The Shifting Gears finale could be throwing a major obstacle at Tim Allen and Kat Dennings‘ characters right as the onscreen father-daughter duo’s relationship was getting better.
In Us Weekly‘s exclusive clip from the Wednesday, March 19, season finale, Riley’s (Dennings) ex Jimmy (Lucas Neff) shows up at her and dad Matt’s (Allen) house with big news.
“I have been asked to replace the bass player for the Foo Fighters,” Jimmy reveals. “I have been enlisted to fight the Foo. We are talking about a two-year tour.”
After Jimmy lists “Europe, Asia, North and South America” as some of his tour stops, Riley points out that it is a “huge step up from North and South Dakota.” Matt, however, isn’t as thrilled about the development in Jimmy’s life.
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“Didn’t we have a little discussion about you improving yourself and making a big change?” he asks Jimmy, who replies, “I did change my life. I am going to be successful. This is our dream. It is going to change our family’s lives.”
Jimmy then gets down on one knee — only to take out a key.
“I got us an amazing rental. It has got a yard, a pool and they are throwing in the gnomes,” he tells Riley. “It is literally everything we have always talked about — plus, it is near your dad so we can all be together.”
Matt doesn’t seem thrilled by the news, joking, “I am just a big gnome on this.” According to the official synopsis, Riley will find herself “torn between her past and her future” after Jimmy asks that they rekindle their romance and move back in together.
When Shifting Gears premiered in January, viewers were introduced to Matt and his estranged daughter as they found themselves living together and working to repair their relationship. Season 1 followed Riley and her kids — Carter (Maxwell Simkins) and Georgia (Barrett Margolis) — integrating themselves into Matt’s life.
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Offscreen, Dennings, 38, found herself building a bond with Allen, 71. “It clicked pretty fast. We had lunch after I accepted the role, and I felt immediately like I could trust him for some reason,” Dennings exclusively told Us in January. “And he opened up really fast to me. So I [was] like, ‘OK, this guy is like letting me in.’”
Dennings said her and Allen’s “instant” connection had only gotten stronger.
“For some reason it worked pretty immediately — maybe because I’ve grown up watching him for so much of my life, but it just worked. It felt very organic,” she recalled. “And as [filming has] progressed, our scenes are so funny, if I do say so myself. The arguments are my favorite scenes to play because I have no fear. There’s no fear for either of us. We just absolutely go for it, and it’s so much fun.”
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As fans await a season 2 renewal, Dennings couldn’t help but praise the “magical situation,” adding, “I was having a talk with a friend and I wasn’t sure what to do next. She was like, ‘Well, if you could just describe your dream project, what would it be?’ I was like, ‘I’d love to do a sitcom again.’ I just described this exact scenario. Then the next day, I got the call about this.”
She concluded: “It was shocking. I’m still weirded out about it because I feel like I wished for it and there it was. So that is how it happened. And I grew up watching [Tim’s show] Home Improvement so I was very excited about the idea of being his daughter. It’s just been so fantastic and I feel very lucky.”
Shifting Gears airs on ABC Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET before streaming the next day on Hulu.
