This episode, titled “Vertical Housing” is the narration of the same day from Dhruv’s perspective. While Kavya is attending her father’s retirement party, Dhruv is having an entirely different experience in Delhi.

Dhruv visits his old school with his friend and finds out how drastically things have changed. It’s no longer considered a dignified place. Students argue with teachers all the time and the quality of education has really gone down. What bothers Dhruv more is that his friends knew all about it because they were in Delhi and always kept in touch with each other. 

Later Dhruv’s friend tells him that the reason Dhruv feels confused and disconnected all the time is because there’s a lack of stability in his life. He urges Dhruv to get married because “that’s all there’s left to do now.”

Dhruv says he’ll think about it and then goes home. Home awaits more troubles. Dhruv’s parents are selling their house and moving to a housing complex somewhere else. He has to help his mother pack up all the stuff that the house contains. It’s an emotionally draining process.

When Dhruv’s mother doesn’t take interest in his stories from Bangalore or his work at the University, he feels frustrated. Later when he’s thinking about how he will never see his childhood home again because his parents couldn’t pay off their loans, he feels all the more angry. That anger is piling up inside of him and it all comes out when his mother gives him the family engagement ring and asks him to propose to Kavya. 

“Hamesha galat advice, meri puri life yaar” Dhruv yells at his mother. He feels suffocated and thinks that he is an amalgamation of his parents mistakes. 

He later gets a call from Kavya, which is dismisses after a short, very curt interaction on his part.

Later his mother apologises to him and reminds him that what she said earlier was just a suggestion. She adds that everything her and Dhruv’s father did was what seemed best at the time. She admits that they made mistakes along the way, but she wants Dhruv to know that they always had Dhruv’s best interests at heart.

In that moment, I found Dhruv to be more relatable than ever. His dilemma is something a lot of people could relate with. Being frustrated at one’s parents for their lack of awareness or being grateful for all they did despite the circumstances. It’s a two-edged sword.

Dhruv calms down a bit and the episode ends with viewers on the edge of their seats wondering what the future contains.

This episode gets a rating of 4.5/5.

Little Things is now streaming on Netflix.