Good Trouble boss talks Maia Mitchell return, Evan’s fate and more from Season 5 premiere

SPOILERS WARNING! This post contains details of the Season 5 premiere of Freeform’s Good difficulty.

Maia Mitchell has returned to The Coterie, but not in happy circumstances. The premiere of the fifth season of Good difficulty ends with Mariana (Cierra Ramirez) and Callie reuniting in their old shared bedroom in the common room after Mariana spends the night in the hospital with her former flame (and boss) Evan Speck.

The episode picks up where season 4 left off with Mariana trying to escape a cult while rescuing Joaquin’s sister Jenna. Joaquin (Bryan Craig) receives a tip that Mariana is missing from a concerned Evan (TJ Linnard), who has come along to rescue the women. In the first few minutes of the episode, someone shoots a gun to stop the group from escaping and the bullet hits Evan in the chest.

They take him to the hospital where Mariana spends the night with him. In the morning, she learns from Evan’s lawyer that he named her his nominee, which means she’s technically the acting CEO of his tech company, Speckulate.

“She’s going to feel so responsible and so guilty that he looked for her,” showrunner Joanna Johnson said, adding that being shot is a “better emotional story” for Evan than for any other character.

The truth is Good difficulty Fashion is not the only situation at The Coterie. Isabella (Priscilla Quintana) gave birth to her and Gael’s (Tommy Martinez) daughter and disappeared with the baby at the end of the episode. Davia (Emma Hunton) and Dennis (Josh Pence) are finally a couple, but they’re hesitant to tell anyone when so many of their friends are struggling. Malika (Zuri Adele) has been offered a big promotion, but she begins to realize that her dedication to her activism is leading to a growing rift with family and friends. And Luca (Booboo Stewart) is still trying to get a job, but he can’t until he has his birth certificate.

Johnson broke down all that and more at the season 5 premiere with Deadline.

Reporter: When Maia left last season, did you know she would be back so soon? And if not, how did it come about?

JOANNA JOHNSON: Well, when I left, there was always the open door. She said she would come back and do episodes. I think Maia just wanted to go back to Australia for a while. She missed her family and I think she just wanted to open up to other things. But she always said, “I’ll be happy to come back when I’m available if you want me.” And we said, ‘Well, of course you’re always welcome.’ So in terms of planning and everything, it worked out great. I didn’t have that in mind when she left because we just didn’t know when she would be able and ready to come back. She will always be a part of this show. She loves it. For them, it feels like coming home.

Reporter: It makes sense that Callie would return to LA, given what’s going on with Mariana. How did you decide that Evan would be the one to be shot?

JOHNSON: We thought about it for a while. At first it was as if Mariana had been shot and then the whole family came back. But the better emotional story is clearly Evan [getting shot]because she will feel so responsible and so guilty that he looked for her. And it will give us many stories for mine. Rather than seeing Marianna recover from a gunshot, it’s so much better to see her struggle with guilt.

Reporter: Well, and now she’s Evan’s deputy. She would serve as acting CEO of Speckulate. How will she handle it?

JOHNSON: She tackles it with her usual intensity. She believes this is her way of making amends with Evan and she must protect him. It’s something she has to do. She has to do something about her guilt, so she has to do something to help him, and that’s a big deal to commit to [this role] and to return to speckles. Even those in power are not happy to have them there. So it just seemed like another great story for her to return to Speckulate. We were very happy there.

Reporter: Over the past few seasons, how do you think Mariana has grown to handle a situation like this?

JOHNSON: She just matured a lot. She will always be a bit impulsive. This is Mariana and she will try to work on it this season. It was an impulsive decision to go to the farm, not tell anyone, and stay at her house because Jenna wasn’t there. Funny, Mariana has become more impulsive than Callie. But it grows and it matures. We were recently looking for a season 1 flashback and when I saw it I was like, ‘Oh my god, she looks so much younger.’ She’s just matured into this beautiful woman and the character has definitely gotten a little smarter and wiser, but still has that impulsiveness.

Reporter: A lot happens in this episode. Isabella gives birth to a child and walks away with the baby at the end of the episode. How does this affect Gael, especially since he defended Isabella against some of his friends who were concerned about her well-being?

JOHNSON: I think Gael is such a nice guy and I think he really loves and cares for Isabella. He saw her other side that was so damaged and I think that’s why he defends her because he sees that she’s not a bad person. She’s just someone who had a bad childhood and hasn’t learned to move on from the places where she’s broken inside. But I think he was stunned when she left with the baby. From her point of view, she is afraid that he will take the baby away from her. We all know Isabella. She can go along with it and be pretty okay, and then she can freak out a little, like when she crashed her parents’ car. She kind of keeps you on your toes as a character.

Reporter: Then there’s Luca, who’s trying to get a job but can’t because he doesn’t have a birth certificate to identify himself. How did you decide to bring Booboo Stewart into the Coterie and how did you develop this story for him?

JOHNSON: I think the homelessness crisis in LA is huge and we didn’t feel like we wanted to ignore it. So many young people, people of all ages and backgrounds and for all sorts of reasons sometimes find themselves without a home. Many people have jobs, but they still don’t have a home. So we really wanted to do something about it. It was interesting, we also read Booboo for the role of Joaquin and we loved him but we didn’t think he was right for the role. We thought Bryan [Craig] was so good for the role. But we all liked him and wanted to find something for him. So it was a natural place to put that character down and see a character try to get up without all that bureaucratic stuff. I think people forget that people who don’t have a home have dreams too. They have things they want to do. And it’s nice to see it through him. And we’re in season five, so it’s nice to see new people.

Reporter: Malika is also involved in the housing crisis, but on the political side. I found it interesting to see her realize during the premiere the toll her work and activism was taking on her personal life when she had previously faced it and refused to see it. She and Isak often argued about this.

JOHNSON: Malika is so passionate about helping people and changing the world. [She’s been doing that with] Activism, and now she’s trying to see if she can make a difference in politics. A lot of our stories about social issues also fall on her shoulders, and we really felt that the character of that personal life has been missing in recent seasons. We also just wanted to explore this idea of ​​work-life balance, which I think is very alive among Millennials and Gen Z. They seem to have a better sense of work-life balance than the generations before those who tended to to think that all you do is work, work, and that is the ethics. I think it’s important to have a balance. So we really wanted to explore this story through someone like Malika who had no balance and was just trying to save the world 24/7.

Reporter: Of course I have to ask about Davia and Dennis. With everything going on, they are still enjoying the joy of their new relationship. How do you balance that with the other serious storylines you create?

JOHNSON: One thing that’s really important to me about the show is that I’ve always loved this idea of ​​mixing up the tone and mixing different kinds of storylines. I remember when I was younger watching terms of endearment, and it’s this comedy that suddenly gets very, very emotional. But it’s still funny, despite the pain of Emma’s illness. And I thought, ‘I love it.’ I like to mix and match the colors. So we’re going to have some fun with Davia and Dennis because we’re going to discover the joy of finally being together, but also the ins and outs of relationships where you both more or less live under the same roof. Both will get career material that has yet to be revealed. And how do you nurture a new relationship when you’re suddenly very busy? With Alice we always have comedy in her story and with her and Sherry it’s so funny. We also want to keep the show fun. If you watch, I think our show can be very funny. I think our show can be very dramatic. I think it could be many different things. It’s really fun to write and I hope the audience enjoys watching it.