This week’s episode of This Is Us can be divided into three sections: a sad foster-child subplot, Sylvester Stallone mumbling, and Rebecca throwing a bag of burgers on the ground. It was weird, ridiculous, and, at times, actually moving—if you can see past Rebecca committing the aforementioned unforgivable sin.
And now, the recap:
We open with Jack at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. He’s been sober three weeks, apparently, though he admits it’s hard talking to Rebecca about his problems. The camera’s really close to Jack’s face as he’s saying this, and his beard has never looked more mesmerizing.
Teenage Randall is hungry to meet his birth parents, so he sneakily places an ad in the local newspaper asking for anyone who left “a newborn baby at a firehouse” to contact him. And now I’m chuckling at the idea of multiple people doing that. Like, what if Randall’s phone starts blowing up? Eventually, someone responds to his ad and asks to meet at a park.
Adult Randall and Beth applied to a foster care agency three weeks ago, but they haven’t heard anything back. He’s pissed, makes some comment about how their large kitchen island should put them at the front of the foster-parent line, and Beth tells him to chill TF out.
“Guys like that kid from My So-Called Life are in.” —Jack
The agency, unsurprisingly, calls minutes after Randall’s freak-out. They have a child for them: a 12-year-old girl named Déjà. Randall’s lit and starts going on a nonsensical rant about how fostering Déjà will help him fulfill his family’s legacy. It’s corny, but cute—and I’m tearing up, so this dialogue is clearly working. It always works.
Déjà shows up to Randall and Beth’s house. She’s quiet, shy, and shows no interest in getting to know the family—which worries Randall. He was expecting a more “responsive” child but, like, Déjà was just forcibly removed from her home because her mom was sent to prison, and Randall’s a stranger to her! He needs to calm down.
Beth finds cigarettes in Déjà’s room and tries to take them away, but Déjà flips out, calling her a “bitch” and even grabbing her. But the second Randall walks in, forcefully, Déjà cowers in fear. The implication here, I think, is that Déjà’s last foster father (or maybe even her birth father) was abusive. Later in the night, Déjà shares a tender moment with Randall and Beth’s daughters in a scene that mimics the first night William stayed at their house.
We’re now on the set of Adult Kevin’s film that I don’t care about. Sylvester Stallone is his co-star. Like, not an actor played by Sylvester Stallone: Sylvester Stallone playing himself. I would 2,000 percent not see this movie in theaters if it were real. Kate’s naturally shook meeting Sylvester and tells Kevin she wishes their dad was there to see this.
Kevin coldly brushes off this comment, which I know is supposed to make me wonder, “Why doesn’t Kevin want to talk about his dad?”—but all I can think about is how Kate called Sylvester Stallone “Stallin” moments before. Is that a nickname I don’t know about? Does she know it sounds like Joseph Stalin? The dictator?
“I’m Jack Pearson-ing you!” —Rebecca
Kate gives a genuinely nice speech to Sylvester Stallone about how he was Jack’s favorite actor. Oddly enough, it’s Rocky mother-effing Balboa who talks sense into Kevin about brushing off memories of his father. He tells Kevin that it doesn’t matter how much time has passed; either memories matter or they don’t. Kevin furrows his brow and frowns at this. It’s touching in a “two macho dudes talk about something other than cars and beer for once” kind of way.
But this conversation ends up ruining Kevin’s first scene with Sylvester in the “movie.” All the emotion he’s feeling about his father causes him to screw up his lines repeatedly. So what’s the takeaway here? Dealing with your emotions causes you to…fail at work?
“”Everyone on The Manny just looked pasty and sad.” —Kate
Kevin chews out Kate for his bad performance. In his opinion, if Kate never told Sylvester Stallone about their dad, he wouldn’t have stunk up the set—which is faulty logic. Own up to your flop performance, bro. Kate confronts Kevin about why he never wants to talk about their dad. Kevin says that he feels no need to talk about it or walk around “sad and damaged” like she is, which is a beyond jerky thing to say. I’m sorry, but Kevin’s the worst, and he’s been the worst since the 1980s.
