A Million Little Things: “The Price of Admission”

We got another new episode of A Million Little Things this week on ABC. Here is the official synopsis for this episode (season 3, episode 8) entitled “The Price of Admission”:

Katherine realizes Theo is being discriminated against when one of his classmates asks him to wear a mask during Zoom school. Meanwhile, Regina finds her Vicodin is missing and suspects that Rome might’ve been the one to take them.

Nice Girls Cay and Rueben share their thoughts on this episode [spoiler alert]:

Cay:

Well, I have to give the writers credit – I feel like this episode got things back on track a bit for me.

For once I actually liked the relationship between Gary and Darcy and I was grateful that Gary and Darcy and Gary and Maggie finally said some things to each other that needed to be said. I loved that Darcy seems willing to appreciate what Maggie meant to Gary but didn’t lose it when she found out about the accidental blog. And as usual, Jamie’s commentary and his interactions with Gary, were hilarious!

I wonder where Darcy’s son will go while she’s at her retreat? I guess with her ex? Seems like it would be awkward to have him at Delilah’s with Danny, Sophie, and Gary.

SO GLAD that Eddie’s secret is now out and he will hopefully seek some help (with Rome and Gary’s help!). However, I worry that it will be too late to save his marriage to Katherine. I really hope she doesn’t end up having an affair, but that really seems to be where this is all leading.

I thought the show did a nice job of addressing racism/prejudice/hate speech as it often does. I liked Rome sitting down with Theo to tell his story – I think Katherine and Eddie have tried to shelter him, but he’s a smart kid and deserves to be taught about the world he lives in, for good and bad. That includes knowing that black kids often don’t get the same treatment as white kids and that there has been a horrible increase in hate speech and violence against the AAPI community since the pandemic started.

I thought they handled the storyline of the teenager and Rome and Regina well in addition. So, it turns out he’s not a crook (bad on me for thinking it!) but his mother was undocumented (and he is as well? I was unclear on this point) and has been either detained or deported. I’m interested to see where this goes, but I like even more the idea of Rome and Regina taking on a in loco parentis role. Any chance they become his foster parents?

The COVID-stuff was a bit less painful in this episode as well, although I want to see Gary and Darcy get better masks! LOL

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Rueben:

Cay, you literally took the words right out of my mouth about every important scene in this episode! And, I’m so thankful this episode improved on last week. I was seriously thinking about having to drop the show, but this week’s episode helped me get back on track with liking the show again. I’m not back to loving the show, just yet, but I feel better about it than last week.

I take notes while watching each week’s episode; and I wrote “this is the first time I have been okay with Gary and Darcy’s relationship;” and then I read what you wrote. We are so on point with our thoughts. I have to say I still don’t buy the “I love you” shared between Gary and Darcy, but everything else between them in this specific episode didn’t rub me the wrong way…for once.

I agree that I was pleased Eddie FINALLY admitted not only to Gary and Rome what he did, but also the fact that he came clean to Katherine. I have to wonder if we will see the aftermath of his admitting the truth to Katherine in next week’s episode OR if they’ll jump over that altogether. This whole situation isn’t going to be solved easily, and while we saw in the clips for next week’s episode that Katherine makes a move on Alan, but I want to believe (hope!) that Alan will back off immediately out of respect for her and her marriage. I really, really want to hope that is the case.

When are we going to hear anything about Delilah and her dad being stuck overseas. Don’t you think the kids would be hearing from her, doing Zoom calls with her, something, right?! I also appreciate that they are showing that the characters are living in the first stages of the pandemic, but it didn’t seem to be the driving force of the episode. I hope they can continue to keep this kind of level of storytelling as the episodes roll out.

I also agree with you about the reveal about Tyrell’s mom. It wasn’t clear if she was deported or just detained; but obviously child services and the cops are looking for Tyrell. The story as we were told didn’t enlighten us as to whether Tyrell was born here or if they were looking to deport/detain him too, but I’m sure we’ll get more of that in next week’s episode. Like you I have to wonder if this is how Rome and Regina will become “parents” – at least temporarily becoming – as you said – his foster parents.

When Jamie was first introduced, I was nonplussed about him; but each week he has slowly grown on me. Since he came to the States to check on Maggie, and is now basically stuck there because of the lockdown, I’m starting to like him more. He has been so charming, funny and – dare I admit? – a much better fit with Maggie than I ever anticipated.

I also agree that the way they handled the AAPI hate was well done especially how Rome talked to Theo about his past experience and how his father reacted at the time. I was proud of Theo for telling his dad to stop, as his violence against that neighbor wasn’t going to fix things. If only a few words could fix prejudice, hate speech and racism, it would be a better world. Obviously that’s not the case, but any time a positive message can be relayed about such a horrible situation, I’m all for it.

I’m, once again, looking forward to where the stories will be going from here.

[Photo Credit: ABC/Jack Rowand]

What are your thoughts on this episode? Please share them with us in our comments section.

A Million Little Things will be moving to a “new” night starting next week (actually returning to its original time slot); airing the next new episode on Wednesday, April 7 at 10/9c on ABC.