A Million Little Things Season 5 Episode 11 Review: Ironic
Jasmine Blu
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In true AMLT fashion, just as the group was experiencing some highs, they tossed in some lows, too.
It was a bittersweet installment, with A Million Little Things Season 5 Episode 11 mainly focusing on the bumpy ride of Katherine and Greta's wedding day, culminating in beautiful moments and happiness for these two, the inevitable Delilah and Eddie reunion, and the nervewracking development of Gary's health.
What are the odds that this series will conclude on a happy note?
Most of the hour was about Katherine and Greta's wedding, which was a huge win for fans of that pairing. It was this lovely, uplifting event that could bring everyone together and led to so many sentimental moments.
And when you think about it, as the hour reminded us so many times, Greta and Katherine have a beautiful love story on paper.
It's lovely that Katherine could find her true love for her after so many detours. And Katherine and Greta would be the love story for which most people would kill.
They've known each other since junior high. Greta has loved Katherine for most of her life, looks at this woman as if she's in awe of her, and cannot believe she's finally lucky enough to be with her.
From Greta's side of things, it's the perfect love story. How often does someone get that type of win? How often does someone get a second chance at a love story where the person she was utterly in love with and her first-ever love comes back into her life decades later and wants her?
It's catnip for those who enjoy the friends-to-lovers trope, among many others. And for Katherine's side of things, she's finally happy after a lifetime of feeling confined to this box, never venturing outside, and bound by expectations.
We thought we'd seen Katherine happy before, but it's nothing compared to her being happy, free, and utterly herself with Greta now.
And if anyone deserves that, Katherine does. Even Gary, who became her most prominent advocate over the years, recognized that in his speech, Katherine gracing them with her friendship was more than any of them deserved.
Seriously, Katherine. You are such an incredible friend to all of us. And the truth is you haven't always gotten as much back from us as you put in. Which is why I think I speak for everyone when I say we are so thrilled that you found Greta.
Gary
She's continuously poured into them more than they ever did her, and remarkably, things turned out as they did.
In Greta, Katherine finally has a friend and lover who knows Kaherine's worth and sparks a relationship with actual reciprocity.
If we set aside the, at times, choppy and uneven writing that led us to this point, how underused Katherine and Greta have been this season, and how they expedited their storyline, you could bask in the moment and enjoy the beauty of this couple finding happiness with each other.
Greta has been a great, lovable character since her introduction. Katherine deserves the world after so much of what she's endured. For the sake of those things alone, you want them to win, and they did.
Katherine, I loved you when we were young. I love you now. And I'll love you forever.
Greta
It wouldn't be a wedding day without some disasters and detours. Unsurprisingly, they got rained out, and their plans of getting married on a boat changed.
Greta's sentimental connection to getting married on one, reminiscing on how much she loved The Love Boat but hated that no couples were like her, added context to this wedding that seemed to crop up abruptly with no pathway.
What was the seating chart for if they got married on a boat, and why didn't they go to the reception they planned after the boat ride?
I don't know.
They also incorporated little details and moments that made one long for more fleshing out of Katherine and her background. It's a pity that we only now hear more about her late father, how much she misses him, and her childhood as the Princess of Doughnuts because her father ran a little shop.
And we've known so little about a man that they barely referenced Greta bringing up that he gave her free doughnuts and knew that Katherine and Greta would one day end up together skirts on revisionist.
I wish we had more context for so much of Katherine's storyline when it comes to all these things, which implies that there was a treasure trove of information and background they could've explored but didn't while they were pursuing some of the things they've done thus far.
Unsurprisingly, Charlie is an obnoxious little girl with no boundaries or discipline who ruined Greta's suit. The series keeps doing this, where they play up Charlie's antics as if they're cute when they're far from it.
We are going to have a wonderful wedding because the truth is the only thing that I"m going to be looking at is you.
Katherine
Delilah and Eddie spawned a little hellion, didn't they? Goodness.
But the show again keeps going out of this way to force-feed Delilah upon us in ways that make ZERO sense.
In what universe would Delilah take over saving Katherine and Greta's wedding and not Gina, the former caterer and chef, or Carter, who they kept joking was the actual wedding planner who took over everything to live vicariously through Katherine and Greta?
