Photo by Rhys Kentish on Unsplash

The Pearsons are back on my television on Tuesday evenings and all was well in the world until it wasn’t. Instead of the usual waterworks, the last second of the episode had me in full panic mood. Like, the same panic I felt in 9th grade after my friends and I ventured to go see a scary movie alone for the first time. It was that bad. I got full-body chills to the point that I had to remind myself that this was just TV. Like, I had to open Disney+ after and watch an episode of Lizzie McGuire to calm my nerves.

This Is Us is supposed to make me cry happy tears and remind me how much I love humanity not scare me into almost having a premature heart attack. Like, seriously? Not okay.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, first, let me suggest you set your DVR to record This is Us. No, seriously, go do it now. Because after I tell you this, you’re gonna want to watch the rest of the season.

A little backstory…

Even if you don’t watch This Is Us, I think everyone is aware that the show hops between timelines. Like, I know it’s been a while since A Walk to Remember but you know Mandy Moore isn’t actually that old, right?

This week we picked up where we left off in the midseason finale. Currently, present Rebecca is having issues with her memory and the only people who know about this are Randall and Miguel. In true Pearson fashion, Randall flies cross-country to attend his mother’s super-secret doctor’s appointment to check her memory. And fans of the show already knew the result wasn’t gonna be favorable from what we saw in the midseason finale last year.

Turns out, Rebecca has memory loss. Yadda yadda, that wasn’t a surprise. This show is known for throwing in plot twists and I just wasn’t feeling one in this storyline for the episode…

UNTIL…

Randall returns home in the middle of the night. He goes upstairs to check on his girls, each asleep in their separate rooms and then he goes to kiss his wife as a good, respectable man does.

At this point, this scene is taking an awfully long time to wrap and with 30 seconds left in the episode, I just knew something heartwarming or showstopping was bound to happen.

Randall tells Beth that he’s gonna go get some water and as he walks down the stairs and heads to turn the corner into the kitchen what does he find?

None other than a home invader standing in his kitchen with a knife!

OMG, you guys. I about lost it. I screamed at the television and immediately looked over my shoulder to make sure nobody was in my home about to kill me as well. Randall takes a few deep breaths, the episode ends and leads into the preview for next week.

Just my luck, my recording cut off 2 sec into it and so I had to Google the preview for next week. Whew! First world problems are hard, ya’ll. We didn’t get much in the preview but I know this one will be a tearjerker with lots of Randall flashbacks (with what looks like a new actor playing young Randall) so def have your tissues ready if you plan on watching next week.

As I sat back and reflected, I began to realize why the episode played out the way it did. And while we didn’t get any Big 3 action, this episode picks up with all 3 of them grappling with major issues separately. And to think Kate and Kevin haven’t even learned about Rebecca’s declining health yet. Idk how they will deal with that news.

Kevin’s Love Life

We see Kevin turning the world upside for a possible new love interest (Sophia Bush) but it turns out after a few short hours of wooing, she’s married and Kevin was just her celebrity hall pass. When he kisses her after a private concert with John Legend (yeah, that happened), she confesses to having an entire husband that consented to this (because let’s be real. How often do you meet your hall pass?) and let’s just say that was an abrupt way to end a date. Later, Kevin is ranting to a PA or someone like that on set about how love is lost, woe is me and hands his phone to the random guy as he walks away to go do stuff on set. AS SOON as he walks away, his phone rings and it’s SOPHIE! So, it turns out love isn’t dead after all. I’m excited to see how this plays out.

And I’d like to take a moment of appreciation for that moment when Kevin literally got up and walked away (but not before throwing money on the table to pay for the coffee because ya know, he’s respectable) from that date who said, “at least Ethiopians are good for something”. Good on you, Kevin. She was trash.

Kate and Toby

Kate and Toby are dealing with a lot right now. So much that I couldn’t really keep up with all the shady stuff Toby has been doing. Kate finds out that Toby is talking ish about her in a group chat with his workout buddies. She confronts him, they get over it. Then, she finds out from one of the workout buddies (during Toby’s surprise party) that Toby switched gyms weeks ago and didn’t tell her. She confronts him and apparently that one girl that was flirty in the group chat tried to make a move on him so he left the gym without telling Kate. Like, okay Toby are you done?

Nope because he had to let Kate know why he has been distant lately and it’s because he gets sad when he looks at their blind son because they’ll never be able to watch Star Wars together.

Look, I will never discount his feelings because first of all I’m not a parent and I’ve def never had a blind child so I don’t know what that’s like but it honestly seemed like he and Kate just were not on the same page and he is really struggling with Jack’s disability.

Their son, Jack starts to see light at the end of the episode and Kate was excited but her face was kind of sad when she heard Toby ask Jack, “can you see it?” Not sure what that was about. I’m thinking she’s upset that she feels Toby will only love their son if he can see.

Anyways, it was a crazy episode. Well, actually it was a crazy 30 seconds during the Randall storyline that made my heart stop for a second. It’s looking like the rest of this season is going to be a good one. I don’t know much about the upcoming episodes but I do know that Randall will not die in this altercation because we’ve seen flash-forwards of him.

So, idk you guys. All I know is that if the preview serves us right, Randall will not let the intruder get past him so he’s about to put up a fight. Because he literally says, “you will not get past me”. But if I had to put money on it, I’d say Randall is about to drum up one of those good ol’ Pearson speeches and talk this guy off the ledge.

Let’s go, Randall!

The Flashbacks

This wouldn’t be an accurate recap if I didn’t talk about the flashbacks for the episode. This week the flashbacks pick up where we left off with Jack (O.G. not Kate’s baby) and Rebecca visiting her parents. It was the first time Jack had met them and it didn’t go well. Her dad intimidated him into thinking he wasn’t good enough for her, leading Jack to break up with Rebecca. After a convo with her mom, Rebecca learns of her dad’s intimidation tatics and goes to get her man, honey!

In the sweetest romantic gesture, Becks shows up to Jack’s job at the mechanic’s shop and tells him she loves him for the first time. It was so sweet and helped tie in Kevin’s hopeless romantic vibes throughout the episode.

In addition, we got a flashback of Rebecca’s baby ritual with Randall. We’re shown a young Rebbeca holding Randall in a rocking chair and watching the sunrise in the mornings when he woke up before his siblings. Awwww! Rebecca recounts this after her doctor’s appointment so, it was precious watching her latch onto those fond memories, seemingly wondering if one day it would all slip away.

What do you think about the episode? Did your heart skip a beat in the final moments? Let me know in the comments.

This Is Us airs Tuesday nights at 8 pm CST on NBC.