A Million Little Things season 1, episode 8 recap: Fight or Flight

A Million Little Things explores the hidden meaning behind dreams and leaves us clutching our hearts with that cliffhanger.

A Million Little Things is back after a couple weeks off, and we are so happy! This week’s episode, “Fight or Flight” wasted no time picking up where it left off. A quick refresher for anyone that needs it–Maggie and Gary broke up because he dared her to do chemo. That’s the short and long of it, and now they are both trying to figure out what this means.

The group has no idea about Maggie’s health or her decision to not get treatment. Naturally, they think Gary is to blame for the breakup, and spend most of the episode giving him a hard time. Gary isn’t the only one having a hard time, of course. Maggie is being riddled with nightmares that places her on a crashing plane stuck in a storm.

There’s a man sitting next to her in the dream who she calls Chad, and is screaming for him to take control of the plane. It’s one of many nightmares she’s going to have throughout the episode, but eventually, it gives her the clarity she needs.

Ever since he left home, Eddie has been living with Gary. Now, he’s on the hunt for an apartment and asks Gary to come along to check one out. But Gary is keeping himself occupied on dating apps to fill the Maggie-sized hole in his heart.

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Eddie tells Gary that he should be reaching out to Maggie instead of spending his time on dating apps. Little does Eddie know that the situation is a bit more complicated than that–as has come to be the nature of A Million Little Things.

They both get into a horrible fight and say some pretty awful things to each other, blurg.

Something about this argument inspires Gary to go to Maggie’s apartment. She doesn’t open the door but she listens to the speech he gives. When he has no luck there, he goes to her office only to learn that she quit.

With no other options left, he decides to fly to Chicago on a whim to visit Maggie’s ex, Tom. Gary feels helpless and just wants to help Maggie realize that her life is worth living. He doesn’t learn much from the visit with Tom, besides about some dude named Chad that messed up Maggie really bad.

Meanwhile, back in Boston, everyone finds out about Maggie and her health. This happens after Regina tries to confront her about not treating or helping Rome with his depression. Well, everyone, it’s because she’s dying. So, Rome, Delilah, and Regina head to Maggie’s apartment, not to convince her, but to spend the day with her.

They do a great job of not bringing up treatment or the illness, which upsets Maggie because she never imagined making a group of friends like them. Even meeting Gary was something that wasn’t supposed to happen, according to her. She doesn’t want them to feel the pain of losing someone, especially after losing Jon.

Credit: ABC/David Bukach

As they try to work through the Maggie situation, there is also the testing at the new restaurant to look forward to. When Rome shows up to get Maggie, he sees her packing up a bunch of boxes. Why? Because she doesn’t want her parents to have to do it after she dies. Ugh, A Million Little Things.

Instead of leaving for the tasting, Rome helps her out and then the two of them head to the restaurant together. Can we all have friends like this, please? Things get fairly awkward at the restaurant when Catherine shows up with her potential new boo, Hunter. But, hey, Eddie is cooperative despite the fact that Hunter is a total babe.

Coming straight from Chicago, Gary shows up as well and doesn’t want to have any sort of conversation with Maggie. If she doesn’t want to save her life, then he shouldn’t care either. That’s easier said than done, buddy. Things seem to be going okay until he finds out all his friends know about Maggie’s impending death, and are supportive of it. After Jon, he expected everyone to be different.

He storms out of the restaurant and Ashley follows closely behind. Side note: Ashley was Jon’s secretary. One thing leads to another and the two end up hooking up. I am so not here for this pairing–Team Maggie all the way.

We finally learn who Chad is! As Rome pulls up to Maggie’s apartment, she breaks down and tells him that Chad was her brother. He died while he was drunk driving, while she was at the movies with her friends. She blames herself for what happened, and it’s that guilt that drives every decision she makes.

Gary and Ashley weren’t the only ones getting action in this week’s episode. As they said goodbye, Catherine kissed Hunter after confessing that she was only getting close to him to make Eddie jealous.

No worries though, Hunter completely understands and he’s still willing to stick around. Catherine heads back to the restaurant to thank Gina, and learns that Delilah is pregnant. Little does she know–it’s Eddie’s baby.

A Million Little Things ends on a frightening note as Maggie faints and falls to the ground. Once again she has a nightmare and this time Chad tells her that she couldn’t have saved him. This is the forgiveness she needed to make her nightmare turn into a moment of clarity. But is it too late for her? And is too late for her and Gary?

A Million Little Things airs every Wednesday on ABC at 10 PM EST!