| “ | Another word of advice. There is no free advice. I'm a powerful ally, I'll be of help to you as long as you're of help to me. | ” |
— Dana to Malika
| ||
Meet the New Boss is the third episode of Season 4 of Good Trouble. The episode aired on March 23, 2022.
Synopsis[]
Mariana goes undercover at Revitalize Beauty. Dennis encourages Davia to try something new to get out of her rut. Malika has her first day of work with Lucia Morales and later, she and Angelica take their relationship to the next level.
Plot[]
Davia performs a burlesque show.
Angelica asks Malika about her first day at her new job, which Malika remarks feels like a lifetime ago. It was stressful as she couldn't pick out an outfit. She tries on dozens of different looks before deciding on one. She also imagined her introduction going better, as no one knows who she is there. She is shown around by Tracy, who is a blunt young woman who uses a chipper tone despite her brutal honesty. Now, Angelica thinks it's a normal first day but Malika thought her connection to Lucia would make her important. After they talk, they share a kiss until Malika keeps talking about work.
The fight club girls worry about Mariana going undercover at Revitalize, but Mariana believes it's the only way to prove they stole their idea. She just needs a photo of their source code to prove it. Rachel asks how she is with Callie gone, offering to move back in, but Mariana loves having the loft to herself. She gets a little emotional reminiscing about Callie being gone and how quiet it is - she can even hear the mice at night. Claire wonders if Jackie shared her suspicions with them but Mariana doesn't think so - they seemed clueless.
Davia answers a call from Teach From America where the woman tells Davia her school is firing her for showing a student her personal Instagram, and a video called "Fat Bitch". As a result, Davia has violated her morality clause and the school has chosen to terminate her.
Joaquin enters Alice's loft to snoop through the file cabinet. He finds the Coterie leases. He finds his, Kelly's, Diana Graham's, but not the one he's searching for.
Mariana arrives at Revitalize Beauty for her first day of work. The girls welcome her to the team with first day doughnuts. Liza introduces herself to Mariana, as she's the new project supervisor. She's heard about her from Jackie and gives her a standard contract to sign which says she can't work at another beauty start-up for two years. Liza gives her until the end of day to sign it.
Will gives a speech to Malika and the staffers about the government helping people. He needs to fund the family first initiative, and an expansion for rent control. They need to conduct research and expand the proposal. Malika asks Will about her proposal and he promises they will get to that issue eventually. A woman arrives looking for Lucia, and asks Will for the background check on Malika. Malika asks about the woman who is Dana, Lucia's re-election manager. She's in a tug of war with Will for Lucia's attention.
Joaquin gives Luca food and asks him questions about his homelessness. He was homeless at 14 and has been for 10 years. His parents died in a car accident and he bounced to foster homes, hitchhiked, and now he's living in LA. Joaquin asks how he survived but Luca doesn't really know. He makes friends where he can, avoids bad situations, tries to aggressively be happy, and uses his sign to not have to dumpster dive.
Mariana calls brands until the team decides for a coffee break. Mariana passes on the coffee and decides to push through. The girls love her work ethic. Now alone, Mariana attempts to access the admin login when Liza suddenly arrives looking for the contract. Mariana notes she doesn't have access to the app, which is standard until she signs her contract.
Davia clears out her classroom when Jordan arrives, telling her that everyone on the ethics committee is sad to see her go. She calls her a champion who won't be forgotten. She remembers watches the students play, the meetings with Gael, Andre getting his voice, and meeting Matt for the first time. Davia collects her box and leaves the classroom.
Malika is working when Dana Batra introduces herself and asks Malika to get coffee with her. She assures Malika that she doesn’t need Will’s permission to leave. Will, however, watches them leave.
Luca can’t get a real job because he doesn’t have a birth certificate as he was born at home and his parents never registered. The legal hoops to get a birth certificate are endless. Joaquin asks what he sees for his future. Luca would like to get indoors and wants to be a dancer. He takes a class if he makes enough on the street. He sees a construction worker and police officers around the homeless tents and rushes over. The officer refuses to let him get his things, even pushing Luca to the ground when he tries to shove past the officer. The officer explains that he had 48-hour notice according to the sign, which Luca claims wasn’t there that morning. He can get his things at the reclamation center. Luca talks about being invisible and no one caring when people are erased.
