Modern Love Recap: Daddy Issues

This recap of Amazon Series Modern Love Season 1, Episode 6, “So He Looked Like Dad. It Was Just Dinner, Right?” contains significant spoilers. You can read the recap of the previous episode by clicking these words.

As the title of the episode suggests, Episode 6 involves a lot of daddy issues — in fact, solely daddy issues. Maddy (Julia Garner) attends her friend’s 21st birthday party, and witnesses her father give her a large amount of praise. Tami’s family ask Maddy what she did with her family for her 21st.

It turns out that Maddy had an absent father — she had no-one to boost her confidence, call her amazing and give her the guidance a daughter would love to have from their father. Maddy is deeply affected by her childhood, which leads her to spy on Peter (Shea Whigham) at work creepily. She analyses his body, his silver hairs and the way he speaks, and finds a way to feed him cookies. If you are reading this recap without watching the episode itself, then context is very much needed — it does sound way worse than it is.

Eventually, Maddy manages to worm into Peter’s life and land a dinner night with him. She soothingly lays on the bed with him, looking all content. She has her dad.

Their friendship blossoms and Maddy confides in Peter; she tells him about her daddy issues and how she never had a man when she was younger, saying how proud they were of her. After a brief crash in an Uber, they become closer, as Peter comes to her rescue, taking Maddy to the hospital.

But Episode 6 takes a weird turn of events when Peter buys her a costly jacket and tries to kiss Maddy. She is furious that Peter made a move, expressing that it was never anything sexual between them. Peter believes she should take some responsibility and is surprised that it is just a “dad thing”. She returns the coat and vows to never speak to him again.

Eventually, after many cold silences, Peter and Maddy talk — Peter explains he is going to take a sabbatical from work due to the emotional stress born from their brief friendship. He cries, and Maddy asks why as “old people do not cry”. Peter explains that nothing changes just because you get older. He looks at her squarely in her eyes and expresses how proud he is of her.

Modern Love Season 1, Episode 6, “So He Looked Like Dad. It Was Just Dinner, Right?” ends with Peter walking away, and at that moment, Maddy realized she had been split open; she had finally grown up — she was no longer a kid. As the credits roll, she shouts after him.

You can read the recap of the seventh episode by clicking these words