This Is Us – Kyle

By: Alex Steele

This week’s “This Is Us” episode titled Kyle gives the audience a beautiful throwback to the young life and history of William (Ron Cephas Jones). With no dialogue, just music and a montage, we watch as a young William who is a passionate poet as he rides the bus and meets his soon to be girlfriend. We watch their love blossom and then turn into deep drug addiction. Through this, he continues to write but what we see is his penmanship become illegible. In the last moment we see William, alone, cradling a baby as the bus passes the fire station. Cut to Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) at the hospital as they’re preparing to bring the babies home with the help of Dr. K (Gerald McRaney). Rebecca seems a little distant and overwhelmed while Jack is trying to remain cool, calm and collected. We also get a glimpse of how close Kevin (Justin Hartley) and Kate (Chrissy Metz) have always been when Jack states that they can only fall asleep when they’re together.

Arriving at the present day timeline, Randall’s (Sterling K. Brown) daughters excitedly drop the bomb that they have a man staying with them. This fact catches elder Rebecca a little off balance while also landing Randall right in the middle of a tricky situation. He pulls Rebecca off to the side (after some encouragement from his wife) to break the news about William. Elsewhere, Toby (Chris Sullivan) wakes hungover and disoriented to hear Kate singing in the shower. He’s as intrigued as the audience as we listen to Kate beautifully showing off her singing talent. That is until he stands at the doorway creepily, scaring Kate and gets a fist to his face. Trying to make up for punching him in the face, Kate makes him a nice, nutritious (bland) breakfast. But he’s not too concerned with the food. Instead, he wants to talk about her amazing voice. He asks if she’ll sing for him in the most endearing way and just as it seems she might give in, Kevin shows up ranting about all the things “they” need to sort out for New York. The look of shock from Toby says it all.

Back with Randall, he’s in the middle of telling Rebecca about William. She seems relatively okay, asking what he knows about him so far. After hearing her son’s answer, Rebecca says she’d like to meet him and without wasting a second gets up to go find him. Cut with a flashback, we see a Rebecca and Jack leaving the hospital. As she sits in the wheelchair, as Jack readies the car she notices William standing across the street watching her. They make eye contact and she yells out to him, but he walks away. Back to present day, Rebecca takes it upon herself to do the introductions before asking Randall for a moment alone with William. As Randall leaves, William looks at Rebecca and utters a small sentence, “You look well.” It seems as though they know each other, talk about another mind-blowing twist courtesy of the “This Is Us” creative team.

We then flashback to Jack and Rebecca, at home with the babies, crying, pooping and being as fussy as all babies are. Each parent is exhausted and stressed out of their mind. We also get glimpses of the struggle Rebecca faced when bonding with baby Randall. She admits that he feels like a stranger, that he’s not the same. She also takes this moment to tell Jack about seeing William at the hospital, but Jack (as caring as he always is) doesn’t let his wife get a word in edgewise. Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) identifying that Randall still hasn’t really worked out how to deal with all these new revelations, continues to offer her husband support as Rebecca and William talk in the next room. And the conversation between these two reveals a deep history. William is heard ensuring her that Randall was the one that found him, yet that doesn’t seem to eschew her pain or anger that they had a deal which he’s broken. She also indicates that finding out the truth, knowing that he could have known William, will break Randall. And before she leaves, she lets him know that he better be worth Randall’s time.

Kate, meanwhile, is making arrangements for Kevin and his big move to New York as Toby sits by shaking his head. After finishing her discussion with William, Rebecca and Miguel (Jon Huerta) leave as they have a dinner appointment to make while Randall needs to get William to his doctors appointment. Randall is surprised however when William is not in his room, but thankfully hasn’t gotten too far. Catching up with him, Randall makes a point of standing up to William’s excuses. More specifically, he makes a point of naming everything he’s done and continues to do for William. The monologue is passionate and captivating. William eventually gets in the car while Randall waves off the “white” people closely watching on. Toby, having had enough of Kate running after Kevin, surprises her with a limo, red carpet and the rock star treatment pleading with her to let him give her the star treatment for just one day. She’s so intrigued and shocked that she manages to miss countless frantic calls from Kevin as he packs up his place.

Arriving at the unknown destination for her big performance, Kate and the audience soon realize she’ll be singing at an old folks home where Toby’s aunt lives. This scene is cut with another flashback, where we see Dr. K performing the babies checkup as an exhausted Jack looks on. He asks how they are going (it’s obvious they’re struggling) and when questioning how weird it is Rebecca is not there, the truth comes out. Jack reveals that Rebecca may be a little broken, he thinks the babies broke her. But Dr. K, in all his wisdom, assures that Rebecca just needs time and space to heal. She did lose a baby and recovering from that takes time. He also offers time to Jack in the form of a nap, when he insists he’ll take care of the babies while the new father gets some rest. Meanwhile, Rebecca is at a bus stop where we all can guess who she’s waiting for. When she enquires about the man we know as William, the bus driver tells her she must be looking for “Shakespeare” so she seems to be on the right track.

Toby announcing Kate at the old folks home is a monologue the audiences won’t soon forget, mic drop and all. But when Kate begins to sing, nervously at first, she steals the entire episode. Her rendition of “Time After Time” serves as the soundtrack to Rebecca tracking down William and William and Randall at the hospital. It’s as beautiful as the opening sequence. As Kate sings her heart out, she finishes to a rousing applause that she celebrates by making out with Toby in the cleaning closet. Unfortunately, they’re cut short when she answers her phone to a worried Kevin who has got a situation going on with an insane girl he’s just slept with. Kate doesn’t hesitate to leave, but Toby has had enough. Calling her out, and telling her she doesn’t have to go, Toby makes a good point. Yet Kate makes a stronger one. They’re twins, they’re connected. So, Toby will always play second “banana” to Kevin. The heart wrenching moments continue when William and Randall hear the news that his cancer has metastasized.

We’re then given the moment we’ve all been waiting for; Rebecca arrives at Williams apartment, revealing her deepest concerns when it comes to raising Randall. She came to meet William to find out his story, but that is all. She rejects Williams request to check in on the baby and asks him to promise not to come for him. He understands, but as she turns to go she admits that she’s not bonding with him to which he suggests giving the baby his own name. From this we watch as William hands Rebecca a book of his favorite poetry. Back to present day and the reality of William’s diagnosis hits home when Beth reminds Randall that he doesn’t have a whole lot of time to know his father and maybe it’s time he does so. Kate has, in the meantime, arrived at Kevin’s place and resolved the situation. He admits to all his doubts while Kate fills him in on what Toby did for her. Kevin’s face says it all and then he fires her. He knows she’ll be missing out if she lets Toby get away. But in a deeply honest and inspiring moment, Kate admits to not knowing who she is if she’s not his sister. But funny thing is that he does and he insists she’ll love her. Taking this pep talk and running with it, Kate summons Toby to her house to apologize and her apology is in the form of a condom. Hilarious. Brilliant. Heartwarming.

Just to test that Kate was having sex, Kevin calls and leaves a message informing his sister he booked a red-eye to New York. It’s done. Cue a flashback and we see Rebecca arrive home to an extremely concerned Jack. They share a raw conversation about the baby they lost. And after getting it all out, Rebecca suggest they give “Kyle” a new name taking a cue from the book of poetry that William gave her. Back to present day, Randall tells William that he’s going to reveal to his daughters who he really is. William looks thrilled, but just as Randall goes to leave he asks to know about how William met his mother. And then, as the episode finishes, we see baby Randall officially given his namesake as he finally latches on and bonds with Rebecca.