This Is Us (NBC) (2 Viewers)

[Pnochichi]

We are pretty connected to the Tess stuff since my oldest plays her partner, Alex. Its always interesting to see how people read the scenes with Beth and Tess i guess it's a sign of the writing how much people watching bring to the interpretation vs whats in the script or the writers intent. Its cool to see people arguing about what was in Beth's mind and what was interpreted wrongly vs correctly by tess. Knowing a little about what was in Beth's head makes it fun to see how people read it.

Sad to see the show end and looking forward to what everyone will be working on next.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I was struck, watching this week's episode, by the fact that I can't ever remember watching an episode like it. We've seen a lot of TV shows and movies over the years about single mothers, but I can't ever remember a dedicated focus like this on the absent fathers.

None of the fathers this week were absent fathers in the "deadbeat dad" sense, of course. But each of them was less present than they'd like to be:

• Jack is working such long hours that he's gone before his young children get up and not home until they've gone to sleep.
• Toby is working in an entirely different metro area, and constantly commuting back and forth.
• Kevin is living across town, as the mother of his children tries to rebuild her life after their marriage plans fell apart.
• Randall didn't even meet Deja until she was a tween.

With Jack, we know things will get better because we've seen later flashbacks and we know how his children grew up to idolize, even revere him. With Kevin and Randall, we know they work through it because in the flash forward they are still very much connected to their children. Kevin has at least partial custody of the twins, and Randall and Deja are still very close when Deja is an adult med school student.

Toby is a bit more of a question mark. He's arguably the most responsible for his own predicament. Jack needed to work those long hours to keep a roof over his family's head. Randall can't change the fact that Deja didn't come into his life earlier. Kevin is showing up each and every day to be with his kids. Toby needed to work more than he needed to be a present father. His argument to Kevin, that parents who are miserable are worse than parents who've made choices to be happy and fulfilled, is not wholly without merit. But it's definitely a bit self-justifying.

The theme of memory, and how it's shaped and what affects it, had some real nuance to it. Jack really goofed as a father, found a way to make it up to his family, and then got blindsided with something completely outside his control. He was always going to remember that day as the day his mother died; he just didn't know it until he got the phone call.

Meanwhile, we know something horrible and traumatic is coming with Kate and Toby's blind son and the smoker. And it's clear that future Jack was traumatized by it. And yet, his association with grilling isn't all negative, or even primarily negative. The taste of that meat also brings back parts of his childhood that he cherishes.

The anecdote the music teacher shared with Kate is relevant, too. No matter how bad whatever happens with the smoker is, if Kate and Toby's marriage was good going into that crisis, they would have been able to weather it. It's because things were already on such thin ice that one mishap could shatter it.

We know from the flash forwards that Kevin is married in the future, but we don't know to who. This episode reinserts Cassidy into the running, and at least on paper she's a strong contender. We know at some point that Kevin moves back east to Pennsylvania. Given the card with "Big Three Homes: A Pearson Family Construction Company," it's probable that Kevin leaves acting at some point to become a contractor. And Cassidy is in Pennsylvania.

We are pretty connected to the Tess stuff since my oldest plays her partner, Alex. Its always interesting to see how people read the scenes with Beth and Tess i guess it's a sign of the writing how much people watching bring to the interpretation vs whats in the script or the writers intent. Its cool to see people arguing about what was in Beth's mind and what was interpreted wrongly vs correctly by tess. Knowing a little about what was in Beth's head makes it fun to see how people read it.

Sad to see the show end and looking forward to what everyone will be working on next.

Welcome to the Home Theater Forum, Brian! Thanks for sharing your unique point of view on this series. Does your kid identify as non-binary like the character does? I'm always fascinated by how much effort (if any) series make to mine authentic experience when it comes to casting.

 

[Pnochichi]

Thanks, Adam. It's been fun to get back into this hobby a little bit. I forgot how hard it is to make decisions on what to buy.

