Tuesday's episode follows the unexpected twist from the pilot, extending the audience's experience further by perplexing the past and the actual times together. Now, as we know that the leading couple Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) are, surprisingly, parents of other three characters, we can easily delineate Kate, Kevin and Randall as 8-year-old triplets (played by Mackenzie Hancsicsak, Parker Bates and Lonnie Chavis) from the '80s. Rebecca is a scratchy wife and Jack is frustrated husband making a cheer for The Big Three Family. We also notice the threads to Kate's weight problem, as she's limited in her food choices, and to Randall's uneasiness in relation to Kevin, who doesn't support Randall, when classmates call him "Webster."
Jack makes revelation about his problems with Rebecca to his friend Miguel (Jon Huertas), who doesn't take his side, saying "You married way, way above your station. I'd be careful not to give her a reason to notice." This particular sequence makes us think about our own annoyances at family members. What if all of us are having "Jack" as a frustrated inner voice?
Jack appears at home later, drunk and enlightened, with a present for Rebecca, who's not going to make it easy for him to apologize. She gives them a rating of six at an improvised parenting scale of 1-10. However, there's still hope, because she points higher scores for individual ratings, giving Jack all 10 points: "When you're you, you're a 10, Jack." The scaling experience might seem to be too banal, but this portrayal does its best for clarifying the conflict within this family.
In actual time, things aren't going well in Randall's (Sterling K. Brown) family, as he's still giving shelter to his biological father, who doesn't mind telling children the story about addiction to cocaine. As Randall can't get rid of his sick father, he must keep an eye on his relationship with wife Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson), who's cautious about William's (Ron Cephas Jones) crack addiction and eager to protect the family.
At that time, Kevin (Justin Hartley) is struggling with his agency, trying to breach the contract with the network. We see him cheered up before the big meeting with his agent (Katey Sagal) and mortified after the meeting is over and the bad news is announced. Kevin is attached to the studio for at least two years with no chance to be a star of another network. He seeks advice from his sister, Kate (Chrissy Metz), who tells him to attend his agent's networking party to ask for redemption. Kevin insists Kate should be his date, but she immediately comes up with multiple reasons not to accompany him. However, Kate's partner from the support group, Toby (Chris Sullivan), enjoys the idea to go there and spend time with "the lady that came up with 'Deadpool' and-or 'Hamilton.'" He insists they should go there and spend "one fat-free night."
As a result, Toby is fascinated by the party more than anyone else, performing his awkward dance in the spotlight. While Kate doesn't feel comfortable at this party, she gets herself drunk and joins Toby's hectic dance.
Meanwhile, Kevin has a conversation with the network president (Brad Garret). Although Kevin's agent participates a little, trying to mollify the anxiety, the conversation goes bad, when the president threatens "to Nagasaki your life and career," if Kevin leaves the show, and he provides the evidence of danger by mentioning an unknown actor, whose career was spoiled by him.
Kevin desperately looks for more advice from Kate, who's in the middle of her dance and unable to take the situation seriously. So, Kevin addresses his problem to Randall, whom he didn't treat well during their childhood. This late night call turns out to be the most touching sequence in the episode. Kevin raves to Randall about being trapped for a couple of years as the studio's whore, and feels sorry for failing to be a good brother to him. "But you've still got time," Randall answers, and remembers The Big Three cheer. The ice is broken and even Kate is able to do her part in the family cheer. Randall encourages Kevin to choose the desired future in a theater, because "Mom and Dad didn't raise no whores." Kevin makes the decision to move to New York.
Later, Randall is alone in the bedroom, because Beth sneaks out to tell William about her worries and asks him if he used the money that Randall gave him, to buy drugs. And when Randall shows up, William appears to be even more thoughtful of the family than Beth could imagine: he used that money to take a long road back home and feed his cat. As Randall's youngest has asthma, William doesn't want bother anyone with his feline. Beth now feels uneasy and tries to soothe the discomfort by saying "Well, now I feel like a b****!"
The episode's final sequence goes back to the '80s. In the morning, Jack feels bad after his drunk appearance and finds himself outside the bedroom, alone and far away from Rebecca. He swears he'll stop drinking and will go beyond the scale: "Screw that, I'm going to be a 12 for you, from here on out. I'll be an 11 for the kids. You get a 12." Rebecca seems to be appeased, as she opens the gift: a crescent moon necklace, which reminds her of their song. Although, this turn isn't very original, this is how it goes on in real families, right? She says she will never take it off.
The final scene is the evidence for Rebecca's words. We see the future, in which she reaches Randall's family's doorstep, as a grandmother, accompanied by Jack's friend Miguel. Now, we obviously have a lot of questions for the next episode. Is Jack dead? Did Rebecca divorce Jack? Has Miguel replaced Jack? Anyway, as we may expect, she's wearing the necklace.
Reach Staff Reporter Mariia Kovaleva here.
Annenberg Media