Rebecca Pearson has lived through hell, yet she’s continuously stood for her children especially. Even before losing the love of her life, she was vilified by two of her children, which continues in the present.
It’s a narrative I’m sure many mothers can relate to, but the way This Is Us has made Rebecca out to be a villain to her children is almost disrespectful to their own writing.
We’ve seen, time and time again, how Rebecca is willing to do anything for her children, and even her bad decisions were made out of love (however misguided Rebecca or her actions may have been at the time).
As Kate, Kevin, and Randall grew up, Randall developed quite an attachment to his mother (probably due to the extra time Rebecca needed to spend with him to form the motherly bond we saw was missing when they first brought him home). Meanwhile, Kate and Kevin were fonder of their father and their relationship with their mother was strained, tense, and altogether horrible.
Though none of her children seem to take into account how much pain Rebecca has had in her life.
The series began with Rebecca’s pain over losing the third child she was “supposed” to have, and one of the biggest flaws of the show is that we haven’t seen this further addressed and it’s almost as though it didn’t affect her once Randall was settled.
We’ve seen her less than favorable relationship with her own mother, which highly influenced the way Rebecca raised her own children. We watched Rebecca lose the love of her life and be unable to truly grieve his death for years due to her children needing their only parent to remain strong for them.
We’ve sat heartbroken as Rebecca attempted to repair her relationship with Kevin and Kate and was met with bitterness and failure. And we’ve even been angry with Rebecca for the choices she made, like meeting Randall’s biological father and keeping that from him, which created a hole in Rebecca’s heart as well.
The sacrifices Rebecca has made as a mother for Kate, Randall, and Kevin may not need to be addressed (that’s what mothers do, at least the good ones), but she still deserves some recognition from her children for how hard she worked to be the best mother possible.
Though Jack’s death was painful and terrible, it (hopefully) opened, or will soon in the future on This Is Us, her children’s eyes to how often they attacked and vilified their mother.
As great as Jack was, he was always too nice, too kind, and too forgiving, which made Rebecca the “bad cop” in every situation because Jack could not punish his children in any capacity.
It seems that from the time her children were out of the womb, they were sitting in the Pearson kitchen badmouthing their mother from a decision she made in their best interest.
Kate, especially, has a terrible, lacking bond with her mother, and this is something I hope to see remedied as the series progresses.
Kate was always closer with Jack because of Rebecca’s concern over her weight and health, while Jack never seemed to take Rebecca’s concerns seriously, which is a major flaw of Jack’s. (This isn’t to say that Rebecca went about dealing with her concern the right way, but she obviously had the best intentions.)
While it’s great to see Randall’s relationship with Rebecca, it’s been done… many times. Rebecca’s barely shared a scene with Kevin or Kate that doesn’t end on a sour note, and their relationships all need much more work to be done for any sort of repairs or growth to take place, but there’s not enough focus given to the task.
Regardless of how the future plays out, Rebecca Pearson tried her hardest to be the best possible mother she could after growing up with a terrible mother herself, and life played the cards so terribly for her sometimes.
Even her kindest actions were responded to with aggression and rage, maybe even occasionally hatred.
Rebecca never had the chance to show her children what a great mother she actually was, even with her missteps, because she raised her kids with an almost perfect man. Jack was so great it became a burden on her to be the stricter, “meaner” parent. Let’s be real, she never had a chance.
So, as This Is Us season 3 starts, I would hope to see further development of Kate, Kevin, and Rebecca’s relationships, as well as some recognition for how she handled things throughout their life.
It wouldn’t hurt to see some sort of acknowledgment of support for Rebecca and Miguel’s relationship because it’s high time these grown adults stop acting like children and understand their mother was hurting, broken, and lonely when Jack died and they all took off to start their own lives.
Rebecca’s only human, which is why, I suppose, that it’s so brutal to watch her continuously torn down by her children for life events that she had little to nothing to do with.
This Is Us returns on Tuesday, September 25 at 9/8c on NBC.
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