Kate's 'This Is Us' Episode Was Heartbreaking
This Is Us loves to pull the rug out from under us, which means it's unusual to go into an episode knowing exactly what is about to happen. But in the case of Kate's standalone episode, the big twist already emerged at the end of Kevin's hour last week, when Randall delivered the news that she lost her baby.
So, yeah - this was not exactly a fun-filled festive hour like last year's Thanksgiving episode. No Pilgrim Rick to be seen here. But there were, as ever, a whole lot of emotions, particularly about Kate and Rebecca's fraught mother–daughter relationship.
Here are my thoughts and feelings from "Number Two."
1. “I think he really identifies with Fred’s whole yabba-dabba-do philosophy.” Yep, yep, that... kind of sums Toby up, doesn’t it?
2. Kate adorably talking to her fetus, when we all know exactly where this is going, feels like an unnecessary level of emotional manipulation. Whatever happened to her being hesitant to get too excited?
3. Lewis the doggo just laying there super-chill as Kate cleans up his pee is really an aesthetic. Also…is Lewis’s panic-peeing a clue as to how Jack died? Probably not. But maybe? Unlikely. But who knows?
4. Seriously? Kate was so adamant about not getting too excited because she knows her pregnancy is risky, but now suddenly she’s making huge lists of baby questions and ordering baby baths and casually bantering about the kid’s 18th birthday? Did Toby’s goddamn Flashdance routine cast some kind of spell on her?
5. I wasn’t sure whether the miscarriage was going to happen right at the end of the episode, but I’m glad the scene came early so that it's not looming for an entire hour in which everything seems normal.
6. This scene where Toby’s trying to stop Kate from going to her gig is tough. On the one hand, I see his point - 12 hours is really soon to be bounding off to work after a miscarriage. On the other hand, it’s her body, and her trauma, and Toby has a history of being a little controlling, so I’m side-eyeing him here.
7. So presumably Randall’s episode next week is going to center on his college visit with Jack, which makes me wonder what his present-day storyline’s going to be. Out of the three siblings, we know the least about Randall’s reaction to Jack’s death.
8. LL Cool K! Randall has always been a gem.
9. Lord, I’m finding bratty teenage Kate extremely hard to watch in these scenes with her mom, and I think it is because they remind me way too much of bratty teenage me with my mom. (Sorry for literally everything, mom.)
10. “Hey, why don’t you go to veterinary school?” Oh, Rebecca. You’re trying so hard, and it’s sweet, but you have got to chill.
11. Toby’s mission to stop the baby bath from being delivered is so endearing. I think I like Toby best when his extremely extra personality is being funneled into something constructive.
12. Noooooooo, Kate, not the bleak roadside buffet! That is the grimmest plate of indeterminate fusion food I’ve ever seen.
13. It truly feels to me like Rebecca spends so much time in the various timelines getting smacked down by her children, although...it's mostly Kate. And mostly older Rebecca. Fine, it's just a Kate and Rebecca thing.
14. “Let’s just do this. Let’s go big, because that’s how you like to do things, right?” This is what I’ve been saying! Kate choosing this particular moment to call out Toby for being exhausting is mean, but she’s also not wrong that he encouraged her to get excited, even when she asked him not to.
15. “It happened to me. It didn’t happen to you.” Alright, so I often don't like it if men use “we” when talking about pregnancies and miscarriages - it stuck out to me when Toby did it earlier. However, Kate is way out of line here. Toby was legitimately ecstatic about this baby - of course the loss happened to him too.
16. Oh my GOD, Rebecca showing up at Kate’s doorstep. Because sometimes you just need to hug your mom and cry. And this moment feels so earned precisely because their relationship has been rocky this season.
17. “Can’t take a shower, there’s no curtain.” I think under the circumstances it’s fine to get a little water on the floor, Kate.
18. Rebecca flipping out about her bag of onions is my everything. I’m way too repressed and British to ever have a meltdown this public (though give me another year like this one and we’ll see) but I have definitely done it internally. A lot.
19. So, this moment when Kevin asks Kate to go and get him a drink - he’s clearly doing that so that he can be alone with Randall for a second, right? That’s going to be a Moment next week. I wonder if he’s going to tell Randall the truth first, about how he’ll never play football again, because he wants to protect Kate from it as long as possible.
20. Randall’s. Episode. Is. Next. I’m not gonna lie, this is the moment I’ve been waiting for ever since it was announced that the siblings were getting solo episodes. Bring on all of the Sterling K. Brown.
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