Christopher Lloyd is having a hell of a day.
Hours after the legendary Back to the Future actor popped up in The Mandalorian‘s Season 3 episode “Chapter 22: Guns for Hire” as Commissioner Helgait, the 84-year-old icon appeared in a blink or you’ll miss it cameo in A Million Little Things Season 5, Episode 9.
Is he the king of cameos now? It seems so. And we’re not complaining!
The emotional episode, “Father’s Day,” finds Gary (James Roday Rodriguez) celebrating his first Father’s Day as a dad while navigating the day without his own father Javier (Paul Rodriguez), who died in the Season 5 premiere. At the top of the episode, Gary dreams that he and his father are drinking beers while watching the 70s sitcom Taxi, specifically the scene where Lloyd’s character Jim gets his driver’s license. As fans of the show will recall, this very scene actually took place earlier in the series, after Gary returned from Peter’s (Andrew Leeds) house.
When Gary wakes up and tells Maggie (Allison Miller) about the dream, she says, “Oh, I love that episode. He was such a stoner… Man, Christopher Lloyd is great in everything he does.” Maggie’s professional analysis is that Gary had the dream ahead of Father’s Day because Javier was sending him a message to let him know he’s still here with him. “Think about it. That was one of the worst nights of your life and that dream is your dad letting you know that everything is gonna be OK,” she says.
Gary jokes the dream analysis away and spends the episode bonding with his son and fondly remembering his dad. Later, as Gary and Danny (Chance Hurstfield) are watching TV together, the exact same Taxi scene comes on the screen and Maggie tells him it “seems like more than a coincidence.” Danny breaks the tie and sides with Gary, suggesting it’s not a sign from Javier, but when the two boys go out to get food together , they wind up eating their own words.
Read Related Also: Tracking every moment of Anthony Volpe’s Yankees debut: ‘Most fun I ever had’
As Danny and Gary are enjoying french toast in a restaurant booth, Gary drops his keys on the floor and a man walking by stops to pick them up. “I got it. No problem,” the stranger says, handing Gary the keys. But wait! That’s not a stranger! It’s Christopher Lloyd in the flesh! As Gary takes in the flashing sign from his dear old dad, his jaw drops. The actor wishes him a happy Father’s Day, walks away, and leaves Gary and Danny dumbfounded.
“Do you know who that was?” Gary asks. “Yeah. I change my vote. I believe,” Danny says.
Before the episode ends, Gary catches Maggie up on the latest development and says that the day taught him his father is always with him.
As usual, A Million Little Things knows how to make us bawl.
New episodes of A Million Little Things premiere on ABC Wednesdays at 10 p.m. and are available for next-day streaming on Hulu.
(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&appId=823934954307605&version=v2.8”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));
