A Million Little Things Review: We’re the Howards (Season 2 Episode 11)

A Million Little Things Season 2 Episode 11, “We’re the Howards,” should actually be titled “we’re all extremely stressed out.” Everyone’s strain is palpable through the screen, but the stories have some clunky moments. 

One of its biggest is Gary’s fight scene at Sophie’s baseball game. It starts because a white man accuses Rome of “taking pictures of our girls.” Race always matters in these situations, and Rome very well may be the only black man there. 

They are at a high school sports game, for goodness sake. The girls are in full uniform. Rome could’ve been a scout or a photographer hired by the school.

Racism isn’t logical. But if A Million Little Things wants to send a powerful message about race, it should send it. 

The show has a time slot that allows it to “go there,” yet it doesn’t. Technically, it’s only implied that the man is racist. He probably is, but he also just an idiot with an anger management problem.

Racism isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when watching the scene. He could be racist and suspect Rome of exploiting children. It’s unlikely, but he could also just suspect the exploitation. The exact reason for his anger needs to be clearer for maximum impact. 

As it stands, the fight is just a vehicle to get Gary into jail for something minor enough that Katherine can bail him out. It’s disappointing when there are so many powerful messages about race on narrative TV shows today. 

Rome’s monologue to Gary about the behavior he’s learned to survive in America as a black man is an important lesson to learn. As a white-passing Latinx woman, I know that “passing” is a conversation that TV needs to have more often. Plus, Gary deserves to be put in his place by as many people as possible on this episode. 

But that speech would’ve had a bigger payoff if the catalyst for it were not so confusing and ambiguous.

Absolutely no one needs clarity on the fact that Gary is a jerk. 

He’s also a human who has just gone through a breakup. Gary has been the rock of his friend group and now he needs a rock of his own.

Whoever they are, they have the right to verbally slap him with the reality of his behavior like Katherine does. But if we’re supposed to believe his behavior is at intervention-level right now, A Million Little Things has to do better. 

He’s a whiny child lashing out at anyone. He deserves the space to do that, we’re all messy sometimes. 

Let’s call it like it is though — Theo is more mature than Gary at the moment. 

He’s a hard character to handle sometimes. He requires a lot of attention from his parents and seems young for his age. However, maybe he holds his maturity in with all of his emotions. 

For that, he deserves the most grace. Yes, everyone is stressed right now. But only one little boy has had to watch his parents’ marriage nearly crumble with no support from a sibling only to be told he now has a half-sister. 

A Million Little Thoughts 

• The sleep training piece of Delilah’s story is fun. 
• So is Rome and Regina’s story, though whether it’s worthy of the episode title is debatable. 
• Eric’s legal trouble is just for shock at the moment. When we actually get more information it’ll be worth discussing. 
• Katherine is still the unsung hero on A Million Little Things and it’s starting to become rage-inducing. 
• She’s a supportive wife who saves her husband’s career, a great mom, and the friend Gary needs with arguably the least amount of screentime. 

What did you think of this episode of A Million Little Things? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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A Million Little Things airs Thursdays at 10/9c on ABC.

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