(Warning: this post contains spoilers for Tuesday’s “This Is Us”.)
After hearing the story of his biological mother, Laurel Dubois, in tonight’s episode of “This Is Us”, Randall Pearson (Sterling K. Brown) had a cathartic screaming experience in the middle of a lake in New Orleans – something that the fans just learned that Laurel herself knew when she was overcome with emotion. And during Randall’s very noisy night swimming session, he came face to face with his birth mother in a scene that Brown thinks wasn’t just in Randall’s mind – or absinthe-induced, although Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) continued to play about alcohol. day – but a real spiritual moment.
“I choose to see this as a miracle,” Brown told TheWrap. “On a line that was cut, Hai [played by Vien Hong] asks Randall if he is a spiritual person. And Randall says, ‘If I can’t see, taste, touch, feel or hear, it probably doesn’t exist.’ So I think this is a real moment of transcendence when it allows something beyond your physical senses to penetrate. I feel this encounter with your mother, I understand it more literally and as a kind of presence of the possibility that something exists beyond what is tangible. “
Randall’s meeting with Laurel takes place both in its younger form (played by Jennifer C. Holmes) and its older form (Angela Gibbs), as the two have a loving conversation that they were never able to share in real life.
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“In my head, and it doesn’t have to make sense to anyone, he had a chance to hear his mother say the words ‘I love you’ and he had a chance to say them back to her,” said Brown. “And that is why he is so light. That’s why, at the end of the episode, he is willing and wanting to get rid of all the bad things between him and his brother, Kevin [played by Justin Hartley], because he knows there is something more. I think it is the first time in our context of our show where Randall had a truly spiritual moment. “
Now, when it comes to the logistics of filming the lake scene, that was not exactly a spiritual moment for Brown, who worked closely with the episode’s director and co-writer, Kay Oyegun, to get the photos right.
“While we were doing the lake scene, I basically had to shoot twice because I shot with Jennifer and Angela and they weren’t sure which footage they were going to use and they wanted to have the option to use both,” said Brown. “I think they brought them together in a really adorable way. But we just shot the scene and I was going to scream madly. I was like, ‘How many times am I going to do this, Kay?’ And she said, ‘Almost done, Brown. Almost ready.’ After a few of them, she just looked at me and said, ‘Poor Randall.’ I was like, ‘You wrote that! Why are you looking at me ?! ‘ (laughs)“
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To reach the cathartic miracle at the lake, Randall had to read Hai’s story about Laurel’s life – one he wasn’t immediately interested in, since all that mattered was finding out what happened after his biological father, William, thought that she had died of a postpartum heroin overdose in her Pittsburgh apartment.
But once Hai tells Randall that she was brought back to life by paramedics after William left with baby Randall – and that she was taken to a hospital, arrested for drug possession and unable to contact William before of being sentenced to five years in prison in California – Randall started listening.
“The difference is that, up to that point, he really only thought about his mother in terms of how her life impacted his, right?” Said Brown. “She is a minor character in his story, the way that many people tend to think that we are the center of our own stories. That was only until he realized: ‘Oh, prison, there were repercussions on her actions.’ And they had, due to their blackness, possibly greater repercussions than if she were not black. She didn’t just go to prison, she went to prison for five years on the other side of the country. “
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He continued: “And then it was in that moment that he realized, ‘OK, maybe I just sit and listen to her story. And her story is important, because she lived. Not just because of how it necessarily intertwines or interacts with mine, but here is an opportunity to learn about someone who plays a role in my existence and I need to know that. Not just because of how they impact me, but because I should want to know that. ‘”
“After he was able to sit and listen without being so anxious about the whole thing, he got exactly what he needed,” explained Brown. “Because part of Randall’s story is that, ‘Only two people who didn’t care about me, who didn’t see any value in me, could just have given up on me and left my life.’ And now he knows that this is not true. That the kind of story he created in his mind is much more multidimensional and he is really the product of love, for two loving people with circumstances who conspired against them in a terrible way. “
So now you must be wondering if Randall plans to tell his mother, Rebecca (Mandy Moore), about everything he has just learned about Laurel – or if he thinks it might be too much for her, since she is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s.
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“I don’t know. That’s my honest answer,” said Brown, laughing. “But we have Rebecca’s declining cognition and I think there are questions Randall asks himself in terms of, which is really important that his mom knows about the their relationship right now? is there anything she should answer or resolve? I think the answer is no right now. He was carrying so much pain, so much anger and frustration at the idea that she denied him access to a relationship [with William] it could have been beneficial to your life. I think he put it to sleep, right? “
He added: “I think if he finds a way to share this with her and where she can see it not as an accusation about anything to do about her as a mother, that he will. I think if he feels that she can feel any kind of guilt, he will keep it to himself. And that’s okay, because now the most important thing is that she enjoys the quality of her life, the time she has with the best quality for as long as she can. I don’t think he’s interested in confronting you with something that might make you unhappy. Honestly, I think she’s fine with that. Those are my two cents. Now, you’ll see an episode later where Randall goes to town on Rebecca, like, ‘How dare you!’ (laughs) But that is what I am thinking now. “
“This Is Us” will air on Tuesdays at 9 / 8c on NBC.