After a week off, This Is Us returned this week and I couldn’t have been more excited! This show has very quickly become one of my favorites and this episode did not disappoint.
This episode revealed what happened after the babies were born and when they returned home from the hospital. I was thrilled to see that Dr. K (Gerald McRaney) would be returning in this episode. He was one of my favorite characters from the pilot and I really enjoy his interactions with Jack. When Dr. K came to check on them before leaving the hospital, we found out that Rebecca and Jack had decided to name the babies Kevin, Kate, and Kyle, all K names after Dr. K. So this means that Randall must have had his name changed at some point. When they return home, Jack and Rebecca are really struggling, especially Rebecca, because she’s not connecting with Kyle/Randall, and he isn't feeding well. This leads her to explore the man she saw across the street when they were leaving the hospital. At the time, she suspected that he was Randall’s biological father, although I’m not really sure how she comes to that conclusion. While Dr. K and Jack were having a nice doctor appointment, which was one of my favorite scenes of the episode, Rebecca is out looking for William, who’s known on the street as Shakespeare. She’s able to track him down and has an emotional conversation with him, which really highlighted both Ron Cephas Jones and Mandy Moore’s incredible acting on this show so far. William suggests that Rebecca gives Kyle a new name of his own and not the name of the baby they lost, and they come to an agreement that he will not try to reach out to Kyle at all. Later, when she returns home, she suggests the new name Randall after one of William’s favorite poets, but notably, she doesn't tell Jack about meeting William.
When we pick up in the present timeline with Randall, he “introduces” Rebecca to William. At this point, we don’t know that they’ve actually already met but it becomes pretty obvious when she asks Randall to give them some time alone and William says she looks well. Rebecca and William’s connection wasn’t the only revelation from this episode. Randall takes William to a doctor for a second opinion and they tell him that his cancer has progressed and it’s too far gone for a positive outcome. Even though William said he wasn't going to get his hopes up, he definitely had a glimmer of hope. It seems like we are going to see a devastating William death and I just know it will break me. I already love him too much. At the end of the episode, Randall tells William that they’re going to get more opinions and keep trying to fight his cancer and they’re going to tell his daughters who he really is. This episode had a lot of focus on Randall and William but I’m fine with it because I really love their story, I think it’s the most compelling out of everyone. I also really loved the opening of this episode, which showed how William and Randall’s mother met. It was sweet and sad and a great way to show little pieces of their history.
Meanwhile, Kevin is still planning to move to New York City to pursue theatre and he has Kate planning the details of their move. He basically assumes that she’ll go with him and throughout the episode, he really starts to show the extent of his codependency. Although, Kate tends to enable him. Throughout the episode, Toby tries to make Kate feel like the star for the day by taking her to a nursing home to perform a song, which I thought was a really beautiful sequence and one of the highlights of the episode. Toby really goes out of his way to make her feel special with a red carpet and chauffeuring her around. However, when they’re finally hooking up she drops everything to go help Kevin when he calls her. After Kevin realizes this, he fires her as his assistant and suggests they just try going at things alone for a while. At the end of the episode we see that he’s headed to NYC on his own but I think he’ll be ok because it’s not like he has no one - Randall is there and I’m so ready to see Kevin and Randall repair their relationship!
Overall, this episode was less fast paced than we’re used to and there was a little less going on but it was still really emotional and engaging. We still don’t have that much information on what happened to Jack, although the way Randall talked about his daughters having a grandfather makes me think that Jack has either been dead or out of the picture for a while now and that Rebecca’s marriage to Miguel might be more recent than we think. I’m looking forward to learning more about this situation. I also can’t wait to see how things turn out between Kevin and Randall and if Randall will find out about his Mom and William’s arrangement any time soon. Overall, I really enjoyed this episode and so far This Is Us hasn’t failed to meet my high expectations.
What did you think of this episode? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!
About the Author - Kate Sidwell
Kate is a 25 year old, USA based, Psychology/Public Health Researcher - but that’s just her day job! In her spare time she is an avid TV watcher (some may even say addict!!). Some of her favorite shows are Jane the Virgin, Bates Motel, The Flash, Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, Rookie Blue, Silicon Valley, Beauty and the Beast, Sleepy Hollow, The 100, The Mindy Project, Pretty Little Liars, Once Upon a Time, The Royals, Orphan Black…so pretty much too many to count and a huge variety! She’ll give pretty much any show a chance! She also devotes a lot of time to her tumblr (
eat-sleep-breathe-tv.tumblr.com) where you can find her reviewing and commenting on most of these shows and just generally fangirling! She’s excited to be writing for SpoilerTV on Complications, Baby Daddy, Proof, Switched at Birth, Secrets and Lies, and Minority Report!
