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It’s us
The path
Season 5
Episode 9
Editor’s Note
Photo: courtesy of NBC
Last week we saw a whole bunch of Pearson babies being delivered. Now is the time to bring them home. But it’s not just Frannie, Nick, and Hailey on that rough drive home from the hospital – this episode stumbles upon a slew of Pearsons bringing newborns home for the first time. If all of this sounds vaguely familiar to you, your mind might be wandering to the season two episode “The Car” in which yes, we have several storylines that took place in the Pearson Wagoneer. It’s not that. Yes, the edit towards the end of the episode was a lot like Wagoneer’s, but where “The Car” was more about a family car as a kind of book of memories and a way to look back and remember it. ‘a life together, “The Ride” is the start of a journey together.
Let’s start with Jack and Rebecca leaving the hospital with the Big Three for the first time, as it’s the most emotional of the various car rides we have in this episode. And also because I think I’ve decided that Jack and Rebecca from the late 70’s and early 80’s are my favorite Jack and Rebecca. Why? Who is to say. It probably has 73% to do with Jack’s beard. 86 percent. Either way, how terrifying must it be to leave the warm, supportive cocoon of the hospital with three newborns? No one can blame this security guard who sees Jack improperly installing the car seats and after learning that Jack has triplets simply responds “oh my god bless you” before walking away. Jack and Rebecca are very brave people and no one wants to get involved in this situation if they don’t have to.
Jack and Rebecca are also very busy people. Of course they are! Besides having to keep three humans alive, let’s not forget that it was just a few days ago that Rebecca lost a baby in childbirth. She and Jack barely started to deal with this loss. It’s no wonder she looks distressed when she realizes she can’t see the babies’ faces from the front seat to make sure they’re okay on this ride.
And then the babies start to cry. So Jack, who tries to prove to Rebecca and himself that he’s a competent supplier, already hurts him on the freeway when a real asshole of a driver interrupts him. They arrive at the same gas station and Jack is about to unload on this guy but Rebecca talks to him. To calm himself down, Jack walks inside, buys himself a tiny bottle of whiskey and lowers it. He asks Rebecca to drive the rest of the way back.
When they finally arrive in their hallway, the three children are sleeping soundly. They decide to wait for her in the car, which finally leads them to open up about the emotional spirals the two are experiencing internally. Oof, this scene is so good. It’s just the right amount of emotion and sentimentality and also advances character development. Rebecca is afraid of being a bad mother because she will be too sad – she has seen this happen to her mother after a miscarriage – and she feels like a completely different person than the one who left to have her babies only. four days ago. Of course, what just happened to her changed her – how could he not? – but Jack assures her that doesn’t mean she won’t be a great mother.
He is unable to accord the same kindness to himself: he is completely terrified of looking exactly like his father. He talks to Rebecca about the whiskey and the rage he was ready to unleash on this driver. It’s his father. His father hated being with his own family, and he “sucked in the air of” any room he was in. Jack’s relationship with his father has been a staple of the show, but it’s received an even bigger spotlight this season and hopefully. It’s us go further. We still haven’t seen what happens to the Pearsons right after Jack and Nicky’s return from Vietnam. And we know that Jack asked Stanley for money to buy his and Rebecca’s dream house and refused to see it when he was dying, but is there something in between that we should know? There are some interesting things waiting to be discovered.
Either way, Rebecca tells Jack that he won’t be like his father. “You don’t suck the air out of the room, you are looks, ”she tells him, which is corny as hell, but I also like it. They realize that they are going to be fine because they are together and everything is so sweet and maybe we should all sit in cars while the babies are sleeping in the back so we can feel the things again, I don’t know, it’s weird weather.
