A Million Little Things recap: Four fathers and a funeral
Things are never quite bad enough for the characters on A Million Little Things, so how about we throw another death into the mix?
Episode 8 kicks off with Rome and Gina debating whether to tell P.J. that Jon is his father after their discovery last week. Gina is worried about how Delilah will react when she already has so many paternity problems going on. Rome thinks D needs to hear it from Gina, so she’s about to bring it up when a phone call interrupts her — happens a lot on this show.
Rome’s over at his parents’ place running last-minute errands for them before they head off on their anniversary cruise. His brother’s also there, being his normal annoying, freeloading self. Rome’s patience is running thin when Gina shows up at the door with some truly terrible news: Rome’s mother died of an aneurism while getting her hair done at the salon. Rome volunteers to tell his dad. His mom always wanted them to get along and he thinks this is the first step in that process, but when he gets to his dad, he’s too busy packing his suitcase for the cruise to really listen. Eventually, Rome blurts it out but it turns out his dad had already overheard them talking about it and has decided he’s going on the cruise regardless since he promised his wife he would. Leaving for a cruise in a couple of days means some pretty hasty funeral planning so they can pull it off before the ship sails. I swear, Gina being a caterer comes in handy at least once an episode.
We cut to the funeral where Rome makes a teary eulogy and he and his brother have a moment of reconciliation shoveling dirt onto their mother’s grave. Eddie, Gary, and P.J. join in. After they’re done, Eddie grabs Delilah for a chat. He’s found out through Sophie that she plans to take her kids (including his kid, Charlie) to France for the summer and is worried it’s because he and Katherine threatened to tell Sophie, Danny, and Theo the truth about Charlie’s paternity. D tells him she’s doing everything she can to involve him in Charlie’s life, but when he asks, she admits it’s Jon who’s listed on Charlie’s birth certificate as the father. Later, Katherine tells Eddie that means if D took Charlie out of the country and didn’t come back, there’d be nothing he could do about it. Katherine wants to stand up for Eddie and Charlie — which is sounding like she means in a legal-action kinda way. That night, Eddie starts to file a complaint to establish paternity.
Elsewhere at the wake, Gina confronts Gary about being fired after spotting a box of his belongings in his car. He explains his bosses weren’t thrilled he took so much time off this year while taking care of Maggie. Gina asks why he hasn’t told Maggie and he fills her in on a possible job as a teaching fellow at Oxford University that Maggie is in the final stages of interviewing for. He doesn’t want it to affect her decision. While Gary is clearly concerned that she wants to leave Boston and their life together, Maggie thinks a year is nothing with holidays, etc. (Someone should tell her Thanksgiving isn’t a holiday in the U.K. before she makes her final decision.) Later at home, Gary shows his unconditional support by decorating the apartment with British memorabilia and giving her a new wig he thinks is very Oxford. He tells her he wants them to grow in the same direction so if she wants to go to Oxford, he wants her to go to Oxford.
Back at the wake, Rome’s brother smashes a glass and Rome becomes overwhelmed, feeling like he can’t catch a break. He goes to take a minute in the bedroom and P.J. comes in and comforts him by quoting Rome’s own screenplay to him. Feeling a little better, Rome heads out to drive his dad home and P.J. is left alone in bedroom where he — of course — finds the DNA results hastily hidden under the bed. He now knows he’s Jon’s son. In his childhood home, Rome and his dad have a bonding moment watching old home movies of his mom. Rome tells his father he thinks they can figure out their relationship as they agree they’re going to need each other going forward.
When he gets home, Rome tells Gina he feels low, but not depressed like before. He heads to the bedroom where he discovers the D.N.A. test is gone. Delilah, who has just left Rome and Gina’s place, bumps into P.J.’s dad Mitch — though until this moment she had no idea P.J. was related to Barbara Morgan and Mitch (kinda). On realizing this, D storms back to Gina’s door and demands to know why Rome and Gina never told her P.J. was Barbara Morgan’s son. Oh, Delilah, careful what you ask for.
See you next week for more paternity problems!
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