The characters of the television series The Fosters and Good Trouble.
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The Family
Stef
Stefanie "Stef" Marie Adams Foster
A beat cop, Stef was married to Mike Foster for a number of years and in the process, gave birth to Brandon. When Brandon was five, having come to the realization of her own sexuality, she divorced Mike and became involved with Lena. Later, they fostered, then adopted the twins.
- Action Mom: She works as a cop, handles and arrests criminals and will fight tooth and nail to protect her kids.
- Amicable Exes: With Mike.
- Berserk Button: Her lesbianism and Lena. When Brandon calls her out on (among other things), that he had no choice in the matter of having two moms (he was five when his parents divorced), Stef quickly loses her cool. Only the fact that Brandon storms out of the house and Lena jumps in prevents her from saying something she might regret.
- Boyish Short Hair: As of the last three episodes of season 3.
- Butch Lesbian: Downplayed. She was very feminine in the beginning but worked as a cop and eventually got a short haircut.
- Calling the Old Man Out: She finally gathers the courage to put her father in his place the day before her wedding with Lena, telling him that he's the voice in her head telling her that marrying and loving a woman is wrong and to not bother showing up to the wedding if he's not 100% behind it. She somewhat regrets this after her passing when his pastor tells her that he visited him multiple times to try and come to terms with his beliefs for her sake.
- She later on even calls out her mother for making her feel like crap when she left Mike and disappointed basically everyone to be with Lena, though it's cut short by a panic attack.
- Deadpan Snarker: The snarkier of the two mothers. She even manages to take a shot at her mom during a panic attack.
- Freudian Excuse: Seems to have confidence issues in regards to her relationship with Brandon.
- Gayngst: Stef definitely suffers from this greatly, most likely because of her homophobic father.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: In the parenting sense, Stef tends to play bad cop and overall is more straightforward and strict than Lena. Kind of plays into their parental names—Stef is "Mom" which is more formal while Lena is "Momma" which is more casual.
- Ironically, later events in the first season play with the label. We find out that she lies to Internal Affairs about her shooting. Her shooter shot her by accident and dropped his gun in shock which causes it to fire a second time; Mike comes in and, assuming he was still armed as it was a dark room, shot in return. This is an issue because, legally speaking, Mike just shot an unarmed man.
- Good Parents: Stef is a compassionate and loving parent who will always protect and care for her children. A practical plot point in the series.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold
- Happily Married: To Lena from Season One "I Do" onwards.
- Hot-Blooded: To an extent, though it varies with the person.
- Incompatible Orientation: With her ex husband Mike.
- The Nicknamer: Calls Brandon "B", Mariana "Lovely", Jesus "Love", and so on and so forth.
- Open-Minded Parent: Is willing to buy her son Brandon condoms and give Lexi the morning after pill Jesus bought. Over the series Stef is aware that most of her kids are sexually active, and takes it all in stride.
- Parental Issues: Her relationship with her own parents, her mom tends to act less mature then Stef. More so is her father who disapproved of her homosexuality leading to a strained relationship between them, and when he dies, its before they have a chance to mend their rift.
- Pet the Dog: After seeing that Ana (who was pregnant at the time) lives in a small, rundown apartment, she allows her to stay at her home.
- The Unfettered: Fights to keep Callie in the family during the custody battle with Robert Quinn, even resorting to Blackmail.
- Working with the Ex: Stef and Mike get partnered together as beat cops.
Lena
Lena Elizabeth Adams Foster (née Adams)
A vice principal, Lena is the heart of the family and takes on the cooking, groceries, cloths shopping, organization in the household.
- Ambiguously Brown: At first, though it's eventually revealed Lena is biracial, she has a black mother and a white father.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Lena is a kind, sweet mother to children and all-round nice person, but even she gets angry especially when her family is threatened or when her kids get into trouble breaking the rules.
- But Not Too Black: Her mother is of the opinion that darker-skinned blacks have it harder than light-skinned blacks. This extends to interracial people like Lena who can be called both black and white (having both as parents). Right or wrong, her mother proceeds to say the following:"You will never know what it's like to be a black woman in America."
- Closet Key: She was this for her wife Stef and helped her realize she was gay.
- Embarrassing Nickname: She had two in high school — "Oreo" (because she was biracial) and "Klondike Bar" (after she came out as a lesbian).
- Good Parents: Lena is a compassionate, idealistic woman with a strong maternal bone in her body. She will always be there for her kids
- Happily Married: From Season One "I Do" onward.
- The Heart: Lena is this for the family.
- Hot Teacher: Well, vice principal actually.
- Mama Bear: When she confronts Ana after Stef's surgery she warns her to never come near Jesus or Mariana again and when she angrily confronts Jesus's wrestling coach over Jesus' black eye from a violent initiation into the team.
- Lipstick Lesbian:She is a lesbian and very feminine in looks and style of dress.
- Nice Girl
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: She normally tries to defuse situations with calmness and diplomacy, so seeing her spend most of "Justify" going off on everyone around is quite unsettling. It's mainly due to the stress of potentially losing her home because of some bad financial decisions her father had been making, but still. Brandon even tells Cort that he's never seen her so angry.
- Quirky Curls: She once wanted her hair straightened out in her teens. Stef comforts her she loves her wife's curls.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Fights to keep Jude in school even though he's woefully unprepared for the tests that the school has to give to maintain funding and she realizes that Jude skipping past the waiting list could seem like Nepotism. The reason she does so is that she realizes that separating Jude and Callie again would be traumatic for the both of them and that the reason Jude is behind to begin with is because he's had practically no educational stability.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: When Jude misses the required grade on the exam to stay in Anchor Beach by one question, knowing he'd be lost without Callie, she changes one of his answers so that he passes.
- Twofer Token Minority: Is mixed race (see Ambiguously Brown) as well as a lesbian.
- Wicked Stepmother: Averted. She's really sweet and nice. Brandon considers her his other mom.
Callie
Callie Adams Foster
(born Callie Jacob)
A youth in the foster system, Callie and her brother Jude have bounced from home to home. Over the course of six years, they've been in at least seven different homes before ending up with Lena and Stef. As a long term foster kid that's been in some questionable homes, she's learned to live apart from others and trust even less.
- Aloof Big Sister: She's this to Mariana and Jesus at first. Also to Sophia.
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: She comes across as tough and reserved at times, but compassionate and protective all the same.
- Best Served Cold: Against Liam. He raped her and got her thrown out of their foster house when she was younger and then came back to harass her years later. She testified against him in court, but unsurprisingly failed. In season 2, however, after Stef and Mike arrest him for fencing stolen goods, it's Callie who concocts the plan to show Sarah that Liam was (in addition to statutory rape) buying stuff under her identity as well and having some other girl elsewhere selling said stuff, all of which led to him finally getting thrown in prison. Callie may not have gotten direct justice for her rape and subsequent exile from long ago, but she managed to bust Liam while helping someone else get justice, which is something she'd find even better.
- Better as Friends: Her and Brandon resolve their torrid affair with their status as adopted siblings by being each other's best friends. They finally admit as much in the series finale.
- Big Sister Instinct: For her brother Jude, bordering on a Parental Substitute. Also develops this towards Mariana.
- Birds of a Feather: With AJ, who like her is a foster kid who cares for his brother immensely and had a difficult upbringing and being slow to trust and let others get close.
- Brother–Sister Incest: Her relationship with Brandon, despite being foster siblings they share an intense emotional attraction that they recklessly pursue on occasion. They eventually sleep together in mid-season 3 when they mistakenly assume Callie wouldn't be adopted.
- Broken Bird: By the start of the series Callie has already given up on finding a family who would adopt her and Jude or even try to defend herself when someone blames her for anything.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: You'll have a hard time finding someone who'll say she doesn't stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves.
- Cool Big Sis: Towards Jude. Also seems to be developing this towards Mariana. And eventually to Sophia as well.
