S05.E06: Birth Mother

[ams1001]

8 minutes ago, chocolatine said:

There was absolutely no indication that he was boring. All we know about him is that he was working at the bank - doing well enough that Laurel's father was about to promote him to VP - and wanted to propose to Laurel. I hate the TV trope that people who work in quantitative fields and have their act together are automatically presumed to be boring.

Yeah, we saw him for like twelve seconds sitting at the dinner table...did he even have a line? All we know is she wasn't in love with him

[CrystalBlue]

8 hours ago, Good Queen Jane said:

I have no doubt that the prisons in Pennsylvania (prisons are state functions; cities have jails) were overcrowded if judges were sentencing first offender drug users to five years, no parole, I did criminal law in the 80's, and although there were a lot of users being locked up, first offenders were usually given suspended  or six month sentences. That's why her attorney "forced" her to plead guilty. Either her judge was biased or upset Laurel was using drugs while pregnant or the cops tried to get her to turn her dealer and she refused, so she got a harsh sentence as a warning to other addicts.

I'm betting pretty white girls fared better than any black girl back in that day.  You make a good point about extenuating circumstances though.  Laurel's five-year sentence served for first offense drug possession was ridiculous.  Probably would have been easier if it was marijuana and not heroin.

[Blakeston]

Laurel serving five years in California for a possession charge (and never being told a thing about her baby, despite it being surrendered to the authorities) is a huge contrivance that we probably shouldn't think too hard about.

My question is, why? Why not just say she served six months to a year in Pennsylvania? What difference would that make to the plot?

 

 

[sadie]

my gripes in no particular order.

An epic tale that spans generations, continents, decades.........we get it. Enough. Can we please please please stop trying to make fetch happen, Randall is the most self tortured soul on television. We get it he was left at a fire station, and then came William and then came Vietnamese guy with tales of his long tortured mother and he was raised by insensitive white folk who never understood his pain and his adopted mother has Alzheimer’s and his brothers a jerk and his sister is obese. My gosh I’m tired just typing it. And I’m sure now we’re gonna get long lost relatives thrown into the mix. Please show, just say no.

I live in Florida and everyone knows you NEVER go into a dark body of water like that unless you have a death wish. Certainly not in the dark, while naked and alone. Gators and snakes are literally everywhere. And if you see a ghost well you’re probably already dead.

I hate the trope of “my baby mama is in labor and I have to risk my safety getting to her”. She’s in an American hospital with trained medical professionals, slow your roll Kevin and arrive alive please,  she’s not about to be eaten by a gator, she’s having a baby.

The only good part is no Kate this ep, so there’s that.

Sorry y’all it was a long day and I guess I’m just crabby but we have to admit this show is steadily going downhill mostly from trying to give Sterling K his Emmy reel.   

 

[Quof]

10 minutes ago, sadie said:

Certainly not in the dark, while naked

Why? Are snakes and gators attracted to dangly things?

[sadie]

Just now, Quof said:

Why? Are snakes and gators attracted to dangly things?

It’s just that they are there and yes, gators mostly are attracted to anything in the water moving around. A lot of dogs get snatched just on the edge of our lakes. It’s just a hard NO here in the south, if it ain’t your pool don’t go in, and even then check first as people have had a water moccasins and gators manage to get in their pools. The whole scene made me anxious. 

[ams1001]

28 minutes ago, sadie said:

I hate the trope of “my baby mama is in labor and I have to risk my safety getting to her”. She’s in an American hospital with trained medical professionals, slow your roll Kevin and arrive alive please,  she’s not about to be eaten by a gator, she’s having a baby.

I especially hate the trope of them driving recklessly with the laboring mother in the car. In most cases by the time you head to the hospital, there's still plenty of time before the baby comes. Being in labor, in and of itself, is generally not a top-speed-lights-and-sirens emergency.

[Ohiopirate02]

1 hour ago, chocolatine said:

There was absolutely no indication that he was boring. All we know about him is that he was working at the bank - doing well enough that Laurel's father was about to promote him to VP - and wanted to propose to Laurel. I hate the TV trope that people who work in quantitative fields and have their act together are automatically presumed to be boring.

Last episode Kevin left to go Vancouver and Madison stayed behind in LA. She most likely wouldn't be allowed into Canada even if she'd wanted to come, since she doesn't have a job there.

True.  I'm grasping at straws trying to come up with some reason why Laurel was so against her father's plan for her.  The show gave us nothing.  The would be fiance could have been many a thing if only the writers went there.   For a show that gets so granular on some issues,  and yet this episode crammed so much into its 40 minutes that it was nonsensical.

[Quof]

10 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

Being in labor, in and of itself, is generally not a top-speed-lights-and-sirens emergency.

Unless you are Mrs. Seth Meyers

[MissLucas]

So, walking in a body of water -preferably naked for no good reason- and a bit of screaming is all it takes to get rid of all your trauma? Duly noted though I might wait for spring until I give it a shot in a gator-less not frozen lake.

It was all very tragic but I was not in the mood for emotional manipulation (the never ending plink-plonk of the score was the icing on the cake). Instead I came up with a dream scenario of Chi McBride playing a character who's finally reading Randall the riot act for *insert reason of choice* because I love Chi McBride going on an epic rant and he was criminally underused here.

Edited January 14, 2021 by MissLucas

[Arcadiasw]

I am curious about her parents. Did they try to find Laurel? With their money they would know she's in prison and her release. Maybe that was another reason she didn't see them. 🤷‍♀️

[Adgirl]

13 minutes ago, Blakeston said:

Laurel serving five years in California for a possession charge (and never being told a thing about her baby, despite it being surrendered to the authorities) is a huge contrivance that we probably shouldn't think too hard about.

