Entertainment

WTF, ABC Family?

by Christine DiStasio

So, apparently this is still a thing? ABC Family's The Fosters Season 2 has been on point, with the exception of their minor hiccup with Jude's LGBT storyline, but I guess that's not good enough. So far, The Fosters has redeemed Brandon and actually, somehow, made us like him again. Well, that might not last long — The Fosters Twitter account has been tweeting #Brallie4ever and fans are all over it. But, WHY?

I'm just going to say it: this is quite possibly the WORST thing that could happen to this show. Because Brandon and Callie, or "Brallie," are absolutely not "4ever." They never should've started in the first place and everyone, including these two teenagers, has finally coming to terms with the fact that their relationship is just a dark memory. We're supposed to be rooting for Callie to get adopted and for the Foster family to be good for one another, not for Brallie to come back into the picture and ruin everything. But, alas, ABC Family and whoever is in charge of The Fosters' Twitter account seems to believe otherwise and now a handful of the show's fans also believe that Brandon and Callie should get back together.

Here's a tweet from last Monday:

I know you already noticed that this post has 924 retweets. That's 924 people that think Callie and Brandon — who were never good for each other — should get back together. And it's all The Fosters and ABC Family's fault for posting it. These characters are doing better now that they're no longer trying to date — Brandon's working towards a new dream and perhaps a new dream girl and Callie's handling her new family and the struggle of getting adopted with a better stride now that she's with Wyatt. Basically, Brandon and Callie are thriving now that they're foster brother and foster sister ONLY and it's been good for The Fosters.

The biggest issue with Callie and Brandon as a couple is that them getting together means that Callie is on her own again, either back in foster care or in a group home or possibly living with the Quinns (though I don't see The Fosters going there with this). Isn't the whole point of these series for Callie to finally find the family she's been missing? There's no way to slice Brallie that doesn't leave Callie without a home and family and when she realized that at the end of Season 1, I was proud of her. And everyone else should be too.

Aside from that fact that they're better for one another as foster siblings, rather than a couple, Brallie's demise has left room for so much more development on The Fosters. Brandon and Callie have been allowed to grow and change and evolve so far in Season 2 and it's more interesting to watch than them sneaking around behind Stef and Lena's backs. (And better for Brandon's career that he's not writing anymore sad, love songs.) The Fosters has also been able to take on more challenging storylines for this pair, like Callie and Wyatt saying "I love you" and deciding to have sex for the first time and Brandon coming clean about Dani. Because they're not bogged-down with the constantly dysfunctional, forbidden Brallie relationship.

I don't doubt that fans fell in love with Brandon and Callie's romance. They were the first couple we were introduced to on The Fosters and whether or not they were terrible together, even I believe that their feelings were real. But there's so much good happening on The Fosters right now that it seems unfair for ABC Family and the show itself to drag Brallie back into the mix.

The Fosters did right by having Callie acknowledge that she might still have feelings for Brandon during last week's episode because you don't just stop loving someone, but they definitely shouldn't be pushing #Brallie4Ever. It would never work and with an expansive group of young fans, the show should be guiding them to root for Callie's happiness and the best possible outcome, not for her to fall back into an old, destructive pattern.

Image: ABC Family