- Cosmic Plaything: Poor girl can't catch a break. Her mother dies, dad goes to jail, is raped by her foster brother, Liam, goes to jail herself, is abused by foster parents, framed for crimes, beat up, and NEARLY SOLD INTO PROSTITUTION.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Callie is fresh out of juvie, though if the pilot is any indication, she doesn't really have any sort of rebel streak. The people she's lived with before the Fosters and her birth parents, on the other hand, may have been less than stellar.
- Dark Is Not Evil: She has a dismal history and can seem standoffish and antisocial (not helped by her fashion sense earlier in the series), but she means well and has a hard time walking by someone in need of help.
- Deadpan Snarker: Don't expect her to go a single conversation without finding something to get sassy about.
- Despair Event Horizon: When she's run away from the Foster's, she's all alone on the streets, and the reveal that her dad, Donald, had been released from prison since over a year before was enough to make Callie cause trouble in a shop and make the owner call the police.
- After her adoption has been delayed time and time again, when Robert, her real birth father, decides he won't sign the abandonment papers and wants her to live with him has her in tears.
- Determinator: Callie doesn't always know when to let things lie. For better or for worse, she's headstrong in her approach to things.
- Dude Magnet: Callie is quite attractive judging from the attention she gets from guys - she's had a torrid love affair with Brandon, has dated Wyatt, A.J. and Aaron. Before the series' pilot, on a negative note, she's had the attraction of and was raped by Liam Olmstead.
- Fatal Flaw:
- She has a horrible time trusting in anything. While this is justified by her history of constantly being jerked around by the foster care system, she has a bad habit of icing out people who truly wish to help her, most noted when the Fosters wish to adopt her. This resulted in her running away from home and trying to join the Independent Living Program.
- Her impulse for putting others before herself. Her inability to value her life as much as she values those of the people around her has landed her in some terrible situations. Stef calls her out on this in the Season 5 premiere after Callie had been extremely close to being killed after getting into a car with a pimp to save a teen prostitute.
- First Love: She and Brandon are this to each other, despite their status as siblings and are seen as the series' Official Couple after Stef and Lena.
- Flirty Step Siblings: With her foster brother/adoptive brother Brandon.
- A Friend in Need
- Hidden Depths: Callie is very thoughtful and artistic, and processes some of her trauma through her photography and art projects.
- Hypocrite: She calls A.J. out on him cheating on her when their relationship fell apart. He throws it back in her face by reminding her she emotionally cheated with Aaron in addition to their kiss on the beach. She simply storms off because she can't argue with that.
- Innocently Insensitive: Her record as a foster child aside, she has a tendency to forget her privilege as a white person in America, something both Ximena and AJ have gotten on her about..
- Knight in Sour Armor
- Mama Bear: Despite not being Jude's mother, she tends to fill this role in his life.
- Noble Bigot: She is mildly homo/transphobic, as she worries that Jude acting differently will get him beat up. That said, since Jude has been beat up before because of their abusive foster father but there's a certain level of Freudian Excuse going on since she has zero issues with Stef and Lena and seems to be the most supportive of Cole out of everyone at Girls United; it may very well be that she's not bigoted but just excessively worried about her brother getting injured or worse.
- Not So Above It All: When she snipes AJ with a water balloon.
- Only Sane Man: Among the siblings, she seems to be the one most likely to notice that something is a terrible, terrible idea.
- Rape as Backstory: Among other parts of her traumatic childhood.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Jude gives her one after she kisses Brandon, risking being adopted by the Fosters (leading to The Runaway below).
- The girls at GU criticize her after she irresponsibly allows Cole to endanger his life by taking un-prescribed hormones. They point out that she is making things worse for everybody and is really only looking out for herself, even though she has a big family who cares about her. Even Gabi, who up to that point refused to refer to Cole with male pronouns, was worried about him and furious with Callie. Rita comes in later and adds to this by relating to Callie's inability to trust in anything or anyone.
- Brandon gives her another one when he decides not to pursue another clandestine romance with her when she kisses him after Robert said he wouldn't sign the papers again, that all Callie does is react every time something happens, that she doesn't know what she wants, and she only puts their love first when things go wrong or are hard for her.
- She gives three to Mariana. First, when she sells Jesus's ADHD meds and lets both her and Jesus take the fall. Second, when Mariana keeps railing her about moving in with Robert, telling Mariana that it wasn't about her or her abandonment issues and to stop making her feel worse than she already does. Finally, when she lies about being friends with Poppy, lies about Ximena's roller derby, lies about going to a party, and takes Jesus (who had recently suffered a TBI and was still susceptible to the symptoms) to said party and leaves him alone for minutes which led to another seizure, simply to get Logan to notice her.
- After Brandon blames her for a tendency to start drama, she rips him a new one by pointing out that he violated a restraining order, created fake ID's, and plagiarized Bach.
- After Sophia convinces Robert to fight for custody of Callie, she furiously reams her, even dismissing her tearful vow of suicide. She regrets it almost immediately.
- The Runaway: Callie takes off in mid-season one finale because she and Brandon had kissed, starting their illicit affair, but she wants Jude to be adopted by the Fosters, so she runs off so as not to jeopardize his adoption.
- The Scapegoat: Often. She's grown to accept it, given her experiences in foster care.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Now and then.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The tomboy to Mariana's girly girl.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Tough and rather strong-minded, and prefers jeans and a more practical style of fashion without makeup, but still kind and She Cleans Up Nicely.
- Troubled, but Cute: A rare female example. She's been in trouble with the law and had a difficult upbringing, but has no shortage of guys interested in her.
- The Vamp: Mike sees her as this, because she slept with both his biological son Brandon and foster son AJ. A possible case of Slut-Shaming.
- What the Hell, Hero?
Jesus
Jesus Adams Foster
(born Jesus Gutierrez)
Mariana's twin brother, Jesus is the aloof free spirit of the kids. That said, he's just as studious as his siblings and in many ways, a lot more wise and responsible. Often however his desire to protect his sister get in the way of him doing things for himself.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Relatively speaking, realistically portrayed. Impulsive decisions, an inability to keep track of simple things (like remembering to take his medication, as in the second episode), and often forgetting what's been told to him (such as multiple reminders about skateboarding in the house) are common symptoms of ADHD.
- Betty and Veronica: He winds up in this dynamic twice in the series.
- In Season 1, there's Lexi Rivera and Emma Kurtzman as his Betty and Veronica, then ...
- Season 2 as Emma as Betty with Hayley Heinz as his Veronica.
- Big Brother Instinct: Towards Mariana. He's also starting to show signs to Jude, but seems to be a bit awkward and unsure how to handle some situations.
- Chick Magnet: Known to attract the girls all around him there's been Lexi, Emma, Hayley.
- Daddy Issues: In season 3B, he meets his birth father, Gabe, for the very first time and is naturally curious, wanting a relationship with him, but starts to disregard the fact Gabe is on the sex offenders list, and Gabe's rejection leads to him drinking alcohol, and causing trouble for his father.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Initially appears to be the foolish sibling to both Mariana and Brandon's responsible sibling, but is actually revealed to be the most responsible out of the three.
- Get Out!: He delivers a heartbreaking one to Emma when she tells him she's not ready to marry him, though he takes it back at prom.
- Happily Adopted: To the point where he's pretty offended that Mariana is too embarrassed to dance with their moms during the father-daughter dance of her quinceañera—though the fact that Mariana also asks Mike (Brandon's biological father) of all people doesn't help.
- Has a Type: He tends to fall for and hook up with Mariana's friends including Lexi in Season 1 and Hayley in Season 2. It drives Mariana crazy. Emma is the only real exception.
