MsChicklet

Jack had always been the caretaker of Nicky and the protector of his mom. His path as a Superman bearing his burdens stoically had been been set young by his family. Now, thanks to his joining the Army to go protect and save Nicky, he had a platoon of soldiers he was responsible for, and the obligation of protecting the village. He took those responsibilities seriously, as was shown in his guilt over the soldier who died playing football. Nicky's own problems, his drug abuse, his behavior, his dislike and distrust of the locals, were more burdens Jack felt he had to bear and fix. What Nicky did added more pain and guilt for Jack to bear, more responsibility as this could put his men in danger of retaliation, and the bitter reality that he had failed at his ultimate goal of getting Nicky home whole. Jack has to finish his tour -- and god only knows what happens during that time -- goes home with the wounds of his grief and guilt still raw and his father pours salt on them. So Jack did what so many veterans, so many stoics, do. They try to cut off the source of the pain for what they see as their own survival. Jack tried to do it through estrangement, alcohol and trying to be the perfect husband and dad. But the pain was still there, and that along with the responsibilities of providing for a wife and family meant that Jack couldn't and wouldn't take on having Nicky, with all his problems, in his life again.

Agreed. It may come after the baby is born. Perhaps Toby cashes out of his tech company for an opportunity back east. He feels more at home with his in-laws than his own family, anyway. And we'd get more Beth/Toby/Miguel snarking over adult beverages. I'm still annoyed that we're not getting weekly text chain posts from TIU in addition to the aftershow.

Nicky's diabetic. And if he's been drinking heavily and smoking all those years, there may be other health complications. Maybe Kevin gets to do for Nicky what Randall did for William -- make peace as much as he can with what was and make the end less painful.

This episode brought home the tragedy of Vietnam in the form of Jack and Nicky. Jack had his own trauma -- the burdens of leadership, the loss and wounding of friends, the day-to-day misery of death and destruction. On top of that, he'd taken on the monumental task to save the sweet kid brother he remembered. The tragedy is that Jack was too late. The sweet kid Jack fought to protect and save never had a chance once sent into the meat grinder of Vietnam. And the one moment that sweetness came back -- his playful, well-intentioned, irresponsible, goddamned stupid fishing trip -- destroyed everything. It broke not only Nicky, but Jack. He had seen and heard his brother express malice towards the locals. He'd seen Nicky strung out. And now he was faced with his brother committing an atrocity. He couldn't be Superman to Nicky's Clark Kent anymore. He had to pick up his pieces and take care of his men through more fighting, more death, more destruction, more trauma. Then he went home to his mother's heartbreak, and his father's cruel, bitter taunts about how he'd failed to save Nicky. His innate goodness couldn't save him from his struggles, guilt and trauma. At his lowest, when he's considering throwing everything away for a robbery, along comes Rebecca. He felt like he'd been given a lifeline out of the pain and shame that was his life, and he grabbed it. He thought he could leave everything behind, but spent the rest of his life trying and failing to do so. It was why he was so dogged and determined to be the best dad and husband, to do his best to be better than his own father. It was why he was such a devoted friend to Miguel, because he could give the comfort and support to Miguel he could no longer give to Nicky. Now this truth about Jack is out. And Rebecca has to face the glaring imperfections in their relationship in spite of their devoted, passionate love for each other. She lied and kept William secret. He lied and kept Nicky secret. They could not share their deepest pain -- Rebecca's fear of losing Randall, Jack's anguish over Nicky and Vietnam -- with each other. Even with the darkness, there is still levity. Randall's pep talk to Beth. Randall and Kevin reverting to kids together on the couch, with Kevin bouncy excited over a road trip and Randall doing his "mind blown" thing and Rebecca's over on the side realizing once again they'll never fully grow up. Tess may want to look into an after-school gig at Psychic Friends Network, just saying:

Jack rescued as many of the family photo albums as he could fit in the pillowcase along with Rebecca's necklace and Kate's videotape. There also may have been photo albums or framed photos at the cabin. As far as the box with the postcard from Nicky, it may have been stashed in the detached garage, which likely spared it from burning along with Jack's tools. Or Jack may have kept the correspondence from Nicky at the office, which meant Miguel likely gave it to Rebecca after Jack died.

So ... Randall won. Which means while he and Beth are good now, the challenges of him putting family first while working for constituents an hour and a half away from home could create new issues. He'll be missing a lot of family dinners if he keeps that promise of helping with snow removal. I can see Randall proposing a move to Philadelphia. Maybe that's how Beth gets into her dance career.

Also, tell Kate "This box is the stuff I want to keep for the baby." And then put the box away somewhere far away from the stuff being sold, like your bedroom closet.

Kate has always seemed at the very least cordial to Miguel. I remember them dancing at her wedding and she seemed to be fine with him. It's interesting because she was Jack's favorite and it would make sense if she resented the man Rebecca married. I wonder if she was always accepting, and how it came about.

My high school (Connecticut, early '80s) had an outdoor smoking area just off the cafeteria. They ended that by 1990.

Speculations after the mid-season finale. Rebecca was revealed as the her, but she's already dead. The Pearsons are all going to see her before the visitation/funeral. Tess is "not ready" to see her grandma dead. Beth got the Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey game to be buried with Rebecca. Toby is fighting grief as well as depression. It's interesting how, so far, we have not seen Miguel, Kevin, Kate, Annie, Deja or Zoe in this flash-forward. Nicky did something terrible. He has stated his mistrust and loathing of the villagers. He is on drugs and close to a mental breakdown. He may have taken the next step and committed an atrocity against the locals.

