With only two episodes (including this one) of the first season A Million Little Things remaining, it’s time we got some Barbara Morgan-related answers!
Luckily for the curious among us, we kick off the episode with Says-She’s-Not-Barbara-Morgan-But-Possibly-Could-Be-Barbara-Morgan casually jogging right outside the Dixon house. She’s going by the name of Emma and is low-key stalking Sophie. After convincing Soph that they met at the 5K a few weeks ago and sharing a tale that she also lost her husband, “Emma” snags herself an invite into the Dixon household under the pretense of leaving a not for Delilah about their shared grief. While she’s waiting for Sophie to grab a pen, she takes an envelope addressed to Barb out of her pocket for no apparent reason. Just then Delilah returns with Gary, and realizing Gary will recognize her from when he came knocking at her door looking for Barb, she flees without a word.
Elsewhere, it’s operation day for Maggie and she’s all set for surgery. While Gary is trying to stay positive, they both look scared. Mags realizes she left the lucky rosary her mom sent her at home, but doesn’t have long to dwell on it before the doctors come to wheel her into the OR. She has a fearful, teary moment and admits to Gary that she knows her chemo pal Linda died. Gary tries to talk her down and off she goes.
Feeling on edge, Gary hangs out in the waiting room with Rome. He needs a distraction so leaves to get Maggie’s rosary beads, but when he gets back to the hospital, a woman (Jan from The Office) steals his parking spot from right under him. He’s mad and yells and honks at her. It’s very obvious she’s going to turn out to be Maggie’s mom, and lo and behold, when he finally gets back into the hospital, Rome and Eddie introduce Gary to Patricia, Maggie’s mom and parking-space stealer. The guys tell Gary to let it go and not mention the parking debacle, but after trying to make small talk with her, he winds up apologizing, expecting that she will too. She does not. Gary goes off at her and she’s all, this dude my sick daughter is dating is quite the catch.
Later, though, a blood-transfusion misunderstanding (it was called in for another patient but Patricia and Gary panicked thinking something terrible was wrong with Maggie) ultimately brings them together when Gary catches up with Pat in the hospital’s chapel. They chat about lapsed Catholics and Maggie’s dead brother Chad, and Patricia shares that it wasn’t until Maggie got sick that she found her way back to God. They’re in a pretty good place by the time Maggie wakes up, having come through surgery successfully. Gary winds up asking Maggie to move in with him. She thinks they should wait for the pathology report, but he doesn’t want to not live because of fear. She scribbles “I’m in” on a post-it note and hands it to him. I’m very happy for them, but I really think they should consider moving into Maggie’s place — it’s way nicer. (Recap continued on page 2.)