- Honor Before Reason: Partially as a side effect of his ADHD (it makes him more impulsive in the moment), but he tends to be pretty overtly protective of those around him in the most direct way possible even if it's maybe not the smartest approach. He offers advice to Brandon, stands up to a jock twice his size who's hassling Lexi, and spontaneously takes the blame for selling his medication instead of Mariana.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: He slams Mariana when she tells Emma that he'd hooked up with Hayley, calling her a sheep who's getting under his skin in order to fit in with the popular crowd, while briefly calling her out for her thinly-veiled excuse of trying to stand up for women everywhere.
- Straight Man and Wise Guy: Laid-back, mischievous and prone to wise cracks, he's the wise guy to Brandon's Straight Man.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: After the traumatic brain injury, he becomes far more aggressive and impolite, to the point where Emma and even Lena express fear of him. He really wants to be his old self again, but Brandon rips off the bandage and tells him that the Jesus they knew and loved is gone forever.
- Wrestler in All of Us: He takes up wrestling to cope with his heightened aggression and naturally takes to it.
Mariana
Mariana Adams Foster
(born Mariana Gutierrez)
Jesus's twin sister, she's the girl of the house whom everyone else babies. Not that she minds, as she enjoys the attention. Though on the exterior, she's a studious and straightforward girl but her internal insecurities often compel her to make less than wise decisions and clam up about issues.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: To Callie and Brandon, but also to Jesus sometimes.
- Appropriated Appellation: She's occasionally called "Miss Thang" and in one episode refers to herself as this.
- Big Sister Instinct: Develops this towards Jude. Then later to her baby half-sister Isabella.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Is willing to sell Jesus' ADHD medications for money. Then lets her siblings take the fall for doing so when caught—first Callie (who doesn't resist since she's learned from previous foster parents that her status as an outsider gives her zero credibility), then Jesus (who takes the bullet to protect her).
- Cannot Keep a Secret: As pointed out a number of times, she can't maintain any secrets other than her own. It's so bad that everyone had to agree not to tell her that they were planning a surprise birthday party for Callie.Jude: Oh, we didn't tell Mariana. You know she would've blown the whole secret.
- Consummate Liar: She lies about (and to) Nick, she lies about stealing Jesus's ADHD meds numerous times (on two separate occasions), she lies about Ximena's roller derby, she lies about Poppy, and she lies about a rave.
- Desperately Craves Affection: She's a Genki Girl but is always looking, sometimes craving attention and validation from and by her peers due her many insecurities. Unfortunately, this tends to lead her to stupid or even downright horrible behavior.
- Ditzy Genius
- Drugs Are Bad: In Season 4, reeling from the trauma caused by Nick, and the stress of sneaking around and lying about seeing him, and trying to focus for the robotics competition, she resorts to taking Jesus' ADHD meds.
- Dude Magnet: Quite popular with the boys and has had the attention from and dated quite a number of them - including Chase, Zac, Mat, Wyatt, Nick and Logan.
- Fatal Flaw: Hoo boy!
- She's quite selfish. Mariana is definitely not heartless at all, but her self-serving habits often land her and others in deep trouble, such as when she drunkenly told Lexi's parents that Jesus had slept with Lexi and Stef had given her contraception pills, all just because she (and only she) didn't like the idea of her brother dating her best friend. And when Stef candidly tells her that they have every right to be angry with her over it, Mariana gets upset with her for "taking his side". She only realized the error of her ways upon hearing that Lexi was getting sent to an all-girls boarding school in Texas.
- She doesn't always think things through. For being the smartest one in the family, she has a horrible time seeing the bigger picture, often forgoing important details for personal gain. The biggest example of this is when she allowed Jesus (who was suffering a TBI) to accompany her to a rave, which led him to having a seizure, simply because she wanted Logan to like her. Callie puts her through the wringer for this when she gets home, which prompts her to tell Stef and Lena.
- She cannot be trusted with others' secrets to save her life. It's become a Running Gag in the family, but whether this is Played for Laughs or not is usually a coin flip. Among the funniest examples is when she accidentally tells Mike that Ana is in love with him, which she'd promised not to tell that same night. One of the most damaging examples is when she posts online that Emma had been knocked up by Jesus. She doesn't use Emma's name at all and never mentions that Brandon took her to get her abortion, but, as Emma predicts, it doesn't take much for Jesus to figure out who Mariana was referring to, even after she took the post down. This was after the TBI, by the way, so cue the destruction of Brandon's room.
- Ironically, she has a horrible time telling the truth. She lies about taking Jesus's ADHD pills repeatedly on two separate occasions, the first ending up with Stef getting shot. She lies about not seeing Nick while also lying to Nick about wanting to be with him, which leads to Jesus's traumatic brain injury and her third breakup with Mat. She even lies to Callie about Poppy and Ximena's derby. Throughout the show, pretty much everybody in the house, as well as Emma and Mat, has gotten on her about it at least once.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Initially appears to be the responsible sibling to Jesus' foolish sibling, but is actually revealed to be the more foolish one.
- Genki Girl
- Go-Getter Girl: Mariana always gets involved in any school activity she can, the school play, dance team, robotics, planning the prom.
- Happily Adopted: Loves Lena and Stef, but also vies for the love and attention of her birth mother.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Initially with Lexi, then later with Emma. Develops this with eventually with Callie.
- Hypocrite: She constantly sticks her nose in other people's business while simultaneously demanding that they keep their noses out of hers. One of her most notorious flaws is her inability to maintain secrets that aren't her own.
- It's All About Me: Boy, does she suffer hard from this. Notable examples include(and have probably already been mentioned under other entries) spilling Jesus and Emma's sexual relationship because she doesn't want her brother dating her best friend, taking Jesus's ADHD meds for her own consumption and letting Callie and Jesus take the blame for it, then selling said meds which ultimately leads to Stef getting shot.
- It's All My Fault: Thrice. The first when Lexi's parents discover she'd had unprotected sex, the second when Jesus goes to their biological mother's house and Stef gets shot when she went searching for him, and the third is when Jesus gets sent to the hospital for a TBI because she refused to come clean about Nick sooner (it doesn't help that Callie gets herself arrested for a car incident while looking for her that same day).
- Karma Houdini: Doesn't suffer any consequences over selling her brother's medications. Subverted when Jesus sneaks off to help their birth mother get into a shelter for battered women. His disappearance causes her to confess to her moms what she's been doing. This results in Stef getting shot when she and Mike go to Ana's house to look for Jesus.
- Mommy Issues: Not with her moms but with her birth mother. But it does spill over into her relationship with her moms. When she feels guilty that Callie has taken the blame for something she's done, she tells Jesus that if she confesses, she fears that Stef and Lena will stop loving her. As the first season evolves, this becomes a regular thing we find that she worries about.
- Motor Mouth: The only time we ever see her truly shut up is when she's feeling guilty about cheating on Mat.
- Never My Fault: She tends to fall into this, often after being called out for it. The best example is in the first season, when she overhears Jesus consolidating his relationship with Lexi while pointing out how selfish Mariana was being. It continued even after she drunkenly exposed Lexi's losing her virginity with Jesus to Lexi's parents, accusing Stef of taking her brother's side after she points out that he has every right to be angry. It only ceases after he tells her that Lexi was pulled from Anchor Beach to be sent to an all-girls' boarding school in Texas.
- Playing Sick: Apparently does this a lot, to the point where no one believes she's actually sick in the pilot.
- Spoiled Brat: Refuses to be happy for her best friend and her brother simply because it will ruin her party. That's the entire reason why they didn't want to tell her before the party. For some extra context, Jesus was initially reluctant to have the relationship to begin with because of Mariana. Also, of course, Jesus and Mariana are twins—he graciously gives up any sort of celebration for himself so that Mariana can have her quinceañera.
- Teen Genius
Brandon
Brandon Foster
Stef's biological son with Mike. The eldest son, he tries very hard to fly the straight and narrow. But when Callie enters the family, things change for him.
