This Is Us – Strangers

By: Maddie Ruby

The episode starts off with young Rebecca (Mandy Moore) and Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) as he drops her off at home after their trip to L.A. Rebecca talks about how it’s crazy that you can just meet someone at any moment who changes your life, just like how she was just singing in a bar and met Jack. They both say, “I’m not going to call you first.” Jack caves and gives her aa call the next day, asking to see her. She is having dinner with her parents and invites Jack to join them at the country club.

Next, a few new mystery characters are introduced. A middle-aged woman in the army with a son and husband at home, a blind man living alone and a young boy with a daughter of his own. We see the army mom, Cassidy (Jennifer Morrison), struggle when she is deployed because she cannot save innocent civilians from bombers in a village. We see her come home and have bad PTSD, making her accidentally hit her son. We see the young man, Malik (Asante Blackk), try to find other ways to make money in order for his daughter to have a bright future. Finally, we see the blind man (Blake Stadnik) who is still nameless, drop a plate and get frustrated he cannot clean it up. He goes to a diner the next morning hungover, where he meets his future wife (Auden Thornton), Lucy, who is a waitress at the diner.

Jack heads to a store to get something to wear to meet Rebecca’s parents because you are required to dress nice for the country club. The employee selling the jacket to him is Miguel (Jon Huertas). He realizes Jack doesn’t have the money for this, so he tells him to tuck in the tag and then just bring it back in one-piece next week.

Jack goes to meet Rebecca’s parents. Rebecca advises him that her mom is tough, but her dad will love him. She also told them not to bring up anything about Vietnam. Of course, the first thing her dad (Tim Matheson) says to him is, “I heard you just got back from Vietnam.” They continue to talk about it until Rebecca’s mom (Elizabeth Perkins) wants to change the subject, stating Jack must be wealthy to be able to go on a random trip. She then asks what his parents do. In the mist of all this it seems that Jack got something on the jacket he has to return. He goes to the bathroom to clean up. When he returns, he drinks from his glass, accidentally letting the jacket’s tags peak out. He then speaks about how his parents mainly fight and that he lost his brother in the war. Rebecca’s dad notices. He later catches Jack alone and lets him know that Rebecca deserves better than him and that he should move on. Jack tells Rebecca’s father that he has no plans to go anywhere.

As we continue with the strangers, Cassidy’s PSTD gets worse. She decides to go to a meeting and during her session we see a familiar face. It is good ole Uncle Nicky (Griffin Dunne), drunk, and throwing a chair right through the window that is behind Cassidy. Outside, they later exchange glances. What could possibly happen to these two? Back in L.A., Kevin (Justin Hartley) is at home when he gets a call about his uncle being arrested. He immediately books a flight to Pittsburgh to help out Nicky. All on his birthday too.

Malik’s parents are reluctant to let him go to his friend’s BBQ because he needs to stay home and take care of his daughter. Later, his dad (Omar Epps) says he also thinks he deserves to keep experiencing life, so he tells him to go. There, while Malik is making his famous burgers, he is introduced to no one other than our girl Deja (Lyric Ross). Deja returns home glowing with the biggest smile, making Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) and Randall (Sterling K. Brown) both ask her why she is acting like that. In the fridge we see a birthday cake for Randall.

We watch as the blind man’s life and love grow with the woman from the diner. While they are in the car on the way to some type of opening event that he is nervous about she admits she is pregnant with their child. She is upset it is sooner then she wanted, but he insists it will be okay. He says that he can stay home more and help take care of the baby.

Lastly, everything is full circle as we see Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Toby (Chris Sullivan). They are at the doctors waiting on test results for baby Jack. It is revealed he has retinopathy so will never fully be able to see…and we connect the dots. The blind man steps on stage to perform and is announced as Jack Damon, our dear little Jack all grown up. He sings a song that he wrote right after he first met his wife at the diner. We see a flashback of Rebecca preforming in a bar with Jack watching.