My oldest, Presley, is non-binary like Alex, and that was a very intentional casting choice like you said. They did have open auditions for it, but they did go out of their way to reach out managers with non-binary actors. The writer of one of the episodes also talked to Presley a good bit while they were on set, and they were obviously mining some info from an authoritative source. It's a really amazing cast and crew, and one of the best overall sets we've been on. They are all very passionate about what they are doing and what they are putting out there in a way that not everyone is.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Given that this week's episode centered around the death of a mother, I thought for sure we'd be getting another flash forward to Rebecca's final hours. But I think the decision to keep the entire episode in the past, with the scenes with the littlest Big Three being the "present" for the episode, was the right one. This story and these feelings needed the room to breathe.

The fact that Jack grew up in a household plagued by domestic violence has been baked into the show from the beginning, and it was a huge part of what shaped him. But mostly it's just been alluded to. This episode, probably more than any other, spoke to that aspect of his life directly -- especially because of how it fractured his relationship with his mother: The love they had for one another was inextricably tied up with the trauma that had been inflicted by Jack's father. Being together was painful, and that -- as much as the hassle involved -- was the reason it took a funeral to get the family out to Ohio. And the specter of Jack's father was the reason Jack's mother didn't come visit more often; just being in the same city was so anxiety-inducing.

The fact that Jack didn't take the time to learn more about his mother's life in Ohio is something he likely felt guilty about until his own death. But I don't think it's something that bothered his mother any; their Sunday evening phone calls were precious to her, and she would much rather hear about her son and her grandchildren that waste a moment talking about herself.

At the same time, I really loved the care that went into showing us her life in Ohio, and that fleeing an abusive husband wasn't the end of her story. Her boyfriend, Mike, was the antithesis of Jack's father, gentle and kind and emotive. It speaks well of Jack that he could take in the life that his mother built for herself from the people and things she left behind, and could make the gratitude he felt for that central to his obituary.

I do wonder if his visit to Ohio was the start of his drinking problem again. He seemed to keep it in check here, but we know it gets bad again at some point before he beats it for good.

The one area where the jigsaw puzzle nonlinear narrative worked against this episode was the absence of Nicky. He had to be absent, because Rebecca and the kids were at the funeral and they didn't have any idea until decades later than Nicky was still alive. But I just can't believe that nobody would have reached out to him, and let him know. Jack has his reasons for his antipathy, but cousin Debbie wouldn't have held that same grudge.

 

[NeilO]

their Sunday evening phone calls were precious to her, and she would much rather hear about her son and her grandchildren that waste a moment talking about herself.

....

The one area where the jigsaw puzzle nonlinear narrative worked against this episode was the absence of Nicky. He had to be absent, because Rebecca and the kids were at the funeral and they didn't have any idea until decades later than Nicky was still alive. But I just can't believe that nobody would have reached out to him, and let him know. Jack has his reasons for his antipathy, but cousin Debbie wouldn't have held that same grudge.

I didn't think much of Nicky during it and I think they only mentioned him once during the episode. Yes, now that you mention it, that did seem strange.

Just watched this tonight. Tomorrow is the anniversary of my mother's death. My parents and then just her used to call me every Sunday morning at 10:30 AM. I had some flashes back to those calls and what I said about her dung her remembrance.

Another powerful episode.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The thing I loved about tonight's episode is that way that everything was so rooted in character and the history we've traveled with all of them. There were a ton of moments that landed so much stronger because of the five preceding seasons. It felt like a final season episode, in a really good way.

The first half had a lot of really effective humor, like Randall correctly diagnosing Kevin as the world's strangest serial monogamist. It was an honest and funny exchange, but it was built on their relationship getting to a strong enough place where Randall felt comfortable teasing Kevin in that way.

