‘Chesapeake Shores’ Recap: Mick Struggles to Take Necessary Steps
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Chesapeake Shores Season 6 Episode 6 “Straighten Up and Fly Right.”]
Mick (Treat Williams) may now be able to say the words “I’m an addict,” but that doesn’t mean that we don’t need to still worry about him. In fact, the latest Chesapeake Shores episode shows the complete opposite.
Mick and Megan (Barbara Niven) are doing the best they can with a long-distance relationship, and that means plans (such as a rendezvous in Denver) don’t always work out (she’s sick and can’t fly). But as we see, that may be a good thing because sure, he tells Abby (Meghan Ory) he can always do virtual meetings (to ensure he goes every day for the first 90 days, as he should), but after a week, he still hasn’t found a sponsor. He thinks he can work on the steps on his own for a while, but Ralph (Donald Sales) points out that people who try to get through the program on their own have a name: addicts.
After Megan has to cancel, Abby’s worried, but Mick snaps at her. He does reach out to Luke (Stephen Huszar) and admits that everything makes him think about using. He asks Luke to be his sponsor, but the other man explains he can’t because they’re friends.
Then it becomes clear just how much Mick needs a sponsor when he speaks at an NA meeting. “Hi, my name is Mick and I’m an addict. I haven’t been coming to these much, eight days actually. I woke up this morning thinking that I didn’t belong here, that I was just doing this for my family, that I didn’t have a problem,” he shares. “And then I got some bad news, nothing major, but enough to set me off. I went over to my son’s place to help him put up a shelf and while I was in his bathroom, I opened the medicine cabinet. I don’t know why. Oh, what am I saying? I do know why. My son had surgery recently and there are some leftover painkillers in there. I knew that. I took one out of the bottle and I was very tempted to slip. So I guess my question is: When does the wanting stop? Never? Is it always with you?”
After the meeting, Ralph joins him and calls him out on what he didn’t say: “You took the pill, didn’t you?” He did. “I don’t know what happened. I just swallowed the pill. I didn’t even think about it. I have no control over this,” Mick tells him. But that’s the first step: admitting he’s powerless over his addiction. “If that doesn’t describe a guy showing up high to an NA meeting, I don’t know what does,” Mick says. But Ralph explains, “you don’t need to be clean to come to a meeting. All you need is a desire to stop using.” Mick now knows he needs a sponsor. As Ralph puts it, he knows a guy, and the two sit down to start going over the steps.
Elsewhere for the O’Briens:
- Following the fortune teller incident, Bree (Emilie Ullerup) and Luke haven’t spoken. Though she tries to get Mick to pass along a housewarming gift for her (Luke’s moving in above the Bridge), she does bring it over herself. She explains that it wasn’t that she didn’t trust him, but rather, she worried she’d mess things up and ended up doing just that. The good news: They’re back on track by the end of the conversation.
- Bree finds out that an actress wants to option the rights to her book. She’s wary, especially since it could stir things up for her family again, so Luke suggests she run it by everyone first. When she does, asking their permission, everyone agrees … with some casting suggestions: Mick wants Harrison Ford to play him, Jess suggests Hilary Duff and Abby Kristen Stewart, Kevin (Brendan Penny) wants Chris Pratt or Chris Pine (Jessica Sipos‘ Sarah interjects with Luke Wilson), and Connor (Andrew Francis) wonders if Dwayne Johnson would wear a wig.
- Jess (Laci J Mailey) focuses on the inn, with plans to expand by going into the wine-making business, with David (Carlo Marks) distracted with everything going on with his father — especially once Dennis (Malcolm Stewart) calls. Dennis claims that he was framed by someone on the inside, but David finds it hard to believe him: “You stole my trust. You stole my trust fund.” Dennis insists he put it somewhere safe. David does tell Agent Malik (Laara Sadiq), who puts a tap on his phone. And so when Dennis calls again, they can locate him — which he’d figured would happen. He wants to give himself up.
- Margaret (Mariesa Crouse) passes the bar, and pretty quickly, recruiters from law firms begin reaching out. Though she knows what she wants — pick her own clients, represent the little guy, grow a company from the ground up — Connor insists she at least meet with a top firm in DC pushing for an “informal coffee and chat.” He doesn’t want to hold her back, he explains, or risk her having any regrets. She goes, but even though they made a good offer, she turned them down. She’s been at the big firm before, she reminds Connor. What Margaret wants is to keep working with him (and he assures her he wants that, too), but with one change: as an equity partner. His answer: “Let me put it to you this way. What sounds more equitable: Keller & O’Brien or O’Brien & Keller?”
- Sarah continues to keep her pregnancy a secret, with Abby helping cover around Bree and Jess when they’re offered wine at a spa. Abby assures her Kevin didn’t tell her and she guessed. Sarah admits she doesn’t know how she’s supposed to feel, wondering how she can be happy when there’s the risk of a miscarriage like last time. “When in doubt, choose joy,” Abby recommends, and that’s what Sarah does at the end of the episode, sharing the news with Bree and Jess.
Chesapeake Shores, Sundays, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel