This is Us hasn’t spent a whole lot of time crafting three-dimensional arcs for its female characters, choosing instead to focus on how the myth of the male fallen hero—patriarch Jack Pearson—has been a detriment to the people who looked up to him, particularly his wife and daughter. But in this week’s episode, which reflects on the seven weeks leading up to Randall’s election night, Beth, Zoe, and Kate’s narratives both challenge the men they’ve upheld and bring attention to their own needs and desires in a way we haven’t seen before.
Here’s what went down in tonight’s midseason premiere.
Beth is no longer attending any of Randall’s campaign events.
Things have obviously not gotten any better between Beth and Randall since she (rightfully) accused him of prioritizing his political campaign over their family. For one thing, he’s still sleeping on the couch.
On election night, Randall’s biggest supporters show up to watch the results in his tiny office. He’s clearly nervous, because, as the episode continues to remind us, the polls show how much of a lead his opponent has. Which means all this tension between him and Beth wasn’t even worth it. This is something Beth knows too well, as she lashes out at Randall for not being around for the family when he asks her to support him at his various campaign events. His incentive is less about being together as a family and more about presenting an image of a family to his supporters. When he tries to deliver a savage clapback, he only manages to further prove her point.
Randall tells Beth that when he was home with the kids and she was in the office, “you didn’t hear me complaining.”
There are two places Randall messed up here: 1) He reduced Beth’s critical concern about his absence to “complaining” and 2) he didn’t acknowledge that he actually hasn’t been around for her and the kids. Randall has been so busy trying to attain the essence of his father, he’s neglected his family. He’s so caught up in the idea of being a heroic figure for a neighborhood he continues to see as disadvantaged that his family life has crumbled and he doesn’t even seem apologetic about it. That’s a problem. Yes, Randall was content when he was a stay-at-home dad, but that’s also because he decided to stay home—on his own terms. He was not laid off and unable to find work, like Beth. That’s something that bears repeating—we seem to have forgotten that Beth has now repeatedly told Randall that she hasn’t been doing well since she was let go, but he has yet to address that issue properly. So, when Beth finally takes a stand, refusing to support him in a seemingly pointless political run, he feels…betrayed? Beth has reached a point in her relationship with Randall where she has to beg her partner to see and value her—even if it means having a full-blown argument. It’s really important that we saw that from Beth.
Kevin asks Zoe to move into his loft—and she breaks up with him.
Beth was right when she told Kevin that Zoe has a lot of baggage. As we learned in a previous episode, she was sexually assaulted by her own father. She’s also been really noncommittal throughout her relationship with Kevin. In fact, she merely accepts Kevin’s offer to move in with him, and she’s definitely not as enthusiastic about it as he is. But now that she’s become such a fixture in Kevin’s life—and not just proof that Kevin has finally matured—the writers have to confront what that means both for her and for them as a couple. The layers of Zoe’s story are peeled back to show a woman who has a history of abruptly calling relationships off—like the one she had with a Congressman who’s clearly still in his feelings about it.
Zoe and Kevin are trying to obtain Nicky’s records at the Department of Veteran Affairs, where they’re told that only his next of kin or a member of Congress can access them. So Zoe suggests a Congressman she knows could help. The couple meet with him at a diner, and right away we learn that Zoe and the Congressman used to date but she broke up with him by email—right before they were going to move in together. That, of ouse, sends Kevin into a tailspin later. He’s giving Zoe the cold shoulder and accusing her of not being serious about moving in together because she hasn’t even unpacked. He fears she’s about to break up with him, while she feels like he is pushing her and not being understanding. She decides to move out.
Kate tells Toby they have to move forward in their lives.
My, have times changed. Kate, who has spent much of the series dwelling on the past, has finally come out the other side—and she even has a heart-to-heart with Toby about the need to move forward. We’ve seen Kate emotionally defeated so often that when we see her crying in the beginning of this episode, we assume something bad has happened to her again. Nope, she and the baby are fine. She even brags at one point in that their unborn son is “the size of a tomato now.” Instead, these are happy tears.
