‘One Million Little Things’ boss teases the series’ biggest Cliffhanger

HL spoke EXCLUSIVELY with DJ Nash, creator of “A Million Little Things,” about the direction of the final episode, Maggie’s big breakthrough, and how everything is progressing towards an epic Season 4 finale.

After Gary’s brief cancer scare, Maggie doesn’t want to waste another minute. In the closing moments of the episode on April 13, he told Gary: a million little things She thinks they should have a baby. Also, Regina had an emotional conversation with her parents and Sophie forgave Gary.

Creator and executive producer DJ NashThe person running the April 13 episode spoke EXCLUSIVELY HollywoodLife About the game-changing moments in the fourth and upcoming episode. He talked about Maggie and Gary’s journey to parenthood, Katherine and Greta’s “conflict” and how everything turned into the show’s “biggest abyss”. Read our questions and answers below:

it’s yours a million little things It’s his directorial debut, right?
DJ Nash: Exciting! I would make the finals and then we would have a director who retired for other reasons. It was his directorial debut and I remember how it was. Michelle Leibel and when we were writing the script, we were like, “This is our funniest episode.” Often you don’t know how theater directors are doing in comedy, so as soon as the director got into a fight, I said, ‘Wait. Maybe this is what I have to manage”. So we switched jobs and the writers room was incredibly welcoming. And I went up and did it. One of the great things about working on the show is that it gave so many people their first chance. Giovanna KernIt is the first time he is producing and directing. Our cinematographer Rob has been our cameraman A for the past two seasons. First time doing DP. Alyssa Carroll who rides…all worked in my department. So when I got the chance to direct it for the first time, it was all the people the show gave it a chance. It was truly poetic and in keeping with the theme of our drama, everything happens for a reason.

In the final moments of the episode, Maggie tells Gary that they must have a baby. Where are they going from here? Will Maggie and Gary try to have a baby? Will we see it at the end of the season?
DJ Nash: I think one of the themes we’re looking at in our show this season in particular is how does your story shape your future? When you look at these two, between sharing breast cancer, helping Sophie during the attack, losing Jon and Gary, who supported Maggie during the miscarriage, there is so much that makes up this delicate ecosystem that exists between the two of them. they. Even when Gary says in the reunion episode, “I finally decided we’re just friends,” I think what they have now is built on that friendship. If they start thinking about parenting, I think there are some ghosts that will haunt him about how Gary is handling Peter’s situation, and there are things about Maggie and her mother. Much of what we do in life is a reaction to what we do. That way, when Maggie and Gary consider parenting and move on to parenthood, sometimes you get pregnant right away, sometimes you don’t. All of this will be just a part of where we take them for the rest of the season. We are very excited. You know, we just shot some of those scenes and they’re very moving. It will be our biggest cliffhanger in the series.

There’s that great James scene on another Gary front [Roday Rodriguez] and Lizzy [Greene] Where Gary finally gets Sophie’s pardon. Looks like they’re turning a new leaf. What was it like for you to lead this long-running conversation?
DJ Nash: One of the benefits of creating a show is that you can choose which episodes to write. As soon as I signed up to write this, I knew I wanted to make one where they were seen. It was incredible to see how well our actors portrayed these characters. I think about the side that I witnessed James GriffithDirecting our pilot was all about finding the characters. For me, directing was all about perfecting the characters that everyone was on stage. They all come to the set with a very strong and unique vision of what these characters are going to do. So, in that scene with Sophie and Gary, it was about doing just that, and we finally got another line. Saying “miss you, miss you” was a joke I made. They did the scene first and you probably saw that we could use the first shot, but with the line about “if it’s terminal, tell me and I’ll kill Peter” James recorded it and built on it. The way James and I work together is very good because it brings comedy the way I feel. The way he’s joking is as accurate as how I’m going to say it. That’s why it’s easy for us to add just 4 beats to a scene in just a few shots.

Greta and Katherine had a very interesting but valid conversation about Eddie. Greta is right that Katherine is still acting like she’s married to him and she needs to let go a little bit. Will Katherine have a hard time letting go after being with him so long and so intensely?
DJ Nash: Will it be affected and how can you not be affected? It was really the glue of that family. He should be worried because if he doesn’t, everything will fall apart. I mean, not just for them, but to protect Theo as well. I mean, her responsibilities to Theo don’t end just because she left Eddie to Eddie. So it makes perfect sense. It is really hard. We have someone working on our program who has a husband with a chemical addiction who shares very candid stories about how this will affect a child’s upbringing, and especially now that he is separated from raising children. . I think it’s a difficult thing to navigate. Oddly enough, Greta had been married to another woman before, so she didn’t even have a man to be part of the decision-making process, let alone two men with Eddie and Theo. I think it’s an interesting thing to navigate, that doesn’t mean it can’t survive, but it does bring some real conflict to our show. We are very excited. These stories will reveal a lot for the rest of the season.

On the other hand, there’s Eddie and Anna, who got a little too drunk on game night. Will Eddie be tempted because Eddie is still sober? I think it’s an interesting dynamic to be with someone who is still drinking while trying to be sober. Will this cause a conflict between them?
DJ Nash: First of all just the big stage Erin [Karpluk] because it was so funny in the episode. We have an incredible cast of regulars from the show, and when you bring someone back, you hope they get along with your regulars. If you’re watching that episode, he’s probably going through the hardest things for him. It was incredible. It was so funny. The more I read between the table and the footage, I joked more because it was so good. He is very good. As Anna continues with Eddie, I find it difficult to navigate. Especially since he really lost his old friends just because he was in the group.

This whole story with Regina and her family was great. We see them finally coming together and really trying to heal together. What will it be like for Regina from now on when her mom and dad first agree on abuse?
DJ Nash: The perfect word to describe beautiful Cristina Moses because it’s really true. When I was in season one and I was able to invent a lot, I was known for changing something I said to one player, but not to all players. As pilot James Roday Rodriguez didn’t know Maggie was going to hug him, we were going to surprise them if I filmed it. You can see the surprise on his face. He thought it was a phone call. The aspect of why this suddenly got serious is very real because it really did happen. Similarly, when we shot that scene mario [Van Peebles]I was determined to make Mario cry and offend and let it be real. I changed Christina’s words when we got the news of Mario. They were so strong that even though he wasn’t in front of the camera, I kept them in the edit because he said something like “He was the man who touched me first”. You can see her dad punch her in the stomach. I just think these exhibits are very real, and what you’re seeing are just the ongoing effects and victims of a predator. After Regina’s uncle does what she did, it hurts Regina and her mother a lot, but there are many other people who have suffered. This parallels Peter’s story, because you see that Peter not only hurts Sophie, he threatens to hurt Sophie and Gary and hurt Anna and Eddie, and that’s what we see in the movie. The rest of the season is how these families survived the attack.

My final question for you is, now that Danny is back and we have Sophie, can we see Delilah before the season ends?
DJ Nash: I’ll say I don’t even want to make fun of him because I really wanted this to happen and Stefania [Szostak] it was great. We changed our story so that it ends with a big abyss. We talked to the net to tell our story and they said, “Please end it with an abyss. We believe in the show. We want you to have that abyss.” So I want to try everything I can to make sure I see Delilah next season, and I would also like to see her just passing by. I would love to see him in a really important way and tell the story of what we went through. He’s been missing since he left but I think it will be for season 5. I can’t wait to tell that story.