The stuff with Kate and Rebecca was among the best they've had since the series started. We really get to see how music has been a bridge for them when they haven't been able to communicate effectively in other ways. The fight between teenage Kate and Rebecca was absolutely brutal, culminating in that slap, but it was birthed out of the deep reservoirs of grief both of them were carrying. And then later, when Rebecca breaks down on the phone with Miguel, teen Kate overhears her and is forced to see things from her mother's point of view, even when she doesn't want to.

And then that's contrasted with their present day storyline, with Kate having to break the news that her and Toby are no longer comfortable with having her babysit solo. It's a brutal but necessary conversation, one that was never going to go well. But it speaks to Kate's growth that she goes to her mother later, after Rebecca has had a chance to calm down, and talks it out. And Rebecca does understand where Kate's coming from, even though she doesn't want to, and then Kate has found a way to involve Rebecca in her children's lives in a really special and important way. It's a level of communication that was a real long time coming.

Likewise, with Kevin reaching out to Madison's new boyfriend after his frank conversation with Cassidy. I loved that Cassidy shot Kevin down, and I loved the kindness with which she did it. And I loved that he heard her, and is at least attempting to break his old patterns. He hates that Madison is with somebody else, but rather that be selfish or possessive he's really trying to put her first.

The whole dinner with Deja and Malik was also a sort of crucible. Randall is correct that Deja is a junior in high school, and she should in no way drop out to flee to Boston and live with Malik and Malik's daughter. But Beth is right, too; the whole situation has to be handled very carefully, or they're going to drive Deja away and it's all going to end horribly.

Deja being infatuated is a perfectly normal state of affairs for a seventeen-year-old girl in love for the first time. Because Deja is so precocious in so many ways, and because she's had to grow up much faster than her peers, she thinks she's ready for this too. She is not, but getting through to her on that is a different path than it would be for Tess or Annie, who they've raised from birth. We know from the future scene at Rebecca's deathbed that a decade or so from now Deja will still have a close relationship with the Pearsons and will have made it to med school. We also know that she is pregnant, but not whether Malik is the father. The timeline works if Deja doesn't drop out: two more years of high school, four years of undergrad, and then four years of med school would put her right about the time of her residency in the flash forward. But it's also possible that she drops out, gets her GED, and then has a few lost years in there somewhere before turning things around. This show is remarkably good at keeping its secrets, despite how much of the future we've seen.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

"You're going to forget a lot about these years. But look at your mother, right now, and remember this. Don't you ever forget how incredible that woman is."​

One of the pleasures of being in the final chapter of a series with a deliberate beginning, middle, and end is that you get to see how far the characters have come since we first met them. Beth's failure as a dancer in the wake of her father's death traumatized her, in a way that she never really came to terms with until this moment. But her way out, connecting to dance in a new way as a mentor, is also a reflection of the life she's lived since the events of "Our Little Island Girl" Part One. Her life with Randall, her life with the Pearsons and as a Pearson, helped bring her to this place. They have a way of loving unguardedly. Her father was that way, too, but her mother has always expressed love in other ways. Her old mentor, played by Goran Višnjić, saw his role as furthering the craft. He would give them the tools, and it was up to them what they made of them. Beth resented him for decades, and he probably barely thought of her at all, and probably fondly enough then. But Beth sees her role differently; she isn't merely equipping talent, she is nurturing talent, being the teacher she wished she'd had then. Does she seek out this role, does she believe that the diamonds in the rough can be polished and refined into something magnificent, if her and Randall hadn't adopted Deja and seen it first hand? I don't know. If nothing else, her husband taught her the power of a good inspirational speech.

And then Randall seeing what Beth is doing, recognizing the power and importance of it, and making sure their girls did, too. Wow.

The Kate/Toby break up is a proceeding at a nice slow burn. Their relationship isn't in a good place, and both of them are aware of it. Toby is responding to it by focusing on his career, where he has a greater feeling of control, but that's only making their schism worse. Kevin staying in their guest room isn't helping matters, but he's more of a symptom of their problems than an underlying cause.