They made Delilah's epiphany of using the first empty restaurant they walked into as the wedding venue seem like an ingenious thing that no one else could've come up with.
Why was Delilah involved with transporting the brides to the venue and playing chauffeur in the first place? When did any of that even happen or get decided?
Delilah does NOT fit into this series or this friendship group anymore, and the way they shove her in like a square peg into a circle is so utterly bizarre and ridiculous that it RUINS things.
The desperate attempts to make Delilah this likable team player is the antithesis of everything they've ever shown us, and it's flat-out irritating. This idea that she can waltz back into their lives, settle in, and find her place as if nothing has happened is so incredibly absurd is enraging.
In five years, this series still can't read the room enough to grasp that we don't give a single, solitary damn about Delilah Dixon. It's so much better when they accept that they created a loathsome, selfish, terrible, insincere, vapid character that most people dislike and leave it there.
The more they try to force us to like her with cheap attempts that get around her having an actual redemption, the more loathsome she becomes. It backfires; it entirely and utterly backfires!
Ever since you got back, whenever I see you and Eddie together, it just makes sense. And you know all the things and the reasons why you couldn't be together before aren't really here.
Maggie
And inserting lines for the characters to say, acknowledging viewer sentiment, only to disregard it is even more annoying.
It's a shame the final season has been slow and heavy with some filler. And now, as we're getting towards the end of things, they're attempting to speed things up.
And the nostalgia is kicking in, but they're really and genuinely choosing and committed to spending these last few episodes forcing Delilah and Eddie upon us. It's the decision they went with here. Why?
It's so heavy-handed and entirely unearned. Even if I can set aside my distaste for this pairing and this character, the biggest issue is that this storyline was NOT earned.
We have NO buildup to reuniting Eddie and Delilah. They're relying heavily on feeding us this pairing through dialogue, and that's just pure laziness.
Delilah should not be able to waltz in towards the end of the season after no contact or barely even mention, start on the wrong foot, mostly go unchecked, and then get a romantic arc with Eddie that's unearned!
If they wanted to do this, the time they spent bringing back Nicole, they could've used on building up the Delilah and Eddie relationship. Even if it had to be referenced, happened offscreen, or via video or something.
Instead, their tactic is to have random characters tell Eddie and Delilah that they love each other and should be together without explanation.
Gary: Ed, the only person that's keeping the two of you from being together now is you.
Eddie: What if everyone hates us?
Gary: I am the president of everyone who hates everyone, and I am begging you to do this. Trust me. I'll find another reason to hate you.
Nicole has NOTHING to support why she pushed Eddie in Delilah's direction. He hadn't even mentioned Delilah until she got there, and he brought up things with Charlie, and their behavior in the hospital would imply they weren't meant for each other.
Maggie hasn't even spoken to Delilah. She was THERE for everything Delilah did, including taking Charlie away from Eddie. In what universe would it make sense for Delilah to push this?
And this idea that Eddie and Delilah were hopelessly in love with each other is pure revisionist history. Eddie thought he loved Delilah, but she flat-out said she didn't love him and admitted that she was using him as an escape.
We saw she never cared about him as much as he did her and then whim-whammed about them being together when he brought it up.
You can't just pick up a love story that wasn't even a love story five years later and slap "Endgame" on it without even trying to sell us on it. Frankly, Giuntoli and Szostak's chemistry doesn't even sell us on this, and Giuntoli's damn near mastered the craft of having chemistry with just about anyone or anything.
The contrived nature of Gary hearing the voicemail Jon left Eddie was wild enough.
The implication is that Gary's anger wasn't upset about hearing the voicemail for the first time after all these years. Gary's ire was because Eddie didn't pursue Delilah.
Gary felt that Jon gave his philandering wife and best friend his blessing to be together because he was "too broken" and would be gone. It was such bullshit I had to physically walk away before continuing the scene.
They spent most of the hour desperately trying to sell us why Delilah and Eddie should be together, utterly failing and pissing me off.
And then we got Eddie expressing his feelings to Delilah and kissing her. It genuinely feels like he has no other prospects and doesn't want to be alone.
