This Is Us Recap, Season 5 Episode 7: ‘There’

The last time we got together for our Pearson Family Sad Hour, we focused on a mother’s influence on her son, as Randall finally learned the story of his biological mother Laurel. Of course, on the surface he had mostly written it off, but it became clear this season that the specter of Laurel holds an important place in Randall’s life, first as a mystery he wanted to solve and now as a as someone he could feel connected to. Randall’s biological mother is part of him. In the” It’s us moves on to the links between fathers and sons.

Look, the idea that the Pearson children are deeply influenced by their late father is nothing new. This show could be titled Father-related issues and we’d all be like “yes, mmhmm, that’s right.” The power that Jack Pearson, the man, the myth, the legend, has over his children is a territory well exploited. This is especially true for Kevin: remember season 1 “The Son of Jack Pearson” in which Kevin, channeling his father, abandons his Back of an egg first to rock Randall because he has a breakdown? Kevin’s actions in this episode were actually just the start of his life under a What Would Jack Pearson Do? mandate. In “There” we see how keeping Jack’s voice in his head changed Kevin, forced him to re-prioritize his life, and how that could have lasting repercussions.

It makes sense that Kevin is thinking more about his relationship with Jack these days – he’s about to be a father. Yes, Madison is in labor six weeks before her due date and Kevin is in Vancouver about to shoot his big scene with [checks notes] Robert De Niro. It’s Kevin’s dream come true… until he gets Madison’s phone call and hears how scared she is. It doesn’t take long for Kevin to realize that maybe his dream has turned into something different. Before leaving for Vancouver, Madison told him to understand how he wanted to be part of their family. The speed with which Kevin decides to leave the set and join his fiancee and children seems to indicate that Kevin has made the decision that his family will always come before his career. He doubles down on that decision on his run to get to Los Angeles when he first expels his agent, who calls to see if Kevin Actually came out on De Niro, and even more so when our favorite snooty independent director Foster calls to ask Kevin to get back on set and Kevin tells him that no one cares about his stupid movie. Kevin resigns.

Before we can guess what Kevin’s future will look like after maybe blowing his entire career up, we first need to see if he makes it through to the birth of his children on time. Kevin’s decision to leave the set might be an easy one, but the rest of his trip certainly isn’t. It takes a little while, but thanks to Miguel’s help, Kevin gets a ticket on a flight from Seattle to Los Angeles that takes off in two hours. It is about an hour from Seattle. He can do that.

Then the perfect storm of bad shit occurs: it’s late, he’s driving in a remote area where he doesn’t have cell service, and he runs into a car that has crashed on the side of the road. The car is on fire. Kevin goes down there and pulls the guy out of the wreckage, uses his jacket for a tourniquet to stop the guy’s leg bleeding, and loses his wallet in the woods in the process. It will certainly be a problem when Kevin shows up at the airport.

Since Kevin can’t call an ambulance, he gets the guy into the car and drives him to the nearest hospital. He cuts him close for his flight, but he stays! at! time! Along the way, Kevin certainly doesn’t want a corpse on his hands, so he tries to make sure the guy stays awake. It’s very important to the brand that when Kevin says they have to keep talking he mostly gets into a story about how he can’t believe he’s going to miss the most important day in life. of his children and that his father was the best father. instead of asking the almost dying guy anything on himself. So this dude is bleeding and has to comfort Kevin by telling him that he has three teenage boys and that the day they were born is definitely not the most important day of their lives. That man!

By now the guy has realized he was saved by actor Kevin Pearson and assures him that he doesn’t have to worry because he’s rich and famous and his kids will idolize him no matter what. But Kevin is not in this. Jack was neither rich nor famous; Kevin loved his father because he was always there for him. “My father was the most ‘out there’ person who ever lived,” he says. And that’s not just a quote from Kevin: Throughout the episode, we watched a story from the early ’90s that shows us exactly that.

The ’90s storyline picks up again as Jack and Young Kevin head to a weekend shift camp for the 7th and 8th graders. Kevin has just heard his parents talk about the misery he plays in football and Jack tells Rebecca that she allowed Kevin to give up when the going got tough made him limp. Once the guys arrive at the hotel, Kevin is so worried about disappointing his dad that he gets sick. When Jack finally asks his son to talk to him, he reveals two things: First, that Kevin thinks Jack thinks football is the only thing Kevin has that makes him special and that is the only reason Jack came. with him at camp. Second, Kevin’s coach is very hard on him and repeatedly calls him stupid. None of these things suit Jack well, and he takes Kevin out to dinner to figure out how to work things out.

The coach aspect has a quick fix: When Jack meets Kevin’s coach in the restaurant bathroom, he makes it very clear that if he ever hears the coach calling his son stupid, there will be a problem. Jack punctuates the conversation by handing the coach a paper towel to help dry his hands. A very baller movement.

Kevin’s other problem – feelings of intense pressure and inadequacy – requires a softer touch. Hearing what Kevin feels like breaks Jack’s heart because he’s been there. When he was in a little league, his father turned something Jack loved into a nightmare by getting drunk at his games and berating him if he was playing poorly (we see an example of one of those games and the complicated comeback. of Jack at home in the episode’s C plot). Jack swore he would never do that to his own kids, but now he feels like he’s like Stanley. He tells Kevin all this over dinner, but even Little Kevin is mature enough to realize that Jack is nothing like his father, he’s much, much better – and tells him so.

But aside from that conversation showing us how proud Jack was to be Kevin’s dad and how much Kevin admired Jack (and apart from Jack assuring Kevin that football isn’t all he has, tips that may be applicable if Kevin really needs a move (on acting), he’s also bringing home one of the show’s main themes on parents and kids. Jack tells Kevin that maybe what makes “parents so big in our heads is that they are a million things to all of us at once” and that “even after they are gone, we’re stuck with them, we don’t help it, they’re inside of us. Jack could mean he’s inherited some of his father’s less-than-stellar traits, but for Kevin it means a lot more than that: yes, he comes from a long line of drug addicts, but Kevin inherited the best roles as well. of Jack. He’s a better person because he constantly hears his father’s voice in his head. That’s why he helped this guy on the side of the road and that’s why he desperately wants to show up for his kids.

And that’s certainly why, when he finally arrives at the airport and realizes he doesn’t have his ID card, he begs the TSA agent to find a way to get him on board. the plane. Not being there for the birth, “it’s going to break me,” he told her. Okay, that’s a lot to put on this woman who is just doing her job and minding her business. Will she be influenced by the Pearson drama of all of this? Time will tell us!

• The episode ends with Randall and Beth calling Madison on their way back from New Orleans to check on her. Hearing how upset she is to be alone, Randall offers to stay on the phone with her for as long as she needs. “You are family,” he told her. It makes my eyes cry just thinking about it. Did you ever imagine that we would be here with Madison? Madison!

• Car Accident Guy (has he ever been named? Did I block this?) Is played by Joshua Malina (Scandal, West wing, so much!), so we have to assume it will come back somehow, right? At the very least, we deserve an update on his health.

• The Jack / Kevin piece of soda straw thawed my cold, dead heart! Kevin loves his father so much! Please let him start building Big Three Homes now so we can all feel warm and fuzzy inside!

• Whoa, whoa, whoa. Kate and Toby’s baby is about to be born! We get a quick call between Kevin and Kate and learn that KaToby is heading to the hospital because Ellie is going to be induced! Everything is happening so fast! Is it possible that these two birth stories are going well?