I didn't love how the whole Kevin and Madison feud over Thanksgiving was executed. Kevin was wrong to just assume that Madison would want to come to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving, but I don't think he was wrong to want to have the twins with him for Thanksgiving. Co-parenting when the parents aren't together is hard, and Madison is the parent with primary custody. But I thought Kevin made some good points: Thanksgiving is the Pearsons' most important holiday, and Rebecca isn't going to have many more (perhaps any more) Thanksgivings where she is cognitively able to enjoy time with her grandchildren. If Madison wants to celebrate Thanksgiving with the new boyfriend, that's fine, but who has the kids for the holiday should have been a bigger discussion.

Did we know that Kate and Sophie were besties? That kind of feels like a retcon to me, but maybe I just don't remember. Either way, is Sophie reentering as a friend for Kate during the collapse of her marriage, or is she reentering as a love interest for Kevin?

 

[Mike Frezon]

Both Peg and I felt like this was one of their worst episodes in a very long time.

Very downbeat and depressing--almost all dischord. That scene where the dancer fell and Beth went on stage to talk to her 1.) took way too long and 2.) was just hackneyed.

To be fair, Beth has never been one of our favorite characters in the show, so we were not really invested in her story. And we don't like ballet. Add on to that the muddiness of the Kevin/Toby/Kate and the Kevin/Eli/Madison triangles...along with the Kate/Sophie/Kevin triangle was just too much negativity and darkness for one episode.

 

[David Weicker]

Both Peg and I felt like this was one of their worst episodes in a very long time.

Very downbeat and depressing--almost all dischord. That scene where the dancer fell and Beth went on stage to talk to her 1.) took way too long and 2.) was just hackneyed.

To be fair, Beth has never been one of our favorite characters in the show, so we were not really invested in her story. And we don't like ballet. Add on to that the muddiness of the Kevin/Toby/Kate and the Kevin/Eli/Madison triangles...along with the Kate/Sophie/Kevin triangle was just too much negativity and darkness for one episode.

You left our the Matt/Miguel/Rebecca triangle

 

[Mike Frezon]

You left our the Matt/Miguel/Rebecca triangle

Yeah. That just seems like an afterthought, really, since it doesn't really seem like Matt has even a slim chance of getting a foothold on a relationship with Rebecca. But, also, nothing uplifting there...

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

That scene where the dancer fell and Beth went on stage to talk to her 1.) took way too long and 2.) was just hackneyed.

It worked for me, and Beth's triumph there (and facing her old dance teacher over the phone later) offset the more downbeat other storylines. But if you're not invested in Beth's storyline, I can definitely see how the negativity elsewhere would have weighed down the episode too much.

You left our the Matt/Miguel/Rebecca triangle

The difference there is that we know how that shakes out; Miguel wins. We don't know how Miguel wins, whether Matt screws up with Rebecca or if he grows sick of being the third wheel in Rebecca and Miguel's widow-and-divorcée co-dependent friendship. But basically Matt's role in this story is to be Rebecca's rebound guy, her first step back into the dating world after the death of her husband.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

"Aw, baby. I love your heart. Dig your ambition. But the Pearson epitaph will read: Lovely people, cried a lot, dramatic as hell Thanksgivings." - Beth Pearson​

It's weird to get a Thanksgiving episode in March, but Thanksgiving is the central Pearson family holiday, and too important for the final season to skip. This one was one of the better uses of parallel storylines across four different time periods: Rebecca as a child, Rebecca and Jack while engaged, widowed Rebecca with young adult Big Three, and present day at the cabin.

One example is the Pearson women's relationship with food. Rebecca's mother gave her a complex with food, so Rebecca gave Kate a complex with food, and now Kate is desperately trying to not give her children a complex with food. It was really only hammered home in the present day storyline, in the context of Kate and Toby's fight about what Jack is eating, but it was there in every time period in some form or another.

