The Beauty, Brilliance and Brutality of This Is Us
On the Season 1 Thanksgiving episode of This Is Us, we watched the following exchange between Randall Pearson’s biological father William and Kevin Pearson’s then-girlfriend Olivia. To my recollection, this is the only scene where William and Olivia shared the screen as a duo, and by the time Season 1 of This Is Us ended, neither William nor Olivia were series regulars anymore. Yet, this brief exchange between the two, which is not one of the trademark tear-jerker scenes that This Is Us has come to be known for through its first three and a half seasons, is vitally important to the success of the show.
The reason I picked this particular scene as an introduction to this piece is because without that exchange between William and Olivia, this scene with William and Randall isn’t quite as brutal and beautiful to watch.
Warning: You’re about to cry.
Sorry to do that to you, but I did warn you. If you chose not to watch the Randall/William scene, I totally get it. For what it’s worth, I re-watched every scene that I included in this piece … except for this one. I won’t do it. I can’t do it. The last time I watched this scene I cried so hard during the episode and for multiple hours after the episode that I called in sick to work the next morning.
The ability to weave short-term, medium-term and long-term story arcs in such a way that they end up being tied together and knotted so neatly with breath-taking, brilliant payoffs that make us cry more often than not but always make us feel something, is the biggest reason why This Is Us has been so successful thus far through three-and-a-half seasons. There are many factors in play here; it’s not just the vision of Dan Fogelman and his team of writers. It’s the work of Siddhartha Kholsa, the composer who has crafted the beautiful score that accompanies most scenes on TIU. It’s the work of a cast that consistently knocks it out of the park — six different cast members have been nominated for either a Lead or Supporting Actor/Actress Award at the Emmy’s, and that number should be seven, because how the hell did Justin Hartley not get a nod for his performance in Number One? When everything comes together — the writing, the music, the acting, etc. — we are treated to moments of television goodness that feel so sincere and profound that it’s hard for us to control our own emotions in our living rooms.
So today I’d like to celebrate This Is Us by sharing a couple handfuls of those moments within this piece and expand on what, in my opinion, make them so great and work so well in the grand scheme of the show.
Note: When I say I’m going to “expand on what, in my opinion, makes these moments so great and work so well in the grand scheme of the show” I mean I’m going to be typing through tears, likely not doing much besides explaining why I’m a blubbering mess.
Some of these moments will make you cry sad tears. Some will make you cry happy tears. Some will make you reflect on your life in a way you didn’t expect you would while visiting Bingeable. Every single one of them will surely make you feel something. Because that’s what This Is Us does.
Additional Note: I’m assuming that anyone reading this is well-versed and up to date on all things This Is Us, so no unnecessary background information will be explained throughout, however, there will be all sorts of spoilers.
This Is Us focuses on two generations of the Pearson family. In the present day, we follow Kevin, Kate and Randall — #1, #2 and #3 — as they try to navigate life as they enter their late thirties after tragically losing their father Jack when they were Seniors in high school. Now while solving the mystery of how Jack Pearson died was one of the early hooks of This Is Us and a major reason that such an enormous and passionate fanbase came to life, watching how their father’s death AND life impact the Pearson children — and their Mother Rebecca too — has always been the fundamental story that the show was built on.
Ultimately, what we see is that the three Pearson kids are all struggling in their own unique ways to both cope with Jack’s death, and to live up to the example he set for them when he was alive. Kevin battles similar inner demons that Jack did at various stages throughout his life. Kate fights to move past the lingering feelings that her father’s death is her fault. Randall deals with the internal pressure of attempting to live up to what Jack was as a husband and a father and a man — no easy task, mind you.
In the moments when Kevin, Kate and Randall are facing these challenges head on, it’s when This Is Us really manages to tug on our heartstrings and deliver some of the most memorable moments in the short history of the show. Because of the flash-back/flash-forward structure of the show, we have in some fashion seen how each of the Big Three — and every characters in the show to some degree — have grown from the nearly the very beginning of their lives. It makes them easier to relate to, easier to understand, easier to feel empathy and sympathy for.
So when Kevin is drunk and re-visiting his old high school, retrospectively looking back on some of the darkest days of his life and wondering why everybody else can’t see how badly he’s screwed his life up, it hurts you too — or at least it did me; this is probably one of the five hardest scenes in This Is Us to re-watch. When Kate is at a weight loss camp and urged to “let it all out,” she does so literally with a horrifying scream with the image of her father’s funeral in her mind, and that pain is both relatable, yet inconceivable for someone who doesn’t feel as though they are partially responsible for the death of someone they adore. When Randall and his wife Beth are in the midst of a nasty, no-holds-barred argument, he thinks back to when he saw a similar bout of marital discontent nearly twenty years earlier between his parents, and because we’re seeing it through Randall’s eyes in this flashback — and because we saw the full version in a Season 1 episode — it’s like we were active participants in both of these conflicts.
