A Million Little Things Bosses Explain What That Distressing Cliffhanger Means for Season 5

[Warning: The following contains spoilers from Wednesday's Season 4 finale of A Million Little Things. Read at your own risk!]

Another season of A Million Little Things has come to an end and once again, fans will have to go through the show's hiatus with several burning questions on their mind. While a lot of things were tied up in the season's final hour, as promised, there was also a potentially devastating reveal dropped that will have serious ramifications for the friend group. 

Gary (James Roday Rodriguez) and Maggie (Allison Miller) found out that they are officially pregnant, but fans also found out that Gary hadn't told the whole truth about his cancer scare a few episodes ago. The lump found in his breast was benign, but another lump was found in his lung. He's been going to chemotherapy ever since. The "food poisoning" that he experienced when Maggie had the embryo embedded was actually a side-effect of his treatment, and Maggie is the only person Gary knows is aware of his diagnosis. 

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After seeing how his friends started to baby him at game night before he got the news, Gary made the decision not to tell them unless things got bad, but Rome (Romany Malco) and Regina (Christina Moses) found Gary talking about his cancer on a taped message to his future child that he left on Rome's camera. It's safe to say the group will all find out about Gary's situation sooner rather than later, but whether he'll actually accept their help and support is a different story. 

Of course, he is not the only one who is going to need a shoulder to lean on. Eddie (David Giuntoli) will also be going through it in Season 5 after finding out that Anna (Erin Kapluk) really was responsible for Peter (Andrew Leeds) falling down his stairs, and that she left him for dead instead of calling for help. She turned herself into the cops before coming clean to Eddie, but it remains to be seen what legal ramifications lay ahead for her and what it means for this relationship that Eddie has deeply attached himself to. Not to mention, Katherine (Grace Park) is absolutely going to have some opinions about Anna's actions, or lack thereof.

As you can see, the group has their hands full when A Million Little Things returns at mid-season next year. In the meantime, TV Guide spoke to executive producers DJ Nash and Terrence Coli about the major reveals in the episode and what it means for Season 5.

Why did you want to explore Gary having cancer again? We've only seen his previous battle in flashbacks.
DJ Nash: I think part of your question answers that. We saw Gary be there for Maggie for two seasons in a tremendous way. I think their relationship, both the greatest positives and the greatest challenges were based on that. Now we're going to see how they role switch. As we saw in the scene in the hallway, Gary, because of his friends' reaction to the scare, really doesn't want people to know. He wants to go through this journey privately and Maggie will be put through some of the same challenges and tests that Gary was put in trying to love and support someone you love through cancer... and she has to do it while carrying their baby. It's really not only about Gary's future but about her future and whether Gary is going to be in it with her.

Speaking of Gary's reticence to tell the friend group, is there any part of him that feels like he doesn't deserve their support, especially after what happened with Peter? Is he still harboring that guilt?
Nash: I think Gary's self-worth and Gary's feelings of what he does and doesn't deserve has been challenged right from the beginning of the series. ... I think the guilt he felt over John helping him through cancer when he didn't even know John was suffering with his own disease has guided a lot of the steps and missteps Gary has made in the series. He doesn't want to be a burden on people. I think he probably feels if you were a little shinier, his mom wouldn't have left. That's something that he's never fully been able to get past. We'll see how much he's willing to accept the love and support of his friends through this.

It concerned me a lot that Eddie was so ready to lie for Anna when he found out that she left Peter for dead. What does that say about him and his journey with sobriety if he was willing to do that, when we know how that kind of lie can lead to drinking?
Terrence Coli: That's a really interesting question. In the moment, he is watching his future with this woman that he is starting to feel like could be the one to slip through his hands. In the cold light of day, he might look at what he's doing and realize he can't do that. In that moment, he's saying "No, don't come clean. We can just hide this." It's a little bit of a man in denial and I think given a beat, he would probably agree with you, that he knows even saying it that it is not a real tangible path.

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At some point, Katherine is going to have to find out about this. What can you say about what her reaction might be like?
Coli: It's going to be complicated because one of the tricks after getting divorced with kids is that you are pretty tied in with whoever your former spouse is involved with. Katherine will have to question any choices and maybe's Eddie's instincts, his sense of people. That will lead to complications between them. ... What we were really trying to show at the end is that those two are pretty rock solid in their desire to put Theo first and to be the best versions of themselves for the sake of their child that they are co-parenting.

Nash: What we set up in [Episode 15] is that Katherine definitely stepped on toes with Eddie about how much she was going to speak her mind about Anna. We saw Greta call Katherine on that at the end of the episode. So Katherine was right to be concerned about this person who might be around their child and depending on the legal fallout for Anna, and whether or not she's going to continue to be part of Eddie's life - and therefore part of Theo's life‚ will certainly be a source of conflict in Season 5.

Every season has a theme of "______ is a million little things." Do you know what Season 5's theme will be?
Nash: I think we're going to wait. We are going to take a second and regroup, but it's a season that with this baby promises new beginnings. But sometimes with new beginnings, come endings. 

A Million Little Things returns at mid-season on ABC.