I’ve had to deal with cancer in my family, as I assume many families have.  My brother had colon cancer at 24, my aunt died at 33 of leukemia and my grandfather had prostate cancer.  Though Maggie’s cancer is real, the method by which the writers are presenting her story been flat and unfortunately the trend continues this week.

Maggie’s Cancer

A young man by the name of Chad is introduced to us this week.  The episode begins with Chad and Maggie in a plane.  Soon things go awry and it careens towards the ground and the guy is doing nothing to stop it.  Suddenly, Maggie wakes up from her nightmare (and yes, this dream continues to build upon itself during the episode paired with a horrible green-screen).

Meanwhile, Delilah and Gina are preparing for the reveal of their menu.  All the friends are coming over to the restaurant to taste the food and rank which ones should stay and which ones should go.  They try to reach out to her but she continues to avoid them and they think it’s because Maggie and Gary have split up.  Eventually, Gina shows up at her door and tells her that she can’t push them away.  Maggie reveals that she has cancer and the reason she has been distant is that she doesn’t want them trying to change her mind about not getting treatment.

Gina reports this back to the crew and they agree to support her regardless of what they think she should do.  They show up back at her house and tell her that they need her help picking the wine for the menu.  While tasting wine, Maggie breaks down and is in awe that these new found friends are truly supporting her.  She’s overwhelmed with gratefulness.

The next day Rome shows up at Maggie’s house to take her to the party but she is busy packing.  Rome inquires as to what she is doing and she is starting to package up her stuff while she has strength so that her parents don’t have to deal with packing it after she passes. Rome jumps in and starts helping her.  Rome tells her that she saved his life, so regardless of what she didn’t do with Chad, he is grateful for her.  Eventually, the show up at the restaurant.

Gary’s Quest

And then there’s Gary. Last week he broke his promise and asked Maggie to get treatment, which resulted in her walking away and their apparent break-up.

Eddie and Gary head out to help Eddie find a new apartment.  While out, Gary is reverting to his old ways and starts looking for his next conquest.   Eddie calls him out and tells him that he has a great girl, but that he is giving up too easily on it (which is what he normally does).

Gary heeds his warning and goes to Maggie’s house. After knocking he starts talking to the door, not sure if she was inside or not, which she was.  As he shares his heart and apologizes, he also says he just cares too much not to care about what she does.  She doesn’t open the door for him and he leaves.

He heads to her office and she quit her job.

Finally, he takes a last-minute plane to Chicago to try and convince her friend Todd to come back.  Miraculously he finds Todd and when he asks him to help, Todd says he already tried to convince her and that he can’t do it again.  Gary tells Todd that he had to give it every chance he could, as a way to make amends for not doing the same with Jon.

The Tasting Party

Everyone is at the party.  Rome brings Maggie even Katherine brings her coworker Hunter to the party.

Things start off well.  Rome is giving small jabs at Eddie about Katherine’s new man but Eddie responds with grace and humility, stating that he deserves it since he did much worse to her.

Gary shows up late to the party, having just flown back into town from Chicago.  When he gets there Maggie tries to talk with him but he blows her off.  While talking to Ashley, he gets a call from Romes phone, but it’s really Maggie.   The two start talking and it’s revealed that everyone else at the party knows about her cancer diagnosis and they are supporting her, and she wonders why he can’t.

It’s here that Gary goes off on them all, telling them that they have a chance to make right what they didn’t do for Jon.

Gary leaves the party and is busy waiting for his ride but is soon followed by Ashley. SHe asks him out to a drink, at which he declines at first, but then she reveals that it’s her birthday.  He reconsiders and goes out with her— which leads them back to her place making out and presumably making love.

The Wrap Up

I continue to struggle with this series.   It has some decent storylines, but then it gets cheesy and lacks the depth that I was hoping to find.  Maybe they are trying to put too much in each episode, but I’m not connecting with the characters as I hoped. I think there are moments where it starts getting good and then they do something predictable or over-the-top that makes me lose interest again.

As always, hoping episode 9 gets better.