This Is Us (NBC) (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

I figured this story would be the series finale, and in many ways it felt like a series finale. But I'm glad they made it the penultimate episode instead, so that the entire finale can be devoted to resolution, something too many shows and movies neglect.

This was one of hardest to watch episodes of any show I've ever seen. Ever. I was bawling my eyes out for most of the hour. (as for tough, I saw MASH's Abyssinia, Henry live on its original broadcast, and that was a piece of cake compared to tonight).

Such a terrific, gut-wrenching, cathartic episode.

The most beautiful thing for me was everybody together at the house Kevin had built for Rebecca, laughing and sharing stories and taking solace in one another. I remember spending the night in the hospice wing of the hospital when my paternal grandmother passed, and we were all collected out in the waiting room. The proceedings had a very similar feel.

The intercutting with Marcus's story, and how it intersected with the Pearsons, probably 90 percent worked for me. The moment in the hospital where Jack, hours or perhaps minutes before his fatal heart attack, encounters another father in crisis and passes along the advice that Dr. K gave him back in the pilot just floored me. And it tied in beautifully with the episode's theme of renewal, how life is full of death but also creation.

My only issue with it was that Marcus growing up to cure Alzheimer's felt a little too pat for me, just one thread too many tied off in a neat little bow.

I lost it when

Spoiler

Gerald McRaney showed up. Such a fantastic bookend to the opening episode.

There were a lot of beautiful callbacks during those train scenes. It's comforting to think the person we remember may still be buried deep inside the husk that Alzheimer's has left in its wake. I don't know that that's true, but maybe the Big Three needed to believe it was true -- and maybe we the audience do too.

One neat thing it opened up was getting to see the different actors from the different time periods get to interact with one another; all of the Kevins, all of the Randalls, and so on.

Everybody shined tonight.

All of our regulars were terrific, but another special shout out to the casting director. It was amazing how eerily the actors playing grown Deja and grown Malik channeled their teenage counterparts. The voices, the body language, the cadence of their speech... everything.

I am going to miss this show.

Me too! At the same time, I'm glad they chose to end it while it's still going strong, rather than dragging things out and overstaying its welcome.

 

[JohnRice]

Compelling metaphor.

I think I need a drink.

 

[usrunnr]

This was such a well written semi-finale, yes emotionally gut-wrenching.
And Classy, as always. All the actors were outstanding, as always.

As opposed to the season finale of "The Good Doctor" which ruined any happiness one might feel about the wedding by adding that final scene. I may never watch "The Good Doctor" again after that. Tasteless.

 

[NeilO]

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?

We are still a few episodes behind - just watched the Day of the Wedding Kevin episode. So, sorry if someone else mentioned the following.

I just did a quick search on Chris Sullivan and apparently right after that episode with the two Toby's came out there were a variety of articles explaining that Chris Sullivan never had original Toby's weight. He was always about the weight of the current Toby. So, I wouldn't be surprised if they had this whole arc planned from the top.

 

[JohnRice]

I need to say that I particularly loved who portrayed Rebecca’s guide in the most recent episode.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I need to say that I particularly loved who portrayed Rebecca’s guide in the most recent episode.

While it was nice to see him again, was there some special significance to the choice (which must have flown right over my head, if there was)?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I really loved tonight's finale. There is a tendency to go big with series finales, and sometimes that is absolutely the right call. But this one was completely, appropriately, small. In the present, the Big Three say goodbye to their mother. In the past, Jack and Rebecca get to appreciate one more day of childhood innocence, with the Big Three right on the cusp of adolescence.

I loved that we didn't get to hear any of the eulogies, while getting to fully feel what they were feeling as they delivered them and listened to them.

I loved the ebb and flow of the memorial gathering, the way they all give and draw from the energy of the group.

I loved that we don't know if Randall becomes president, that the show doesn't much care either way. It's enough that he is willing to take the big swings.

I loved that Kate and Toby were able to get back to a place where they can trust and even draw comfort from one another.

I loved that Kevin was able to become the man Rebecca hoped he would be, and that he got to a place where he is leaning into the the things that are important to him, rather than running away.

I loved how grown Deja confronted Randall's melancholy, reminded him how he shaped her, how he was shaped by Rebecca and Jack and William, made him understand the continuity of things.

One of the great strengths of the show's nonlinear storytelling model is that it makes it very apparent how the choices and values of the characters ripple backward and forward. It's no surprise that Randall adopted Deja, or that Kate adopted Hailey. It's no surprise that all three of the Big Three ended up being good, engaged, responsible parents because they had good, engaged, responsible parents to live up to.

I remember watching a kids' show once upon a time, and one of the students asked her teacher what the meaning of life is. "People change people," the teacher replied. That stuck with me through the years. It's self-evidently true, and it gives me comfort. Nothing is permanent, so permanence can't be a prerequisite to have value. We all live our brief lives, gone before we know it, but their brevity doesn't make them meaningless. Our brief lives were shaped by others' brief lives, and shape the brief lives of those we leave behind when we go.

This show was the story of one family, from the birth of the children to the deaths of the parents. But through that prism we got to see so much of that give and take, how and why they struggled and how they persevered. We saw not just how they shaped one another, but how their love radiated out to touch so many others.

That big blended family, so full of life and activity after the funeral service, felt earned because we experienced the whole journey that brought that family into being.

Approached from a different angle, the series began by asking a question: Can this family survive the traumatic and untimely death of its beloved patriarch? And it ends by answering the question: Yes, with enough time, patience, effort, and love.

While it was nice to see him again, was there some special significance to the choice (which must have flown right over my head, if there was)?

I suppose it all depends on how you interpret it.

If we interpret it from a spiritual place, Rebecca raised William's son into a man he was really proud of. His way of expressing his gratitude and appreciation was by volunteering to guide her over the threshold between life and death.

If we interpret it medically, in terms of Rebecca's dying brain, it makes sense that her guide would be someone the most recent major death in her memory. Yes, Miguel was more important to her and died more recently than William, but Rebecca's dementia had progressed so far by that point that I'm not sure how much her brain retained his loss.

If we interpret it narratively, it was first and foremost a farewell gift for all of us, the viewers. He was there at the beginning of this journey for us, so the storytellers wanted to give him a little tip of the hat at the end.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I suppose it all depends on how you interpret it.

Thanks, Adam.

Another question (from the finale). At one point Randall questions the meaning behind Rebecca's last big deathbed tug of his hand. And Kate and Kevin also wonder about its meaning.

It seemed like an all-too-obvious attempt to make a point...which I felt would be addressed in the final few minutes of the show. But unless I missed it, I was left hanging.

I also felt the final shot of Randall and Jack staring at each other was another odd choice as the absolute final note of the series.

[bad baseball analogy]I agree that it was nice to see the creators use a "small ball approach" to the ending--rather than having the characters swinging for the fences to produce obvious accomplishments[/bad baseball analogy].

I am still a little cranky about the uncharacteristic misdirection of the show's tease of that egg-shaped BBQ grill in the Kate/young Jack storyline.

 

[David Weicker]

Thanks, Adam.

Another question (from the finale). At one point Randall questions the meaning behind Rebecca's last big deathbed tug of his hand. And Kate and Kevin also wonder about its meaning.

It seemed like an all-too-obvious attempt to make a point...which I felt would be addressed in the final few minutes of the show. But unless I missed it, I was left hanging.

I also felt the final shot of Randall and Jack staring at each other was another odd choice as the absolute final note of the series.

[bad baseball analogy]I agree that it was nice to see the creators use a "small ball approach" to the ending--rather than having the characters swinging for the fences to produce obvious accomplishments[/bad baseball analogy].

I am still a little cranky about the uncharacteristic misdirection of the show's tease of that egg-shaped BBQ grill in the Kate/young Jack storyline.

I can't address the other points, but in regards to the hand-squeezing, one of the last moments between Rebecca and Jack in the bed was him speaking to her about always 'being' with the kids, and she finally realizing it and squeezing Jack's hand (presumably that was also the Randall squeeze).

And I also thought the final shot was an odd choice as well.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Apparently they filmed the scene with William and his granddaughters midway through the first season, and all of the scenes with the preteen Big Three a couple years ago, for use in this episode. Which is just a crazy bit of planning ahead, to have basically half of your series finale in the can midway through the show's run.

 

[JohnRice]

Regarding the literary mechanism of the final episode...

Denouement is almost a lost art. To the point where I often see complaints of "What's the point? The story is over? Why did it keep going?" In fact, I looked up definitions for "denouement" and my opinion is a lot of them are wrong. This one is what I was always taught to be the meaning...

The denouement is the final outcome of the story, generally occurring after the climax of the plot.

The final episode was an excellent example of denouement. Just good storytelling, from a literary perspective.

 

[JohnRice]

While it was nice to see him again, was there some special significance to the choice (which must have flown right over my head, if there was)?

Just that from a storytelling perspective it was a compelling and far from obvious choice. In addition to what Adam mentioned, William was an extraordinary individual who ultimately was not able to objectively fulfill his potential, but Rebecca helped to fulfill his legacy.

 

[JohnRice]

Also, I'd been wondering about allusions of Randall

Spoiler

becoming POTUS.

But I kind of like that they briefly touched on the possibility in the final scene, and left it at that.

 

[Garysb]

I liked that they touched on the possibilty of the Big 3 drifting apart after the death of Rebecca.
Not an uncommon event after parents die . They all lead busy, separate lives and it is something that could easily happen. Was it odd that when they thought of family they thought of their parents and themselves rather than their spouses and children ?

 

[Mike Frezon]

Was it odd that when they thought of family they thought of their parents and themselves rather than their spouses and children ?

Personally, I think so. It was a striking part of that conversation. One which did not register with my experience at all.

 

[NeilO]

I lost it when Gerald McRaney showed up. Such a fantastic bookend to the opening episode.

One amusing bit about this. My wife and I also watch the NCIS shows. So, when he showed up in this episode of This Is Us my wife exclaimed, "That's who he is!" only just realizing that Admiral Kilbride was the doctor from the pilot of This Is Us.

 

[NeilO]

Apparently they filmed the scene with William and his granddaughters midway through the first season, and all of the scenes with the preteen Big Three a couple years ago, for use in this episode. Which is just a crazy bit of planning ahead, to have basically half of your series finale in the can midway through the show's run.

Thanks for all your summaries and discussion about the episodes.

I haven't watched/read it yet, but here appears to be an in depth article about this.

'This Is Us' stars and creator on filming half of the finale years in advance

'This Is Us' stars Mandy Moore, Milo Ventimiglia, and Ron Cephas Jones — plus creator Dan Fogelman — on what it was like to film half of the series finale years in advance.

ew.com

[Added] Actually, the video is an "Around the Table" with the cast and might cover some of this, but probably goes over a whole bunch of topics. The article was quite fascinating.