[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Chesapeake Shores Season 5 Episode 8 “Where or When?”]
Mick O’Brien (Treat Williams) has no idea just what a mysterious package means to him — or might mean for his future — when he first receives it in the October 3 episode of Chesapeake Shores. But it might end up changing the entire O’Brien family going forward.
Mick receives ashes in the mail with a note: “You were a great friend of mine. We got each other through the toughest of times of our lives. For old times’ sake, would you scatter my poor ashes over the Chesapeake Bay islands? That’s where I spent the happiest times of my life.” The only problem? It’s not signed, and even when he tracks down where the package came from, he doesn’t recognize the name of the person (Eugene Seger). How could he mean so much to someone he can’t remember? He feels he can’t spread this guy’s ashes if he doesn’t know who he is.
But then Mick’s daughter Abby (Meghan Ory) reveals someone got the guy’s name wrong: Eugene David Seigal. Buzz, Mick remembers, a bartender where he spent time the summer Megan (Barbara Niven) left. He gets emotional as he tells his daughter that he spoke to Buzz about anything and everything, as did the bartender; the men unloaded on each other and argued about politics and sports. Mick hadn’t realized how important he was until he stopped by one day and the place was closed. He never got the chance to thank him, but now he can by spreading Buzz’s ashes as he wanted, so he sets out on his plane.
That evening, however, the family (minus Abby) waits at home for Mick. Megan’s worried and calls the airfield, only to find out Mick hasn’t returned and the last radio contact was hours ago, at 4:30. When they just tried to reach him, she tells the others, they got nothing. What happened to Mick?!
David Astorga/Crown Media
Meanwhile, Abby’s out of town while the rest of the family worries on business trips, including joining Evan (Robert Buckley) for a business meeting. Her sisters get it in her head that it’s a “whisk away” (especially considering the “palpable tension” between them). So, when he takes her to his place in Pennsylvania and begins telling her, “It’s obvious we have connected in a very profound way, and I realize this might sound kind of sudden,” before stepping away for a call, she thinks her sisters were right.
When Evan returns, Abby stops him. She’s flattered, she says, before bringing up her feelings for him. However, that’s not where he was going. Rather, he was offering her a job at his company. Again, she’s flattered, but she’s not leaving O’Brien Construction and Development, her family’s business. He offers to buy it so she’ll be working for him that way, but she tells him he can’t just keep buying things. And no, she won’t reconsider. “There are more important things than money,” she says.
Evan admits his phrasing was weird as she leaves his place, but if it had been a whisk away, what does she think? If she’d been in the mood to be whisked away by someone, she supposes she would’ve been whisked, hypothetically, Abby admits. And we have a feeling those feelings, at least on his side, aren’t as platonic as they may think, considering how he looks back as she leaves.
David Astorga/Crown Media
Elsewhere for the O’Briens:
- Kevin (Brendan Penny) and Sarah (Jessica Sipos) — who accepted the promotion to lieutenant — aren’t telling anyone they’re having a baby until after the first trimester … at first. They quickly decide to tell just the families, only for Mick to go missing when they’re planning to break the news.
- Connor (Andrew Francis) opens his law office in Chesapeake Shores. His first call: his grandmother Nell (Diane Ladd) calling to find out if Jay (Greyston Holt) is joining the family for dinner again.
- Just as Luke’s (Stephen Huszar) about to tell Bree (Emilie Ullerup) about his time in prison for assault and battery, Jerry (Matthew Kevin Anderson) spills the beans. Though she doesn’t give him a chance to explain, Luke then tracks her down and does just that. They’re good again, but he might not be with his parole officer because he’s late for a meeting.
- Megan’s planning an art show in town for Arthur Driscoll’s works, and Mick’s not exactly happy that her ex-boyfriend Carter (Barclay Hope) is in town helping her. Who can blame him? It’s obvious Carter’s not over Megan.
Chesapeake Shores, Sundays, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel