Finding Carter recap: Anywhere But Here

Well, if anything’s true about Carter it’s that she knows what she wants out of life, and right now, all this 17-year-old wants is to live an adult life, which in her world means dropping out of high school to work at a bar. And you know what? She’s not too far off. Here’s what all went down this week:

The Teenage World

These days, Carter pretty much never attends school. Whenever she’s not ditching to go work at the bar, she’s ditching to hang out with Crash, who just got his next assignment: He’s being posted in California two days from now.

On top of all that, Carter comes home to find a Fairfax county truancy officer in her home. Apparently, these are a thing and ditching school can actually get you sent to juvi?! I can’t say I ditched much school in my life, but never did I know this was an option. Carter then tells her parents that she wants to drop out despite the fact that she only has a year left, and she does it with the most teenage line possible: “A year is an eternity.” Isn’t 17 a beautiful age?

So while Carter’s grounded, Gabe and Ben bond when Gabe asks him for a fake ID as Taylor worries from the sidelines … at least until Max informs her that tomorrow is their six-month anniversary, which means she has to ditch Gabe and hang out with her man. (Try to look happier, Taylor.)

It takes about four hours for Carter to find a way out of being grounded. She heads to work under the cover of attending a “study group,” which results in her working until the early morning and falling asleep on a bus on the way home. And apparently this town has the worst bus drivers in the world, because they park the bus and leave Carter asleep. She has to wake up and call Crash to come get her. #safetyfirst

The next day, Carter finds out that she’s going to have to repeat the school year, which is when she heads to Lori to ask her to sign the form that will allow her to drop out of school. Lori knows that Carter was never a traditional learner. She remembers teaching her math at a bakery using measuring cups and sugar. As she tells her: 99.9 percent of parents wouldn’t sign the form. Luckily, “I’m the one percent.” Suddenly Carter’s lack of math skills makes so much sense.

But Carter ends up tearing up the form. She does want to drop out, but she wants to do it with her parents’ blessing. Realizing that Carter turns 18 in six months, Elizabeth and David agree to let her drop out so long as she gets a job, gets her GED, and helps out around the house.

Only, during Carter’s next shift, the combination of being late and a visit from a very drunk Gabe leads to Carter losing the job she just quit school for. Adulthood. Fun, right?

NEXT: Bye, Crash

Meanwhile, Max and Taylor are trying to enjoy their anniversary when Ben calls Taylor and asks for help with Gabe. He then informs Taylor that Gabe has a thing for her, which she later lies to Max about. Denial doesn’t do anyone any good, Tay.

After Carter’s fired, Crash asks her to come to California with him. However, when Carter goes to the bar to pick up her last paycheck, she’s pulled back into it. Refusing to give up her job, she starts wiping down tables and somehow wins Jared over and gets her job back. Sadly for Crash, that means he’s going to California alone. But more than that, he tells Carter that she’s spent so much time helping him, now it’s her turn to figure out what she wants. “What you really need is to do this on your own with nothing holding you back,” he tells her.

They agree not to call each other and to live their lives separately and as Crash puts it, “if there’s any justice in the world, then we’ll cross paths again.”

But right now, justice isn’t on Carter’s side considering that Lori just found her working at the bar.

The Adult World

The adult world is much less eventful this week. Basically, Elizabeth and David argue about the $10,000 that David gave to Lori, and when the family finds out that a gossip blog is writing a book on their family, they all agree that David should write his book first. (You know, the one he’s been writing anyway.) And somehow, when David produces a copy for Grant to read later that day, no one wonders how he pulled it together so quickly.

We get a brief Lori-Elizabeth interaction when they run into each other at the bank and Lori reveals that Carter came to her for her school form. Naturally, Elizabeth hates it.

And that’s about it. But thanks to Lori discovering Carter’s secret, I’m betting we’ll get more adult drama moving forward.

What did you all think of the episode? Hit the comments or find me on Twitter @samhighfill.