I found the ways in which each impacted the ones that followed deeply moving at times, especially with Rebecca and Miguel, their relationship, and Kevin's reaction to that relationship. It's not an ideal situation to fall in love with your best friend's widow. There's a lot of guilt involved in that, guilt that kept Rebecca and Miguel apart for a long time. And it complicates the Big Three's feelings about that, too. To get to where they were tonight, with Rebecca forcefully standing up for Miguel's role as her husband, and the Big Three respecting that and his place in his mother's life and their family's life, is a huge accomplishment for all involved, one that took a long time and a lot of small moments of growth.

We know that Rebecca doesn't end up in a good place with her mother, which colors her reconnection with her at the thanksgiving before she married Jack. We also see how Rebecca and Kate have done the work to avoid that in their own relationship; they are stronger now than they've been since the series started. Even when there was a lot of tension in their relationship, there are certain things that mothers and daughters share that others can't fully understand.

This episode does raise some big questions, however; during the family meeting, Rebecca made it clear that Miguel is her primary caregiver as long as he is able to be, and Kate is the backup if Miguel should not be able to fulfill that role. And yet, in the flash forwards to Rebecca's deathbed, Miguel and Kate are the two characters conspicuously absent. Are they both dead? Is one of them dead, and the other somehow out of the picture?

I think the show has done a good job foreshadowing the breakdown in Kate and Toby's marriage. It's not like either of them have checked out or abandoned the family. But they're not on the same page. They have fundamentally different priorities, and they are not able (or willing) to put in the work to reconcile those differences.

It's nice that the remaining episodes will air as a continuous run. With ten episodes left, the show still feels potent and mostly on the rails. I'm glad it isn't overstaying its welcome.

 

[David Weicker]

A great write-up (as usual), but how could you not mention that truly great 'family talk' by Rebecca. Everything, I mean absolutely everything, worked. It lived up to the hype from last week's teaser.
Yes ma'am.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

When they do Big Three trilogy episodes like this, some are usually stronger than others. If I had to guess, the Kate episode will be the most dramatic of this trilogy since her marriage is on the verge of crumbling.

That being said, I enjoyed this episode. I'm not sure Kevin's parenting win was entirely earned, because he spent most of the episode away from the twins dealing with Cassidy's drama. I'm not sure that Kevin's parenting struggles were that well grounded to begin with, though. He's always been great with kids, and presumably had a rapport with the babies used on "The Manny".

Cassidy's PTSD has been steadily building since her character was introduced, though. It was right that Nicky was the one who immediately saw what had really happened, and that he was able to use the tools he's developed over the course of his journey since he was introduced to articulate it. And his advice to Kevin was solid; he knows first hand the way Kevin injects lightness and warmth where there had only been darkness and heaviness. Kevin can't understand what Cassidy's going through, just like he couldn't understand what Nicky's going through. But neither of them has really needed him to relate on that level. Just being there is enough.

Now we know where the construction company from the flash forwards originated. It's still an open question whether Kevin will be actively involved or will just bankroll the operation from California. I can't imagine him quitting another job impulsively, or moving to the other side of the country from his kids. But it's equally clear that he's just doing the "Manny" reboot to pay the bills.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

With all of the scenes in this week's episode where Kate contrasted the current Toby with her imagined version of the old Toby, I found myself wondering just how much of the long term arcs on this show were planned in advance. They couldn't have known when the show started that Chris Sullivan would lose all of that weight. Was their divorce always in the cards, or was it a reaction to the fact that he lost the weight and Chrissy Metz didn't?

Technically, it was a startlingly effective trick that I'm not completely sure how they pulled off. Presumably some of it was a Sullivan with padding and prosthetics, but I'm guessing there was also a visual effects component due to the hair issues it would have introduced to the production. Apparently the filming got cut short for this one in the middle of the San Francisco location shoot due to someone in the production testing positive for COVID, so they had to improvise on a few things.

