A Million Little Things
“Unleashed” (Episode 206)
“Ten Years” (Episode 207)
November 7, 2019

Since I’m pretty behind on A Million Little Things recaps, I’m going to give you a two-fer, as these two episodes played well together. We have a two-part saga involving Gary and Colin. We have a resolution in the Maggie-Eric drama, and Gary and Maggie seem to arrive at a new place in their relationship. Also, Rome comes clean to Gina about PJ’s potential paternity and Katherine bonds with Charlie. Secrets come out and stability is threatened all around.  Catch up on all of our recaps for A Million Little Things here.

Now, on to a recap of the two most recent episodes of A Million Little Things … BEWARE OF SPOILERS!!!

Gary and Maggie.  Let’s start with Gary and Maggie, with Eric and Colin as supporting players. Gary is still not happy with the relationship developing between Maggie and Eric, which is understandable, because she isn’t telling him anything about them. This would make anyone suspicious. But, to add insult to injury, Maggie lets Colin off his leash while she’s talking to Eric. She only realizes Colin is missing when she gets upstairs. She tells Gary she thought Colin followed him inside. But he didn’t, so they run outside and start yelling Colin’s name.

Gary is all kinds of freaked out, so he rallies the troops. Rome, Gina, PJ, Sophie, and Eddie all head over to Gary’s place to help him look. Gary is overwhelmed by the outpouring of support, but he’s still angry with Maggie and tells her to wait at the apartment while the search commences.

Gary and Eddie drive around while Rome, Gina, PJ, and Sophie walk around on foot. Sophie and PJ are looking pretty cute together and unable to take it anymore, Rome tells Gina and they need to keep them apart because they could be half siblings. More on than later.

Eddie gets a call that a shelter has a black Mastiff matching Colin’s description, so they run over there, but it’s a different dog. But leaving the shelter, Eddie sees a missing dog poster and that’s Colin. The poster was from the previous October, around the same time Gary found him. Eddie was about to tell Gary, when suddenly, they get a call that Colin’s been found!!

Turns out Colin was in the trash room the whole time. PJ found him when he went to chuck the box of Good n Plenty (good call, those are gross!) and hears a dog barking through the chute! Yeah, Colin is okay!

Gary is so relieved that he tells everyone, including Maggie, that he loves them all. Yup, things seem to be on the mend for Gary and Maggie. Eric realizes that he is coming between them and tells Maggie he’s going to back off.

The question is, is it for good? I know that Sutton Foster was cast as his dead fiancee and I can’t imagine that they picked her only to have her appear in a picture, so I have to assume that Eric will be back. Will he be welcomed? Eddie tells Maggie about the missing dog poster and Maggie tells Gary. Gary initially refuses to consider giving Colin away, but then as the next episode begins, he is less sure of his decision.

Gary goes by the house of Colin’s last owners to try and decide whether to give Colin back or not. Gary learns that Colin/Wesley belonged to an elderly couple. The old man passed away and then Colin went missing but the elderly widow keeps a bowl of dog food out, hoping that he’ll come back.

Gary makes the painful decision to return Colin, but Maggie insists that, with her new driver’s license (!), she’ll drive them — but they need to make a detour first. At the old people’s house, Gary says good-bye to Wesley/Colin, who trots into the house with the elderly widow, and then Gary and Maggie get in the car to leave. Who pops his head up between the seats? Yup, Colin! Maggie went to the shelter and took the other black Mastiff to the old woman because she will never know the difference and everyone is happy!

It’s a bit of a gray area ethically, but whatever gets Gary and Maggie back to their awesome togetherness is okay in my book. Hopefully, they’ve come out of this unscathed and can start figuring things out together again.

Katherine and Eddie and Delilah. As weird as it is to say this, I think Eddie was the MVP of these two episodes. First, he stands by Gary, as he imagines Jon would have. Second, he stands up to Delilah and sides with Katherine, and celebrates 10 years of sobriety. On the day that Colin disappeared, Eddie was supposed to hang out (I don’t want to say baby-sit) with Charlie, but when he calls Katherine to tell her, Katherine once again steps up and spends the whole day with Charlie so Eddie can be there for Gary.

This leads to the best conversation ever. Katherine takes Charlie to the park and chats with another woman who asks if Charlie is her daughter? Katherine blurts out the whole sordid story and the other woman runs away horrified. All of a sudden, Katherine realizes that speaking the truth is good and tells Charlie, “don’t let her or anyone else judge you or me. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Preach Katherine! This whole experience opened Katherine’s eyes, and when Delilah got home, and finally gave Katherine the scotch set that Jon had left her, Katherine put it all out on the table. She thinks they need to come clean to the kids, Katherine doesn’t want to live with the secrets.