Kate and Toby have been making room for the baby, and she’s been clearing space in the nursery. When she mistakenly donates a box filled with Toby’s old action figures, he’s distraught, because he wanted to pass those down to their children. She tries to re-buy the items from the kid she sold them to by telling him that she and Toby essentially have no vintage items of their own to give to their child. (All her toys burned up in the fire in her childhood home, which also caused her father’s death—remember?) Then, she buys knock-off versions on eBay, which Toby instantly detects. But ultimately, Kate encourages Toby to understand that they don’t need to pass items down to their son, because they’re going to create new memories of their own. While all this is happening, Toby is secretly recreating the toy football stadium that perished in the Pearson fire. He presents it to her in the last moments of the episode, which makes her cry tears of joy. You hear that sound? That’s growth.
Zoe opens herself up to Kevin on her own terms, and he learns that Nicky is still alive.
Soon after Zoe returns Kevin’s keys (they’re both at Randall’s campaign headquarters on election night), she has a change of heart. She follows him outside and allows him to truly see her for the first time. Zoe tells Kevin that ever since her assault, it’s been difficult for her to share her safe space with others—particularly men. It’s why she’s been uncomfortable with the pace of their relationship, but she wants to try because, she says, she loves him. It’s a great moment between them—it allows Zoe to be vulnerable and require Kevin’s attention and support as a partner. She’s been at his side during his emotional search in his dad’s past, after all. The moment is capped off when she asks for his keys back.
When Kevin and Zoe return to their apartment together, they finally unpack Zoe’s stuff, which is mixed in with one of Jack’s boxes. They discover an old postcard Jack received from Nicky. Kevin finds out that not only was his Uncle Nicky alive, but Jack corresponded with him and kept that from his family—at least his kids. I’m sure Kevin’s going to lead the Pearson mission to find Nicky now, and the conversation with Rebecca will likely be interesting as well.
Randall apologizes for not being there for his family.
It took him a while to get here—five weeks of sleeping on the couch—but Randall finally faces his mistakes and apologizes to his entire family for putting them second to his campaign run. In a recurring flashback throughout the episode, we return to young Randall and Jack during their college tour. Realizing Randall’s potential for greatness, Jack comforts his son, sking how he’ll be able to juggle both personal and professional success. (It’s hokey, but this conversation obviously motivates Randall.) Jack tells Randall he will find someone that will “balance” him, like Rebecca does for Jack.
Two weeks before election night, on New Year’s Eve, Randall vows to his family to be more present, and admits that his chances of winning are low. Beth seems to appreciate this, and things start to shift for the better between the two: Randall gets back to watching a marathon of animated movies with the girls, and the family shares their annual blueberry pie as the ball drops. Randall’s back to sharing a bed with Beth. He seems happy. They’re happy. And yet, Beth later encourages Randall to get back in the race because being great “is who you are.” Which is a strange move, because doing so counters the needs she specifically vocalized, though it subverts the stereotype of a wife professionally castrating her husband. Still, Beth expressing Randall’s need to be great in this way can jeopardize their relationship, and it’s frustrating—especially when the second shoe drops.
Randall wins the election.
This was a surprising feat at the end of the episode, when Beth and Randall are finally seeing eye to eye again. Just as they’re lying in an embrace in bed, after she gives him a good ol’ Pearson pep talk, he gets a phone call that he won. Then the closing credits run.
I have questions. Like, is this why Beth and Randall are split up in the future—because she was unable to make her needs a priority in their relationship? Or, if he turns down the win, does he become resentful toward her? Once she encourages Randall to continue his campaign, he seems to go back to no longer being present in their relationship. It will be interesting to see whether Beth fully acknowledges and accepts what Randall winning the election will mean for their marriage. I’m worried.
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