They say that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. But the not-so-tough, well, they get going, too — usually, getting the heck out of dodge. That’s what Ashley did on A Million Little Things. The heat on her was rising, and instead of sticking around to face Delilah, Gary, and the rest of Jon’s loved ones, Ashley up and went to Barcelona to see the church where her grandparents were married. But will Ashley return to A Million Little Things? Right now, it’s hard to see a place where she’d be welcomed back.
As Jon’s trusted assistant, Ashley was privy to 99 percent of Jon’s secrets — or so she thought. She didn’t know who Barbara Morgan was (none of us do quite yet) or all of the bad real estate deals and negotiations Jon made in order to save the Cambridge apartment, and she didn’t know that Jon was in a place mentally to be able to commit suicide. After he died, though, Ashley went into crisis mode, deleting files and hiding suicide notes and all sorts of clandestine stuff that didn’t seem appropriate for an assistant to keep from the widow of her late boss. But that’s Ashley for you — always there even when you’re not sure you need her.
In one of their last conversations, Jon asked Ashley what she really wanted to do in life, and she told him that she wanted to go to Barcelona and see where her grandparents were from. Fair! Jon, knowing that he wouldn’t be long for this world, had a plane ticket delivered, but it was only after Ashley revealed all that she had been hiding of Jon’s paperwork that she actually left and used those miles. It’s not like she has much to hold onto in Boston. She’s single, Jon is dead, and Delilah, Gary, and the gang won’t have her because she duped them all for so long. Why stay?
Unfortunately for A Million Little Things fans, it doesn’t seem like Christina Ochoa, who plays Ashley, will not be making any more appearances on A Million Little Things this season. According to her IMDB, her last episode of Season 1 was “Twelve Seconds,” which aired on January 31. Additionally, some peeking through Ochoa’s Instagram shows that she’s been recently vacationing in Bora Bora (which is pretty freaking cool) and not on set filming with the rest of the cast and crew.
A Million Little Things creator DJ Nash didn’t promise a quick return to Ashley’s character, either. He told TVLine that Ashley is not dead, but she won’t be popping up for breakfast in the next episode “Good or bad, our show is a soap. On some great soaps, things happen and people come back,” he said. “We sent [Ashley] away, but maybe she comes back knowing a lot of Spanish.” Ochoa backed up her boss’ claims, saying, “I think it’s a pretty safe bet to say that Ashley is not completely out of the picture. As for the rest of this season, she’s not going to be in it.”
For now, A Million Little Things fans will have to settle for unveiling the mystery of Barbara Morgan and just why Jon left her all that money — with so few weeks left, the show has a lot of ground to cover before they can wrap Season 1.
