‘A Million Little Things’: Tough Decisions as Lockdown Begins (RECAP)
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 3, Episode 6 of A Million Little Things, “Miles Apart.”]
In a way, the friend group feels “miles apart” in the March 18 episode of A Million Little Things.
Yes, COVID is now part of their world right now — Regina’s (Christina Moses) feeling it the hardest with her restaurant — but for the most part, the way we see that come into play is the distance and smaller groups interacting. That table read dinner at the end of the midseason return may be the last time we see them all together like that for a while.
But hey, at least everyone has someone, especially Maggie (Allison Miller), who’s going through a really rough time after learning she’s pregnant when she went in for a cancer screening. Which relationships are thriving? Who’s suffering? Read on to find out.
Knock, Knock…
With lockdown officially beginning everywhere, Maggie can’t return to Oxford, and her ex-boyfriend Gary (James Roday Rodriguez) offers up his empty apartment (he’s watching Delilah’s kids while she’s in France). And amidst their debate about the grandparents in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, he asks if she’s pregnant. She is, she confirms, telling him about roommate-with-benefits Jamie (Chris Geere) in England, but “it’s complicated.”
Gary realizes she finished her chemo less than a year ago, and Maggie tells him she’s having an abortion. He’ll take her to the appointment, it’s decided without a discussion … on the same day he’s set to go on a camping trip with girlfriend Darcy (Floriana Lima) and her son, Liam. Gary is thrilled when the timing appears to work for him to do both.
Maggie calls Jamie to tell him about the pregnancy (“congrats on having super-strong sperm,” she says when he notes they were safe) and that she’s not keeping the baby. They’re closing the borders to the U.K., but, he tells her, “If you need anything, I’m very far away, but I’m still here for you.”
The next day at her appointment, the doctor recommends to Maggie that she have someone she trusts with her when she takes the second pill at home. Gary says he’ll be there and takes her home to help her settle in.
“I feel stupid. I actually fell for it. I was finally healthy and I let myself believe that I could live somebody else’s life and I let myself believe that my cancer was gone,” Maggie tells him. “It still makes every decision for me. Even though it’s not in my body right now, it still controls it.” While she has her reasons for not wanting to have a baby now (the timing and her uncertainty if she wants to raise a kid with Jamie), she wishes she‘d gotten to decide for herself.
Though he wants to stay with her, she pushes him to go on the trip with Darcy, even lying that Regina will be coming over when their friend is too busy at her restaurant. And when Gary realizes that, he tells Darcy he can’t go and Maggie needs him. His girlfriend thinks they’re back together, and he insists they’re not, sharing what Maggie’s going through. Darcy tells him to go to his ex-girlfriend.
But when someone knocks on Maggie’s door, it’s … Jamie! “I got the last flight out,” he says.
“I’m really glad you’re here,” she says as she hugs him before leading him inside … as Gary watches from down the hall. Listen, we know Maggie and Gary’s love story isn’t over just yet, but dare we say we’re falling for Maggie and Jamie?
ABC/Jack Rowand
Gary does make the trip up to Darcy’s cabin, but only to drop off a toboggan her son wanted. “When I meet your son, I want it to be right,” he explains.
Figuring Things Out
With Rome’s (Romany Malco) movie shut down, it’s the perfect time for him to watch a video of their late friend Jon (Ron Livingston) talking about everything happening for a reason and figuring out what that reason is.
And he tries to be useful (and distract himself) by helping his wife in her restaurant. But between adding the wrong tomatoes to the sauce and orders going missing when he’s handling delivery service, it doesn’t seem to be the right fit. Those orders, however, are delivered to the customers, faster than ever, courtesy of a high-school kid, Tyrell (Adam Swain), trying to audition for a job. Unfortunately, Regina just doesn’t have the budget.
ABC/Jack Rowand
Rome offers some help by buying a box of the candy bars his basketball team is selling, and it’s as he takes one out at home that he sits down to start writing again.
You Can’t Always Get What You Want…
When Eddie (David Giuntoli) runs out of pain pills (that he’d stolen), he remembers the musician Dakota (Anna Akana) he’d worked with who was an addict and gives her a call. He looks terrible, she remarks when she walks into the house, because of his haircut, not the wheelchair.
But she is right: Eddie looks like a mess right now, and she doesn’t realize he’s thrown 10 years of sobriety out the window.
That’s why he’s obviously disappointed to hear that she’s stopped using. She hasn’t even had a glass of wine in three months. He does, however, leap at the opportunity to join her in the studio when he hears the session musicians get high. She does eventually put the pieces together.
ABC/Jack Rowand
“Don’t you dare judge me. I wake up in pain every day. And I’m going to be stuck in this chair, probably for the rest of my life,” he snaps at her.
“Are you taking the pills for physical pain or for something else?” she asks. He refuses to explain himself to her.
But at the end of the episode, Dakota visits Eddie after realizing she needs him for her musical career … and brings him pills.
Uh-oh. We’re very, very worried. How long will it take for his wife Katherine (Grace Park) — who was MIA this episode and sorely missed — to realize what’s going on?
A Million Little Things, Thursdays, 10/9c, ABC
