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(Recap) A Million Little Things: Episode 11 "Secrets and Lies"

Hi everyone,

Welcome back!  We hope you had a good holiday season since the last time we were here to chat about A Million Little Things.  Hopefully you all remembered the new day and time for the show.  ABC must be feeling good about it to put it right after Grey's Anatomy.  Let's jump in and discuss the latest chapter of this ever-growing mystery.

Warning:  Spoilers Ahead

 

Observations:

  • We start right off the bat with John taping an apology for abandoning...Barbara?  So, is that his first wife or a daughter?  As the last few weeks of promos have emphasized, we don't know a thing about this guy. 

 

  • Speaking of the promos, and roughly the first 20 minutes of this episode, it feels like we've shifted from a show about friends dealing with a loved one's suicide to a mystery about Jon Dixon.  Is that just for tonight, or have the producers changed course here?  Guess we'll have to wait and see, but in the meantime, which concept appeals more to you?

 

  • We're still obsessed with everything in this show being so blue.

 

  • Maggie saying, "Nothing about suicide makes any sense," is both untrue and unhelpful, and a mental health professional would know better.  People take their lives for many reasons that are painful but are understood.  That's actually one of the bigger problems with this show - everyone is looking for that one answer that explains why Jon jumped off the balcony.  It makes for an interesting television mystery, but it doesn't reflect reality.  Again, wondering if we're changing course mid-stream here.

 

  • Eddie is still the Peter Pan of the group, heading off on tour, leaving his responsibilities behind for everyone else to handle.  He remains buried at the bottom of our list.

 

  • Ashley is still lying about everything, but is she doing it for a good reason?  She's clearly trying to help the Dixon family, but unless we've missed something, she still has Jon's suicide note, and whatever it says can't make things worse than they are now.

 

  • Not to be too cynical, but it's a little weird that so many people are there at Katherine's office to give Delilah moral support.  Also, most of them are self-employed, but does Gary have a boss?  If so, does he mind that the guy just seems to come and go as he pleases?  Wait, this meeting was on a Saturday...eh, the point about Gary's schedule still stands.

 

  • Jon stuck Delilah with an $18 million debt?  Yikes.  That's one hell of a secret.

 

  • Is Maggie literally shrinking as her cancer fight continues?  Actress Allison Miller isn't tall to begin with, but it feels like they've somehow made her even smaller as the show progresses.  Perhaps it's the camera angles.

 

  • Delilah and Katherine make a good team at the bank, but you know that has no chance of lasting long.

 

  • We finally see the first time the guys met in the stuck elevator.  Jon is clearly a take-charge kind of guy, although now we have to wonder what else was going on with him at that moment.

 

  • Going by our stopwatch, Gina's positive moment with her mom lasted 1.2 seconds.  This group isn't allowed extended periods of happiness.

 

  • There we are, Eddie ruined the Delilah/Katherine team in about 2.2 seconds.  Get back on the bus, Eddie.

 

  • Maggie does a good job of reminding Gary that Jon was who he thought he was, but that doesn't mean he didn't have flaws/weaknesses/problems.  We're all human, and any time you put someone on a pedestal, it's a good idea to step back and bring them back to Earth, because it's unfair to both of you.

 

  • Danny just came out, and the entire conversation lasted about 60 seconds.  Thought that might play out a little longer, but it's good to take one secret off the canvass so we can focus more on the others that remain.  Our guess is that Delilah would have handled that well under any circumstances, but given evvvvverything else that's going on right now, she probably wouldn't have had enough energy to be concerned about it anyway.

 

  • You all see this blue thing too, right?  95% of the runners in the 5K race are all wearing it.  What are we missing here?  That's about as much of a mystery for us as Jon's real story at this point.

 

  • That was a nice little group moment at the end of the race.  Jon's secret is the big mystery, but this show shouldn't cut back on these parts either.

 

  • Hey, they're finally on to Ashley.  About time.

 

  • Wait, who is that woman that Ashley just yelled at about owing something to Jon?

 

  • That's a fantastic teaser for the remainder of the season.

 

  • Does A Million Little Things feel more like a long mini-series to anyone else?  Where does the show go after they solve Jon's story?  Okay, we shouldn't jump ahead of ourselves here.

 

Final Thoughts:

This was an interesting start to the second half of the season.  As we said before, we're not sure where the focus is now, but we're curious to see how that plays out, and there are clearly more surprises to come in the weeks ahead.  What did you think?   Drop us a line at [email protected], or you can reply on our Facebook page, and we'll see you back here again next week!

 

A Million Little Things Episode 11 January 18 2019"I'm sorry, I owe how much?"  (pic via abc.go.com)

 

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