I think it will also dovetail with post-fire Teen Big Three storylines. Why did Kate give up on college so close to her degree? She's competent and has some talent. But something has caused her to self-sabotage professionally, except when she worked for Kevin.

There's a lot Kate could do. The skills, experience and contacts she got working for Kevin could help her find work. She could be an event planner or a project manager for a music-related business or organization.

I was glad Kate was backburnered this week. I like to imagine Madison already planning the baby shower. And since I hate the Mr. Pearson Goes to Philadelphia storyline, I was glad to have a break from that. Narrowing the focus from the whole family down to just Jack, Rebecca, Kevin and Zoe allowed for a slower pace of storytelling, which I think was needed in this episode. I like when the stories go in an unexpected direction. Kevin finding out the pendant was a dime a dozen instead of something unique. This. I watch the show because of how it lets us get to know the Pearsons, seeing the trajectory of their lives. Jack who took on responsibility for his little brother became Jack still trying to be Superman when the champagne cork popped and his first impulse was to throw out his arm to shield Rebecca and her friend becomes Jack the Superdad who saves a dog and the family photos and videos. I like the journey.

While the title of the episode was "Vietnam," there was so much more to the episode than the war. It gave us more of Jack's childhood and youth, and what set him on the path to be who he was. So many little things came up. Seeing his father so calm, nice, and sober the night of Nick's birth, it hits home what a betrayal his future behavior was for Jack. It shows why he was so ashamed and embarrassed about his drinking and behavior leading up to his and Rebecca's brief separation, because he had acted like his father and grandfather. When the doctor said to do 100 pushups, it made me think of the time Jack did pushups at Randall's martial arts class. Two of MrChicklet's much-older cousins came of age during Vietnam. One graduated high school in 1963 and joined the ROTC in college. It allowed him to graduate as an officer, avoid serving on the ground in Vietnam, and led to a long and successful Air Force career. The other cousin graduated in 1965. He went straight into college and fought like hell to stay in, in spite of struggling both academically and financially. As the son of a working-class single mom, he knew he was going straight to infantry if he left school and got drafted. ETA: Yep, he would have been drafted. Looked up his draft number: 149 in 1970.

MrChicklet's late cousin graduated from high school in the mid-60s and went through college with a brush cut and Buddy Holly glasses.

When Randall was badgering Kate about adoption, I was thinking, even if they spent the IVF money on trying to adopt, it probably wouldn't happen. Parental health can be used against prospective parents, and even if agencies didn't think Kate's weight is an issue, Toby has the double whammy of mental illness and heart disease. When my sister and BIL were considering adoption, they were advised it would be very difficult because BIL had suffered a heart attack at age 47. Then my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer and any thoughts of adopting went out the window (she's fine now, 10-plus years survivor). I don't remember them specifying either, but may have missed it. Randall and Beth didn't have to go to the same college. Maybe Randall stayed home to go to school, but visited his friends at Howard, where he met Beth. Then got help from Kevin.

Same here. I think she's probably ruthlessly selfish. Not in a soap villain kind of way. But she was abandoned and carried anger and loneliness for a long time. She will put herself and what she wants ahead of everything else because she learned no one else will. And she will always want to be the one who leaves, not the one who is left.

One of the common snarks on This is Us that it's all about making you cry. But there are also the LOL moments and the smile-of-recognition moments where you see yourself or someone else in something a character says or does. The end of the scene when Randall shows up at the hospital, where he and Toby joke about the timing of Toby being asked to give a sample. Or the sparkle between Kate and Randall when she saw him after surgery and told him he had done such a Dad Thing. The Beth/Toby/Miguel group text. And oh, lord, the deleted scene shown in the aftershow.

That was so sweet. I hope we get more simple one-on-one time like that with the Big Three. Good god, the text chain. I love that Miguel, Beth and Toby have each other.

THIS. Clara became the Companion Who Ate the Show. If she'd just been a schoolteacher, with students and a family and friends, she would have been more interesting.

I wish it had been something where she was grievously injured in some way, so couldn't be a companion, but was someone who could be a support for the Doctor and companions from time to time. I think the Doctor stayed for a few reasons. First, no way to leave without her TARDIS. Also, she's still settling into herself, so staying with the few people she knows while she does that makes sense. Yes, this. No more Manic Pixie Dream Companions. What's nice about the three companions is that there are more viewpoints, more opportunities to see things from different perspectives.

Nice to know I won't be alone on the River Styx Express. I hope Kate brings this up if Randall confronts her. Maybe Randall's heading for another breakdown. He's trying to be the Daddest Dad that Ever Dadded not just to his own girls, but Deja. Without thinking of how others might be affected, he takes on the problems of everyone William ever so much as smiled at. He's got major responsibilities with the building, and a time-suck commute to go with it. Now he's got part of Kate's remark to brood over for another Thanksgiving Dinner Blowup.

The only possibility I thought of is that they are planning to buy adjacent property to add parking, but it doesn't sound like that's happened. Reviews have not been great so far: Customers say service sucks, it's too loud, and prices are too high It's table service, but there's also a take-away section set away from the dining area for orders or grab-and-go things. Did anyone see they're selling something called "Shorties" in the take-away section?

And your view is of mirrors so you can watch yourself eat. Removing parking to expand the patio was beyond stupid. If anything, they should have reduced the patio and added more parking.

I remember back in the good ol' TWoP days I christened him Coltin Scott Conchita Alonzo Steven Fish Taco Martines after he changed his name at least once.