Dennis sees Davia with her box and she begins to cry. He takes the box and asks what happened. She can’t talk about it with Dennis. She ultimately does, as they sit together as she confides about her insecurities about not being enough. She feels shame over herself and her body now that the video is her reason for being fired. He brings up singing with her as she out-heckles a heckler. She needs to learn to defend herself and see this as an opportunity to pause, reassess what she wants, and see what else is out there. She asks why he’s being nice and he’s just being her friend as she said. He asks why she was reluctant to talk to him, and he realizes it’s because she thinks she still needs to take care of him. He has her close her eyes.
Dana and Malika talk about her leaving activism for politics. Malika explains that she wants to do the people’s work. She submitted a proposal to Will regarding her incarceration bill, but he’s focused on the family first initiative. Dana suggests she find out what Will wants, collect it, and use it to get what she wants. However, no advice is free as Dana’s a powerful ally who can help Malika if Malika helps her. Malika states that it sounds good.
Mariana asks one of the women about the ordering algorithm to see the coding but learns Liza handles that. She sets up a pitch meeting but lies about a glitch in the merge but the women aren’t sure where the potential client would have heard that from. Later, Mariana finds the password for the app in a drawer.
Davia is in bed when Kelly enters as she has a caller. She finds Andre waiting in the breakfast area. He thinks her getting fired is bullshit. She doesn’t want this to discourage him as he can still accomplish everything he wants. Andre admits that she supported him and changed things for him more than any other teacher has. She’s a real one and he thanks her for everything. They hug after she assures him that he can reach out to her at any time, though the other students and teachers can help him.
Mariana video chats with FCGs to tell them about the identical code file. There are blocks of code that are missing or have been replaced with different variables. Revitalized changed the code just enough so that Bulk Beauty doesn’t have any legal copyright claim. Revitalize also has the Hallis Group behind them, so BB can’t compete.
Joaquin reads up on the homeless crisis when his mom calls. He answers warily and she believes she’s seen a sign from God. She was praying when Jenna’s picture fell from the wall and she believes that Jenna has died. The picture was a sign from god. She worries Jenna was lured into the Satan-worshipping in LA or into a sex-trafficking ring. He doesn’t believe what she believes, nor does he think Jen is dead. She will pray for his soul.
Mariana sits in her bed looking at Callie’s empty side of the room.
Joaquin sits in his chair looking at the ceiling. He looks at Luca, who is asleep in his bed.
Joaquin looks at photos of Jenna in the kitchen when Mariana arrives. He remarks that she isn’t used to sleeping alone now that her sister is gone, as she must miss Callie. Mariana tries to brush it off but he sees through her act, knowing she’s more upset than what she’s letting on. He asks about her app but she refuses to tell him, as he’s answering the questions tonight. He claims to be an open book. He’s from Oklahoma, where his parents still live and are retired. His mom was a teacher and his father worked in the fields. He has a sister back in Oklahoma, who is married and has two kids. She asks if that’s true and he admits most of it is. There’s a crash that she blames on raccoons. Turns out, the shelf collapsed in the other room, and books fell. She thinks it’s a ghost but he deals in facts, not imagination. He steals a book then says goodnight. Mariana finds one of Callie’s old legal books that she left behind.
Mariana makes Callie’s bed and puts her clothes in Callie’s closet. She then pulls everything off Callie’s bed and moves the mattress into the hallway. Once back in her room, she looks at the Callie doll then puts it away in a drawer.
Will talks to the staffers and encourages them to put the pedal to the metal for the proposal. Malika tells him she was hanging out with friends from the Coalition of Affordable Housing last night, as she had emailed a bunch of friends to ask for their help. Now, she tells him that the protestors showed up to push things forward for their rent control bill. He’s pleased with her efforts and understands that it’s important to fight for things near to them.
