This Is Us season 1, episode 5 “The Game Plan” dealt with some pretty deep stuff and I don’t know about you but I’m still crying about it.
Father/Daughter Time
Let’s just get the biggest part of this episode out of the way so I’m not crying while typing the rest of this thing. In tonight’s episode Kate told Toby about her plans to watch football alone, to which he did not take well. I get that he’s her boyfriend and he wants to be with her, but bro you gotta give your girl some me time!
During their overeaters anonymous meeting Toby manages to convince Kate to watch football with him with a cute note, despite interrupting this poor woman who just wants to talk about her cracker problem. Kate agrees, but to her dismay she arrives to Toby’s place only to find out that Toby invited another friend of his and turned this from a date to a “party.”
It’s one thing to convince your girlfriend to watch the game with you instead of watching it alone, but it’s another thing entirely to invite someone she doesn’t know and then proceed to talk and not let her even watch the game!
I was totally mad at Toby for taking something that Kate wanted to do alone and completely disrespecting it. The majority of this season I’ve loved him, so seeing a part of him that made me really want to slap him was interesting. Yay, character development!
Kate is not amused by their antics, so she leaves early to go watch the game alone at home. Toby then shows up to ask why she was so upset (really dude?) and Kate just hit us in the gut with her answer.
Kate had this tradition growing up that she would watch football with her dad. Every Sunday they’d hang out and watch the game together, and it’s something she still likes to do. Then Toby says he’d love to meet him. Kate says ok. I start hyperventilating because I already know what’s coming. Then Kate picks up a frigin’ urn from her mantle and tells Toby that’s her dad.
Like I already guessed, Jack has died at some point between all the flashbacks and present day. It’s an emotional realization, even though I already knew that was the probability, and I am dreading the episode that we find out/see how he died.
Kids and futures
In this week’s flashback we got a rare glimpse of Jack and Rebecca before they had kids. It was entertaining to see both of them just having fun, watching football and taking shots. …Then it started getting a little more real.
Rebecca offhandedly/jokingly repeated the same line twice to Jack about being thankful they’re never going to have kids, and that upset him. Rebecca has made it clear she’s not ready to me a mom and she doesn’t want to be a version of her own mother, staring while her husband watches football. But Jack? Jack wants a kid.
They never had a serious enough conversation about the matter, so Jack decides to have that conversation in the middle of a bar during the Superbowl. Their friends do the right friend thing and leave when the conversation gets serious, and it’s so interesting to see Rebecca so adamant about not being ready.
Maybe that’s why I feel like Jack is the better parent, because this is something he knew he wanted for a long time. And that’s not to say that Rebecca is a bad parent, but there’s a distinct difference between wanting to have kids and having to be convinced to have kids.
At the end Jack convinces Rebecca that he would stay with her regardless of if she wants to have kids or not. Super sweet! Then they end up having sex in the bathroom of the bar, which (as told by Kate) is when and where they conceived their children. …which is both adorable and a little gross.
Pregnancy avoided and death explained
Kevin is still staying with Randall this week, but this time Randall took advantages of Kevin’s ridiculously large (and empty) hotel room so he and his wife could have a romantic night at a hotel.
All Randall wanted to do was have sex everywhere, order room service and enjoy a night of pure fun with his wife. Unfortunately for him she revealed that she was two weeks late and she is scared she might be pregnant. Just like Rebecca in the flashbacks, a pregnancy is not what either of them would have wanted right now. It’s a good thing that when they got the test results they found out she’s not pregnant!
This was a very short plot and I feel like it had absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the story development, so I’m curious to see if that leads anywhere or if it was just a filler arc.
On the other hand, Kevin’s story line this week was really deep. While trying to practice for his play, and including the kids so they’re not bored, the topic of death comes up and it spirals out of control. Kevin ends up telling the kids their grandpa is gunna die soon, they start getting scared, and it was all actually a little hysterical.
In the end Kevin manages to talk to the girls again after royally messing up that conversation about death and he saves face. And then he gets all deep, and my love for him has grown exponentially because of it.
Be brings out a painting, and explains that he loves to paint his feelings about a script after reading it. His explanation of how he paints was so genuine and sweet, and it was the perfect narration for the end of the episode.
I appreciate the commentary on life that This Is Us bring to us each week. While each past episode had the commentary subtly in between the lines or in the actions of the characters, this episode’s commentary was loud and clear and spoken out loud by Kevin: We’re all different colors, and life is crazy and it goes on endlessly but when we all come together we make something beautiful.