Forty: Part Two
Episode 2 of This Is Us Season 5 starts up at the cabin as the group prepare for Randall’s arrival. Only, Rebecca’s gone missing which causes panic to ensue. Thankfully, Miguel receives a call from the police confirming Rebecca has been found after an episode and brought back to the cabin. When she turns up, she’s clearly not of sane mind and Miguel does his best to calm her down. And just like that, Randall arrives too. Things are clearly tense between him and Kevin but Randall brushes aside his brother’s interjections about their Mother. “The most important thing is that Mum is safe.” Randall heads upstairs and finds Rebecca in bed resting. While he makes sure she’s okay, Kate has had enough and confronts Kevin. She tells him the world is on fire and he needs to patch up his differences to Randall sooner rather than later. Meanwhile, Toby and Miguel have a heart to heart about the situation they’re currently going through with Rebecca. “One day at a time,” He says, smiling warming. It’s a touching moment and one that sees the family all reconvene as they get to the bottom of what’s happening with Rebecca’s. It turns out she’s having an adverse reaction to the medication she’s on. As Randall looks set to leave, Kate speaks to him outside as the attention turns to details surrounding Floyd and the slew of black people who have died in the past. She apologizes for what’s happening as the pair go their separate ways. Kate feels awful about it though and sits inside with Toby who does her best to cheer her up. It turns out they have a match for a new baby, which does put a smile on her face. Just before Randall leaves, Kevin catches up to him and reveals that he’s having a girl and a boy. The two have a disjointed heart to heart and say happy birthday to each other before Randall leaves. In the past, Jack and William both head to the chapel at different times, determined to pray for their future. This brings back memories for Jack as he remembers moments his Father was praying hard. Jack prays too, this time for Rebecca’s health and wellbeing. He even offers himself up as a sacrifice as long as Rebecca lives. On the road, Randall calls Dr Leigh and decides he’s going to find a black therapist instead as there’s issues that are just too sensitive for her to deal with. As he heads home and reflects on what’s happening in the world, Beth mentions how we’ve defined by our tragedies. Only, that tragedy has formed an amazing family for them. As the episode closes out, we see another flashback, this time revealing that Laurel is still alive.
The Episode Review
With a continuation from the previous episode, part 2 deepens the character ties while continuing to weave the current world societal implications in America through Randall. He’s probably the best character to choose for this narrative in truth, building on those light bites of commentary in the past surrounding Jack in the past. The idea that Randall’s Mother is still alive raises so many questions that the writers will inevitably need to try and solve across this season. I guess the most likely answer to what happened is that William hid Laurel from Randall. But how? And why? Why would he do this? Especially on his death bed, surely it would have made sense to reveal the truth to his son. Otherwise, it just discredits his character. The best part of this episode though comes from the random moments between William and Jack who brush past one another multiple times across this two-parter. There’s something poetic about this and the episode does well to add this in naturally. Quite what the rest of the season has in store for us though, especially after this bump premiere double-bill, remains to be seen.
