This Is Us S5, Ep. 8-9

Catching up with blogs. This blog is a two-for-one with shorter reviews of the two most recent episode of This Is Us.

In The Room

Recap: Kevin's fiance Madison finally has the twins, Kate and Toby get their adopted baby.

I was pretty upset at the end of Kevin's portion of the trilogy episode when it seemed he might've missed the birth of his twins. But he worked really hard, broke some speed-limit laws, and totally took advantage of his fame to board an airplane when an unknown person would have literally zero chance at that. Still, I found myself yelling at the airport security woman, "Come on, let him on the plane!" Guess I can't talk, huh?

I was glad they let Kevin in the room during birth. Look, I understand how much people care about COVID restrictions, but if that's me, no way am I missing the birth of my kids.

I mean, I was even upset about Toby's predicament. They wouldn't let him in the hospital at all. Seriously? They'll let Kate stay, but one more person is too many? As if Kate and Toby aren't married. Whatever, it's fine. Of course, Toby meets an elderly man in the same situation; it makes more sense for an elderly man, but still, the idea of not letting a husband be with his wife in what could be her final moments is pretty harsh. I feel so badly for those people in the real world who have been cut off from supporting their loved ones, even if it's for the right reason.

Anyway, as my wife and I have done countless times while watching this show, we totally called that Toby would try to use the elderly man's wife's name as part of the baby they're adopting; it's really not even that hard of a prediction to make.

The storyline, of course, perfectly mirrors the way Kevin, Kate, and Randall came to be family. Two twins and an adopted child all born on the same day somehow come into the same family (Kate and Toby's child will be a cousin, but still). Are the seeds of "This Is Us 2: That is Them" getting planted? Are we going to get a better version of Fuller House now?

The drama with Ellie, the birthing mother of Kate and Toby's soon-to-be baby, was as predictable as any soap opera story in history. Ellie is having second thoughts about giving up the baby; thankfully, though, they didn't try to milk that story idea too much, because we all knew Kate and Toby were getting their baby.

Sure, watching the new babies arrive was a sweet moment as it would be in any show, so overall, the episode was touching, but it was not without its flaws. Honestly, the ancillary story about Kevin and Randall slowly arriving to that point of reconciliation was one of my favorite moments of the episode. Also, Beth is just the best.

The Ride

Recap: All the parents drive their babies home for the first time

The writers went all in on car ride parallelism as they showed the different ways new parents handle that moment when they first take their kid(s) home from the hospital. Rebecca begins to scare while Jack finds comfort after sneaking a drink of alcohol. He has Rebecca drive home, and when they get there, the big three are all asleep. Not wanting to waste such a golden opportunity, Jack and Rebecca have an intimate talk about how they feel as new parents. Rebecca shares how nervous she is, yet she's simultaneously trying to avoid being too sad, like her mother was (both Rebecca and her mother experienced a miscarriage, too). Jack, meanwhile, comes clean about the drink; it was nice to see Jack have a moment of weakness, though it didn't prove detrimental and ultimately gave him more resolve to not be like his father.

While Jack is trying not to be like his father, all Kevin wants to do is be like Jack. He asks himself "What would Jack do?" as if they made Jesus-like wristbands after the guy. Kevin certainly faces a lot of pressure, especially with the way he builds up his dad's image in his mind, and the way he conveyed that felt very real. Kevin even gets angry like his day as he deals with something that only feels real to celebrities: the paparazzi start following him and taking pictures of him while he's angry and trying to get the twins Nicky (named after Kevin's uncle) and Franny in the car seats. Madison comes up with a clever ploy to throw the photographer off the scent. Ha, what a lousy journalist he was!

Randall and Beth's story was kind of odd; Randall gets sad about not having a boy and insists they try one more time; Beth, on the other hand, is just trying to enjoy a Dairy Queen blizzard, and no, she doesn't want to share. Every man wants a son at some point, but Randall was just overzealous, even by his standards, which is saying a lot.

Last, but not least, Kate drove their new baby Hailey Rose (Rose was the name of the elderly man's wife in the previous episode) home, but she also took Ellie home, which I thought was awkward. They originally agreed to an open adoption in which Ellie would be a part of Hailey's life, which Kate was happy about, but Ellie later decided it's too much to handle, so she decides not to do that, which upsets Kate.

I would've guessed it would be the other way around. Kate is so standoff-ish and protective at times. I just would've assumed she wouldn't want to risk her daughter growing closer with her real mother than with Kate. But I guess it also makes sense Kate would react this way because she saw how Randall was negatively affected by not knowing who his birth parents were, so maybe she didn't want to put Hailey through that. Either way, I didn't love how the storyline was executed. Sure, Ellie is entitled to freak out in the moment and decide she isn't up for what she thought she could handle. That's completely natural. But the fact that she so suddenly came to the realization that this was even a possibility insinuates to me she wasn't thinking it through, anyway, so why would she be so convinced she's making the right decision this time? And who's to say she's going to stick to her feelings on the matter now? Feelings change from moment to moment, and Kate's anger in how Ellie handled the situation was completely justified.

The episode closed with a big cliffhanger. We see Randall's three girls all grown up visiting an older Randall. We also see a mystery driver in the white car, so of course the Internet is speculating who that could be and coming up with wild and crazy theories. I suppose saying it's Malik is too easy (he's the younger guy dating Deja), so I'm sure we'll be shocked. What was sad about the scene was not seeing Beth there. We've seen this family in the future before, and if I remember correctly (which is very sketch, by the way), Beth and Randall seemed to be having issues. I hope those issues don't have lasting repercussions.