Tonight’s Season 4 premiere of The Fosters couldn’t be more timely because it deals with the issue of gun violence when Anchor Beach Charter School goes into a “Code Blue” lockdown when it’s discovered that Mariana’s (Cierra Ramirez) boyfriend Nick (Louis Hunter) showed up at school up with his father’s gun after seeing her kiss her ex-boyfriend Mat (Jordan Rodrigues).
But before the episode airs, The Fosters will air a special PSA, featuring Ramirez and Sherri Saum, who plays Lena, the school vice principal and the kids’ mom, delivering a message dedicating the episode to the victims of the Orlando attack.
“I am a mom now, I have 2-year-old twins and I tried to imagine the situation and it was horrifying,” Saum told Parade.com during a set visit to The Fosters. “It is always horrifying when you see those images on TV with the kids streaming out of the school with their hands on their heads, but it added a new level, a new dimension of reality for me now, knowing that I have to deal with this now — everyone has to deal with this now — wondering if their kids are safe at school. It was really, really intense to film this episode.”
For David Lambert, who plays Brandon, the episode was a learning experience as he and the other members of the cast and crew were given a rundown while filming the episode to give everyone a better idea of the weight of the situation and what it’s like for any school that goes through such an incident.
“What I was most shocked about, I think, which we show in the episode, is after lockdown happens if you hear anyone in the hallway you can’t react,” he says. “You have to assume the worst situation — they’ve been taken hostage or they are the shooter. You have to assume that they are beyond help at that point, which it was just a very desperate situation to be in. It’s a very, very dark protocol from what I can understand. But doing it felt right with everything that’s going on now with gun incidents.”
Maia Mitchell, who stars as Callie, is Australian, and she says that she feels that as a result, she has been separated from the gun culture because, in her native country, she doesn’t know anyone who owns a gun.
“I think what really made it real for me was learning about how a young man, who essentially is really damaged and traumatized and trying to reach out to people for help, hasn’t been able to, so this is what he resorts to, and this is what’s available to him, and that’s what really kind of hit me hard,” she says. “I think what I learned, is it’s not just a threat of people that are crazy; it’s people who are vulnerable and have it available.”
Also on the Season 4 premiere, before the “Code Blue” lockdown, Callie makes the heartbreaking confession to her moms Lena and Stef (Teri Polo) that she and Brandon had sex that one night in Idyllwild after she thought her adoption wasn’t going to go through, and she believed she had nothing to lose.
“You definitely see her owning it and ready to take on the consequences, which she assumes is they’re going to reverse her adoption and give up on her finally, which has always been her suspicion,” Mitchell says. “This is just the one catalyst that she thinks is going to do it. So, you definitely see her accepting it and almost in a grieving phase.”
As for Brandon, he tries to understand why Callie made the reveal, but he has his own issues going on with Cortney (Denyse Tontz), the woman he has tried to move on with
“Brandon is 18 now, and I think he’s biting off a bit more than he can chew right off the bat,” Lambert says. “I think he is under the impression that now that he’s 18, he has it all under control, he’s got all the answers, he knows what he needs to do, and then he also takes on the responsibility of Cortney and her kid, which is a very, very new area for Brandon.”
The Fosters premieres its fourth season tonight at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Freeform.
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