Though this week’s episode of This Is Us isn’t particularly revolutionary, it reminds the audience why we started watching the show: the complex mix of love, frustration and other emotions that go into being a family.
Last week on This Is Us, the audience got a break from the normal storylines to see Milo Ventimiglia’s acting masterpiece in Jack’s mother’s funeral episode.
This week, we’re back to the regularly scheduled programming of the ensemble family cast stories.
In particular, Rebecca (Mandy Moore), Deja (Lyric Ross), Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Kevin (Justin Hartley) all have some great spotlight moments.
First, the audience gets to see the fragile period after Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) dies and Rebecca and the kids are trying to grieve. In this episode, we see a bit of the origin of Miguel (Jon Huertas) and Rebecca as their friendship begins to slightly spark into more, but they aren’t officially together yet, so they go to a speed dating event together to meet people.
Another really amazing storyline comes from Rebecca and Kate’s relationship, as young Kate (Hannah Zeile) deals with her mother getting back out there – and dealing with it poorly, might I add – and adult Kate is trying to explain to her mother that with her recent PET scans, she doesn’t feel comfortable with her watching the children alone.
However, they reach an understanding as Rebecca teaches Kate’s son Jack piano, the same way Rebecca taught Kate as a little girl.
Over at Randall (Sterling K. Brown)’s house, Deja and Malik (Asante Blackk) are working on buttering up Deja’s parents so she will be allowed to move to Boston with him during what would be her last year of high school. She proposes taking the GED, much to Randall’s dismay, and there becomes a pretty clear divide in opinion as Randall tries to navigate how he should handle this so that he gets what he wants but doesn’t lose his daughter.
Ultimately, it’s a parental nightmare filled with an incredibly awkward, yet humorous, dinner.
Finally, we see Kevin going to visit Uncle Nicky (Griffin Dunne) as he oversees construction on the house Kevin is building for his mom. As Nicky invites Edie (Vanessa Bell Calloway), his new, and because of flash forwards, forever, partner, Kevin decides to invite Cassidy (Jennifer Morrison), whom the audience hasn’t seen in a while except for the occasional phone call cameo.
Kevin and Cassidy discuss potentially having a hook up while they’re at the cabin, but ultimately don’t after Cassidy gives Kevin a dose of reality about his relationship with love and his treatment of other women.
It was nice to see the emotional growth within Kevin in this episode. Of course, once again, it’s Cassidy that has to give him the reality check, but it’s good to see him making an effort with Madison (Caitlin Thompson)’s new boyfriend and to recognize his own self destruction a little bit. As for the future with Cassidy’s character? Who knows. Hopefully she’ll continue to be a friend to Kevin, because she’s the most real one he has.
Additionally, there’s a good sense of humor in this episode that hasn’t been present for a while because of all the heavy topics the show covers. Between Rebecca’s speed dating and the awkward dinner at Randall’s house, there are some good places for a laugh.
There’s also the incredibly moving cinematography showing the relationship between Rebecca and Kate. The woven together scene of when Kate was just a little girl to when she was a teenager to when she was an adult was so special and heartwarming, showing that even though the mother and daughter have always shared their differences and relationship struggles, they always connected through their love of music. This is a classic This Is Us scene.
As for the rest of the season, we’ve still got plenty more loose ends to tie up, so buckle in for next week.
This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on NBC.
