This Is Us – Kamsahamnida

By: Maddie Ruby

The newest episode of This Is Us, “Kamsahamnida,” (which is a way to say “thank-you” in Korean) gives us a new view of characters Toby (Chris Sullivan) and Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson). We also get breakthrough in Kevin’s (Justin Hartley) new obsession and Randall’s (Sterling K. Brown) campaign for city council.

Toby is still depressed and is back on new medication but has made very little progress. Kate (Chrissy Metz) can’t seem to get him to be active at all and he turns down going on walks with Kate and their dog Audio. When Kate and Audio go on a walk without Toby, Kate gets distracted and Audio swallows a rock. At the vet, Kate has a hard time making a decision about what to do with his care when the vet tells her Audio can have surgery or they can go home in hopes that he will poop out the rock. Kate struggles with decisions, including this one, the whole episode. She keeps calling Rebecca (Mandy Moore) every time she is in between something and finally Rebecca has enough of it and lets Kate in on a secret – she has to be able to make decisions for herself and for other’s well-being like with Toby, Audio or the “maybe-baby” they have coming. Kate realizes this and thanks her mom for the good advice. Later, she goes home and explains what happened to Audio to Toby. Toby seems frustrated with her that she wasn’t paying attention to Audio and let this happen in the first place, but he knows it is a mistake. She yet again asks Toby if he’d like to go on a walk with her and Audio, but to no surprise Toby rejects this idea a second time. Now, Kate doesn’t let it fly when Toby says no. She thinks about the advice her mom gave her, about how she must learn to make the best decisions for herself sometimes, and for others, too. She chooses that she must put her foot down with Toby this time and tells him in a sterner voice that they are all going on a walk together. They take Audio on a walk and the rock (thankfully) passes through him.

We know Beth has been struggling with herself and her mental health ever since she got fired from her job. In this most recent episode, we saw that rage come to life, just for a split-second, but that is all we needed to see quite frankly. Beth takes the kids to sell Girl Scout cookies and when it isn’t succeeding (due to Beth forgetting the cell phone credit card swiping device) Tess (Eris Baker) gets a little bit of an attitude. This causes Beth to snap at her daughter and yell “shut-up” repeatedly. Beth later realizes this was wrong and she needs to apologize. She heads into the girls’ room where she finds Deja (Lyric Ross) sitting on her bed. Deja helps her to realize what is most important right now – talking to Randall about how she has been feeling and confiding in him about her current issues. Deja reminds Beth that Randall is who she should be turning to when she has these problems and that Randall will always comfort her and tell her how she is “exceptional.” At the end of the episode, Beth takes Deja’s advice and talks to Randall. He tells her he wants her to work on his campaign team, but she is afraid this is just a pity job. Randall explains that whatever they put their mind to they are successful at and he thinks Beth by his side would for sure better his chances during his campaign.

Speaking of Randall’s campaign, he also takes on the help of his brother Kevin. Kevin is now stuck being fixated on the photo he found with Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and a woman wearing the necklace Jack used to wear – that Kevin now wears. Everyone thinks he is obsessing over it, even Zoe (Melanie Liburd). Randall and Kevin go to talk about the photo at a restaurant in Koreatown. Many people there take notice of Kevin and want to take pictures with him. Kevin tells Randall this is probably because his show, The Manny, was very popular and famous in Korea. Randall seeks this as an idea to use Kevin as a celebrity face in his campaign when he realizes that half of Koreans aren’t registered to vote and might if they see Kevin is supporting Randall. Kevin agrees to help if Randall takes him seriously about finding out more about Jack’s past. They set up a table in the middle of a Koreatown marketplace and Kevin endorses Randall by having people register to vote for a picture and some small talk with Kevin. Randall gets called out during this when a man says he probably will have forgotten all about Koreatown if he is elected. We know Randall is more than this and is in it for the right reason, so we are not surprised at all when he defends himself against the critic by giving a speech on how he is not sure what Koreatown needs, but if elected he will listen to the people and find out what it is and help. The critic comes by Randall’s office later and admits to being in the political field himself. He wants to be Randall’s campaign manager, a proposition that Randall accepts. Now that he has Kevin, a new campaign manager and Beth on his side, Randall’s campaign seems to be going a lot better.

Randall’s defensiveness and the use of his intelligence come full circle in the one flashback in the episode. Jack comes home one night with a black eye from boxing. He uses it as an outlet from himself and an escape from his thoughts. A young Randall (Lonnie Chavis) decides to tell Jack he wants to learn to box because there is a bully at school and he wants to know how to defend himself if anything ever happens. It is later that viewers and Jack find out that Randall lied and there was no bully. He tells Jack he just wanted to be more like him and felt like he needed to be a fighter to get through life. Jack helps him to realize he has something even better going for him – his brains.