Mariana gives Liza the signed contract. That morning, she told the BB girls that she would spy on the Revitalize Beauty group for them as they stole their code and won’t get away with it. She doesn’t care if she has to sign the non-compete, as this is her mess to fix. She wants to save Bulk Beauty and won’t just move across the country as her actions might affect other people. Claire notes that she can’t come back to BB, but Mariana thinks they can knock Revitalize off the map and void the contract. Now, Liza welcomes Mariana to the team. She leaves Liza’s office when she bumps into Evan. After a few awkward moments, he reveals that he has a few apps in development with the Hallis Group. They will be running into each from time to time but hopes it won’t be literal next time.
Malika tells Angelica about playing the game with Will and that it worked. Back at work, Lucia welcomes Malika to the company as Will sent her Malika’s proposal for the women’s center and she’ll read it that night. Now, Malika is happy with the events of the day. She realizes that she’s hogging the conversation, which Angelica doesn’t mind, but she doesn’t want to talk about her ex all the time. Malika thanks her for being honest with her feelings, and Angelica thanks her for hearing her. She then asks where their relationship is going. She’s happy to take things slowly but wants to know how much Malika likes her. Malika admits she likes Angelica very much. She takes Angelica’s hand and leads her into the bedroom. She was taking it slow because she’s never been with a woman before and isn’t sure what to do. She needs Angelica to take the lead, which she can do. She wants Malika to set boundaries and tell her if they’re going too fast. They kiss on Malika’s bed.
Joaquin opens the book he stole, which is a bible from his father to Jenna. Luca finds him and Joaquin tells Luca about his suspicions of Jenna living there before, but he doesn’t know where she is now. He finds a message wish to Diana Graham inside the bible, remembering the file he found in Alice’s cabinet.
Davia performs a burlesque show with confidence. Flashing back, Dennis has Davia close her eyes and picture what she can do instead. He asks what the outrageous exuberant, “I am Davia Moss” thing she can imagine. She opens her eyes, finally picturing that thing, which is the burlesque show. She performs it for a woman and admits she has dance experience. She likes that the woman is looking for dancers of all sizes. She also wants to do something that inspires her to love her body, feel powerful, confident, and as though she deserves to be there.
Cast[]
Starring[]
- Cierra Ramirez as Mariana Adams Foster
- Zuri Adele as Malika Williams
- Sherry Cola as Alice Kwan (Credit only)
- Bryan Craig as Joaquin Peréz
- Emma Hunton as Davia Moss
- Tommy Martinez as Gael Martinez (Credit only)
- Josh Pence as Dennis Cooper
- Priscilla Quintana as Isabella Tavez (Credit only)
Guest Starring[]
- Booboo Stewart as Luca
- T.J. Linnard as Evan Speck
- Malaya Rivera Drew as Lucia Morales
- Nicole Maines as Liza Davis
- Anastasia Leddick as Kelly Campbell
- Lilli Birdsell as Annette Peréz
- Aisha Alfa as Jordan
- Terrell Ransom Jr. as Andre Johnson
- Yasmine Aker as Angelica
- Maiara Walsh as Jenna Peréz (Credit only: photograph)
- Rachel Rosenbloom as Gina Spero
- Maisie Klompus as Rachel Boyle
- Seri DeYoung as Claire Badgley
- Daya Vaidya as Dana Batra
- Izzy Diaz as Will
- Marisela Zumbado as Tracy
Co-Starring[]
- Shannon Hollander as Ava
- Annamarie Kasper as Raisa
- Danielle Larracuente as Victoria
- Nilla Elizabeth Watkins as Staffer
- April Schutte as Desi
- Steve Suh as Officer #1
Notes and Trivia[]
Gallery[]
Images[]
Videos[]
Behind the Scenes[]
Featured Music[]
- Le Desir - Remix by Gilles Douieb, Jacques Leon Mercier
- Feel This Good by Anna Volpe, Soulplusmind
- Ghosts in the River by AG
- I'm Coming For Ya by MoonZz
- Yay Boy by Africando
- Can't Help Myself by Blookah, Mumbleton
- MmmHmm by LiTTiE (ft. Chelsea Grams)
- Catch You by Amy Stroup
- Imma Do That by EJ Sara
- Looking For Knives by DYAN
- Why'd You Let Me Go by Jordan Max