This Is Us recap, season 5, episode 9: ‘The Ride’

Last week, we saw a lot of Pearson babies being brought into the world. Now it’s time to take them home. But it’s not just Frannie, Nick and Hailey who accompany that trip home from the hospital: this episode appears in a series of Pearsons taking newborns home for the first time. If all of this seems vaguely familiar, your mind may be wandering to the second season’s episode “The Car” in which yes, we have several stories that happened at Pearson Wagoneer. It’s not that. Yes, the editing at the end of the episode looked a lot like Wagoneer’s stuff, but where “The Car” was more about a family car being a kind of memoir and a way of looking back and remembering a life together, “The Ride” is about starting a journey together.

Let’s start with Jack and Rebecca leaving the hospital with the Big Three for the first time, because it is the most exciting of the many road trips we have in this episode. And also because I think I decided that Jack and Rebecca from the late 70s / early 80s are my favorite Jack and Rebecca. Why? Who can say. Probably 73% has to do with Jack’s beard. 86 percent. In any case, how terrifying must it be to leave the hospital’s warm, supportive cocoon with three newborns? No one can blame that security guard who sees Jack improperly installing the car seats and, on learning that Jack has triplets, simply responds “God, God bless you” before leaving. Jack and Rebecca are very brave people and neither does anyone want to get involved in this situation if it is not necessary.

Jack and Rebecca are also very oppressed people. Of course they are! In addition to having to keep three humans alive, let’s not forget that a few days ago Rebecca lost a baby in childbirth. She and Jack have barely begun to process that loss. No wonder she looks distressed when she realizes that she can’t see the faces of the babies in the front seat to make sure they are fine during the ride.

And then the babies start screaming. Therefore, Jack, who is trying to prove to Rebecca and himself that he is a capable provider, is already struggling to get off the road when a real idiot driver interrupts him. They stop at the same gas station and Jack is about to unload on this guy, but Rebecca calms him down. To calm down, Jack comes in, buys a bottle of whiskey and drinks. He makes Rebecca drive the rest of the way home.

When they finally reach the garage, the three children are asleep. They decide to wait in the car, which leads them to finally open up about the emotional spirals they are both experiencing internally. Phew, this scene is so good. It’s the right amount of emotion and sentimentality and it also drives character development. Rebecca is afraid of being a bad mother because she will be very sad – she saw this happen to her mother after having a miscarriage – and she feels like a completely different person from the one who left to have her babies just four years old behind. Of course, what just happened to her changed her – how could she not? – but Jack says it doesn’t mean that she won’t be a great mother.

He is unable to grant the same kindness to himself: he is completely terrified of the possibility of being just like his father. He tells Rebecca about the whiskey and how much anger he was ready to release on that driver. This is his father. His father hated being close to his own family and “he sucked in the air” from any room he was in. Jack’s relationship with his father has been a fixed element of the series, but it has gained even more prominence this season and I hope These are U.S goes further. We still haven’t seen what happens to the Pearsons right after Jack and Nicky’s return from Vietnam. And we know that Jack asked Stanley for money to buy his and Rebecca’s dream house and that he refused to see him when he was dying, but is there anything in between that we should know? There are some interesting things waiting to be discovered.

Either way, Rebecca tells Jack that he won’t be like his father. “You don’t suck the air out of the room, you we are the air, ”she tells him, which is extravagant as hell, but I am in it too. They realize they’re going to be okay because they have each other and it’s all so cute and maybe we should all just sit in the cars while the babies sleep in the back so we can feel things again, I don’t know, it’s weird Time.

