[Warning: The following contains spoilers from the Season 2 finale of A Million Little Things. Read at your own risk!]
Oh, woe is us! The A Million Little Things Season 2 finale started out as a happy affair but ended us with us feeling completely heartbroken. The episode kicked off with Katherine (Grace Park) and Eddie (David Giuntoli) all set to renew their vows, but the ceremony was put on pause when Rome (Romany Malco) and Regina (Christina Moses) found out that Eve (Ebboney Wilson), the mother of their adopted baby, was going into labor Yay, right?
You should know by now that few good things happen at hospitals on this show. Waiting for Eve to deliver the baby suddenly felt like the right time for Maggie (Allison Miller) to tell Gary (James Roday) that she was still in love with him and they should be together. Unfortunately, Gary had already moved on to Darcy (Floriana Lima) and was too invested in the new relationship to go back to Maggie — and he told her so in an extremely hot-head Gary fashion. It was brutal. He did eventually apologize by the end of the episode, before she boarded the plane to Oxford, but he stuck with the choice to be with Darcy and the former couple will have to legitimately figure out how to be friends now.
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They got off easy compared to Rome and Regina, who were so excited to meet their new son when Eve changed her mind at the last minute and decided to keep the baby. There was nothing they could do about it and it was soul crushing to watch. The grief process will be something arduous and challenging for them to work through if the show progresses to Season 3.
However, even Rome and Regina aren’t in as precarious a position as Eddie and Katherine. Eddie continued to dig into what happened that fateful night at the lake house when his friend Alex drowned, and another back to the vacation home confirmed that Eddie had seen Alex drown but was too drunk to save her. The realization almost led him back to drinking, but he stopped himself just in time. He called Katherine and promised to come home and come clean to her about everything — but he was hit by a car on the way home and we have a whole hiatus to wait before finding out what condition Eddie will be in after the accident. (Check out what David Giuntoli had to say about the twist as well, though)
Of course, we couldn’t go through that emotional rollercoaster without talking to AMLT boss DJ Nash about everything that went down and what this means if the show gets picked up for Season 3.
Romany Malco and Christina Moses, A Million Little Things
I know that you shot two endings in case the show wasn’t picked up. We are still waiting on Season 3 renewal news, but this is obviously the cliffhanger ending — so what was in the alternate ending you filmed?
DJ Nash: [There] was a different scene. There was an alternate scene and I would have shuffled the order that things happened in the show. So I would not have ended on that scene. I would have played that scene and then gone to the alternate ending.
So we can’t know what was in that scene?
Nash: No, and the reason is that part of me, should we get the pickup, would want to leak it. I think it’ll be a fun thing to leak because we shot it, it’s great, and the actors are beautiful in it.
Fair enough. In this episode alone, Eddie finds out that he might have been responsible for a teenage girl dying when he was younger and then you decided to hit him with a car. Can you please walk me through that thought process?
Nash: That’s not fair! The thought process was this: we had a new writer join our staff this year who said Eddie has felt guilt and remorse, but we haven’t seen Eddie punished. It was a really interesting thing. It’s what led us to make the decision to have Katherine step out of the house in the premiere…I think this season we just really wanted to see Eddie not only sort of own up to what he’s done, but pay a price for it. We love the idea of him stepping up as Katherine quits her job. He’s prepared to, and now able to, step up financially for the family and be this equal partner in this marriage. So, when we were building towards the vows, we thought, “Well, wouldn’t it be great if it seems like this marriage is perfect, and it’s like they’ve overcome it all. Let’s challenge it.”
Our first way of challenging it was to give him something that might make him drink. Then we wanted it to see him rise above that temptation and resist for Katherine and Theo, and sort of have this attitude of, “Whatever I’ve done in the past I’m going to tell my wife. The key to not drinking is no lies, and also the key to my marriage being successful is me always being honest with her.” So he’s coming home, prepared to be honest, prepared to be that partner in life, prepared to take the vows — literally take the vows — that he plans on keeping. Then something stops him.
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I already have theories, so I want to ask: Was this an accident?
Nash: There we go. What is an accident — something that wasn’t supposed to happen, happened? Then it was an accident.
The Eddie situation wasn’t the only heartbreaking reveal in this episode. Rome and Regina also go through it in the finale, and I know you have consultants for their storyline, so can you talk about what their grief process looks like after losing this baby?
Nash: I have three separate consultants on thier story. I have a mental health specialist. I have a medical doctor, and I have an adoption specialist — the full range of people helping with that. So the story, which is fictional, but I did have a friend who was in a situation where they were in the delivery room and then lost the baby to a mom who changed her mind. So these these issues are very real to me. I will say that where they are now is really like a couple that had a baby die…So, we will see how Regina overcomes this, how Rome overcomes this, if Rom and Regina can overcome this. The challenges they had before — his depression, her being a survivor of child sexual assault — those things are horrific, but were able to bring them together. This is the thing that could tear them apart.
Rome not only has to deal with his own feelings about this, but also the fact that Regina at least partially blames him for letting her get hurt like this. How is he going to cope with that?
Nash: The other part of it is she is now shielding herself from the pain that’s been caused and all of the people who caused her that pain. Right now, whether it’s fair or not, she sees Rome as one of the people who caused her pain because he made her want this. That is probably one of many unfair and unfiltered comments that may be part of their healing, or a part of their undoing.
Is this the last we’ve seen of Eve?
Nash: Yeah.
James Roday, A Million Little Things
Well, on a lighter note, Gary had to choose between Maggie and Darcy, and he went with Darcy instead of taking Maggie back. Why did that feel like the right choice for him?
Nash: A couple of things. One, I didn’t want the series to end. I feel like for [Gary and Maggie] this was truly the best for them, right?…When he goes to the airport [and] says, “I couldn’t lose another friend,” that shouldn’t feel like a consolation prize. He’s saying it, obviously because of losing Jon, but he says, “I love you, and as you go to Oxford to figure out who you are, know that who you are is someone who’s loved.” So I feel like we’ve left Gary and Maggie in the best place we’ve had them in for a long time, with the best opportunity to be in each other’s lives.
The Darcy part of it, I just didn’t expect that. We knew we were trying to write a character that could be a legitimate part of this love triangle. Floriana is delightful. The way it comes together, it’s really fun. [Darcy] is a cool, strong woman who has her issues, but has a child. Gary could step into a family. And I think we we love that in all the ways that Maggie wasn’t sure what the next chapter of her life is going to be, Darcy knows.
Well, Maggie is heading to Oxford. How do you see her maintaining her position in the friends group from an ocean away?
Nash: In the last two weeks, I have had at every night at 5 a cocktail party with friends of mine. Some who live two blocks away, literally, and some who live 3,000 miles away. No matter how far apart or how close people are, they can be there with you every night at 5, if you want. So, I actually think that the challenge that you’re talking about us having is much more relatable to the world post-coronavirus.
What do you imagine the theme of Season 3 to be?
Nash: I am really excited to talk about that when we present Season 3. I have the whole plan for that. I can’t wait for when we talk about it because I know exactly what I’d say, I just want to wait for the right time. But I will say this — After all of the horrific things that we have had to go through as a world in the last three months, and what we’ll have to go through in hopefully, not too long, but probably another many months, we’ve seen some beautiful things as well. We’ve see people rise to the occasion. You see people look out for people who they didn’t even know because there’s a brotherhood and a sisterhood that exists everywhere. Similarly, within this group of friends, there is a way in which they look out for each other and that anything is surmountable, wen you have the love and support of your friends. I think this group of friends, like the world will when this resolves itself, will have a perspective that will be incredible.
A Million Little Things is available to watch on Hulu.