This Is Us is all about family, and while we thought we knew all the major players, the Tuesday, October 24, episode, titled “Brothers,” introduced us to a member of the Pearson family we never knew existed. Read on for more details about Kate’s big announcement, Deja’s past abuse, Kevin’s pain pill withdrawals and the mystery Pearson.
Kate and Toby Announce Their Pregnancy … to Total Strangers
After last week’s bombshell that Kate (Chrissy Metz) is pregnant, the show spent some time unraveling her anxieties. Now eight weeks along, she finally told Toby (Chris Sullivan). He was ecstatic — the exact reaction you would think an expectant mother would want from the father of her baby — but Kate set him straight right away. Because she’s 37, her pregnancy is considered geriatric; that, plus her weight, make it a high-risk pregnancy. So she told Toby to keep all his hopes and dreams about their baby to himself until the little one was born.
Kate was more than willing to keep the news quiet until she got into a fender bender with annoying, no-problems Madison from her support group. She blurted out that she was pregnant and decided it felt really good to say aloud. Kate gave Toby the same opportunity when she took him to a random coffee shop and gave him permission to tell a stranger. Toby cued up his happy song — Hootie and the Blowflish’s “Only Wanna Be With You” — and danced his way through the coffee shop as he told every person in sight that he and Kate are having a baby.
Deja Opens Up to Randall
Randall (Sterling K. Brown) and Deja were still having trouble bonding, but she showed interest in attending a gala Sophie (Alexandra Breckenridge) was organizing. So Randall jumped at the chance to take her, even though he knew she only wanted to go because she’d developed a crush on Kevin (Justin Hartley). Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) was hesitant to let Deja go, but Randall assured her it would be fine.
And it was … until Randall unexpectedly lunged at Deja to keep her from eating a shrimp tail. She ran off to the bathroom, which is where she stayed until Randall entered the women’s restroom and waited outside the stall for her. Randall thought he came on too strong, but Deja opened up to him about her experience at one of her previous foster homes. She said her foster mom’s boyfriend would use magazines to beat up the kids — that’s why she didn’t like when Randall grabbed her. Luckily, Randall seemed to be on the right track with Deja as they headed back home.
Kevin’s Withdrawals
Kevin was in New York to be auctioned off at Sophie’s charity gala, but his pain pill dependency got the better of him. He was out of Vicodin, and after several calls to his doctor, he discovered he couldn’t get another refill. This led him to drink (a lot) and miss his part of the auction altogether. Sophie was disappointed in him for embarrassing her, and she pointed out that he’d been acting weird since he got to New York. Kevin rushed out to get some air and call his former doctor for pain pills.
Jack’s Dying Dad
In flashbacks, Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) took young Randall and Kevin camping. He thought if they could work together as a team, they’d get along better. Rebecca (Mandy Moore) and Kate stayed behind for a movies-and-manicures day, but a phone call from Jack’s father’s nursing home derailed their plans. Stanley was close to dying, and since Rebecca couldn’t reach Jack at the campground, she and Kate headed to the nursing home to check on her father-in-law.
Turns out, this was the first time Rebecca and Stanley had met, so she didn’t quite know what to do. She finally reached Jack and told him what was going on, but Jack decided to stay at the campground with the boys. In his eyes, “that man’s been dead to me for a long time.”
Rebecca informed Stanley that his son wasn’t coming. Before she left, she told him what a great father Jack was. “You think you screwed him up, but you didn’t. You only made him stronger.”
A Brother of a Bombshell
Judging by the title, you’d think this episode was about young Kevin and Randall learning to get along. And in part, it was. All Kevin wanted to do was torture Randall, but once he found Randall’s notebook filled with ideas about how he could get Kevin to like him (talk about The Karate Kid, for one), Kevin made an effort to bond with Randall over marshmallows.
But the episode’s title was also referring to a pair of brothers we didn’t even know existed. Looking back on Jack’s childhood, we saw his father stop for a drink on the way to take Jack fishing. Jack sat in the car for a long time, assuring himself that his father would come back. Then, out of nowhere, a bespectacled little boy rose up from a nap in the back seat: Jack’s brother, Nicky!
After adult Jack returned from camping with Kevin and Randall, he looked through a box of old photos, where he found a picture of himself and his brother in the Vietnam War. So why haven’t we heard anything about Jack having a brother before now? Did he die in the war? Or is he still out there somewhere?
This Is Us airs on NBC Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