This episode was co-written by Metz and directed by Mandy Moore, and did a good job of exploring the forces eroding this marriage. It was easy for them to blame it all on the move, but this episode made it clear that even if they were all in the same city it wouldn't solve all of their problems.

The fight was really well done because it wasn't an out and out shouting match. Even as they got their barbs in, you could see them trying to understand the other's point of view, small moments of kindness and affection even amidst the conflict.

Toby made a number of dick moves this episode -- springing the house on her, not telling her about the job offer back in Los Angeles, and then dropping the ultimatum about moving to San Francisco -- but they're also more symptoms of the problem than driving causes.

The main issue is that both Toby and Kate were not fully realized people when they met and feel in love. They used one another to fill the hole in their lives, and helped each other move forward. But now that they are becoming more fully realized, they're discovering that they don't want the same things and don't have the same priorities. If Kate and the kids moved to San Francisco, Toby would still be on the phone all of the time and putting his job first. And Kate would resent him for pulling her away from a job that feels like a calling and the whole life and support system she's built in LA. If Toby had taken the offer in LA, he would resent Kate for pulling him away from a job that gave him purpose and identity, where he felt valued and respected. Kate's first priority is being a caregiver to her children. Being a good father is very important to Toby, but he perceives that through the lens of being a breadwinner and a provider. He tried being the hands on caregiver, and he was miserable.

It was easy for them to prioritize one another when their relationship was the only good thing going for them. But now they each have all of these other good things going, and they can't seem to find balance. Toby commuting back and forth is an act of martyrdom that is just prolonging their conflict rather than resolving it. Whether his life in San Francisco is worth sacrificing his marriage is something he won't learn until his marriage has crumbled.

I did appreciate the contrast between current Kate and the vinettes with kid Kate and teen Kate. They captured how Kate was, for so long, someone who life happened to. She was timid and risk-adverse, and in the rare cases where she did make a bold move it usually turned out terribly. Now she is someone who is making choices, shaping the direction of her own life. And that's part of why Toby is so upset; he feels like he's putting in all of the work to create this perfect plan for their future, and all Kate needs to do is go along with it like she's always done. But Kate's making her own plans now, plans that conflict with Toby's plan, and he can't stand it. He also can't see her standing on her own two feet without him. He loves Kate, but I'm not so sure he respects her.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I thought this week's was the weakest of the three.

I got really hung up on Rebecca and Randall having a drink together at the bar, because I thought Rebecca's acute dementia incident on the day of the Big Three's 40th birthday was triggered by alcohol having an adverse reaction with her medication. But after some Googling, it turns out it was an antihistamine that reacted badly with her medication, not alcohol. That mistake on my part kept me distracted and pulled out of the episode, which probably affected my enjoyment of it.

I felt like the Kevin and Kate episodes had real moments of self-discovery. I don't know that we learned anything about Randall that we didn't already know. Certainly the contours of his relationship with Rebecca were already well-defined; Randall needed to hear Rebecca tell him that she picked Kate in part because of the burden Randall had already taken on after Jack died. But I don't know that we needed to rehash so much territory to get there. What Rebecca didn't dwell on is the other side of the coin; that she knew Randall would focus on her illness as a problem to be fixed, with prolonging her life and seeking the best treatments as his priority. Whereas Rebecca had a lot more confidence that Kate would choose to do what Rebecca would want, even if it means she dies sooner.

I liked the Deja subplot. It's the first time she's been a stupid, impulsive teenager -- partly because she's never before had the luxury to be stupid or impulsive. Her saying all of those hateful things to Randall at the cabin in the heat of the moment is actually a real credit to him and Beth; she said those things because she knew they would hurt him, but she only said them because on a deeper level she knew that they wouldn't drive him away. She's secure enough in her place in this family now that she is able to risk being cruel and hurtful.