- The Ace: Brandon has undeniable talent with music, particularly with piano, as well as guitar. He's also good at songwriting and composing, that he was Julliard-bound.
- Berserk Button: When someone he cares about is messed with or threatened particularly Callie. In Season 2, he angrily beats up Liam Olmstead, her rapist when they one time run into him.
- Better as Friends: After seasons of going back and forth as siblings to romantic partners, he and Callie finally resolve their strong emotional bond by calling each other their best friend in the Series Finale.
- Birds of a Feather: With Mat Tan from the band Someone's Little Sister, both sharing a close friendship and both being musicians.
- Break the Cutie: Happens to him near the end of Season 1 going into Season 2, aside from his heartbreak over Callie, he's been arrested to save Callie from criminal charges after she's framed, been raped by
his dad's girlfriend who directs the guilt onto him, then beaten up by Jerk Jocks, having his hand crushed which affects his piano playing ability. - Brother–Sister Incest: He falls in love with his foster sister / adoptive sister Callie and got conflicted about it.
- Chick Magnet: Brandon is quite popular with the girls, being Talya Banks' girlfriend before the start of the series. And ever since then there's been Callie, Lou, Courtney, even Dani Kirkland, Mike's girlfriend who considered him kind and handsome, before sleeping with him whilst he was drunk.
- Drowning My Sorrows: In the Season 1 finale, aside from his heartbreak over Callie, Brandon reels from having to turn himself in for his part in Vico Cerar's fake ID ring, he gets drunk which leads to him being raped by Dani, his dad's girlfriend.
- Dumbass Teenage Son:
- Et Tu, Brute?: His being a Nice Guy aside, Brandon is rather sensitive, brooding and easily emotionally provoked whenever someone pushes his buttons, whether it's his feelings towards his parents' divorce or most notoriously Callie, someone else he loves. He gets into a shouting match with Stef when he considers going to live with Mike arguing that he didn't get a choice on whom to live with during the divorce or that he was going to have a stepmother.
- In Season 3, he's justifiably pissed at the moms after learning that Callie and A.J. kissed whilst they were fostering A.J. and they covered it up so to not embarrass them but they don't mind grilling him over his pursuit of her when his relationship with Callie is under investigation by social services.
Brandon: "The only difference is that good 'ole Brandon has to take it on the chin - every time you bring in a stray kid - without even asking me how I feel about it!" - Emo Teen: Whenever he's in a mood, making or reeling from the consequences of his many bad decisions.
- Fatal Flaw: Impulsiveness and self-pity, especially when it comes to romance.
- First Love: He and Callie are this to each other. The fact they are brother and sister causes tension and drama throughout the series.
- Flirty Step Siblings: With Callie, as they're foster siblings / adoptive siblings.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Nominally the responsible one against Jesus and Mariana, but in the second part of the first season grows to be being increasingly irresponsible and reckless especially in regards to his feelings with Callie, thus causing her to run away, and even violates a restraining order his moms take out against him to be with her. Later he falls in with school jock/bully Vico in making and selling fake IDs at the school which leads to him being arrested.
- From Bad to Worse: Practically almost every action Brandon does ends up turning an already bad situation that he caused into an even worse situation.
- Genre Blind: It takes his brother Jesus (nominally the rebel between the two) to point out that when your girlfriend catches you hanging out with another cute girl (who also happens to be living with you for the indeterminate future), your girlfriend will probably be jealous in the least. Jesus later suggests Brandon do something big and nice for Talya in compensation, to which Brandon ultimately stands up Talya in order to hang out with Callie.
- Has a Type: Seems to be into Broken Bird girls, and coming to their rescue.
- Hot-Blooded: Confrontational, moody and sensitive concerning issues when his family or people he cares about are involved. Many traits he happens to share with Stef.
- Karma Houdini
- Love Hurts: His relationship with Callie, the two of them being each others' first love, but their relationship complicates Callie's adoption, and puts a strain on the family so they must bury their feelings for one another, which causes much drama throughout the entire show.
- Love Makes You Stupid:
- His affair with Callie, to the point he blatantly ignores the fact that if social services were to learn of their relationship, she and Jude could be removed from the house, only saying "Can't help how (he) feels!", he deliberately disobeys moms' orders that he stay away from her while she's in GU, getting them both in more trouble that they take out a restraining order against him. Later on in Season 3, when there's a chance Callie's adoption could be shot for good, they both give into temptation and have sex only to find out the adoption is going through.
- In Season 4, when his girlfriend Courtney needs money for a custody debate, Brandon decides to makes a quick buck for by taking the S.A.T.s ''under another students's name'', committing academic fraud.
- Momma's Boy: The closer of the kids to Stef, most likely due to his being her biological son.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He inadvertently made Callie run away in "I Do".
- The Perfectionist: When it comes to piano.
- Serial Romeo: He can quite the passionate and amorous suitor to whichever girl he dates.
- Straight Man: To Jesus' wise guy.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Dark-haired, attractive to girls and 6'0.
- Took a Level in Dumbass: Throughout the first season. At the beginning, he's an honors student like Mariana who has no trouble with the law or school. See Love Makes You Stupid aboveIn the season finale, Brandon has been arrested and is almost expelled from school. He also sleeps with his father's girlfriend (possibly ex-girlfriend at the time; it's a little unclear).
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Brandon kissing Callie inevitably caused a vast majority of the drama during the second half of season 1.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Brandon gets called out a lot on his actions and poor judgement calls, particularly when he's just trying to help someone out.
Jude
Jude Adams Foster
(born Jude Jacobs)
Callie's little brother. The innocent one. He isn't the most talkative, but that doesn't mean he isn't paying attention.
- Adorably Precocious Child: He really is. And he knows it.Callie: How do you know that?
Jude: I pay attention. (shrug) - Alliterative Name: Prior to being adopted, his name was Judith Jacobs.
- Ambiguously Gay: And Ambiguous Gender Identity, as well—he's a bit too young for such things to be apparent as of yet. The first thing we ever hear about him is that be for beat up for trying on a dress. The ambiguity goes away as his crush on Conner comes to the surface, and Jude comes to identify as gay. And the then ambiguity returns, as Jude develops a possible crush on a girl, making him Ambiguously Bi.
- Book Dumb: Primarily because he's been in seven schools in four years but there's subtle suggestion that he may have some sort of learning disability.
- Big Little Brother: Defied at the start of the series where he's the shortest and youngest of the Fosters siblings compared to his big sister Callie. He starts to out grow her in season 4.
- Played straight in the final season with Jude now taller than Callie which they acknowledge.
- Break the Cutie: Temporarily turned into a Cute Mute.
- Broken Bird: A more subtle example than Callie. His bad experiences with foster homes have developed a fear of being taken away for being anything but an Extreme Doormat
- Extreme Doormat: Deconstructed. His tendency to keep quiet and just agree with what other people say comes from a fear of being expelled from the foster home.
- Gay Best Friend: He's this for Taylor Shaw, his female classmate after Conner moves away and they break up.
- If It's You, It's Okay: With Connor, who is openly gay.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives one to Callie after she kisses Brandon, risking being adopted by the Fosters.
- The Stoner
- Took a Level in Jerkass: He's gotten more of an edge to him since hitting puberty.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: We only have one instance of this so whether it's a one time thing or not is unclear. But his previous foster dad caught him goofing around with a dress and promptly started to beat the crap out of him. This is what prompted Callie to beat the crap out of the guy's car with a bat and land her in juvie.
- Wise Beyond His Years: He notices the flirting between Jesus and Lexi, makes a double sided comment to Jesus about it, and picks up on Talya's antics. But like with Callie, he's learned to not say anything ahout it.
Mike
Mike Foster
Stef's ex-husband and fellow cop. The loss of his wife to another woman still stings him, though he tries to be as civil as possible about it. Nevertheless, he still struggles to keep Brandon, his son, in his life.
