The Fosters EP unpacks that heart-stopping finale and dishes on season 5

Can you breathe? Because we can’t. That terrifying season 4 finale cliffhanger of The Fosters has us reaching for a paper bag.

Callie (Maia Mitchell) took Christina’s place and is now stuck calling Diamond’s pimp Russell “Daddy” and counting the seconds until he gets as violent with her as he has with some of his other ladies. All the while, the lifeline Callie threw herself — getting her cop mom Stef to track her phone — went out the window (literally) when she placed it into Russell’s bag and he proceeded to hand the bag off to someone else. Meanwhile, Jesus now knows about Emma’s abortion… and that both Brandon and Mariana were keeping it a secret.

It’s a lot to digest. Thankfully, while one hand holds that paper bag, the other was able to dial executive producer Peter Paige to get some answers about what’s to come in season 5.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Callie’s in quite the pickle! Is there anything you can you tease about how she’ll get out of it?
PETER PAIGE: Look, she’s in an impossible situation, but it’s not the first time she’s faced one of those. She’s a bright and empowered young woman and anything can happen.

Is Diamond going to pick a side? Because I feel like the best way for Callie to get out of this mess would be for Diamond to turn and protect her.
I will say this: Diamond’s allegiances are still in question.

Will she be back for season 5? For how long?
She is in season 5, but I’m not telling you [how long].

Is there a world in which Callie can be in a steady situation and not putting her nose in all kinds of drama?
The situation that Callie gets herself in in the finale becomes a real watershed moment for her and is really life-changing and forces her to look at her life in a way that she just has never quite done. That sets up her journey for all of season 5.

How is Jude going to react to what Callie’s done?
At a certain point, you’ve gotta stop going to the hardware store looking for milk. He knows who his sister is. And he’s got his own fish to fry, quite frankly. By the end of the premiere, Jude has his own fish to fry.

Which kind of fish? More drugs? Sex?
Neither of those things, so I will leave you to wonder. But he does, in fact, put himself engaged in a difficult pursuit. … There’s also some Jude-Noah stuff, the continued development of their relationship.

Talk about the choices made around the Jesus-Emma abortion story.
It was very important to us to do a story where a young woman gets an abortion and feels fine about it and knows it was the right choice for her. The ensuing drama around it is not around that question, it’s around who gets told and when. It’s around the commodification of information and how much it means to us to be included in big decisions. It’s really been about that for us and continues to be. And in the finale, it’s all hitting the fan, but it’s still even in Jesus’ fury; he’s not mad at what Emma did, he’s mad that he wasn’t told.

Do you think there was even a way for her to consult him in the first place?
I don’t. He had a meltdown because there was pepperoni on his pizza. I don’t mean to make light of it — he has a traumatic brain injury, which I think Noah [Centineo] is doing such an extraordinary job of portraying. He was literally not in his right head, and it takes time. And sometimes you never fully get your impulse control back. I just don’t think it was something she could add to his wheelbarrow. It was already pretty heavy and pretty full. I very much understand why she did what she did. And I understand why he’s upset that it happened. That’s the thing about life sometimes: It doesn’t matter how well-intentioned everyone is, people still get hurt sometimes.

Are there going to be further repercussions for Mariana and her Twitter handle?
The dust from that has certainly not settled yet, for sure.

Other than his role in the Jesus storyline, Brandon didn’t have much to do in these last few episodes. It feels a little like he’s on reset mode, so what can we expect from him next season?
I think he is on reset. Last season in the finale, Brandon had the moment of crisis, the moment of looking at his choices and having to decide what kind of person he intends to be, and this season has been that a little for him. He’s been a little retreated, he’s been a little bit pulled into his shell trying to figure out how to navigate the choices he’s made. That feels very true and very real, and season 5 is sort of about him poking his neck out of his shell again.

Is that going to involve figuring out his school situation or the music therapist love interest who was introduced this season?
Both those conversations are very present.

Will the kids ever allow the grownups to leave the Anchor Beach board meeting?
They’re not going to do so particularly willingly.

So no time jump?
Every one of those stories are in a moment of utter and complete crisis, so we are literally coming back three seconds after the finale ends.

Nick’s dad is involved in that school story — are we going to see him return to the show?
At some point we might.

There was no AJ in the finale. Is he still going to be around much in season 5?
We’ll see AJ again. Now that he’s not in a romantic relationship with Callie, we will see less of him for sure, but he’s still present in our world and there’s still stuff to be resolved and questions that we find quite interesting for him.

What’s the state of Callie and Aaron?
Moving ahead, there’s some exploration of, what are Callie and Aaron doing? What are they sniffing around? What is that going to turn into?

Final thoughts on what to expect next season?
Season 5 is a little bit of a reset to our family, our home, and the sort of simpler and brighter and happier times that our family really needs.

The Fosters season 5 kicks off on July 11 at 8 p.m. on Freeform.