Let's cut to the chase and shout this out as if we are scolding a hostile lactation consultant. What an episode! Who could pick a favorite scene? Who could pick a favorite performance? Who would want to try and rank all the equally wonderful parts against each other? Not I. The episode was such a satisfying continuation of the season one finale that it could have easily been a finale episode. Show creator DJ Nash penned this heartfelt tornado and Nina Lopez-Corrado returned to direct the premiere. She previously directed season one's bawl-your-heart-out Christmas episode. The premiere somehow gives us something beautiful from each character without feeling rushed or overstuffed, which is no surprise in a show as excellently composed as this one.
Season one ended with Eddie (David Giuntoli) about to tell Katherine (Grace Park) the truth about he and Delilah's baby. The couple built a bridge back to each other throughout season one, but this last bombshell may be one too many. It's not addressed in the episode out loud whether Katherine and the other friends suspected the truth beforehand, but Nash and Park have both pointed out that it would be impossible for anyone to not wonder. Suspicion and confirmation are quite different hurdles. Park lets Katherine slowly crumble under the weight of the news, just unable to process it. She sends Eddie to the hospital to be there for the birth and tries to appear normal for Theo (Tristan Byon). Watching her unravel is devastating. She removes the third place setting from the dinner table. She makes cookies with Theo because she told him there would be a surprise that night. She adds peanut butter cups to the cookies while struggling to hold back tears. Katherine ultimately chooses to leave quietly, taking refuge at her (unseen yet-to-be-cast) mother's house.
The episode refuses to tip its hand. There isn't any way to guess what the endgame for this relationship is. Is Eddie genuinely heartbroken and torn up over her possibly not choosing to reunite? The episode doesn't conclusively answer that. He sincerely cares about her even more than he did before, but is that going to translate into a reunion? We don't know, and it's a truly gripping emotional conflict. It wouldn't take much for the outcome to tip more towards a Delilah-Eddie reunion, especially now that the truth is nearly out. Gary (James Roday) revealing that he knows the baby is Eddie's came as a welcome surprise, although Rome (Romany Malco) was definitely put out that he was out of the loop. That scene was just something else. The panic in Eddie's face at first when Gary started speaking sharply and then the relief when Gary very kindly let him off the hook and sent him back into the hospital. That loving but loud admonishment for Eddie to "not regret anything else." And all the praise to Christina Moses for Regina's very quick series of reactions when Eddie rushed into the delivery room. The forgiveness and support in her "Get in there, Papa." A Million Little Things doesn't force the tears, but the payoff for its characters' relationships can empty all your ducts.
Baby "Charlie" Charlotte brings her fair share of joy and drama into the world. Sophie (Lizzy Greene) and Danny (Chance Hurstfield) are over-the-moon. The pride with which Danny shops for a gift and cares for his baby sister! Hurstfield was frequently a standout last season with a wonderful maturity to all the scenes where Danny embraces the responsibilities of looking out for his family. Baby Charlie's arrival also brings its own share of stress for Delilah who is borderline harassed by the lactation consultant for not being able to breastfeed her baby. The domineering "expert" overwhelms Sophie and Regina and shuts out Danny who is particularly attuned to his mother's misery. An exhausted Delilah is saved at last by the arrival of Maggie (Allison Miller) who channels her own burdens into a glorious furious pummeling. She orders the lactation consultant to shut up and points out she will one day have to bottle feed her own baby, and there is nothing wrong with that. This wonderful scene along with the subsequent one where the "boys" resort to creative means to secure a crib for Baby Charlie provide just the right amounts of levity.
The episode has a number of quieter, poignant scenes that take a look at the heavier burdens some of the characters are dealing with. Theo has the gift expressed for the baby he doesn't know is his sister, and he isn't there at Charlie's welcome home party. Maggie and Gary's move-in together hits a speed bump when she realizes he threw away a bunch of her old cancer medications. (I get his reasoning, but also it has to be just a few days since they got the all-clear. Surely there were some vitamins in there she still needed or something?) This causes her some distress, which she later tells him is because the last time she threw them out the very next day in the shower she found another cancerous lump. This leads to a "hold my heart because I can't even" moment when Gary joins her in the shower. This scene and the earlier one with them bantering in the car were just superb, and I can't wait to get more of them discovering who they are as a couple this season.
Romany Malco got a number of great scenes in this episode. It was a wild few days for Rome, just as much as anybody else. He confided in his friends about wanting a baby, which also meant sharing that Regina still didn't. Fresh of baring his heart, he got shelved to make way for Gary's Eddie-is-the-father news, to which after a couple minutes taking that in he had the perfect reaction in saying Eddie should pay for more than a third of the crib. That said, he still took Gary to task privately for leaving him out the loop. Rome also brought a great comedic energy to the viewer favorite crib heist scene, a heist he mostly opted out of participating in to finish his ice cream cones. (And made some very funny, timely commentary about how his participation would definitely bring law enforcement into it). He ultimately told Regina that having her was more important than having a baby, and the show has effectively set up another bewitching character arc for this season with an unpredictable outcome. If any show can thoughtfully explore the many different paths to parenthood, it would be this one.
The episode ends on a series of quiet snapshots. Danny feeds Charlie a bottle as Jon's jersey watches from the wall. Theo rushes to the door when he hears a knock, but it's the package he ordered instead of Katherine. PJ (Chandler Riggs), fresh from his first therapy session with Maggie (!), ponders the items he stole from the Dixon's home to help him figure out if Jon is his real father. The major takeaway from the premiere is that this found family (and future found family members) needs each other in ways big and small and that the show can't help but triumph when it leans into those bonds to carry its characters through their lives. Now I'll be rewatching the whole episode again, because there are no favorite parts when everything is so satisfying.
