This week’s episode proves that, once again, the writers of This Is Us know exactly how to dig into the audience’s hearts.
Last week’s episode brought the introduction of some new faces, which, until the very last few minutes, were a little confusing. Now that we’ve met Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Toby’s (Chris Sullivan) adult son, Jack (Blake Stadnik), Deja’s (Lyric Ross) new love interest; Malik (Asante Blackk); and a character in Uncle Nicky’s (Griffin Dunne) storyline, Cassie (Jennifer Morrison), the writers have a lot to work with this season.
This week’s episode didn’t feature any of the new characters, save for a quick photo of Malik toward the end. The focus of this week’s episode came in three parts: Kate and Toby working with their loved ones to adjust to raising a child without sight; Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) trying to get their angsty seventh graders to enjoy a day at the pool; and Randall (Sterling K. Brown) trying to get his family to enjoy their last day of summer break.
Kate and Toby are working with a professional to learn how to properly raise Jack. The whole family gets involved, including Kevin (Justin Hartley), who hasn’t missed a single one of Jack’s doctor’s appointments.
However, Kevin is also struggling with whether or not to go help Uncle Nicky or to film a movie in Chicago. After a heart-to-heart with Kate, he decides to film the movie, but then goes rogue and ends up going to Uncle Nicky.
Everyone is noticing that Toby is thinner than usual, but he just blames it on stress. The end of the episode shows Toby sneaking off to the gym every chance he can get, but no one knows why.
Kate decides she’s going to stop worrying about Jack, but instead, teach him to have hope for his life.
“So here’s what’s up: I know this is all new, and I know that everyone is worried about us and about me,” Kate said. “Jack can’t see, but he can hear. He can sense, and he can feel. And I don’t want worry to be the prevailing feeling in this home; I want it to be hope.”
Meanwhile, the episode is a sequel to the Pearson family pool trip, where young Kevin and Randall fight, and Kate struggles with the popular girls. However, as it always does, everything works out in the end thanks to the help of Jack, who seems to always be the family’s guiding light.
In present day, Randall is trying to have a Pearson family fun day to the dismay of Deja and Tess (Eris Baker), who just want to do their own thing. However, Randall proves to be like Jack in the way of pulling his family together because the episode ends with a touching family scene where everyone is happy.
The parallels between Randall’s story and Jack’s story are hard to miss, as they’re both just trying to get their three kids to enjoy the last day of summer break and spend time as a family. Ultimately, they both succeed. The flashbacks of the first pool episode, when the Pearson children were babies combined with the touching scene of Randall and his family running to get to the liberty bell first are more than enough to pull your heartstrings.
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This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on NBC.
