This is us
The ride
Season 5
Episode 9
Editor’s rating
Photo: Courtesy of NBC
Last week we watched a slew of Pearson babies be born. Now is the time to take them home. But it’s not just Frannie and Nick and Hailey who join that fraught ride home from the hospital: this episode features a slew of Pearsons bringing newborns home for the first time. If this all feels vaguely familiar, your mind might wander to the season two episode “The Car” in which yes, we have multiple storylines that took place in the Pearson Wagoneer. This is not so. Yes, the montage towards the end of the episode was a lot like the Wagoneer stuff, but where ‘The Car’ was more about a family car as a kind of memory book and a way to look back and remember a life together, “The Ride Is about 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 this is the most emotional of the various car rides we get in this episode. And also because I think I have decided that Jack and Rebecca from the late 70s / early 80s are my favorite Jack and Rebecca. Why? Who’s to say. It’s probably 73 percent to do with Jack’s beard. 86 percent. By the way, how terrifying must it be to emerge from the warm, supportive cocoon of the hospital with three newborns? No one can blame that guard who sees Jack improperly installing the car seats and if Jack has triplets, he just replies “oh god god bless you” before walking away. Jack and Rebecca are very brave people and no one wants to get involved in that situation if they don’t have to.
Jack and Rebecca are also very overwhelmed people. Of course they are! Besides keeping three people alive, let’s not forget that it was only a few days ago that Rebecca lost a baby in labor. She and Jack have only just begun to come to terms with that loss. It’s no wonder she looks sad 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 scream. So Jack, who tries to prove to Rebecca and himself that he is a capable breadwinner, is already doing it on the highway when a real shower from a driver cuts him off. They drive into the same gas station and Jack is about to unload this man, but Rebecca talks him down. To calm himself, Jack walks in, buys himself a small bottle of whiskey and finishes it. He lets Rebecca drive home the rest of the way.
When they finally reach their driveway, all three children are fast asleep. They decide to wait in the car, which leads them to finally open up about the emotional spirals that both have internal. Oh, this scene is so good. It’s just the right amount of emotion and sentimentality and also stimulates some of the character development. Rebecca fears she will be a bad mother for being too sad – she saw it happen to her mother after a miscarriage – and she feels like a very different person from the one who left to have her four babies days ago. Of course, what just happened to her changed her – how could it not? – but Jack assures her that it doesn’t mean she won’t be a great mom.
He cannot give himself the same kindness: he is terrified that he will be just like his father. He tells Rebecca about the whiskey and how much anger he wanted to unleash on that driver. That’s his father. His father hated being around his own family and “sucked the air out” of every room he was in. Jack’s relationship with his dad has been a fixture in the series, but it’s gotten even more attention this season and I hope This is us continues. We still haven’t seen what happens to the Pearsons in the immediate aftermath of Jack and Nicky returning from Vietnam. And we know that Jack Stanley asked for money to buy him and Rebecca’s dream home and refused to see him when he was dying, but is there anything in between that we should know? There are interesting things there waiting to be discovered.
Regardless, Rebecca tells Jack he won’t be like his dad. ‘You don’t suck the air out of the room, you to be the air, ”she says to him, which is dull, but I love it too. They realize it’s going to be okay because they have each other and it’s all really sweet and maybe we should all just sit in cars with babies sleeping in the back so we can feel things again, I don’t know it’s a weird time.
Meanwhile, Kevin again shows us in the present day that he is very much like his father in the best and worst of ways. He too is overwhelmed with anger on the drive home from the hospital with his newborns. He too should be called off by his partner before doing anything he regrets. Kevin’s problem isn’t a reckless driver, it’s the paparazzi who follow him to take a picture of the Manny with his new babies. Madison – which by the way is such a thing, the Calmest new mom in the world which is wild because I don’t think Madison has ever been calm for a minute in her entire life – can see Kevin is terribly sleep deprived (shall we ever talk about how he pulled a man out of a burning car and scammed her way into a flight with no ID? So many follow-ups!) and she takes over the driving task and forces him to take a nap. It is in this nap that we get a little interaction between adult Kevin and Jack.
Kevin dreams of walking into Jack (interesting that it’s Mustache Jack from Kevin’s childhood and not Goatee Jack from Kevin’s teens, isn’t it?) As he holds his new grandchildren and is ready for a heart-to-heart with his son. Dream Jack tells Kevin to stop trying to live with him. You know, Jack has spent so much time worrying about turning into his dad and Kevin is stressed out because he’s not like his dad and all they do is waste time fearing. He tells his son to decide what he want and go get it. This is clearly in Kevin’s mind, but it feels like a curious speech to Jack.
What Kevin wants is his family. Real and forever. So he officially proposes to Madison (well, “officially” with his hospital bracelet). They do this, I guess?
And what about Jack Pearson’s other son? One of our other post-hospital car rides follows Randall and Beth after the birth of our one and only rescuer, Annie. Beth only wants a Snickers Blizzard from Dairy Queen. Randall just wants to talk about having a third child. Randall is SO MUCH. I know we already know this, but sometimes we need to be reminded. Beth is like “another human came out of my body the other day, give me a damn blizzard, dude” and Randall obliges, knowing he’s SO MUCH, but he also explains where he’s from with this extremely ill-timed request.
A nurse in the hospital noted that Annie has her father’s eyes and that this is a big deal for Randall, who never looked like his family. There is a difference between knowing your family and knowing where you are from. Of course, this is the same thing we’ve seen Randall grapple with these days. He wanted to be tied to something bigger, he wanted to understand his roots, which is why the search for his biological parents was so important to him. When it comes to children, he wants to build a family tree full of branches. He likes plant metaphors, okay? Randall hopes that even when he and Beth no longer have children, his daughters will have babies and that his family tree continues to grow.
That’s where the flash forward comes into play. We meet Adult Deja and Adult Annie, who are driving to Uncle Kevin’s house to say goodbye to Rebecca with everyone else, and Deja is secretly pregnant! Annie knows, but no one else. Our tater toddler has her own tater toddler! Randall will be so excited, his tree is getting a new branch. But even better: we learn that Deja becomes a doctor. We are all so proud!
• Kate and Toby’s plans are thrown out the window on their drive home from the hospital when a visibly upset Ellie tells them she knows they’ve agreed to an open adoption full of visits and photos, but she just can’t be a part of Hailey’s life now. She wants to say goodbye and move on. Kate is devastated, especially after seeing what Randall has been through without knowing his biological parents, but Toby tells her it’s all going to be fine. And who knows, Ellie wants to meet Hailey someday. They have this. Remember how much of a mess Toby was when Jack was born? He is so reassuring and stable now! What a turn.
• It is an intense day at Pearson-Damon’s house because Toby also has to inform his wife that he has been fired. Then it’s Kate’s turn to be reassuring. These two seem in such a good place right now.
• Okay, so just as Old Randall is about to enter Old Kevin’s house with his grown daughters, another car stops, beeps and Old Randall says “look who it is” as he and Adult Deja wave familiar. With most of our other big players in the flash forward (is Miguel still alive? Is Madison Kevin’s wife alive?), It looks like This is us prepares us for some kind of revelation with Kate. Are the answers in this car? When will we find out? I may have been excessively invested in this flash forward!
• Beth’s deep love for her DQ Blizzard was very recognizable. I mean she’s going for Snickers and I’m more of a Butterfinger girl, but I felt really seen.
• Learn that Randall would have weekly Luck watching parties with his mother is the most precious gift.