Finding Carter recap: The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

You have to admit: Carter is one of the ballsiest 17-year-olds you’ve ever met. I mean, she doesn’t run when her boyfriend shoots her best friend. She doesn’t run when her new boyfriend has a secret family. And she doesn’t even run when the cops show up to the rave she’s throwing full of underage people drinking heavily. Yet, something tells me she really should be running from a couple of these things.

Let’s get to it.

The Teenage World

We pick up with Carter sleeping on Lori’s couch — or as Grant puts it, “Katniss staying at President Snow’s house” — when Elizabeth barges in and demands her daughter come home. Shocker: Carter disobeys and decides instead to head to work.

But things aren’t much better at the bar, where Carter’s still full of questions for Jared, who claims that he hasn’t divorced his ex because she fights him for custody every time and he can’t afford to fight back. Remember last week when he was acting all rich? Well now money’s an issue again. Just so you can keep track.

When Stevie lets it slip that Jared’s ex works at a boutique downtown, Bird gets the great idea for Carter to go check her out. Apparently, neither of these girls have seen Gilmore Girls.

Another fun fact: There appears to be only one boutique “downtown” because it takes Bird and Carter like five minutes to find Sarah, Jared’s ex. It’s there that Carter — posing as a complete stranger who’s full of personal questions — gets Sarah’s side of the story. According to her, Jared left and wants nothing to do with his daughter.

Carter’s next bright idea: Ask Elizabeth to get her the court documents to find out whether Jared or Sarah is telling the truth. But thankfully, Elizabeth says no.

Instead, Carter focuses all her energy on her next rave, which she’s throwing at a laundromat, which is far too hipster for me. But Carter doesn’t start the party until after she FaceTimes Crash. It seems he’s still her go-to in times of need. And despite the fact that he’s not great with angles – never shoot UP at yourself, Crash, it’s not flattering — he is good with advice. And he tells Carter that she can’t let fear stop her from living.

And to her, living is partying, so the party goes on! At least until a fight breaks out and Sarah shows up. It doesn’t take long for Sarah to tell Jared that Carter paid her a visit earlier — and saw through her fool-proof acting abilities. It also doesn’t take long for Sarah to call the cops and prove Jared’s point: She’s a little crazy.

NEXT: Isn’t photosynthesis grand?

Luckily, living with Elizabeth has prepped Carter in the proper cop vocabulary, so when she starts throwing out words like “probable cause” and “warrants,” the cop look the other way … though not without giving Elizabeth a quick update on what her dear old daughter is up to.

Carter then tries to apologize to Jared for visiting Sarah at her store, but he’s not interested in a relationship that has no trust. Well, not right now. But the next day, after he’s cooled down, he shows up at Lori’s to show Carter the court documents that prove he was denied custody a year ago and has made every child support payment for his daughter’s entire life. With that, Carter packs up her things, gives Lori an emotionally loaded hug, and heads to stay with her man … while her other man (Crash) calls her cell. This could get interesting. I have a feeling Crash wouldn’t approve of Jared.

Elsewhere, Taylor spends the episode dealing with Grant, who’s not a fan of Carter moving out. And when he finds himself starving and alone at Max’s apartment, well, he eats a bunch of cookies that have pot in them. And you know he’s high when he starts going on about how amazing photosynthesis is.

You also know he’s high when he calls his grandma, asks for some of her brownies — which apparently she always has on hand — and then forgets he ever dialed the phone in the first place. The good news? Grandma and grandpa are no strangers to edibles, and when they realize that Grant ate the cookies on accident, they offer for him to sleep it off at their house. As for Taylor, well, she stays with Max, who just found out that his father is getting out of prison.

The Adult World

At this point, the adult world is really just poor Elizabeth trying and failing to handle everything. But this week, she does call in her mom for help choosing swatches for their newly renovated basement. After a quick argument, Elizabeth gets real with her mom and tells her about everything with Carter.

Her mother’s advice is simple: Let Carter make her own mistakes. But by episode’s end, grandma would be singing a different tune, asking Grant to call Carter and beg her to come home. (Because who could turn down Grant?)

Then Elizabeth leaves David a message asking that he come home before his book tour stops in Richmond and New York. At this point, she’s ready to ask for help.

So the question remains: What should Carter fight for and when should she learn to run? Hit the comments with your thoughts or find me on Twitter @samhighfill.