Sneak Peek
"THIS IS US"
"LAST CHRISTMAS"
12/06/2016 (09:00PM - 10:00PM) (Tuesday) : The Pearson family finds themselves at the hospital on Christmas Eve after little Kate comes down with appendicitis. When they run into Dr. K, who is alone at the hospital, they realize they need to be there for him as much as he was once there for them. Presently, Kevin celebrates Hanukkah with Olivia and her family, Kate continues to pursue her big surgery and someone from William's past reappears in his life.
"LAST CHRISTMAS"
12/06/2016 (09:00PM - 10:00PM) (Tuesday) : The Pearson family finds themselves at the hospital on Christmas Eve after little Kate comes down with appendicitis. When they run into Dr. K, who is alone at the hospital, they realize they need to be there for him as much as he was once there for them. Presently, Kevin celebrates Hanukkah with Olivia and her family, Kate continues to pursue her big surgery and someone from William's past reappears in his life.
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Promo & Interview
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You and the writers knew that Randall was going to find out the secret about William and Rebecca for some time. What kind of discussions did you guys have about how Randall should process that hurt? And how did you guys arrive at the idea that he would come to understand what Rebecca went through via that hallucination scene? He showed a tremendous amount of compassion and grace for his mother at the end of the episode by saying that must have been very lonely for her to carry that secret.
DAN FOGELMAN: It was a long process. This episode was in formative stages for maybe our longest time in the [writers’] room. All of our actors had, at varying times, lamented that they don’t always get to act in scenes with all the other actors because of our varying time frames. I believe Sterling had had a conversation with Don Todd, one of our writers, and said, “I wish I could act with Milo. I’ll never get to act with Milo.” That became something we started talking about, and I think the room had started talking about, “What if he had some kind of dream?” And that evolved into this kind of mushroom trip that would allow him to get advice from his father at the time when he needs it the most — after he’s found out this story and secret about his mother.
We’d been talking for quite some time about, “What’s the path of Randall processing and then forgiving his mother?” I felt a secret buried for 36 years doesn’t feel like a piece of information you get, register, become wounded by, and then just go right toward forgiveness. It requires a bigger journey than that. So our step here in this episode was one of processing and seeing it from a different perspective, and then at least opening the door that at some point in their future there will be something akin to a chance at forgiveness.
At the end of the episode, you can see the relief on her face when he says what he says. But then he still warns her that he’s holding onto that hurt and that all is not forgiven. This is going to take time. What can you hint about their next interaction at Christmas?
It feels like it’s something that’s going to spread out a little longer than maybe we had intended, because it feels very false to resolve them over an episode or two. It feels like a movie or a TV show, and I think this is the kind of thing that estranges a family for a moment, and then hopefully at least in our show, it’s something they can come back from. I think Randall is a good enough man and Rebecca is a good enough mother that they can, but I don’t think in real life things like this get apologized for and forgiven. It’s a slow thaw between them. And we see the first step tonight, and then you’ll see the next steps next week. And at some point, we could either break them or have some real moment of forgiveness, but I think we’re probably going to spread that out for a bit.
DAN FOGELMAN: It was a long process. This episode was in formative stages for maybe our longest time in the [writers’] room. All of our actors had, at varying times, lamented that they don’t always get to act in scenes with all the other actors because of our varying time frames. I believe Sterling had had a conversation with Don Todd, one of our writers, and said, “I wish I could act with Milo. I’ll never get to act with Milo.” That became something we started talking about, and I think the room had started talking about, “What if he had some kind of dream?” And that evolved into this kind of mushroom trip that would allow him to get advice from his father at the time when he needs it the most — after he’s found out this story and secret about his mother.
We’d been talking for quite some time about, “What’s the path of Randall processing and then forgiving his mother?” I felt a secret buried for 36 years doesn’t feel like a piece of information you get, register, become wounded by, and then just go right toward forgiveness. It requires a bigger journey than that. So our step here in this episode was one of processing and seeing it from a different perspective, and then at least opening the door that at some point in their future there will be something akin to a chance at forgiveness.
At the end of the episode, you can see the relief on her face when he says what he says. But then he still warns her that he’s holding onto that hurt and that all is not forgiven. This is going to take time. What can you hint about their next interaction at Christmas?
It feels like it’s something that’s going to spread out a little longer than maybe we had intended, because it feels very false to resolve them over an episode or two. It feels like a movie or a TV show, and I think this is the kind of thing that estranges a family for a moment, and then hopefully at least in our show, it’s something they can come back from. I think Randall is a good enough man and Rebecca is a good enough mother that they can, but I don’t think in real life things like this get apologized for and forgiven. It’s a slow thaw between them. And we see the first step tonight, and then you’ll see the next steps next week. And at some point, we could either break them or have some real moment of forgiveness, but I think we’re probably going to spread that out for a bit.
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