Meanwhile, these days, Kevin is once again showing us that he is a lot like his father in all the best and worst aspects. He also finds himself enveloped in anger on the way home from the hospital with his newborns. He must also be dismissed by the partner before doing something he will regret. Kevin’s problem, however, is not a reckless driver, it’s the paparazzi who follow him to take a picture of Manny with his new babies. Madison – which, incidentally, is like, The the calmest new mom on the planet, which is wild because I don’t think Madison has ever been calm for a minute in her life – I can see that Kevin is totally sleep-deprived (let’s talk about how he got a man out of there from a burning car and forced her way to a flight without an identification (so many accompaniments!) and she takes over and forces him to take a nap. It is within this nap that we have a small interaction between Adult Kevin and Jack.

Kevin dreams that he finds Jack (interesting that it must be Jack Mustache from Kevin’s childhood and not Goatee Jack from Kevin’s adolescence, no?) Holding his new grandchildren and ready for a frank conversation with his son. Dream Jack tells Kevin that he needs to stop trying to live up to him. See, Jack spent a lot of time worrying about becoming his father and Kevin is stressed out about not being like his father and all they are doing is wasting time in fear. He tells his son to decide what he want and go get it. Obviously, all of this is in Kevin’s mind, but to Jack it seems like a very brand-oriented speech.

What Kevin wants is his family. For real and forever. So, he officially proposes to Madison (well, “officially” with his hospital bracelet). Are they doing this, I think?

And Jack Pearson’s other son? One of our other post-hospital car trips follows Randall and Beth after the birth of our real savior, Annie. All Beth wants is a Snickers Blizzard from Dairy Queen. All Randall wants to talk about is having a third child. Randall is SO MUCH. I know we already know that, but sometimes we need to be reminded. Beth is like “another human recently left my body, just bring me a damn blizzard, man” and Randall obeys, knowing that he is a LOT, but also explains where he is coming from with this extremely inopportune request.

A hospital nurse commented that Annie has her father’s eyes and that is a big problem for Randall, who never looked like his family. There is a difference between knowing your family and knowing where you are from. This, of course, is the same thing that we have seen Randall fight in today. He wanted to be tied to something bigger, he wanted to understand his roots, that’s why the search for biological parents was so important to him. When it comes to children, he wants to build a family tree full of branches. The guy loves plant metaphors, okay? Randall hopes that even if he and Beth don’t have any more children, their daughters will have babies and their family tree will grow more and more.

That’s where flash-forward comes in. We met adult Deja and adult Annie, who are driving together to Uncle Kevin’s house to join everyone to say goodbye to Rebecca, and Deja is secretly pregnant! Annie knows, but no one else. Our tot tater is having his own tot tater! Randall will be so excited that his tree is getting a new branch. Better yet, we found out that Deja is becoming a doctor. We are all very proud!

• Kate and Toby’s plans are thrown out the window on the way home from the hospital when a visibly upset Ellie tells them that she knows they have agreed to an open adoption full of visits and photos, but she just can’t be a part of of Hailey’s life now. She wants to say goodbye and move on. Kate is devastated, especially after seeing what Randall went through for not knowing his birth parents, but Toby tells her that everything will be fine. And who knows, Ellie might want to meet Hailey at some point in the future. They have it. Remember how messy Toby was when Jack was born? He’s so comforting and stable now! What a turnaround.

• It is an intense day at Pearson-Damon’s home because Toby also has to inform his wife that he has been fired. So it’s Kate’s turn to be comforting. These two seem to be in such a good place at the moment.

• Okay, so when Old Randall is about to enter Old Kevin’s house with his Adult Daughters, another car stops, beeps and Old Randall says “look who it is” as he and Adult Deja nod in familiarity. With most of our other important players counted in the flash-forward (Miguel still alive? Madison Kevin’s wife?), It looks like These are U.S is preparing us for some kind of revelation with Kate. Are the answers in this car? When will we find out? It is possible that I am over-invested in this flash-forward!

• Beth’s deep love for her DQ Blizzard was very identifiable. I mean, she likes Snickers and I’m more of a Butterfinger girl, but I really felt seen.

• Learn that Randall would have weekly Happiness attending parties with your mother is the most precious gift.