A Million Little Things
“Austin” (Episode 205)
October 24, 2019

A quick synopsis of tonight’s A Million Little Things, Delilah wants a family photo but Danny is upset that this new family arrangement does not include his father. Rome and Regina plan a celebration for Rome’s parents’ 50th wedding anniversary, Eddie and Katherine look to start over, and Gary struggles with his relationship with Maggie. Catch up on all of our recaps for A Million Little Things here.

Now, on to tonight’s all new episode of A Million Little Things … BEWARE OF SPOILERS!!!

The Savilles.  Last week’s coming attraction scene scared us with Katherine’s expressed wish to move to Austin, but no fears. When Eddie eventually asked her about it, Katherine said that while she wanted to move, she wanted them all to move together but knows that they can’t.

Whew.  Katherine has easily become one of the best, most interesting, and most richly drawn characters on the show. Personally, she continues to grow on me, as does her relationship with Eddie, which is improving with each episode.

Eddie decides that if they can’t move to Austin, they could pretend to be other people, even if just for a brief time, so they head across the street to an open house and pretend to be a couple from Austin looking to move to the neighborhood. Apparently role-playing is a turn-on for the Savilles, so they take advantage of being left alone by the broker and have a quickie in a closet.

The Romes. Katherine and Eddie are in a good place, but Gina and Rome are not, and neither are Rome’s parents. Rome is directing a Lexus commercial and uses his conversation with Gina about cars and kids to create the commercial. He goes to such lengths to cast actors that look like him and Gina – Gary hilariously notes, “the actress playing the character who is loosely based on Regina because if Regina commits a crime, that woman gets stopped for questioning.”

Gina is pissed that he used their life in the commercial, but they table that discussion, because Rome’s parents get in a fight. Renee and Walter are supposed to be celebrating their 50th anniversary at Someday and Renee is expecting, and Walter delivers, the promised gift of a cruise. But Walter then says that now that he’s done it, he doesn’t ever want to hear about the cruise again. This sends Renee into a tailspin and the two of them will not speak to each other. Gina and Rome are left thinking that Renee is going to be staying with them but Walter comes through in the end. Cut to Walter, in full dress uniform, asking Renee’s forgiveness and proclaiming his (fake) excitement at accompanying her on her dream vacation.

Rome and Gina dodged one bullet there, but the elephant is still in the room. They don’t want to resent each other the way that Walter and Renee do, so they agree that they always need to talk to each other. So, what about the baby? Gina thinks they need to compromise and meet in the middle. How do you do that with a baby!?!?!?

Maggie and Gary.  As Gary points out, Eddie and Katherine seem to be the most stable couple at this point. How did we get here? Maggie and Gary can’t seem to find their way back to each other. Maggie prefers to talk to Eric and Gary can’t understand why Maggie doesn’t want to go back to their cancer support group. One of the women explains it to him, saying that Maggie wants to move on, but does she want to move on from Gary? Or just the cancer?

Maggie tells Eric about how she used to play piano and sing before she got sick. Now that she’s not sick anymore, maybe she should do it again. So, Eric tells her about an open mic night he knows about. In a beautifully directed scene, we hear Maggie singing assuming she’s at the open mic night. Gary finds the flyer and heads to the bar, only to see Eric but no Maggie. Maggie sits alone in her apartment, singing to herself. Maggie is shutting Gary out and Gary is struggling.

The Dixons. Now, I’ve left the Dixon story for last, because writing about Delilah pains me. This storyline was dumb. Really, they were that close with their family photographer, Seymour (special guest, Richard Kind)?  The “Danny missing his wallet and refusing to take the picture because his wallet had Jon’s picture in it, which means that Jon would be ‘in the picture,” plotline? Ugh. I love Danny, but that was dumb. Sophie was pushing really hard to take the picture, but was it really so important? And then, Delilah calls and everyone jumps to do her bidding. The unspoken undertone was how to get Eddie in the picture with his daughter without anyone else knowing. And while that was successful, it was pretty lame.

***

Thoughts. 

There’s Delilah dislike coming down the pike, so get ready! I am here for it!

This was another PJ free episode before we go back down that road, so I hope you enjoyed it while it lasted!

***

A Million Little Things airs on ABC on Thursday nights at 9pm (ET/PT)!

***

Thank you for reading! Follow us on social media for all your A Million Little Things and other pop culture updates: Twitter @popcultureview and and @lep314; and on Instagram @pop_culture_review.