Will Gary be okay after all of this?
It’s worrisome where things were left for him by the end of A Million Little Things Season 4 Episode 5, and it makes you wonder how a man whose entire world revolves around the people he cares about will cope with so many changes.
But changes were a recurring theme for this hour as many characters embarked on new paths.
Should we start calling this series “A Million Different Cities?”
It’s the season of characters jet-setting around rather than remaining in Boston. Delilah and Danny are in Paris, and blessedly, the hour gave us our Danny Dixon fix, so his absence doesn’t feel like such a blow to the series.
We got a Tyrell conversation while he continues to spend time with his mother in Haiti. Darcy relocated to Lennox without Gary. And now, we’re learning that Shanice is bound for Miami to film another movie, and thanks to the opportunity she offered Gina, so is she and Valerie.
They had to do something with Regina. Her time spent at this crocodile restaurant after losing her dream business can’t be considered compelling by any stretch of the imagination.
The only thing of interest that came out of it was Regina’s new friendship with Valerie. Catering suits Regina well, and it allows her to make the food she wants how she’d like.
However, catering on a move set is a whole other beast, and she’s in a food mecca like Miami, too? It’s a game-changer for Gina and opens the door to a new world and field she may never have dreamed about before all of this.
The downside is it’ll take her away from Rome for months. They haven’t been apart from each other since they’ve been together.
It’s also worth noting that Valerie is on payroll, and it could pose an issue for her that she’s abruptly quit her job and accompanied Gina to a different state for a significant time.
Nevertheless, this is an exciting opportunity for Gina, and it came at a time when Rome found some success, too.
He was over the moon about his father’s parish wanting to see his film. The importance of this documentary goes without saying, and it’s a message that he’d love to spread to the masses.
At least one of you thinks I sound like a cartoon baby turtle who is both bossy and afraid to come out of your shell.
Maggie
Sadly, we can surmise that more people will see this film with Rome sharing it with churches and schools than they would with Paragon Plus.
As much as you love Rome bucking against the system and their stupid contract — whose entire purpose is to stifle his work and keep it from seeing the light of day; he will face hell when they get wind of what he’s doing. He’s violating the contract he signed, and they’ll have his butt in court so fast it won’t be funny.
Maggie is also advancing in her career at the station, and the storyline went in an unexpected direction that livened things up a bit.
She still got caught up in the workplace gossip mill and politics, but Jane’s advice to her about becoming personable made sense. As a professional therapist (although Maggie doesn’t always exhibit this), Maggie is accustomed to distancing herself from those she helps.
It’s not the most engaging tactic for a radio personality, though. And Maggie didn’t realize how much more she could help people by getting personal.
It’s a tricky balance, and in Maggie’s defense, they haven’t made it easy for her to find an avenue that suits her. It’s almost as if she could never win.
But Maggie’s “final” session where she opened up about her cancer resonated with Jane, and that was beautiful to see. It goes to show you how we never know what paths others have walked, so it’s best not to judge at first sight.
Maggie made a lot of assumptions about Jane and vice versa, but they had more in common than they realized. It was moving when Jane shared that she’s in remission from breast cancer, too.
Jane: How long have you been in remission?
Maggie: Uh, 18 months.
Jane: Four years, last March.
It put her mysterious relationship with Nick into perspective, too. It was easier for her to tell him she chose a job over him than open up about her mastectomy and insecurities before they got too close.
And now, with this revelation, we can guess that Nick won’t be Maggie’s new love interest. Instead, we can root for reconciliation between Jane and Nick and hope that Jane reaches a place, perhaps through a newfound friendship with Maggie, where she confides in Nick and renews their romantic relationship.
Meanwhile, Maggie will have her hands busy (hopefully) with Ryan Hansen’s new character. The man has some serious game, and it’s surprising how easily he got Maggie’s phone number and a date.
He carried all of the flirting, but their scenes were cute. What’ll be funny is when Maggie figures out that he’s a Bruins hockey player. How will the rest of the group react to that bit of news?!
Katherine’s romantic prospects are opening up as well with her connection to Shanice. I’m unsure how I feel about this storyline and how they’re pursuing it.
In a way, it’s refreshing that Katherine didn’t have some massive freakout about the possibility that she’s attracted to women, too.