- Action Dad
- The Alcoholic: He is a functional one, though barely at that. In the past, his divorce tipped him over the edge. It's suspected that Stef's shooting, then when Stef reveals what really happened in the room before and when he shot the suspect may cause a relapse. Finally when Brandon lands himself in trouble both at school and from trying to fix Mike's situation, making it worse, he finally slips, threatening Ana and getting into a fight at a bar.
- Amicable Exes: With Stef.
- Armor-Piercing Question: On the receiving end of one from his biological son, Brandon, who calls him out for being so distant and not really having a strong relationship with him (not to mention, antagonizing Lena, who Brandon likes).
- The Atoner
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Towards Callie. He had his doubts about her, particularly concerning Brandon and, later on, AJ, but he does care about her. He's only too happy to help get Liam thrown in prison, especially considering he raped her years prior. He also shows concern for her when she and AJ are hiding in the church with Ximena.
- Towards Lena as well, best shown when he keeps her from leaving the safety of the school office to search for Mariana despite knowing that Nick was somewhere on the campus with a gun and a compromised mental state.
- Cool Uncle: Has shades of this with the other children.
- Cosmic Plaything: When it comes to romance, he just couldn't seem to catch a break for a while. The mother of his son turned out to be gay. His next woman was a Manipulative Bitch who ended up sleeping with his son.
- Dashing Hispanic
- Parental Neglect: He admits that since he considers Stef and Lena excellent parents, he had been neglectful of Brandon.
- Parental Substitute: He decides to become a foster parent in Season 3, becoming this to AJ Hensdale. He also proves to be a loving caretaker with Ana's new daughter Isabella when they start going out with each other.
- The Rival: It's unspoken but clear among all parties that he considers both Lena and her relationship with his ex a challenge. Whether it's mild homophobia, a sense that he failed in a relationship, or that he still has feelings for Stef is unclear and it may be all of those reasons and more.
- Standard Cop Backstory
- Visit by Divorced Dad
- Working with the Ex: Stef and Mike work together as cops.
Classmates & Friends
Talya
Talya Banks
Brandon's girlfriend at the start of the series. At first, she seems like your normal typical girl next door. But the arrival of Callie throws a wrench into her world and she doesn't take it well.
- Alpha Bitch: To an extent. She spreads rumors that it was Callie, not Mariana, who was selling pills and snooped around Callie's things to find anything that might be anything useful to hurt her. All in an attempt to maintain her relationship with Brandon and drive Callie away.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Is perfectly nice to others, especially Brandon, but her kindness towards Callie is an act that she normally puts up when they're not alone. Every time any of her conversations with Brandon steers toward Callie, she asks, "Has she been sent away yet?"
- The Bus Came Back: Is shown at Callie's senior project presentation a couple of seasons later, and seems to have Took a Level in Kindness.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Though in her defense, Brandon unintentionally does things to strain their relationship. On the other hand though, this doesn't excuse her catty behavior.
- Humiliation Conga: Brandon breaks up with her for Callie. Then one of her drunken mishaps gets put on blast in front of their whole class. Then, after reconciliation, Brandon dumps her for Callie again.
- Jerkass: Callie seems to bring out the worst in her, even after she and Brandon break up.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Though her treatment of Callie was petty, Brandon's infatuation with Callie was inappropriate for a number of reasons, and given how he had started doing things that would strain their relationship as far back as the very first episode, she had every right to worry that he would dump her for Callie... and then he does so twice (though the way she treated Callie certainly didn't help her case the first time). The second time Brandon dumps her, she warns him that Callie is only going to hurt him. Brandon rudely brushes it off as her not knowing what she's talking about, but Callie ends up validating her a number of times throughout the series.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: She was constantly afraid Brandon would leave her for Callie, his actions giving her plenty of reason for it. Of course, acting catty towards her only served to make it happen even faster.
- Took a Level in Kindness: While checking out Callie's senior project, she only has positive words, appearing to have matured a little and see her in a more sympathetic light. She even persuades her fellow students to stand up for Callie when Monte tries to make her take down the project, which Callie decides not to rat her out for.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Has almost never been seen since her and Brandon's nasty break-up in the first season.
Wyatt
Wyatt Casey
- Birds of a Feather: He hits it off with Callie, undoubtedly due to both of them being outsiders and having checkered pasts.
- Broken Bird
- Conspiracy Theorist: Downplayed for laughs during "Honeymoon".
- Hidden Depths: He is very good at drawing.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Lets go of Callie for this reason.
- Liar Revealed: The first house he brought Callie to wasn't his. Especially bad seeing if Callie got caught, she'd be put back in juvie.
- Opposites Attract: Hooks up with Mariana.
- Parental Abandonment
- Wild Teen Party: Throws one before he moves out of his old house, his family having been foreclosed on.
- Exploited by him. He wanted people to ruin the house as revenge for being taken from them when his mother worked so hard to buy it.
Lexi
Lexi Rivera
(Portrayed by Bianca Santos)
- Beware the Nice Ones: When she discovers she and her parents are undocumented she exploits it to blackmail her parents so she isn't sent to another school.
- First Love: For Jesus.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: She gets the morning-after pill from Stef because she's not ready to be a mother, especially considering her parents would blow it out of proportions.
- Hetero Sexual Life Partners: Was best friends with Mariana for years before the series' pilot.
- Like a Daughter to Me: Due to her being best friends with Mariana, Stef explicitly mentions to Lena that Lexi has been like a daughter to them as well.
- Put on a Bus
- Satellite Love Interest: For Jesus. We really don't know much about her other than the fact that she's Mariana's best friend.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: From her hooking up with Mariana's brother, to their competition for student president, some serious tension exists between these former buds.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Her last appearance is her cameo at the twins' birthday party. Despite having been Mariana's best friend for a while, there's not much (if any) mention of her after this episode.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Calls out Jesus on the fact that he's not pursuing their attraction to each other purely because Mariana told him not to without any real reason other than that they're friends.
Vico
Vico Cerar
(Portrayed by Reiley McClendon)
- Big Bad: One of the main antagonists of Season 1.
- The Bully
- The Corruptor
- Jerk Jock
- Karma Houdini
- Kick the Dog
- Never My Fault
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!
Connor
Connor Stevens
(Portrayed by: Gavin MacIntosh)
- Abusive Parents: In the summer finale, he shows up with a very suspicious-looking bruise (that his apparently homophobic father says is from a doorjamb). Riiight...
- Ambiguously Bi: Connor and Jude did ''something'' in that tent; it's unclear what it was. However, Connor also seems to be at least sort of attracted to girls, but the word "bisexual" is never actually used.
- Eventually comes out as gay.
- First Love
- Put on a Bus
- Straight Gay: Eventually comes out of the closet.
Emma
Emma Kurtzman
(Portrayed by: Amanda Leighton)
- All Women Are Lustful: In "Potential Energy", she shows up at her locker absolutely pissed. How does she get her anger out? A sexual game of hooky with Jesus.
- Brainy Brunette: Top coder at STEAM club, an effective math tutor for Jesus, and gets accepted into MIT.
- Deadpan Snarker: Emma definitively has her moments.
- Extracurricular Enthusiast: Wrestling, STEAM, and dance.
- Go-Getter Girl
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Averted. Emma accidentally becomes pregnant during season 4 by Jesus, and makes the decision to have an abortion. This is not portrayed negatively at all, as Emma points out that she's not ready to have a baby.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: After she dyes her hair blonde.
- Hidden Depths: She was a cheerleader in junior high and proves to be a talented dancer when Mariana persuades Emma to join her dance team.
- Informed Judaism: Brings kugel to the memorial service for Stef's father. Her last name is revealed to be Kurtzman in 5x04.
- The Lad-ette: The only girl on the wrestling team, and constantly teases Jesus that she's better than he is.
