A Million Little Things Recap: Is It the End For Eddie and Katherine?
Katherine shaves the side of her head at the start of this week’s A Million Little Things, which — among other things — makes her look like a total badass when she does the excruciating thing she needs to do at the end of the episode.
The aforementioned task? Telling Eddie she wants to end their marriage. But after months (ok, years) of pain, how does she finally come to her decision? Read on for the highlights of “Junior.”
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MEET GARY’S DAD | Let’s start with the less heartbreaking/more heartwarming stuff: Gary’s father, Javier (played by comedian Paul Rodriguez) shows up for a visit. Gary is happy to see him but also a little wary: As he tells Darcy, his pop is “of a time” and “sometimes he says stuff he shouldn’t say and people don’t always take it the right way.” Gary is particularly worried because Danny is in the midst of figuring out whether or not he wants to come out at school, and Gary doesn’t want Javier saying or doing anything to make the boy feel bad.
But Javier’s time with Gary & Co. gets off to a great start. He bonds with Darcy, who’s back from her retreat for female combat veterans, about their shared time in the military. (He served in Vietnam.) And Gary and his dad seem to get along very well… until Javier mentions that he thinks Jon’s suicide was “selfish,” which sets Gary off. He yells about how he won’t let Javier upset the kids — wait, aren’t Charlie and Sophie in France with Delilah? Isn’t it just Danny around these days? — but Darcy interjects and brings the emotional temperature of the room down a few degrees.
Then Javier finds a pros/cons list Danny made about coming out to his classmates. “You’re gay?” he asks, which is enough to launch Gary into Shouting Protective Uncle Mode. But then Javier pulls a photo from his wallet; earlier in the episode, Gary had said that the picture was of one of Javier’s dead war buddies named Douglas. But as it turns out, the photo was one Douglas carried in his helmet: Douglas was gay — though no one knew until after he died — and the picture was of his someone special. After Douglas saved Javier’s life by blocking enemy fire with his own body, Javier grabbed the picture before it could be sent to Douglas’ parents with the rest of his effects. “I wanted to protect his secret,” he tearfully tells Danny, adding that now he thinks he made a mistake, because “they should’ve known who he was.” Finally, he tells Danny that if he’s gay, “you shouldn’t be ashamed of it.”
So Danny tells some classmates with whom he’s working on a group project that he likes boys. And they respond by making their Zoom backgrounds rainbow. Aw. Later, we learn that Gary used to go by the name Javier, as well — which is why it makes sense that Javier Sr. calls him “Junior.”
HOW WALTER GOT HIS GROOVE BACK | After Rome and Regina find an unused condom in Rome’s car, they assume Tyrell dropped it when he borrowed the vehicle. So they confront him and he nonchalantly confirms that yes, he is having sex with a friend named Keke, but no, that’s not his prophylactic. Rome is confused. “The last person who was in my car was my dad OH MY GOD,” he says, coming to the realization that Walter and Florence’s friendship might’ve gotten kicked up a notch.
But when Rome asks his father about it, Walter admits the condom is his… but that he was carrying it as a form of wishful thinking. “I’m not sure she’s interested in me that way,” he says. So the Howards invite Florence, Walter and Keke over for dinner — where Florence lets Regina know that she certainly is interested in Walter that way. The hesitation, it seems, is more on Walter’s part and stems from the fact that he’s only ever been with his late wife; meanwhile, Florence has seen other men since her husband’s death.
Anyway, they seem to have gotten on the same bow-chicka-wow-wow page by the time dinner is ready to be served. But Keke still isn’t there. As the adults good-naturedly tease Tyrell about his lady’s lateness, he somberly walks into the room with his phone in his hand. Keke just sent him a very disturbing video. “His name was George Floyd,” he says, showing the now infamous footage to everyone. They react in horror.
KATHERINE MAKES A CHOICE | Eddie returns home from rehab, but Katherine can barely muster up a cold peck on the cheek in welcome. He tells her that her new hairstyle looks good. “I just wanted a change,” she says, in the understatement of the year. After Theo finishes class and enthusiastically hugs his dad, Katherine skedaddles: She’s going into the office, in part because insurance didn’t cover as much of Eddie’s rehab treatment as they thought, and they could use the money.
At work, Katherine calls Darcy and confesses that she’s just hiding out because being around Eddie makes her feel like she’s “suffocating.” She says she should’ve listened when Darcy advocated for leaving Eddie after all of the Delilah drama. Darcy walks back her formerly harsh stance a bit, saying that she didn’t know Eddie well then and that a lot of his self-medication was because “he was trying to be the husband and father he was before the accident.” Katherine gets mad — she feels betrayed — and ends the conversation. Meanwhile, we also learn that Eddie isn’t returning Gary’s calls.
Eddie is planning to cook a big dinner at which he and Katherine can really talk about everything that’s happened, so Jackie goes shopping for him and comes over to drop off the groceries. But then Katherine calls and says she won’t be able to make it because of work, which is a gigantic lie and Eddie knows it. He tells Jackie that he recognizes the tone in her voice, because it’s the same one he would use “when I would lie to her about everything,” he says grimly. Jackie decides she’s going to stay and keep Eddie company for dinner.
And Eddie is right! Katherine and Alan get a room at the same hotel where Eddie and Delilah used to rendezvous… but she ultimately can’t go through with sleeping with her legal (almost) lover. He’s very understanding, reiterating that he thinks she’s awesome, but she adds that “whatever you and I have shouldn’t be in reaction to what’s going on with me and Eddie.” And Alan is cool with that. “There’s nothing more I want than to be with you,” he says, “and I’m willing to wait until you’re ready to be with me.”
At home, Eddie is on the phone with the rehab center — as it turns out, Gary paid the outstanding balance for Ed’s stay — when Katherine comes home. She immediately tells him she was with Alan, but nothing happened. “I think we should go to counseling,” she starts, and Eddie perks up just a little, but hold on there, kid. “Not because I want us to fix our marriage, but because I want to talk about how we’re going to end it.” OOF. She recalls when he said he was attracted to Delilah because of the way she looked at him. “I don’t think I can ever look at you that way again,” Katherine says flatly, adding that all of their focus should be on Theo from here on out.
Later, Eddie calls Gary and thanks him for paying the bill. Gary admits that he got the money by selling the engagement ring he’d bought for Maggie. “No matter what happens, I love you,” Gary tells his friend. After he hangs up, Eddie cries.
Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!
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