However, it felt all over the place. In one moment, Katherine denied that she and Shanice were sharing moments before her mother interrupted them and stated that she had never had feelings for women before.
But then, in the blink of an eye, she was ready to mark that she was interested in women on her dating profile after a talk with Shanice. But does that mean she’s not prepared for Shanice but wants to pursue things with someone else, or what?
The series will probably flesh this out more down the road. For now, Katherine and Shanice do have great chemistry. They’re in this weird place right now.
Both of them have reasons for keeping their feelings private, but that’ll need to change if they want to be together at some point.
And then there’s Eddie, who shows some signs of growth, but he’s also doing something questionable by moving Nicole and her son into the apartment he leased for himself.
It felt weird that we went from zero to 100 with this storyline, and it was another example of the weird pacing that happened throughout the hour.
Shanice: They got five church fans for their peach cobbler.
Katherine: Church fans? Is that like stars? I haven’t seen that on Yelp.
Shanice: It’s Black Yelp, honey.
What were the conversations like between Eddie and this woman from when he left the restaurant when he first met her to showing her the apartment before leaving?
Eddie has a fallback staying with Gary, but the whole situation is odd. He thinks it’s his way of letting go of his angry and making peace with things, but it’s an unusual storyline. It’ll be more confounding if this leads to a romance, but they haven’t hinted at that yet so far.
Gary was in a bad place, so he probably does need a friend to stay with him after everything that transpired.
Gary’s actions were unmistakably wrong, and Sophie’s anger about what he did — it’s valid. However, there are no words for how awful one felt for Gary hearing Sophie say he was the worst.
She wants to cut him out of her life and claims that he has only made her world worse and more challenging. Her anger aside, how can she say that and believe it?
If you really want what’s best for me, you’ll stay away, for good.
Sophie
Gary messed up, and there’s no getting around that, but while she’s not wrong about his hero complex, his love and obsession with these people he considered his family motivates him in many ways.
He reacted from that place. He’s spent the better part of two years doing everything he can to protect, look after, and be there for her since Jon died.
Gary does a lot for everyone. He’s not a perfect man, so the idea that he’s in this place where those who care about him are turning on him at the same time or leaving or writing him off hurts.
It may push him to a breaking point, and he’s felt on the verge of that for a long time now. Maybe this will lead to some therapy to work through many of his issues.
It was baffling that Sophie flipped a switch quickly and operated as if she wanted to rid herself of Gary altogether. Even when she took her podcast accusation down, she said it was for Georgia.
What was the reasoning for all of these pivotal conversations that moved the story along, either taking place off-screen, getting cut away from, or having music drown them out?
All of these were bizarre and frustrating choices. We didn’t see Gary tell Eddie all the details, only the aftermath of the conversation.
We heard more of Christopher talking to Georgia than we did Gary explaining what happened to Sophie. Georgia handled things better than Sophie did, and Christopher was the one who actually beat Peter within an inch of his life.
Surprising no one, Peter wanted to blackmail Gary and demanded that Sophie remove the podcast in exchange for his silence. The thing is, there would’ve been no guarantee that Peter would keep his mouth shut.
Even if Sophie removed the podcast confession, he still held all the cards, so Gary would’ve never agreed to that deal regardless of how protective he was of Sophie.
Fortunately, there was a payoff when Peter’s wife confronted him when he got home. You could tell she was behaving a bit off at the hospital.
She’s an intelligent woman. She knew that her husband’s phone showing no signs of anything was far more suspicious than any pictures would’ve been. It was a good moment that made up for her lashing out at Sophie outside of the store.
Gary: I know this is a lot to take in. I was just trying to protect you.
Sophie: No, what you did had nothing to do with me. You always want to be this hero.
It was all it took for her to believe everything Sophie said, and she left his ass and promised to make him suffer. Good for her. Maybe Peter will get what he deserves after all.
Sadly, Gary’s life is in shambles, too, though.
Over to you, AMLT Fanatics. Do you feel bad for Gary? Are you worried about him?
What are your thoughts on this Katherine and Shanice thing? Should Eddie have given up his apartment? Hit the comments below!
You can watch A Million Little Things online here via TV Fanatic.
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Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.
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