And because the Jack and Rebecca relationship means so much within the scope of the show, this fight is downright damaging to everybody — to Jack, Rebecca, the kids, and Us.
There are many reasons why the Jack and Rebecca relationship is such a driving force for This Is Us. Obviously the writers handle the arc of the Jack and Rebecca story with a great care and consideration, and they often highlight these two characters in situations where they are experiencing a life-changing moment together, but above everything else, what deserves to be commended the most is the immediate on-screen chemistry of Milo Ventimiglia and Mandy Moore.
It’s my belief that often times the very first scene of a show can make or break it. Perhaps that’s unfair, but if you aren’t in after the first five minutes, you’re probably out. Well Jack and Rebecca worked from the very first time we saw them together; Jack sitting butt-ass naked on a bed with only a Terrible Towel covering himself, and Rebecca, tremendously pregnant, attempting to seductively dance for Jack as a birthday present.
The thought of Jack and Rebecca not being happy with each other at the time of Jack’s death was hanging over the This Is Us Season 1 finale, so it was a Godsend when Jack delivered this speech to Rebecca in the very final scene of the shows first season, because it provided a glimmer of hope for these two moving forward in their story.
And yes, I’m typing through tears right now, because this might be the most goddamn beautiful moment I’ve ever seen on television.
And if it weren’t enough that Jack was a Vietnam War veteran and capable of delivering the most jaw-dropping romantic speeches imaginable, he’s also a fucking superhero who went into a burning house to rescue his daughter’s dog.
This scene gets sadder with each re-watch because it’s clear to us now that this is the final conversation, the final interaction of any kind, that Jack and Rebecca have before this happens …
I mean, whoever conceived this shot …
… deserves some sort of Emmy Award, because it’s shocking every single time you see it. And speaking of Emmy Awards, Mandy Moore is an absolute tour de force in this scene, and the accompanying episode and a half that deals with the fallout of Jack’s death.
Sidebar: My theory is we’re going to actually see Jack’s death at some point. It’s coming. And it’s going to be horrific. Let’s all try to prepare ourselves.
What a fucking flex it was to introduce a War storyline with flawless precision after two seasons of only brining up Vietnam as an unexplored and mostly unknown part of Jack’s past.
If you had the courage to watch the Randall/William scene I posted above, you’ll know then that this scene between Jack and Robinson features a callback to the Hands-on-the-Face-Take-a-Deep-Breath move that Randall used on William, which Randall learned from Jack when Randall had anxiety as a child. And because Dan Fogelman and Co. are so completely brilliant, it turns out there was a portion of the circle that we didn’t even know was missing! Halfway through Season 3 we learn that Jack didn’t make this move up on his own … he learned it from Robinson, a member of his unit in Vietnam who had to be airlifted out after losing his foot. The This Is Us world runs pretty damn deep.
After Jack Pearson’s death was finally shown just after the halfway point in Season 2, I was immediately concerned that This Is Us may slip in quality because that overarching mystery of how the Pearson family patriarch passed was gone. But since then, This Is Us has done four things incredibly well to avoid a drop off of any kind.
First, they’ve taken chances by introducing bold new storylines like Jack’s experience in Vietnam, which includes an introduction to Jack’s younger brother Nicky, who would come to be a major cog in the This Is Us machine by Season 4.
Second, they’ve put previously used supporting characters — like Beth, Toby and Deja — in the spotlight with a great deal of success.
Sidebar: I don’t have any idea why, but the last time I full-blown cried during a live episode of This Is Us was in the above Beth/Randall/Tess scene. It snuck up on me and all of the sudden I was blubbering. Still don’t know why.
Third, they expanded their reach yet again, this time by introducing Malik, Cassidy and Jack (Kate and Toby’s son) as at least semi-regular characters who are impacting the lives of the Pearson’s.
And fourth, they’ve created another moment that fans can build conspiracy theories for. Why isn’t Miguel in the bedroom with a dying Rebecca? What’s the state of Rebecca and Nicky’s relationship? Who is Kevin’s wife? Are Kate and Toby still together? Is Jack coming with Kate, or his wife? What’s up with the sidewalk chalk that Toby brought?
I’m sure Dan Fogelman would welcome all of these discussions and debates about which conspiracy theories make the most sense, but once again, just remember that it’s not the questions or the answers that truly matter … it’s the people that we’re watching who do. And they matter because it’s always so easy to relate to them no matter what they’re facing in life because after all, this is us.
