think that the FTC poorly handled these media mergers since the 1990s deregulation.
https://tvline.com/interviews/good-trouble-boss-series-cancellation-finale-1235177223/
My daughter and I watched the Fosters together from the beginning. She’s adopted and fit with the ages of the kids in the show, basically growing up with them. As a 20-something she hasn’t watched Good Trouble, but somehow I got hooked, seeing her reflected in some of the work and relationship struggles.
So I’m sad to see it end, from a nostalgia perspective but also because of the social conscience both shows had.
My only criticism of the finale was that too much time was spent on resolving the Silas story line.
I’m glad someone said it. I absolutely hated the whole Silas storyline being drug out like it was. Had they cut it back we would have had more closure with the og’s.
Shows like “Good Trouble”, “A Million Little Things”, “This Is Us”, & the list could go on, are such great heart felt shows about real life situations that most everyone can relate to. Why are these type of shows always cancelled?!!! But yet shows like “ South Park”, “The Simpsons”, “Family Guy”, & “American Dad”, go on forever and they are garbage!!! The sick twisted stuff they have on those shows especially South Park sickens me. We need more TV that is positive and deals with real life situations that aren’t always sick and twisted like the world really is.
I guess cartoons can go on 4ever. Look at Mickey.
Hour long live action simply costs more than half-hour animated shows.
You can simply not watch shows you don’t like. Comparing animation to live action is nonsensical.
Loved Good Trouble,sad to see it end. Wish we could have had a few more seasons to see the carachters grow and settle into their lives.
I am gutted it the show is over. I was hooked on The Fosters. I don’t fit the age demographic, but in every other way, the Fosters and then Good Trouble represented and reflected so many facets of my reality that I couldn’t not fall in love with these people and their lives. I already miss them. Sadly, that is life and TV biz. I also feel lucky got so many seasons. I can always hope for a future movie, or a revival spin off that focuses back on the lives of all the Fosters.
Yep, they had a good run and I will miss my favorite show.
I watched the Fosters and then Good Trouble. I don’t like that it got canceled. Seems like everything on Freeform is ending. Guess it’s gonna be a whole new network. So sad.
Yes the finale felt rushed, but at least everyone got a storyline.
Really should have ended Silas sooner. And definitely should have had more of a reunion with Evan & Mariana!!!
If another network picks them up (#savegoodtrouble) that would be so great!
(No Joaquin & Jenna!!)
Maybe if you didn’t waste so much time on the whole Silas thing you would have had enough money to do a wedding for the series finale.
Just reading that Silas being shot was going to be the cliffhanger smh.
It wasn’t a series finale. It was a season finale, where they were lucky enough to shoot one final scene. It’s disappointing that this is the way things worked out.
I felt cheated out of a real ending for all of them. The show and fans deserved better! All GOOD things must come to an end!!!
Want more Evan and Marianna for sure!! There should be a spin off of this spin off have Alice and Sumi buy a multiplex and their neighbors are Marianna and Malika following her running for office and navigating the pressure and all of the public in her personal life (all the while Alice and Sumi gearing up for I do’s along with Marianna and Evan picking up where they left of romancing and running the company as a duo ( dodging shady players under them and putting them out to pasture where they belong). Maybe you just show a photo book (photo shoot of Jamie and Callie’s wedding)? Since affording to shoot the wedding is out of picture?
But please more Evan and Marianna!!!
Pretty please he just remembered we need more of him being comfortably uncomfortable with having a full time girlfriend and how much he has to “deal” with in order to keep her in his life the sacrifices he makes to continue to find what makes him happy isn’t always going to be comfortable?
I am glad Marianna wound up with Evan! I think Joachim needs to spend time with his sister and their parents.
I’m sad it’s over. I really wanted a Jamie and Callie wedding. I am so glad that Mariana chose Evan. I wanted a Davia and Dennis proposal.
I’ve only recently watched this show. I loved The Foster’s but I just didn’t get into Good Trouble when it first started a a few years back. Not sure exactly why. I watched basically all of it on Hulu in the last few months. I’m glad I did. It was very unique.
These actors are very talented. Maia and Cierra have really grown up as these characters. I look forward to seeing whatever else they will do in the future. I would definitely watch a movie revisiting the Fosters and Good Trouble casts. Come on Hulu make it happen!
Question about the Cotiere bring sold. Didn’t Dennis buy the Cotiere in an earlier season? I just remember an episode where Alice found out that the owner was going to sell and then Dennis brought the Cotiere so everyone could stay.
I don’t know what I’m going to do when my nights now that I’m through with The Foster’s and Good Trouble.. feel like I just said goodbye to my best friends/family.
What incredible shows!! I’m hoping for that movie!