- Laughing Mad: During the lockdown in "Potential Energy", the stress of fear and confusion prompts her to chuckle for a moment before crying.
- Nice Girl
- Real Women Don't Wear Dresses: Zigzagged. She is sensitive to being labeled "girly", since it can negatively affect her standing in the wrestling team and STEAM club. However, Mariana soon convinces her not to let chauvinism affect her enjoyment of traditionally feminine activities such as dancing.
- Relationship Revolving Door: Jesus is initially conflicted between Emma and Lexi. He plans to break up with Lexi to be with Emma until Lexi visits, and he chooses her over Emma. After Lexi leaves, he tries to pursue Emma again and they soon get together, until her controlling nature causes them to split. Jesus hooks up with Hayley as Emma considers getting back together, causing them to be on frosty terms for a while. After he dumps Hayley, he and Emma start out as Friends with Benefits as she is still angry that he broke her heart. After a while, they become an Official Couple, but are driven apart again by Emma's secret pregnancy and Jesus' TBI. Once they work through their issues, they reconcile and go steady for years. When Emma gets a job offer in Bangladesh after graduating from college, they decide to part ways and see where the future leads them. Good Trouble reveals they got engaged after Jesus reunited with her in India.
- Satellite Love Interest: For Jesus. Subverted later when she becomes closer to Mariana and more involved with the family.
- Teen Genius: She's on the STEAM robotics team with Mariana.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl:
- She is definitely more of a tomboy than Jesus' other girlfriends, Lexi and Hayley.
- She also has this dynamic with Mariana.
- Troll: Part of her budding romance with Jesus involved her constantly tempting Jesus with foods he's not supposed to be eating until it's time to weigh in for the wrestling team.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- She calls Mariana out when her constant lying about Nick puts Jesus in the ICU.
- She is not happy when Mariana posts about Emma's pregnancy online, even after she's taken it down. Emma calls Mariana a horrible friend when her big plan at the time is for Jesus to never find out about her pregnancy and abortion. This even dissolves their friendship for a while until Mariana stands up for Emma against a TBI-afflicted Jesus.
Ximena
Ximena Sinfuego
Callie's classmate at UCSD and the older sister of Poppy.
- And I Must Scream: Until the confirmation of her DACA status, she was forced to remain in the church. She was worried about her family and her mental health was slowly deteriorating from the isolation, but if she'd even set foot outside the church doors, she could've been detained.
- Big Sister Instinct: She cares deeply for Poppy. When she learns that her parents had been taken by ICE, she frantically tries to leave the church to find her sister despite knowing the danger she'd be putting herself in, with Callie only barely stopping her.
- Butch Lesbian: Like Carmen before her, Ximena is a downplayed example, more of a tomboy than an all-out butch. During her first night at the church, she comes out to Callie. After her situation with ICE makes it to the Huffington Post, she excitedly kisses Callie.
- Determinator
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: She's the responsible to Poppy's foolish. The family plan is for her to become Poppy's legal guardian should anything happen to their parents.
- Frame-Up: Ximena's involvement at the UCSD protest of Shiloh McCullen gets her accused of making threats against the US government, prompting ICE to try and capture her (in addition to her family). The Conservative Student Union at UCSD records Ximena at the school protest, but illegally tried to keep it to ensure she'd get in trouble. It thankfully failed.
- The Illegal: Type 2. Her family is from Mexico with only Poppy being born in America. She became this trope after her DACA status expired. She tried for renewal, but it was still processing by the time ICE tried to detain her, forcing her to seek sanctuary at Noah's church with the help of Callie and AJ. She manages to get her DACA status approved by the time of Callie's graduation.
- Lesbian Jock: She's the leader of a roller derby team called the Traumacitas. She comes out to Callie as gay in Noah's church.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: She addresses the USA to Callie with this. She points out that immigrants like her and her parents do the jobs Americans tend to think themselves above, but so many Americans love to treat them like trash and say that they "steal jobs".Ximena: If this is what America stands for... maybe this country was never that great.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: While she's not ugly in any capacity even at the worst of times, she is quite a sight at prom.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's the tomboy to Callie and especially Poppy's girly girl.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: She's pretty mature for someone who's barely older than Callie.Ximena: That's your problem. You're so worried about making good art that you freeze up. But when you get out of your head and you don't try to make art... art happens.
Hayley
Hayley Heinz
(Portrayed by: Caitlin Carver)
- Alliterative Name: Hayley Heinz
- Clingy Jealous Girl
- Love Interest: For Jesus.
- Malicious Misnaming: Downplayed. After Jesus breaks up with her, Brandon and Mariana call her "Epic Fail-ley".
- Manipulative Bitch: She comes crying to Jesus about her parents getting divorced. Except she'd known for a while that they were divorcing. The reason she'd done this was so he'd skip his team meeting and thus not get to spend any time with Emma. Mariana calls her out on this and even Stef deduces the toxicity of this just from overhearing.
Mat
Mat Tan
(Portrayed by: Jordan Rodrigues)
- Birds of a Feather: With Brandon
- First Love: He's this for Mariana.
- Love Hurts
- Nice Guy
- Working with the Ex: He finds himself having to play co-lead with Mariana in Romeo & Juliet.
Taylor
Taylor Shaw
(Portrayed by Izabela Vidovic)
- Disapproving Look: Gave a lot of these to Daria and Connor when they were dating.
- Gamer Girl
- It's All My Fault: She feels pretty bad for getting Connor shot by her dad after she suggests breaking into her own house to steal some of her dad's booze.
- Nice Girl
- Platonic Life-Partners: With Jude.
- Third Wheel: During gaming with Declan.
- Unwanted Assistance: She's the one who outed Jude and Connor at school, thinking nobody was going to care and that it was Connor that didn't want to come out.
AJ
Anthony Joseph 'AJ' Hensdale
(Portrayed by: Tom Williamson)
- Amicable Exes: With Callie.
- He's initially uncomfortable with Mike because he's a cop, and his brother is even more skeptical. When Callie drags him into her mission to save Kyle from being sent to a maximum security prison (endangering AJ's life in the process), he has to remind her that just because Mike is caring for him doesn't save him from the fact that he's still a black young man in America and that if he goes down, there's little that can be done for him.
- Arc Symbol: He and his brother have a graffiti insignia to tell each other to meet at the park. They call it a "bat signal".
- Artists Are Attractive: He's rather insightful, to the point of demonstrating that math and art are not mutually exclusive. Part of what draws Callie in.
- Birds of a Feather: He and Callie are both artists who have undying loyalty to their brothers and have been dealt a pretty crappy hand by the foster care system and life in general.
- Dirty Coward: Considers himself this for running away, not helped that he didn't even stay for his grandmother's funeral.
- A Friend in Need: He helps Callie get Ximena to church for sanctuary from ICE. It's partly because he's still into Callie, but he is the first to suggest getting Ximena out of the church when they learns that ICE was trying to get a warrant for his and Callie's arrest for helping a "fugitive".
- Not So Similar: He has to actively remind Callie of the main difference between them: she's a white girl with a rich father, while he's a black guy with no such connections. If something goes wrong, there's not much that can be done to save him.
- Parental Abandonment: His mother is in a psych ward and his father is dead. He and his brother lived with their grandmother until she developed dementia, at which point she was sent to a retirement home.
- Profiling: While riding along with Mike during a mission, one of his fellow cops tackles and tries to arrest AJ, assuming him to be an accomplice. According to Mike, there's little wonder why he thought AJ was a criminal. To say this dampens AJ's mood for the rest of the day would be putting it lightly.
- Saving the World With Art: He encourages Callie to do this and he appears to want to do this himself. It certainly helps that he loves drawing superheroes more than anything.
- Second Love: For Callie.
- Undying Loyalty: For his elder brother Ty, to the point of running away with him even after discovering that he was the one responsible for the hit-and-run involving the twins and the then-pregnant Ana.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: He was strangely not present or even mentioned during Jesus's treehouse construction project or his own graduation OR Brandon's wedding.
