Mick’s Addiction Leads to an O’Brien Intervention

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Chesapeake Shores Season 6 Episode 4 “That’s All There Is to That.”]

First, let’s get the good news out of the way: Sarah’s (Jessica Sipos) pregnant again, and she and Kevin (Brendan Penny) are thrilled. After saying “I love you,” Connor (Andrew Francis) and Margaret (Mariesa Crouse) signal making their relationship official with a handshake and a kiss.

But the majority of the latest Chesapeake Shores episode focuses on Mick’s (Treat Williams) addiction to painkillers. It begins with him going to two different doctors to get refills with claims he’s traveling and can’t get in touch with his regular physician. Then he forgets to pick up Abby’s (Meghan Ory) daughters. Abby finds him asleep on his desk, and he snaps at her when she wakes him. He says he just hasn’t been sleeping well and that his back and arm hurt and promises he’s still reliable.

But then his brother, Thomas (Gregory Harrison), finds the pills in Mick’s truck. He shows them to Abby and points out the doctors who prescribed them — and that they were filled in Baltimore and Annapolis. She tells him about finding Mick passed out at his desk and forgetting to pick up the girls, which is very unusual. When Kevin joins them, he warns that they need to handle this the right way.

Thomas tries to talk to Mick brother-to-brother, but Mick brushes him off. The pills help him get through the day, he explains. “That’s what every addict says,” Thomas points out, adding that he sounds like their father when their mom tried to get him to stop drinking. “I have this under control,” Mick insists before walking away. But he doesn’t and crashes his truck into a parked car. He calls Kevin for help and says he was just reaching for the radio to change it. Kevin then calls Thomas.

David Astorga/Hallmark Media

Megan (Barbara Niven), Abby, Kevin, Bree (Emilie Ullerup), and Thomas then gather for an intervention; Jess (Laci J Mailey) is out of town and they don’t think Connor needs the stress after his heart attack. Knowing Mick is tough, the goal is to make him think it’s his idea to get help. Kevin argues that Mick has never babied them so they should treat him the same way. They’re lucky he only hit a parked car. “Addiction’s addiction, and we need to do something about this.”

When Mick joins them, they tell him how concerned they are and Kevin brings up the painkiller overdoses he sees as a paramedic. Abby reminds him that he forgot to pick up his grandchildren, and if he hadn’t, she’s worried about what could’ve happened if he’d driven high with them. All kinds of people can develop problems with painkillers, they try to tell him, but “I’m not them! I am not them! That is not me!” Mick yells. “I appreciate what you’re all trying to do, I do, all of you, but enough. I’ve had enough of this. I don’t want to hear it.” He walks out.

Abby and Kevin follow him outside, but Mick refuses to see that he has an addiction. “I don’t need any help,” he insists. “What I need is for everyone to leave me alone.”

But then he goes to the bar and asks Luke (Stephen Huszar) about his drinking problem. Luke didn’t know he had one “until I hit rock bottom,” he admits. His support group “saved” him, he stresses. That’s when Mick begins getting emotional and shares that the family held an intervention for him. “I stormed out,” he says. Luke did the same thing with his. “It doesn’t matter if it’s booze or pills or whatever, addition can break the strongest people,” he tells Mick. His sponsor told him something that’s always stayed with him: “Addiction is the only prison I know where the locks are on the inside.” And now, Mick’s finally listening.

When we next see Mick, he’s sitting on a bench outside a church, before a support meeting. Luke’s with him and asks if he’s ready. Mick doesn’t answer. The episode ends with them still sitting there, so while that’s a step, we don’t know if he’ll take the next one and actually go to that meeting.

Chesapeake Shores, Sundays, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel