This Is Us continues to explain more about this family to us. And in tonight’s episode we learned about Jack’s sacrifice that he made for Randall. And for the first time his death was discussed.
What’s always most interesting in this show is how everything ties together so well. Who these people are in the present has so much to do with what happened to them in the past, just like real life.
Jack puts a tie on to go to work every day and hates it. He dreams of starting his own company, which seems to possibly be a construction company. However, he and Rebecca get called in to the kids’ school and learn that Randall is so gifted that he’d do better if he was in a school filled with other smart kids.
Of concern to Jack is how well Randall would fit in with the others, as he wouldn’t be with Kevin or Kate, and there doesn’t seem to be many other black children in the school. But once he realizes how smart he is and that he indeed does hide his intelligence so that he can be just like everyone else, Jack knows he needs to send him to the other school. I understand that battle, as my son did the same thing.
But it’s a bad time for them to send Randall to a different school since Jack wants to start his own business. Eventually he pops his head into Miguel’s office, and then he puts his drawings for the logo of his business away, so it appears as if he has decided to stay at that business, sacrificing what he wants to do so that he can give Randall what he needs. Every single parent out there understands that.
In Randall’s adult life he gets signed up to speak at career day, but no one understands his career of trading commodities dependent on the weather. He learns that William plays the piano and is artistic and that it runs in the family. He decides to pep up his career presentation a bit and writes and performs a song about it, failing miserably. This helps him decide that he doesn’t need to apologize for having a job no one else understands. He also decide to take piano lessons.
And while Randall was being switched to a new school, away from Kate and Kevin, Kevin was busy building models with Jack and bonding with him. Kate could not do the same with Rebecca. She grew jealous of her mom’s looks and clothes. It’s the first inkling we see into their relationship with each other.
This comes out in Kate’s adult life once she finally finds another job. She’s again working as an assistant. She has a tough time getting along with her boss’s daughter. Kate puts her foot down about having to interact with her again but does take the time to search her out to let her know that she, too, was jealous of her skinny mom. She knows what it’s like. Whether or not you identify with her, it’s hard to see her in such obvious pain in her life, as she has been since episode one.
Kevin is having a hard time connecting with a grief scene in the play. His costar takes him to the memorial service of a man neither one of the know. Kevin ends up talking with the widow privately, and once she discusses her son who will now be without his father, Kevin is able to reflect on his own grief of losing his dad. He makes love to his costar, and she then lets him know it won’t happen again as now he’ll know what it’s like to never sleep with a woman he desires again, the same way his character must feel for his late wife. That was a tough way to learn that lesson.
It all just helped us to see this family differently. It answered some little questions, but it raised so many more. We don’t know how or when Jack dies. We don’t know how Rebecca ends up with Miguel and what happens to Miguel’s wife. We don’t know if Jack ever got to start his own business before he died. We know that Kevin and Randall struggle in their relationship with each other and that Kevin and Kate are extremely close. But what about Kate and Randall? So far they haven’t been with each other at all as adults, as he still seems to live in the Pittsburgh area while she’s out in California. And how did they all get separated? Was it just because Kevin was working in the Manny sitcom, so he and Kate moved out there?
Next week it looks like there could be problems in Kate’s new relationship. She goes to his door in the preview, and he says it’s not a good time. Does he have another woman in there? He’s been such a good guy so far, is he now going to end up being a jerk?
Meanwhile, I love every single one of these people. To see how they came about being the people they are today and how they developed their relationships just draws me in.
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