grief
Matt lashes out at Georgia causing him to consider therapy for the first time in his life to deal with the grief of losing his wife. Meanwhile, Riley must confront her own grief, and Gabriel struggles with what type of boss to be while Matt is out of the office.
Matt and Georgia
The episode begins with Carter showing Matt and Riley his new creation for the robotics club he joined at school. It goes for cheap humor when the speech element he gave the robot calls him “Farter” instead of Carter. But Georgia comes down wearing a jacket that once belonged to her grandmother. While Riley appreciates Georgia’s enthusiasm for how it looks, Matt starts yelling and telling her to put the jacket back in the closet.
Disney/Raymond Liu
Matt goes upstairs to apologize and then puts the jacket back. When Riley arrives, she finds her mother’s clothes are still in the closet and realizes her father hasn’t properly grieved. The next morning, Riley shows up at the shop to try to talk her dad into going to therapy. As she prepares for battle, she’s shocked when Matt quickly agrees. Matt doesn’t like how he treated his granddaughter and is willing to try anything to be better. He walks out and tells his employees he won’t be in the next day and Gabriel is in charge.
Gabriel and Stitch
At work the next day, Gabriel prepares for his first ever chance to be a boss. He quickly gets in over his head with decision making when it comes to one of the cars they are meant to be customizing. This causes him to spiral into a panic attack. He takes the donuts he bought for the shop in Matt’s office and eats them all.
Disney/Raymond Liu
Stitch comes into the office to help Gabriel. While Stitch initially found Gabriel’s indecision funny, he recognizes now that it’s become crippling and he wants to help his friend. Stitch points out that Matt hired Gabriel because he was good with cars and put Gabriel in charge because Matt, the boss who doesn’t trust anybody, trusts Gabriel. With his confidence back, Gabriel gets the crew to work and starts contemplating breaking out with his own customization shop.
Matt’s Grief
At therapy, Riley leaves right after they meet the therapist. She wanted her dad to go to therapy but had no intention of going through it herself. Matt thought it would be a joint effort. After the session, Matt goes home and starts emptying the closet, and it’s clear he’s angry about the entire situation. He struggles with his grief to the point that he breaks the bar where the clothes hang, with Carter stating the therapist “broke grandpa.”
Disney/Raymond Liu
Riley, unable to stand seeing her father in this much pain, heads down to give the therapist a piece of her mind. The therapist quickly deduces that she hasn’t processed her own grief and sits her down for a session. Riley returns home where she and her father work through more grief together.
From there, Matt goes back to work and encourages Gabriel’s customization shop dream. Georgia inherits some of her grandmother’s clothing and puts on a show for mother and grandfather. Meanwhile, Carter comes home with a destroyed robot. No explanation is given, but he says “Robot is dead.”
Rating
After three very cookie cutter episodes, this is the first that helps fully form several characters. Matt’s grief makes him more relatable as he’s still in the anger stage at this point in the series. This is the first time Matt Parker has felt completely different from Tim Taylor and Mike Baxter (Tim Allen’s two previous characters on ABC sitcoms). Meanwhile,Riley has long avoided tough situations and tries again before finally giving in and facing her grief head on. The pair are the stars of the show and it makes sense that we see some growth from them in each episode.
However, the true surprise of this episode was the growth of the background character. Gabriel and Stitch have mostly been one-note characters, there to play up how grumpy Matt can be. However, this episode shows their bond and Gabriel’s own goals. They aren’t fully formed characters yet, but there’s growth for both that needs to continue as the series goes on.
Check out Shifting Gears on ABC and Hulu.
Article Written By: Jeremy Brown for Stelmach Brown Media 2025
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