Warning! The following contains spoilers from the Shifting Gears Season 2 premiere, “Secret.” Stream the episode with a Hulu subscription, and read at your own risk!
Shifting Gears beat the cancellation rumor mill and returned to the 2025 TV schedule to pick up on all the drama it set up at the end of Season 1. Season 2 picked up on that big cliffhanger where Matt and Eve shared a passionate kiss after being at odds for most of the season. It took a whole heap of guest stars to help push that storyline into its next exciting chapter, and I’m not complaining one bit.
Readers can expect a lot of guest stars in Shifting Gears Season 2 even beyond the jam-packed premiere, which featured stars from Home Improvement and Last Man Standing. Unfortunately for Riley and Kat Dennings‘ fans, everyone was mostly in the story to help Matt, and finally get him to take a step forward following the death of his wife.
Nancy Travis Returned As Charlotte
Nancy Travis reprised her role as Charlotte, who first appeared in Season 1 of Shifting Gears as a widow Matt met at the mausoleum where his wife’s headstone is. She overheard Matt asking his dead wife for advice on how to handle the Eve situation, as he wasn’t sure how to proceed in their relationship after kissing her and then proceeding to not message her when she was out of town for a few months.
Charlotte suggested Matt had a problem with intimacy, and suggested there was only one way to fix that. She invited him to come to her grief support group for widows, which segued right into the next biggest guest stars of the season.
Tim Allen’s Former Home Improvement Colleagues Had A Special Role
Matt agreed to go to Charlotte’s widowers group, where he was met by other widowers played by Home Improvement stars Richard Karn, Patricia Richardson, and Debbe Dunning. After hearing their intimacy woes with their former partners, Matt questioned why Charlotte even brought him here, to which she explained to prove he doesn’t have a problem with intimacy. The two left together, and his late return home suggested to Riley and the audience that Matt and Charlotte had hooked up.
Are Matt And Eve Officially A Couple?
Riley Told Eve about her father’s wild night, still unaware about the kiss Matt shared with Eve in Season 1. Matt found out and went to explain himself to her, only for Jenna Elfman’s character to tell him it wasn’t her business who he hooked up with. He interrupted her lecture with a passionate kiss, and just like that, we’re back to where Shifting Gears was at the end of Season 1.
It has me wondering if Shifting Gears just hard-launched Matt and Eve’s relationship, or it’s going to be a lot of back and forth throughout this season. I think in fairness, the characters may not even know, as they both know there’s a lot they don’t have in common beyond the physical part of their relationship.
As complicated as that romance is, it’s not nearly as bad as what Riley is going through at the start of Shifting Gears Season 2. Riley struggled with what she was going to do after Gabe confessed her feelings for her while he assumed she was asleep, and felt like it was the wrong move to jump in a relationship after her divorce.
Just when she was convinced by Stitch to go for the relationship anyway, it turned out Gabe had been searching for her all day to tell her he was actually dating her friend. Wait, that also happened in Season 1 with a different girl. Did anything new happen in this premiere?
I joke, I joke. And I am eager to see how the rest of Shifting Gears Season 2 goes as new episodes air on ABC on Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET. I’m rooting for Riley to find a relationship she deserves, and hoping she continues to be a great mom along the way.