'The Village' happens to be one family drama that will make you cry buckets, even though it has been dismissed as a 'This Is Us' clone. The series has done a brilliant job of tugging at our heartstrings and seems like episode 3 will be the hardest to get over.

From the plight of a senior citizen ignored by his family to a young pregnant teenager who is heartbroken by a f***boy, the episode is bound to appeal to our emotional selves. A fierce single mother, Sarah (Michaela McManus), fights for her pregnant daughter after the boy she likes toys around with her and leaves her on discovering that she is pregnant. Katie (Grace Van Dien), her daughter, was sure the boy she liked would not be the one to leave her like how her father left her mother. Little does she know that her friendly veteran neighbor, Nick Porter, who recently moved into their apartment building called 'The Village,' is her biological father.

Sarah is badass as ever, where she fights for her daughter's right against the boy's mother who slut shames the girl, refusing to find faults in her own son. Yet another powerful reference to how society chooses to blame the girl for uncalled situations, and dodge responsibilities from a man's end. Though nothing good comes out of the altercation, there's a satisfaction in knowing that a voice was raised and a point was made. A priest at the boy's house is even heard quipping "clearly," when the boy says that she is not a "Christian."

However, this heartbreak brings the mother-daughter duo closer and a realization that you don't need the world when you've got that one person who matters. Similar is the story arc of Patricia (Lorraine Toussaint) and Ron (Frankie Faison) as Patricia's aggressive cancer spreads quickly requiring urgent medical attention. This news, of course, is upsetting and Patricia takes a long way home, only to come home to Ron who is patiently waiting for his wife to come back.

"You are an organ in my body woman. If you fail, I fail," says Ron as they hug and cry together, promising each other that they will sail through this hand-in-hand despite Patricia telling Ron that hurting him with her disease would be an added burden she cannot carry. But as established in the pilot episode itself, there's no sweeter love than theirs.

The story of Ava (Moran Atias) and Ben, a New York police officer, who took a $10,000 loan to free Ava from prison is one that will warm your heart. The Iranian immigrant is not only grateful and moved but repays him with all the money she can pool in and eventually falls in love with him. She goes to his doorstep, knocks, and when he opens, leans in for a passionate kiss.

Nick Porter, the veteran, also catches himself falling in new love as a widow of his friend, Cooper, whose death Nick is guilty of causing, attends the rooftop party of the building and spends a passionate night with him. Sarah on the other hand almost knocks when they are making out, but walks away as she changes her mind. Earlier, she had broken up with a man she had been with mainly because he walked away when he saw Sarah finding comfort on Nick's shoulder. Knowing full well that he is her daughter's father, he must have felt threatened and did not want to stand in the way. Before walking away he questions that when she first approached him in the pilot, she said she did not want to appear "catastrophically single," he now asks, "in front of who?" Is it Katie, her daughter who wants her mother to have the good life she could not, or is it Nick Porter, who is still in her heart? 

The episode's highlight was not just focussed on loving relationships, but love in general. It was a moment that could turn even a stone heart to mush. Enzo (Dominic Chianese) expresses his love for his grandson Gabe (Daren Kagasoff), as he gifts him a separate study room in the apartment in return for taking him out of the nursing home Gabe's father had him placed. In fact, Gabe's father, a successful lawyer, even comes to warn his son of the consequences of keeping his father under his roof. But Gabe is not his father, he will do all that he can to give a good life to his grandfather.

For that we are grateful.