This comes on the heels of Delilah doing a podcast about suicide. When the podcaster asked about the pregnancy and whether Jon knew before he died, Delilah lied. Of course. I’m not sure why she was so upset about it. We then learned that liars enjoy the company of liars, because Andrew and his quaff revealed the truth about his wife and the truth is that she is still alive.

Yes, it’s a very sad case. Deborah had a stroke and because one doctor said that she had a 1% chance of waking up, Andrew moved her to a long term facility, in case she did. But, it’s easier to tell people she died, just like it’s easier to tell people that Charlie is Jon’s no matter who else gets hurt. But rather than be convinced that she should do the right thing, Delilah digs in her heels and starts poisoning the waters against Katherine.

First, D tries with Gina, but it backfires. Gina is watching Charlie and brings her over to Katherine’s to help Katherine with a cake for Theo’s 10th birthday … or so we think.

It turns out that the cake is for Eddie’s 10 year anniversary of sobriety. He missed Theo’s birth and vowed to always be there and never drink again. So, Eddie’s sobriety will forever be tied to Theo’s birthday. Anyway, while making the cake, Gina asks Katherine about her quest for the truth and starts to see Katherine’s side of things. When Charlie spits up all over herself, Katherine produces an adorable outfit she purchased for Charlie at a baby store by her office. See, complicated. Delilah later accuses Katherine of “polling their friends.” But wait, isn’t that the same thing that Delilah is doing?

Delilah’s day just keeps getting worse, when Sophie wrecks her new car. Wait, this widow with a new baby and no job (fine, she’s the front end of Someday, but is she drawing a salary? Are they doing that well already?) and who was almost bankrupted by Jon’s death, bought her daughter a new car when she got her license?

I guess we can relax a little because Jon bought the car for Sophie when she was born. What!?! Are you going to tell me that’s a 16 year old car? Where has it been this whole time? The garage and Sophie’s never noticed it?

Anyway, PJ comes to Theo’s party and Gina and Rome spend the whole time hyperventilating. Later, PJ and Sophie go for a drive and she tries to kiss him and he pulls away and she is MORTIFIED! Well, duh. PJ is grossed out because there’s a good chance she’s his sister. Ew. Sophie is so embarrassed that she puts the car in drive instead of park and winds up on the sidewalk.

All is well, but this further solidifies, in D’s mind, that she can’t cause Sophie more pain. Right, because it’ll be better when she finds out later. And which do you think will rock her world more, that Charlie is her half sister and Eddie’s baby, or that PJ is her half brother and her father is not as perfect as she thought? I do feel for Sophie. Either way, life is about to suck even more.

PJ’s Paternity. When Gina and Rome get home from the party, the elephant is sitting in front of their door in the form of PJ’s DNA test result. Drum roll please, Jon IS PJ’s father. I have to admit, even though this was clearly going to happen, with bringing PJ into the group, setting up the conflict with Sophie and so on, I was still surprised.

I must have missed something really big in the 9/11 flashbacks. Was there any indication in that scene that Jon was the father? I thought it was pretty clear that PJ was Dave’s kid, so I’m curious how this all came about? Did Jon and Barbara have an affair while Barbara and Dave were together? Did Jon carry that guilt with him? Do we know how much time passed from 9/11 until that scene between them in the airport?

Here’s my theory. Right after Dave was killed, Jon and Barbara slept together in an attempt to deal with their grief and instead of bringing them together, it drives them apart. Jon didn’t know for sure that the baby was his, since Barbara could have been pregnant with Dave’s baby too. Again, thinking back, maybe the timing was deliberately unclear. But we now know that PJ is Jon’s son. And in the wise words of Rome, this isn’t a bomb, this is Hiroshima.

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Thoughts.

Let’s think about this. Delilah can’t really be upset. This all predated her and if Jon wasn’t sure then he never needed to say anything. Their marriage seemed pretty superficial and I’m not super surprised that he would have hidden this from her. So, she can be upset that he didn’t tell her, but maybe he didn’t know? Or maybe he figured it wouldn’t impact her? Or maybe, he knew about the affair with Eddie and decided to use the money for Barbara as a punishment to Delilah?

We may never know. The bigger question is, which bomb will get dropped first and by whom? Stay tuned because this is going to be a wild ride!!

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

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