A Million Little Things has definitely taken a note from This Is Us when it comes to handling its biggest secrets. Just as the weepy NBC drama dragged the story of Jack Pearson's death to last nearly two full seasons, ABC's A Million Little Things is staying quiet about Barbara Morgan. The Feb. 7 episode seemingly confirmed that the mysterious insurance beneficiary is pretending to be someone else, but as vague as the clue was, fans finally have a greater sense of who Barbara really is. In case you're trying to uncover her truth before the show finally comes clean with it, these facts about Barbara Morgan on A Million Little Things will hopefully bring you one step closer to solving the mystery of her role in Jon's past.
So, long story short: the recurring mentions of Barbara Morgan began when Jon's assistant Ashley (Christina Ochoa) tracked down insurance papers he meant for his wife Delilah (Stéphanie Szostak) to find following his suicide. The documents revealed the existence of a trust named "Rutledge" that listed Gary (James Roday), Rome (Romany Malco), Eddie (David Giuntoli), and the elusive Barbara Morgan as life insurance beneficiaries. When Delilah later learned that she was on the brink of being evicted due to Jon's shady finances, Katherine (Grace Park) sleuthing through his business deals led to Gary revealing that "Rutledge" was the men's shorthand term for taking care of each other's families.
Gary, Delilah, and the rest of the group are now aware that Jon (Ron Livingston) left part of this important money to a complete stranger. Despite the dead end Gary seemingly hit in his search for Barbara in Feb. 7's "Someday," the end of the episode hinted that he's actually on the right track. A Million Little Things is keeping its secrets close, but here's what we know about Barbara at this point of the wild goose chase.
Jon's family and friends are slowly accepting the fact that he had a darker side they rarely saw, but as audience members, we see more of Jon's shadiness than anything else. The peak of this suspicious behavior was when viewers watched Jon in his secret apartment recording a video message meant for Barbara. We can assume he filmed the video shortly before his death, but it's still unclear what circumstances inspired the message.
In the clip, he said, "I’m sorry I abandoned you," and that he owed her some answers. Insisting that there was nothing he could say to rectify the situation, he finished with, "I'm sorry, Barbara."
So, is he apologizing for another failed business deal or something far greater?
When Gary sat through chemo treatments at the hospital, Jon cheered up the space by hanging up a painting of what he said was his view at Harvard University. However, when Gary and Delilah learned about Barbara Morgan and visited Jon's apartment for the first time, Gary realized that the painting's view was from the window there. They then noticed that the artist's signature on the work was B. Morgan, suggesting that Barbara might have lived with or at least been close to Jon during college.
When Eddie and Gary found a gallery where she once sold paintings, they also learned that Jon had purchased all of her work from the showing. He clearly felt obligated to support Barbara this way, perhaps in an attempt to fix the unknown circumstances in which he seemed to fail her.
In "Someday," Gary arrived at Barbara's last known address, meeting Mrs. Nelson (Drea de Matteo). Mrs. Nelson said there was no Barbara there but that Ashley had stopped by to talk with her husband after Jon died. Now that Ash has jetted off to Spain for the rest of the season, we'll likely never see her visit or anything she noticed about the Nelsons. But if her talking to Mr. Nelson is true, it's further proof that Mrs. Nelson has a secret. This brings us to the latest episode's biggest takeaway...
"Someday" closed with Mrs. Nelson watching Jon's video message and shoving the memory card back into an envelope addressed to Barbara once the clip finished. While she feigned ignorance to Gary's questions about Barbara, the fact that the envelope recently arrived and was addressed to the same house he visited seems to guarantee that Mrs. Nelson is the mystery woman. Whether or not Jon knew about her married name or that she'd deny her background is unclear, but the show's logistics are also reliable confirmation that the character is important. De Matteo was hired as a recurring actor on the series, so we'll be seeing much more of her.
Adding to the possibility that Barbara is Jon's first love, Delilah established early on that she doesn't know who she is. She also remarked that all the photo albums in Jon's apartments were filled with snapshots of people she didn't know, so she and Jon weren't exactly the kind of couple who shared everything about their past lives with each other. It's no secret that someone's husband likely had another serious relationship before getting married, but is Mrs. Nelson / Barbara hiding an even bigger bombshell about her tie to Jon?
Here's hoping that we won't have to wait another season for the definite truth about Barbara. Season 1 of A Million Little Things continues on Thursday, Feb. 14 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