Meanwhile, these days Kevin shows us once again that he looks a lot like his father in the best and worst ways. He too finds himself plunged into rage as he drives home from the hospital with his newborns. He too should be reminded by his partner before doing something he will regret. Kevin Problem, however, is not a reckless driver, it is the paparazzi who follow him to take a picture of the Manny with his new babies. Madison – who, by the way, is like, the the quietest new mom on the planet, which is wild because I don’t think Madison has ever been calm for a minute in her entire life – can see Kevin is desperately sleep deprived (will we talk about someday? the way he pulled a man out of a burning car and slipped his way into a theft without ID? So many follow-ups!) and she takes over and forces him to take a nap. It’s in this nap that we have a little interaction between Kevin and Jack.
Kevin dreams of stepping on Jack (interestingly, this is Mustache Jack from Kevin’s childhood and not Kevin’s teenage Jack goat, right?) Holding his new grandchildren and ready for a heart to heart with his son. Dream Jack tells Kevin he needs to stop trying to live up to him. You see, Jack spent so much time worrying about becoming his father and Kevin is stressed out about not being like his father and all they do is waste time being afraid. He tells his son to decide what he wants and will get it. Obviously, this is all in Kevin’s head, but it sounds like a very close to the mark speech for Jack.
What Kevin wants is his family. For real and forever. So he officially proposes to Madison (well, “officially” with his hospital bracelet). They do that, I guess?
And what about Jack Pearson’s other son? One of our other road trips after the hospital follows Randall and Beth after the birth of our only true savior, Annie. All Beth wants is a Dairy Queen Snickers Blizzard. All Randall wants is to talk about having a third child. Randall is so. I know we already know it, but sometimes we have to remind ourselves. Beth is like “another human recently came out of my body, come get me a fucking blizzard, man” and Randall obliges, knowing he’s A LOT, but he also explains where he’s coming from with this extremely untimely request.
A nurse at the hospital said Annie had her father’s eyes and that’s a big deal for Randall, who has never looked like family. There is a difference between knowing your family and knowing where you are from. This, of course, is the same thing we’ve seen Randall grapple with these days. He wanted to be related to something bigger, he wanted to understand his roots, which is why the search for his biological parents was so important to him. As for the children, he wants to build a family tree full of branches. Guy loves plant metaphors, okay? Randall hopes that even though he and Beth have no more children, his daughters will have babies and his family tree will grow again and again.
This is where the flash-forward comes in. We meet Adult Deja and Adult Annie, who are heading together to Uncle Kevin’s to join everyone in saying goodbye to Rebecca, and Deja is secretly pregnant! Annie knows but no one else. Our tater tot has his own tater tot! Randall will be so excited that his tree gets a new branch. But even better: we learn that Deja is in the process of becoming a doctor. We are all so proud!
• Kate and Toby’s plans are thrown out the window on the way home from the hospital when a visibly upset Ellie tells them she knows they’ve accepted an open adoption full of visits and photos, but she just can’t be a part of Hailey’s life right now. She wants to say goodbye and move on. Kate is devastated, especially after seeing what Randall went through without knowing his birth parents, but Toby tells her that everything will be fine. And who knows, Ellie might want to meet Hailey at some point in the future. They have that. Do you remember how messy Toby was when Jack was born? He is so reassuring and stable now! What a twist.
• It’s an intense day at the Pearson-Damon house because Toby also has to inform his wife that he’s been fired. Then it’s Kate’s turn to be reassuring. These two seem to be in such a great place at the moment.
Okay, so just as Old Randall is about to walk into Old Kevin’s house with his grown daughters, another car pulls up, beeps, and Old Randall says ‘look who this’ is ”as he and Adult Deja greet each other with familiarity. With most of our other major players factored into the flash-forward (Is Miguel still alive? Madison’s wife Kevin?), It looks like It’s us sets us up for some kind of revelation with Kate. Are the answers in this car? When will we find out? It is possible that I am excessively invested in this flash-forward!
• Beth’s deep love for her DQ Blizzard was very understandable. I mean, she chooses Snickers and I’m more of a Butterfinger girl, but I really felt seen.
• Learn that Randall would have each week Congratulated watching the holidays with mom is the most precious gift.
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