Kevin’s redeemed, slightly, when he’s shooting a scene for his movie and starts thinking about his father. The emotion seems to be helping him this time, and we learn he was sleeping in a car—for some unknown reason—when he found out about his dad’s death. Naturally, this ends with Kevin tripping, hurting his knee, and screwing up the scene…again. Maybe Kevin’s a bad actor?
Kevin and Kate make up on the phone. He tells Kate he hurt his “bad knee” on set. This explains the leg cast we see Kevin wearing the night of Jack’s death. Connections! He tears up talking about his dad. Again, it’s sweet in a “frat bro talks about his feelings” way. A voiceover of Kate saying, “He’s just like you” happens as Kevin takes pain pills for his knee. So does this mean Kevin is…also an addict?
Back in the ’90s (blah), Jack bypasses morning breakfast, which raises Kate’s eyebrows. Rebecca’s wearing a brown floral dress that I can’t get past. Randall’s freaking out about potentially meeting one of his birth parents and doesn’t have time to answer Kevin’s question about whether Brandy or Mariah Carey is hotter. (Ahhh, the ’90s.) Teenage Randall tells Teenage Kevin and Kate that he’s meeting his birth mother at the park. Bah!
But the woman who answered Randall’s ad was, horrifically, just a woman trying to scheme money out of him. He storms out of the park in a mix of rage and devastation and, honestly, this might be the most heartbreaking scene in This Is Us. This is seriously sad—and not in the manipulative way.
Nineties/Swoop Bangs Rebecca is complaining to Miguel’s ex-wife about her marriage problems, which is very ironic. Rebecca confesses that she and Jack haven’t had sex in a while, and Miguel’s wife essentially tells her to get on that or her marriage will fall apart. I love that they’re drinking wine with their lunch salads. Opulent.
“I hope they don’t end up cavemen, like me.” —Jack
Rebecca takes Jack to some abandoned parking lot that has some sort of significance that I missed and also don’t really care about. She tries to sleep with him, but he’s not into it. Rebecca’s immediately mortified. It’s awkward. But they have burgers in the car with them, so silver lining?
They get home—burgers still in their bags, unfortunately—and Jack admits that getting sober is hard because he has to confront all the ugly parts of his past. He doesn’t think he can do it, but Rebecca reassures him he can by just saying the phrase “I know” 6,000 times in a row.
“Kids in need love themselves big kitchen islands.” —Beth
Apparently, this does the trick because Jack tells Rebecca to get back in the car so they can finish their date. And then Rebecca throws the bag full of burgers away and gets in the car. What the fuck?! Any sentiment this scene was supposed to convey is now lost on me because these monsters willfully wasted fast food.
Jack tells Rebecca that he’s been keeping a lot of secrets from her, and that he’ll tell them to her in time. This is more creepy than comforting, to be honest. What’s he hiding? Regardless, this admission was enough to light the fire between Jack and Rebecca, and they wind up having sex in their car like two horny teenagers. They come home and a dog is eating their burgers. This dog is the only person on this whole damn show with his priorities straight.
Annnd now I’m crying. Again. Jesus, I’ve cried so much in this episode that it’s embarrassing. Randall tells Déjà the story of his own adoption, and that he sees a lot of himself in her. That seems to put her mind at ease, and for the first time Randall and Beth seem to have hope in this situation. It’s beautiful, but I’m still low-key thinking about Rebecca throwing away those burgers.
Unfortunately, the moment’s ruined when Randall tells Déjà her mom isn’t coming back for a while. She storms out of the room and breaks the photo of Randall, Jack, and Rebecca.
Parting thoughts: There were not one, but two vocal dubs in this episode. Noticeable vocal dubs. Whatever, they were kind of iconic.
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