- You Are a Credit to Your Race: Besides the fact he's been in the foster system meaning he has zero credibility, AJ has also often been dealt with the short end of the stick owing to the fact he's African-American. When he's spotted at a crime scene, cops accost him on sight and has claimed that people have jumped to the conclusion that he's in a gang.AJ: You don't know how to help me, Mike! You got no idea what it's like to be living down to the low expectations society has for you! "Foster kid? Black kid? Oh, you must be headed for gangs! Drugs! Jail!" I've been hearing it so long, I'm starting to wonder if they're right!
- You Monster!: He refers to Shiloh McCullen as "the Devil" and accompanies Callie and Ximena at their protest.
Aaron
Aaron Baker
(Portrayed by Elliot Fletcher)- Amicable Exes: With Callie.
- Coming-Out Story: Already had the transition prior to his first appearance. His parents found it easier to accept when he thought he was a lesbian.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Downplayed. He becomes worried that Callie would return to AJ, partially because of how easy it was to steal her from AJ. Callie has to remind him that she's not a prize to be won. This is what plants the seed that would lead to their breakup.
- Mistaken for Gay: Before becoming Aaron, Allison thought she was gay. Turns out it was quite an opposite.
- Nice Guy: He's a pretty kind person and he helps Callie keep Kyle from getting thrown into a maximum security prison for a crime he didn't commit.
- The Runaway: He left home after coming out as transgender, which landed him at Girls United for a time.
- Satellite Love Interest: For Callie.
- Teen Genius: He's a pretty good detective.
- Trans Tribulations: He thought he was simply a lesbian, which his family had no problem with. When he realized he was FTM trans, his parents had a harder time accepting him. He left home and ended up at Girls United. He had his transition at age 16. Upon returning home for his father's birthday, we see that his brother doesn't mind it, their father still refuses him, and their mother is struggling for Aaron because she misses Allison and feels terrible for pushing so many traditionally feminine things onto him.
Girls United
Rita
Rita Hendricks
(Portrayed by Rosie O'Donnell)
- Frame-Up: Carmen gets Rita arrested after a fight breaks out in order to keep Brooke from spilling that Carmen had relapsed. Callie risks her own adoption by exposing Carmen and clearing Rita's name.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Her daughter, Chloe, had a habit of asking for help and not using it properly. When Rita finally cuts her off, Chloe holds out for as long as she can before she overdoses. Rita is too guilt-ridden to feel relieved at her survival, but the two are now going to counseling to finally heal their broken relationship.
- Not So Stoic: When she's invited into the bouncy house during Callie's birthday party and when her daughter tries to die by overdosing her meds.
- Parents as People: Chloe has bipolar disorder axis 1 and is on terrible terms with her mother. It comes to a head when she overdoses, much to Rita's despair.
- Ungrateful Bitch: Subverted. Callie proves Rita's innocence even under the assumption that Rita would ruin her adoption. Instead, she pulls some strings to ensure that it doesn't interfere with Callie's adoption.
Daphne
Daphne Keene
(Portrayed by Daffany Clark)
- Absurdly Youthful Mother: She has a daughter named Tasha. Daphne is still a teenager, so she's pretty much the youngest mother on the show.
- Parents as People
- Reformed Criminal
- Sassy Black Woman
- What the Hell, Hero?: When Callie tells her that she slept with Brandon.
Carmen
Carmen Cruz
(Portrayed by Alicia Sixtos)
- Alliterative Name: Carmen Cruz
- Blackmail: She warns Callie that telling anyone that Carmen framed Rita will prompt her to expose that Callie and Brandon were seeing each other during her required time at GU. However, Rita convinces her not to go through with it.
- Butch Lesbian: Downplayed, as she's more of a gay tomboy than an all-out butch. She says she likes men, not boys during the show, but in the second webisode of Girls United, she reveals that she has a girlfriend and never came out to GU because of the way they tend to treat Cole.
- Everyone Has Standards: Carmen clearly isn't happy about accusing Rita of something she didn't do just to save her own skin. Even Rita is aware of this and still retains faith in her, managing to persuade Carmen offscreen not to ruin Callie's life out of spite when the latter records Carmen's confession.
- The Social Darwinist: When she gets Rita wrongly arrested to keep a recent relapse from getting out, she simply tells Callie that she has to look out for herself and needs to join the Army to build the future she wants. However, she hates resorting to throwing Rita under the bus and Rita knows that Carmen's not the type to do so.
- Ungrateful Bitch: Perfectly willing to let Rita go to jail to keep her recent relapse a secret so she can still join the Army.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We never hear from Carmen again after she gets busted by Callie aside from the fact that she was sent back to juvie, though it can be assumed that she never got to join the Army.
Cole
Cole
(Portrayed by Tom Phelan)
- Berserk Button: Mostly seen during his time at GU when people refused to respect him as trans.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: He's a pretty nice guy.
- Easy Sex Change: He gets the procedure some time after Callie leaves GU.
- Meaningful Name: His dead name is Nicole.
- Trans Tribulations: He was kicked out by his parents for being trans. During his time at GU, he started taking hormones that weren't professionally prescribed, which nearly killed him. Becka, Gabi, and especially Devonee did not help matters up until then. He eventually made his transition and is now living a happier life.
Kiara
Kiara
(Portrayed by Cherinda Kincherlow)
- Big Beautiful Woman
- Dark and Troubled Past: Her mother is mentally ill, her father took off, she was placed in juvie four times, and was once part of her brother's gang.
- The Oldest Profession: She turned to prostitution while living on the streets in order to avoid being dragged to an abusive foster home after having just gotten away from another. Rita manages to help her after two attempts, though it fails the first time due to it being in the Red Light District.
- Rape As Back Story: A webisode reveals she was once raped and became pregnant, but chose to have an abortion. It's why she joined her brother's gang—protection.
- Sassy Black Woman
Gabi
Gabi Ortiz
(Portrayed by Hayley Kiyoko)- Addled Addict: She was previously a drug addict before joining GU.
- Break the Haughty: In webisode 1 of Girls United, she cries to Callie about her mother, who's been helping her stay clean, having cancer. In webisode 5, she reveals that she found out her father was back on drugs. He convinces her to shoot up with him and she gets HIV as a result.
- Deadpan Snarker: Arguably the most sarcastic GU has ever seen.
- Despair Event Horizon: She returns to Girls United pretty convinced that her HIV is going to kill her, but the rest of GU reassures her that she doesn't have to deal with it alone.
- The Dog Bites Back: After finding out that her father has given her HIV, she steals his phone and flushes his drugs.
- Everyone Has Standards: She's a snarky bitch who picked on Cole for being trans, but even she wasn't happy when Cole ended up in the ER.
- The Runaway: She's missing by the time of the first Girls United webisode, but returns in the fifth. It turns out she had run off to confront him about giving her HIV.
- Tragic Aids Story: She finds out that she's HIV-positive after sharing a needle with her father.
- "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: She truly wanted to spend time with her father, even going so far as to do drugs with him. It didn't go so well.
Others
Ana
Ana Gutierrez-Foster
Jesus and Mariana's birth mother.
- Addled Addict: From her first appearance on-screen through several episodes, she struggles with life because she'd fallen into the wrong crowd. She slowly starts getting better in season 2, but not without a relapse in episode 3x17 after Gabe comes back into her life.
- The Alcoholic: Just like Mike.
- The Atoner
- Birds of a Feather: She's an alcoholic whose addiction has caused problems for her family... kinda like Mike.
- Blackmail: Brandon does this to her. She later tries to do it to Stef.
- Black Sheep: She's basically the family disappointment. She reconciles with them after getting pregnant with Isabella.
- Broken Bird
- Disapproving Look: Shoots one at Mariana after the girl accidentally tells Mike that Ana is in love with him. All Mariana can do in response is mouth an apology.