Because Jon is gone and blessed it, Katherine is happy with Greta, and the kids are over it; nothing can stand in their way now. I guess the exceptions are chemistry, compatibility, Delilah's stagnancy, NO accountability on her part, or anything else.
Even knowing that it was coming didn't make that kiss any less aggravating to witness.
Honestly, the Delilah and Eddie stuff dragged down the episode.
And the Gary development was another kick in the gut.
We started the hour with him rightfully calling Maggie out on how she wants to control everything about Javi unilaterally, and that was great.
We've seen how neurotic Maggie is as a mother, and the whole thing with her second-guessing Gary has been ongoing.
Her hesitancy to let Benny babysit was understandable. By the time she got to strangers' recommendations for babysitters, she had lost the plot and showed how ridiculous she had gotten when she wouldn't just let the kid her boyfriend had developed a full friendship with watch their kid.
And it turned out Benny was an excellent babysitter, too.
But what sucks is that even Gary standing up for himself to Maggie with that almost seemed for nothing when we ended the hour with them going to the hospital and the implication that Maggie could very well be raising Javi alone.
We knew it was only a matter of time before they revisited Gary's health. It was this sword hanging over him and viewers all season.
It's still a colossal blow. It was disturbing when Gary started coughing up blood, and he couldn't go to the hospital then because he didn't want to ruin Katherine and Greta's day.
My heart broke for him. And his speech was so sentimental and fully captured the series and his role within this friendship group.
We've noted and watched how Gary became the new Jon in the series. He's been the heart of the friendship group, the glue of it, keeping it together and stronger than ever when it could've broken apart for many reasons.
He's maintained this family they formed and found ways of expanding it, so they all have this support system all the time.
He took all the essence of Jon, his advice, lessons, and morals, and he absorbed them and lived the life Jon wanted for him. It's like he became the man Jon wanted him to be, and he knows that.
Maggie: I guess I need to accept that you're the Kathie Lee to my Hoda.
Gary: Well, I'm diverse, so that makes me Hoda. You're just the white lady that sits next to me drinking wine way too early.
And it would only make sense if the series is going full-on full circle if the group loses Gary after becoming the new Jon for all these years, too.
It's no doubt about the impact he's left on this group of people and how he's enriched their lives and made them all better. After becoming that dad, friend, partner, and more to other people, this series would feel on par with exploring his loss.
The parallels between Jon and Gary have been the most consistent aspect of this series, and I could see them ending it on that note.
Even Gary's speech, echoing Jon's words and messages and throwing in his own, telling them how much he loves them, felt ominous.
Gary casually, calmly telling Maggie what was going on as they headed to the hospital was such a heartbreaking but wonderfully acted moment.
You could see the news sinking in for Maggie and what that meant -- how she went from happy and joking to her entire world shifting on its axis within seconds.
And Gary driving, keeping his eyes ahead and unable to even look at her while he shared, it hit home how scared he is and how he doesn't want to lose what he has now.
The tragic turn of this is just gutwrenching.
I know I don't say it enough, but I love you guys.
Gary
It sucks to mention Gina as an afterthought, but the situation with her running for council is predictable. She's naive and pure-hearted enough not to want to stoop to her opponent's level. She's trying to represent something better, and so far, it'll likely work in her favor.
She didn't use that horrible clip of her opponent because Gina is a better person than most. But overall, it's easy to treat this storyline like an afterthought in the grand scheme because the show is.
Over to you, AMLT Fanatics.
Did you predict Gary's turn for the worst with his health? How do you feel about it, and what are your predictions?
How do you feel about the forceful approach to selling us on Delilah and Eddie? Are you thrilled for Katherine and Greta? Hit the comments.
You can watch A Million Little Things online here via TV Fanatic.
Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is an insomniac who spends late nights and early mornings binge-watching way too many shows and binge-drinking way too much tea. Her eclectic taste makes her an unpredictable viewer with an appreciation for complex characters, diverse representation, dynamic duos, compelling stories, and guilty pleasures. You'll definitely find her obsessively live-tweeting, waxing poetic, and chatting up fellow Fanatics and readers. Follow her on X.