On the other hand, I really really hope they don't focus too much on Randall's political aspirations in the home stretch. It's always been one of the weakest links in the show, with very little correlation to how politics actually work in America. In the flash forwards, Randall isn't escorted by Secret Service so presumably he doesn't actually become president. Perhaps this final arc for him is going to be about failure, something he's never really had to deal with academically or professionally.

 

[Mike Frezon]

On the other hand, I really really hope they don't focus too much on Randall's political aspirations in the home stretch. It's always been one of the weakest links in the show, with very little correlation to how politics actually work in America. In the flash forwards, Randall isn't escorted by Secret Service so presumably he doesn't actually become president. Perhaps this final arc for him is going to be about failure, something he's never really had to deal with academically or professionally.

I think you're right on with that final conjecture, Adam. There was a most definite point to having Randall tell Rebecca "if I run, I'll win."

 

[Mike Frezon]

On the other hand, I really really hope they don't focus too much on Randall's political aspirations in the home stretch. It's always been one of the weakest links in the show, with very little correlation to how politics actually work in America. In the flash forwards, Randall isn't escorted by Secret Service so presumably he doesn't actually become president. Perhaps this final arc for him is going to be about failure, something he's never really had to deal with academically or professionally.

I think you're right on with that final conjecture, Adam. There was a most definite point to having Randall tell Rebecca "if I run, I'll win."

 

[mylan]

I thought this week's was the weakest of the three.

I got really hung up on Rebecca and Randall having a drink together at the bar, because I thought Rebecca's acute dementia incident on the day of the Big Three's 40th birthday was triggered by alcohol having an adverse reaction with her medication. But after some Googling, it turns out it was an antihistamine that reacted badly with her medication, not alcohol. That mistake on my part kept me distracted and pulled out of the episode, which probably affected my enjoyment of it.

I felt like the Kevin and Kate episodes had real moments of self-discovery. I don't know that we learned anything about Randall that we didn't already know. Certainly the contours of his relationship with Rebecca were already well-defined; Randall needed to hear Rebecca tell him that she picked Kate in part because of the burden Randall had already taken on after Jack died. But I don't know that we needed to rehash so much territory to get there. What Rebecca didn't dwell on is the other side of the coin; that she knew Randall would focus on her illness as a problem to be fixed, with prolonging her life and seeking the best treatments as his priority. Whereas Rebecca had a lot more confidence that Kate would choose to do what Rebecca would want, even if it means she dies sooner.

I liked the Deja subplot. It's the first time she's been a stupid, impulsive teenager -- partly because she's never before had the luxury to be stupid or impulsive. Her saying all of those hateful things to Randall at the cabin in the heat of the moment is actually a real credit to him and Beth; she said those things because she knew they would hurt him, but she only said them because on a deeper level she knew that they wouldn't drive him away. She's secure enough in her place in this family now that she is able to risk being cruel and hurtful.

On the other hand, I really really hope they don't focus too much on Randall's political aspirations in the home stretch. It's always been one of the weakest links in the show, with very little correlation to how politics actually work in America. In the flash forwards, Randall isn't escorted by Secret Service so presumably he doesn't actually become president. Perhaps this final arc for him is going to be about failure, something he's never really had to deal with academically or professionally.

Adam, I appreciate reading your posts about the show and sticking with it when it seems many people have given up on it. My wife and I are in it till the end. We liked the episode, especially young Randall at the pool, seeing his family from his prospective. That had to have been filmed at the same time as the previous episodes because the continuity was spot on.

We also didn't mind the adult Randall and Rebecca road trip, thought it was well done and I think he needed to hear why she picked Kate instead of him, I thought it was a neat love letter to fans showing their bond. I do think that the political aspect was the weakest part of the episode and I agree with your take on it.

 

[Mike Frezon]

We liked the episode, especially young Randall at the pool, seeing his family from his prospective. That had to have been filmed at the same time as the previous episodes because the continuity was spot on.

It is rather amazing how the writers were able to take that one pool scene and re-use (re-imagine) it in each of the last few episodes to reveal the perspective of a different character.