‘Good Trouble’ Recap Season 5 Premiere Episode 1 — [Spoiler] Shot

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Thursday’s Good Trouble premiere. Proceed at your own risk!

The shot that rang out on Good Trouble struck someone very important to Mariana, it was revealed during the Season 5 premiere.

While fleeing the compound, Evan was hit by a bullet, which landed him in a coma in the hospital. The devastating turn of events left Mariana shaken, her hands trembling as she washed Evan’s blood off them. As she sat vigil at his bedside, Evan’s lawyer informed Mariana that the tech giant had made Mariana his proxy, meaning she was now the acting CEO of Speckulate. Between the pressure and her guilt, Mariana practically crumbled in her sister’s arms when she discovered Callie (former series regular Maia Mitchell) had returned in her time of need.

Below, showrunner Joanna Johnson previews Evan’s fate, Mariana’s new role at Speckulate and Callie’s homecoming.

TVLINE | This premiere felt like the most emotional Mariana story that we’ve ever seen on the show. Talk to me about what she’s going through and how she’s going to process it this season.
Guilt is such a very, very strong emotion, and for her, she feels completely responsible for Evan getting shot, and until you can sort of forgive yourself, you can’t really let go of guilt. For her, this season is going to be that process of it eating away at her, and is she going to let the guilt consume her or is she going to find a way to forgive herself and let that part of it go? Plus, she also has really strong feelings for him, too, which the thought of having almost lost him is bringing up even stronger. So she’s going to be dealing with that as well.

TVLINE | You leave Evan in this middle ground of, is he going to live or is he going to die? So what can you share about his fate and how long he’ll be straddling that line of whether he survives or not?
We straddle it for a little while before we come to a conclusion. There are complications with his injury, and Mariana is having to also take care of his company while he is recovering and not knowing what decisions to make because he’s in a coma and she can’t ask him. We’re going to spend some time on that interesting dynamic of, what do you do in a situation like that? How do you kind of try to figure out what Evan would want, especially when there are forces at work that are not being supportive of you or necessarily of Evan’s vision for the company?

TVLINE | With Mariana being the acting CEO at Speckulate, what does that mean for her and Bulk Beauty? Does that impact that storyline at all?
She has to take a leave of absence while she runs Speckulate. So that’s hard for her, to be away from the girls, and hard for the girls, also, to lose her again, in essence, to Evan, which they felt they have before. So it causes some issues.

TVLINE | This whole situation that Mariana is in now is very much tied up in her feelings for Evan and Joaquin, and her wanting to help Joaquin. So how is this experience going to impact her relationship with Joaquin, especially considering what it’s resulted in for Evan? Does she feel like she needs to keep her distance from Joaquin, or is it something that brings them together more?
It’s a good question because I think both things happen. In some ways, she feels she has to keep a distance from Joaquin because of her guilt about Evan and wanting to just take care of Evan. So any feelings that she also has left over for Joaquin, she’s shoving down because her love for Evan is coming up stronger at the moment. But also, he understands what she went through, he was there, and they live in the Coterie together, and they do tend to rely on each other. So she’s kind of torn about how much to rely on him, how much to lean on him. So that’s complicated. It’s an interesting pull. It creates a lot of dimensions [to] the triangle that makes it one of my favorite stories this season just because it is so complex.

TVLINE | Given everything that she’s going through, Mariana needs her sister, and we now know why Callie comes back. Can you talk about the storyline between the sisters in Episode 2 and what fans can expect?
We’re thrilled to have Maia back. It’s been hard for Mariana since Callie left because Callie was her headstone, the person who grounded her, and her best friend, as well as her sister. So Mariana’s been flailing a little bit without that and trying to find her own center [while] not having Callie there to say, “Don’t do that impulsive thing,” or [be] her shoulder to cry on. I love that moment in the first episode when she comes home and Callie’s in the loft. It’s such a great moment, so emotional, that she came to be there for her sister, and she’s trying to support her. Their dynamic will just be as it always is: they are best friends, really. We’re hoping to see more of Callie.

Good Trouble fans, what did you think of the season opener? Grade it below, then hit the comments!