It’s Thanksgiving on This Is Us, and it’s one of the most dramatic ones to date.
Last week’s episode showed the Pearsons preparing for Thanksgiving, with Deja (Lyric Ross) inviting her mom, Shauna (Joy Brunson), to the family dinner and the audience got a brief introduction for what’s to come with Rebecca (Mandy Moore)’s illness.
This week is the fall finale that shows the Pearsons coming together for Thanksgiving, and there are several issues among the family.
First, Shauna is back, which is hard for Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) because she feels inadequate as Deja’s mother. Deja and Beth have a heart to heart, and both celebrate the fact that Shauna is doing much better.
“Don’t let yourself forget all the times you had with her when she was absolutely perfect,” Beth said.
Meanwhile, Tess (Eris Baker) is contemplating whether to come out as lesbian on her social media. Kevin (Justin Hartley) decides to spend the day helping her work up the courage to come out. She decides to post on her Instagram, and receives a mountain of love from her friends.
Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Toby (Chris Sullivan) come to dinner as well, and they’re experiencing tension over their son and Toby’s new “CrossFit body.” Just as Kate decides to put the whole thing behind her and be happy that Toby is getting in shape, she sees a text on Toby’s phone telling him not to “let her bring him down,” indicating that he’s having a hard time dealing with Kate. She is stunned and doesn’t know how to handle it.
One of the biggest parts of this week’s episode is Nicky (Griffin Dunne)’s introduction to the family. He struggles with everyone at first but quickly realizes that Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) had always been bringing pieces of Nicky into his children’s lives, and Nicky decides to give back.
He buys five pounds of shrimp, a tradition that he and Jack created as shown in a flashback during one of their tough Thanksgivings. The moment is touching and even flashes forward to when Kate’s son Jack (Blake Stadnik) is older and brings the tradition into his Thanksgiving meal.
In last week’s episode, the audience got an introduction to Rebecca’s health problems and saw an argument between Randall (Sterling K. Brown) and Rebecca about how she should go to the doctor.
This week, Rebecca is frustrated with Randall and decides to leave to get some space, saying she’ll go to a movie. The audience is then taken on a journey with a confused Rebecca as she moves through town, forgetful and dazed as ever.
Of course, in true This Is Us fashion, the last two minutes of the episode brought a peek into the future. When Rebecca returns to the Pearson Thanksgiving completely fine, the audience learns that Rebecca’s confused journey is actually nine months away, during the Big Three’s 40th birthday celebration. However, during their Thanksgiving dinner, she admits to Randall that she needs to get help and figure out what’s going on with her.
It’s also revealed Kevin will be engaged with a baby on the way in nine months, and is not on speaking terms with Randall anymore.
The fall finale of This Is Us has audiences begging for January to come quickly after so much is revealed in so little time.
Here’s how audiences reacted on Twitter:
This Is Us will return January 14 at 9 p.m. on NBC.
