The Fosters: Peter Paige Eyes what’s next after that midseason finale
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Fans of The Fosters are once again left holding their breath and hoping for the best after Monday night’s Season 4 midseason finale, “Collateral Damage.” Series’ co-creator Peter Paige was telling the truth when he said this would be “a massive episode of television,” and fans are left to worry about the fate of several members of the Adams-Foster clan. After fighting with Nick (Louis Hunter), Jesus (Noah Centineo) suffered what could be a life-threatening blow to the head, and Callie (Maia Mitchell) is unknowingly riding off in a car with the dangerous Troy.
How worried she would be about these characters? What about Stef (Teri Polo) and Brandon (David Lambert) who both are eyeing uneasy and unwanted transitions in their life? To get the answers to all our burning finale questions and more, The TV Junkies spoke exclusively with Paige who directed and co-wrote the episode. He also looks ahead to what fans can expect from the back half of Season 4.
TTVJ: Jesus’s life is once again left in the balance. Did you have any concerns about doing a finale where his fate is up in the air again?
PP: We did talk about that, but I think the main thing was we’re doing it in a very, very different way. What is coming down the pike for Jesus will be way more for him to handle.
TTVJ: We seem to have a lot of the characters on the verge of some major transitions in their life, like Stef and Brandon who are about to make jumps to the next stage in their careers or schooling. Are we going to see those characters having to deal with these transitions next season into positions that they are maybe less than thrilled about?
PP: Yes, we are picking up in the midseason seconds after we left off. We’ll follow all of these threads. The amazing thing that we’ve found when we started the second half of the season, when we started breaking the next half of the season, was that so much was put in motion in this finale that even though some stories felt like they were coming to a head, they actually dovetail into something else. We have all this stuff to follow up on and build on. Every character is in a moment of crisis or transition and that gives us a lot of engine for story.

TTVJ: No matter how good Callie’s intentions seem to be, trouble always seems to find her. How worried should we be about the fact that she’s in the car with Troy?
PP: Well it’s not good. She’s got an immediate problem and then a lot of secondary problems. How she handles the immediate problem is probably going to create some more problems.
TTVJ: We’ve really seen Jude (Hayden Byerly) rebel and act out in several ways this season which isn’t like the Jude we’ve known in the past. Why was that an important direction for you guys to take his character and will he still be continuing his relationship with Noah (Kalama Epstein) going forward?
PP: Yes, he is going to be continuing his relationship with Noah, which some people know about and some people don’t, i.e. his mothers. We just want to honor what it is to be a teenager. Being a teenager you start rebelling and get a little sassier–even on sweet Jude we wanted to explore that. He feels safe and secure for the first time so the fact that he’s rebelling is actually developmentally really great and really important. It’s not super fun for everyone–Callie gets an earful and the moms are suddenly dealing with a fifth kid who is causing trouble. It’s tricky but it’s really, really human and that’s why we wanted to do it.
What did you think of The Fosters midseason finale? What do you want to see happen next? Sound off in the comments below!
The Fosters will return for Season 4B in 2017 to Freeform and ABC Spark.
An intense but overall good episode for sure!
I’m glad to hear Jesus will survive his incident as he’s always been my favorite of the kids; I’m SO happy Brandon is getting consequences for his actions as for a long time the show acted as if he could do no wrong, sadly because of his history I look for him pass the buck as it were regarding responsibility for him being kicked out. He knew what he was doing was wrong but he did it anyways, he only has himself to blame; I’d be fine with them threatening to withhold his diploma because of this or expel him and make him repeat senior year – Brandon is way past due to be held accountable for his actions. It’d be nice to see the parents calling him out more instead of acting like he’s the golden boy all of the time; he’s just as guilty as Callie for the events between them if not more so because he knew the rules better than her!
I feel bad for Marianna and hope they’ll help her before it’s too late and she ends up in the hospital because of a reaction to the meds. The scene between Aaron, Callie, AJ and Mike was really well done I thought; I hope the IA meeting turns out well for Stef but I am worried! I’m so happy for Sherri Saum finally getting to get into the uniform in some way, she’s been asking for that since season one; the only bad part was the scene only lasted like a second, if that, after they began kissing – they’ve done more and shown longer scenes of them together before why cut away so quick now? At least show the kissing a bit longer and either Stef’s hands on Lena’s waist or Lena cuffing Stef to the bed before cutting away…that still shows intimacy is good to be shown between them without getting too graphic. I have to say that was a left down for this episode again especially given ABCFamily has shown more on this show before and almost shown a full on sex scene in “Pretty Little Liars” so hands on hips or locking handcuffs would have been nothing extreme compared to the others.
In Jude news, I miss Connor! I’m looking forward to the new episodes!
I love this Show!It has it all,fear,love suspense , and the unknown ! And Hate ,That’s from the fans because we have to wait until Jan. Damn ! Come on Jan.Get Here Now!! Love Stef&Lena alot,worried about the Kids ! Good GOD ! WHAT THE HELL? They NEED A GOOD TALKING TO& CONSEQUENCES ! All I can do is work it out in my 66yr old mind ,and wait till Damn JAN. To get HERE ! Stef &Lena Holds the KEY to this family and it’s SANITY !! I Love Peter,Bradley and Joanna !They Are the hands that HOLDS this family that WE LOVE ! Thank you ALL !YOU MAKE MONDAYS FOR ALOT OF US ! And MEMORIES FLOOD BACK WITH EVERY E P My family has 2 loving parents (both gone now )and 6.Wonderful kids (1gone now ) .OMG THE MEMORIES !!