- Last Girl Wins: She's the last woman Mike shows interest in throughout the show. They end up getting married.
- Manipulative Bitch: She's not above manipulating her own children to get money for her addiction.
- Parental Abandonment: She abandoned Mariana and Jesus on Christmas when they were five. Even before that, Mariana recalls her mother would leave them alone in the crib for long periods of time. Ana forgot she did this, but they remember it to this day.
- Secret Relationship: Since apparently before "Kingdom Come", she's been dating Mike. They reveal it at the end of the episode, which Stef isn't too happy about at first.
- Teen Pregnancy: Gave birth to the twins when she was still 15.
- Tempting Fate: She gets on Mike for thinking they were going to end up together and be one big happy family, calling it a fantasy. Do you wanna tell her or should I?
Liam
Liam Olmstead
(Portrayed by Brandon W Jones)
- Arch-Enemy: For Callie.
- Hate Sink: Caused Callie and Jude lose the best foster house they had when he seduced Callie, raped her and lied to get her thrown out. Years later, he stalked and threatened Callie when she tried to help another girl his family was fostering who he was already grooming.
- Karma Houdini: He has suffered no consequences for his actions against Callie.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: In "Not That Kind of Girl", where he is finally caught and imprisoned by Stef for credit card fraud, identity theft, and victimizing Sarah, who testifies against him after finally seeing his true colors.
- Manipulative Bastard: He manipulates his mother into believing that Callie was making passes at him. He later manipulates Sarah, his then-foster sister, into thinking he's in love with her, to the point of her refusing to tell Callie about what was going on and later helping Liam steal her identity... until Callie showed Sarah proof that he was also buying goods with credit cards under her name and sending them to some other girl to sell elsewhere.
- Narcissist: The thing that spells his end. He couldn't even bother waiting until he was no longer involved with Sarah to steal her identity and start ruining her credit as well.Callie: Stef said, 'He's not that stupid, is he?' I said, 'No... but he is that selfish'.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil
Courtney
Courtney Strathmore
Brandon's ex-girlfriend and the mother of her three-year-old son, Mason.
- Absurdly Youthful Mother: Mason is 3, so she had him at age 18.
- The Bartender
- Insecure Love Interest: She tells Brandon a number of times that he shouldn't get involved with her, mainly because she has a child and some ongoing drama with her baby daddy.
- Mama Bear: She cares deeply for Mason and will fight tooth and nail for him.
- Milholland Relationship Moment: When Brandon tells her he slept with Callie, she takes it pretty well, saying that it was very mature of him to end things with her after they found out she was going to get adopted.
- Nice Girl
- Parents as People: Made very clear when she gets a night off of watching Mason and throws a small party, thoroughly enjoying herself until her baby daddy tries to sue her for custody of their son.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: She tells Brandon that she can't deal with him treating her in a way the makes her feel like she's his second choice or a consolation prize when things don't go well for him. She ends by telling him that he failed to handle their relationship like he insisted he could and it led him to hurting her and, more importantly, Mason, which she couldn't get over.
- Satellite Love Interest: For Brandon.
- The Vamp: She means well, but she gets this reputation among Stef, Dana, and (to a degree) Lena after Brandon starts focusing a lot of his time and money on her.Courtney: I never wanted to be the thing that holds you back!
Grace
Grace Mullen
(Portrayed by Meg DeLacy)
- All Women Are Lustful: She's more often than not the one to initiate sex with Brandon.
- Carpe Diem: Acutely aware that she likely won't be around for much longer, she makes it her personal mission to enjoy life and help others as much as possible. When Brandon learns that her leukemia treatment had failed, she tells him to go and live his life to the fullest after she's gone.
- Deadpan Snarker
- Despair Event Horizon: After her treatment fails, she elects to give up the fight.
- Determinator: She does one thing everyday that scares her.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: She can't stand when people learn about her illness and start looking at her with sadness. When she learns that Brandon is aware of her condition, she assumes that Brandon wanted to give her the most magical possible prom night out of pity and kicks him out.
- Foreshadowing: "Just Say Yes" drops a number of clues that her leukemia treatment had failed. Brandon manages to figure it out on his own, but hides it until he discusses it with her mother.
- Friend to All Children: She works with autistic children at the hospital. She also takes an immediate shine to Mason.
- Kill the Cutie: In "Many Roads", she finally dies in her bed surrounded by her crying parents and Brandon playing his guitar.
- The Lost Lenore: Her death teaches Brandon the importance of living life to the fullest. Lena speculates that this is why he was so quick to marry Eliza.
- Milholland Relationship Moment: Brandon mentions that there are things about him he doesn't feel confident about her knowing. He tells her about how he committed academic fraud on the SAT and lost his acceptance to Julliard. Her reaction is to poke fun at him for a moment and then assure him that everybody makes mistakes.
- She's surprisingly cool about Brandon spending time with Courtney (though this may mostly have to do with Mason). She meets Courtney for herself and comes to like her.
- Nice Girl
- Satellite Love Interest: For Brandon.
- Secretly Dying: Her mother has to tell Brandon that she has leukemia and, later on, that she didn't have much longer.
Robert
Robert Quinn
(Portrayed by Kerr Smith)
- Luke, I Am Your Father: To Callie.
- Second Love: Always felt that he'd settled for Jill and that the true love of his life was always Colleen, the poor girl that he'd been forced to dump. However, he comes to regret treating Jill like this.
- Uptown Girl: Rich guy who was unable to marry his first love due to her social status and never learned that he'd fathered a child by her.
Sophia
Sophia Quinn
Robert's daughter and Callie's half-sister.
- Aborted Arc: Downplayed. While we do get to see the darker side of her personality, we never find out how life pans out for her, especially after her relationship with her parents becomes strained when she learns of Robert's infidelity.
- Animal Motifs: She has a major love for equestrians and even owned a pet horse at one point before donating him. There's always that heavy helping of "Equestrian is a rich person's hobby", but there's also the fact that horses are associated with the virtue of freedom and, in some cases, personal power, both of which Sophia desires.
- Attempted Suicide: When she feels rejected by her newly discovered half-sibling, she almost immediately tries to drown herself in her bathtub and then later on walks out into traffic. It's later revealed that she legitimately has a psychological disorder.
- Big Sister Worship: She absolutely adores her half-sister and is devastated when Callie gets angry at her.
- Hidden Depths: She's far more observant than she appears, capable of seeing when someone's smile is fake and being able to deduce that she's likely going to be sent back to the hospital. It's also likely that she figured out on her own that her father cheated on her mother by the time of "It's My Party", as it's never made clear if anyone told her about it.
- It's All About Me: Goes beyond the usual only-child syndrome. Deconstructed in that she has some legitimate mental health issues.
- Lonely Rich Kid: Arguably her defining trait. She's elated to find out she has a sister and gets attached to her very quickly.
- Reluctant Psycho: It's more than run of the mill teen angst; her intense emotional reactions and reckless behavior result in her being institutionalized. In the season 2 finale, she reveals it to be a personality disorder caused by a chemical imbalance and that it makes her feel hopeless and forever abnormal.
- Shared Family Quirks: She loves chocolate snacks like her mother and has an eye for photography like Callie.
- Spoiled Brat: Sometimes; Callie explicitly calls her this just before she walks into traffic.
- Stepford Smiler: Underneath that cheery smile is a depressed and lonely child with a psychological disorder. She'll be your friend any day of the week, but if she ever says she'll kill herself, believe her. Callie made the mistake of doubting her and nearly lost a sister almost 10 seconds later.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Despite being half-siblings, she and Callie look very much alike, to the point where Doug Harvey mistakes Sophia for Callie, who'd broken into his house.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Oddly not present at Callie's graduation, though she bought a present for her.
The Coterie
Gael
Davia
Malika
Alice
