This Is Us – R & B

By: Maddie Ruby

In the last episode of This Is Us we saw Randall (Sterling K. Brown) and Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) finally going to start the fight they have needed to have their whole relationship.  Beth says she knows that she didn’t marry the man who would say those harsh words to her. He says it was in a time of darkness when he thought she stood him up, but she retorts back saying she didn’t and she never has. Randall seems to be trying to blame it on the fact that he is swamped with his new job and he isn’t even sworn in yet, but he’s trying his best to make sure she can have her own life too. Beth claims they’ve been having the same fight since they met.

We flashback to a young Randall (Niles Fitch) in his dorm on the phone talking to Kevin (Logan Shroyer) about this girl he is crazy about…a.k.a a young Beth (Rachel Hilson). He decides to call her and ask her on a date, using what Kevin says to say and it works. They go somewhere super fancy with Randall wearing a nice suit and Beth with a hoodie on, not really seeming like she wants to be there. Randall brings up how his dad had died earlier in the year and Beth talks about how her dad died last year. When the waiter comes to the table and Randall says they are ready to order he is told that the manager requests they pay before they eat. This is obviously because they are a black couple, which Beth realizes, but Randall doesn’t want to ruin the date so decides to give in and write a check Beth is not having this and storms out. She says the date was too much with the flowers and him wearing a suit. Her ideal date is nachos and ginger beer. Simple. Randall tries to stand up for himself, saying the suit was the nicest thing he owned, and he just wanted her to have a good first date. She is still upset and leaves. When he gets back to his dorm room he tells his roommate he is going to marry her.

Flashforward and we see Randall and Beth seven years later. He is singing and proposing to her, very casually, and she says not yet. Obviously, this isn’t the first time for this as he says that it’s better than “hell no,” which is what she said when he proposed on the jumbotron at the Pirate’s game. He then says they need to get ready for Sunday dinner at Rebecca’s (Mandy Moore), but she suggests they don’t have to have Sunday dinner at his mom’s every week. Instead, maybe they should go mini golfing, like they used to do. Of course, Randall takes this as they should invite Rebecca.

While on the outing Beth suggests since Rebecca isn’t seeing anyone she could check out a recently separated professor of Beth’s. Rebecca says all she really wants is for her kids to settle down and for someone (hinting at Beth) to accept a proposal. Beth is easily annoyed by the fact Randall told her all of this. She isn’t ready for marriage because she doesn’t know what she wants to do yet and she doesn’t want her life to be consumed by her husband’s. He says that’s fine and he will do her a favor, he just won’t propose to her ever again.

Rebecca finds Beth and admits she is glad Beth is going to be Randall’s future wife. She knows how he can be, but she is promising Beth he won’t let her lose herself in him. Beth takes Randall to a small restaurant where she gets nachos and a ginger beer to herself. She says for Randall to ask her now. She says that they are not going to lose themselves in each other, but be full, equal people, – a team. He proposes to her and she says yes.

On their wedding day Kate (Chrissy Metz) walks in to get Beth, who is getting married in five minutes and still writing her vows. Kevin (Justin Hartley) goes to get Randall and tells him that his vows are like a book. Randall decides to say rewrite his. Beth goes in and says they should just write them together because they are better together. They stand back to back, so Randall doesn’t see her, and speak to each other with the heart.

Randall and Beth meet in the middle of the night and are over a baby Tess’s crib. She says she could eat and they make nachos. They talk about their worst-case scenarios, like Tess having a ton of tattoos when she’s older (per Randall) and Tess forgetting about Beth when she goes back to work after maternity leave.

We flash forward to William (Ron Cephas Jones) and Randall going to pick up Annie from a sleepover. They pull over to get something from the grocery store and see Beth, who was supposed to be at a convention in Hershey. She is getting Swedish fish and wine. She admits that she needed 24 hours just to be away from everything. He is confused why she didn’t just ask, but she says she’s tried and that it just turned into him asking “What’s wrong? Qhy do you need a day alone?”.  She apologizes to him. He tells her that she go, but without asking what episode of the show she is going to watch. She now doesn’t want to watch without him and says she is coming home.

We come full circle to Beth and Randall’s real present-day fight. She begs him to admit he thinks his job is more important than hers. He is having flashbacks of when his parents had a similar fight. He refuses to admit to this. She says they promised each other they wouldn’t get lost in each other, but yet she did and he let her. She is saying everything they’ve been through and it’s always Randall’s thing that becomes her thing. She finally figured out what she wants to do and she is not giving up something she loves to bend herself again for him, like she always does to make it work. He doesn’t understand why she thinks she is “a wallflower steamrolled by him.” He thinks he is being blamed because she figured out what she wanted to do so late. He says that at any point In their marriage if she wanted to go back to dance she could have. She says when, between which of his anxiety attacks, could she have done this. He leaves and says that good news for her is that he is all out of speeches to try and save them. He goes and sleeps on the cot in his office in Philly.