Prison reform advocates/activists have talked about this for decades that's why activists now are at "Defund" and "Abolish" language because no one paid attention to anecdotal insights of over sentencing and separation of families.

It's hilarious to see people saying things like "no one put it together". To the system and the people that support it, Laurel was a junkie who got what she deserved. No one heard the nurse say that in the scene?

Sending drug offenders to states far away was a mechanism to break gang ties and organized crime. 

The Black Pearsons need their own show. Maybe the network should sunset This Is Us and spin off to The Pearsons. We can visit rich uncle actor and aunt speeches once a quarter just to check in. 

[debraran]

1 hour ago, Blakeston said:

Laurel serving five years in California for a possession charge (and never being told a thing about her baby, despite it being surrendered to the authorities) is a huge contrivance that we probably shouldn't think too hard about.

My question is, why? Why not just say she served six months to a year in Pennsylvania? What difference would that make to the plot?

 

 

That line was in no way, just nothing. Even the way he said it in a casual way. There will be (bangs head) something from that calif reference.

There are still so many questions from that one sit down. Randall will wonder about May, about his Mom's parents, where was she buried, are there pictures of his relatives. He will return with or without kids to explore that perfect home, dusted, clean and everything ( I also bet her clothes or other items) waiting for him to touch. Her bible will have a paper in it with her wishes and thoughts for her son, whatever his name may be.

Maybe not all of that, but I'd bet a dollar. ; )

Edited January 14, 2021 by debraran

[debraran]

8 minutes ago, Adgirl said:

Prison reform advocates/activists have talked about this for decades that's why activists now are at "Defund" and "Abolish" language because no one paid attention to anecdotal insights of over sentencing and separation of families.

It's hilarious to see people saying things like "no one put it together". To the system and the people that support it, Laurel was a junkie who got what she deserved. No one heard the nurse say that in the scene?

Sending drug offenders to states far away was a mechanism to break gang ties and organized crime. 

The Black Pearsons need their own show. Maybe the network should sunset This Is Us and spin off to The Pearsons. We can visit rich uncle actor and aunt speeches once a quarter just to check in. 

My husband was a black cop then and it always bothered him the disparity. When I asked why he still disliked a restaurant owner who was a bit wild in the 70's he said, She did things and her friends many black people did in the same city and she always walked or got a light sentence, was even an informant once rumor had it. He had a black friend just smoking and got almost a year and others got longer. He couldn't control the legal end but he tried his best to be just as even in arrest but it was hard when "deals" went to the white criminals.

 

[Blakeston]

9 minutes ago, Adgirl said:

Prison reform advocates/activists have talked about this for decades that's why activists now are at "Defund" and "Abolish" language because no one paid attention to anecdotal insights of over sentencing and separation of families.

It's hilarious to see people saying things like "no one put it together". To the system and the people that support it, Laurel was a junkie who got what she deserved. No one heard the nurse say that in the scene?

Sending drug offenders to states far away was a mechanism to break gang ties and organized crime. 

The Black Pearsons need their own show. Maybe the network should sunset This Is Us and spin off to The Pearsons. We can visit rich uncle actor and aunt speeches once a quarter just to check in. 

I have no doubt that the police and the medical system would be harsh toward Laurel. But a child can't be put up for adoption by the state without paying any attention to the birth parents. There are legal procedures in place about that. 

And while I have no doubt that there have been many unjust sentences to black women with public defenders, a five year sentence on the other side of the country for mere possession doesn't make sense. Why would it be federal?

The writers could have addressed this. They could have included a scene where Laurel is pressured to terminate her parental rights and she gives in out of guilt. They could have mentioned other charges. But instead they lazily put together a narrative that didn't fit.

[GeorgiaRai]

I don't usually read the TIU boards, but was in dire need of some snark therapy to help me deal with naked-Randall-conversing-with-ghost-mom-in-the-lake trauma.  Y'all did not disappoint, and I thank you.

[ams1001]

19 minutes ago, Adgirl said:

It's hilarious to see people saying things like "no one put it together". To the system and the people that support it, Laurel was a junkie who got what she deserved. No one heard the nurse say that in the scene?

Is that what she said? I knew she said something that probably wasn't nice but I couldn't make it out.

[drafan]

9 hours ago, Trillian said:

 Only on tv can a person who was not involved in events recount them second-hand in perfect chronological order with perfect recall of names and dates. 

Everyone in my entire family can do this.

With all the other ridiculous shenanigans in this episode, that didn't make me bat an eyelash.

The Vietnamese guy was so Mr. Miyagi. One cliche after another.

[KaveDweller]

1 hour ago, ams1001 said:

I especially hate the trope of them driving recklessly with the laboring mother in the car. In most cases by the time you head to the hospital, there's still plenty of time before the baby comes. Being in labor, in and of itself, is generally not a top-speed-lights-and-sirens emergency.

I tend to agree, but we don't know what else may be going on with Madison. Maybe she was in an accident that triggered the labor, or it is a high risk birth for some other reason. I am sure next week we will see what happens from Kevin's perspective that led up to that call.

[marceline]

I'm one of the people who didn't care about this episode. I had no interest in Laurel and I'm still trying to figure out how William never knew Laurel survived. I just don't get it but I did enjoy a lot about this episode for other reasons.

• It was visually beautiful. I don't know if it's the fact that I'm stuck at home during an Ohio winter but I loved the New Orleans scenes. The farm, the market, etc... My eyes needed it.
• The representation of Black wealth in the 50's.
• The acting. I didn't like Randall's behavior towards Hai but I wouldn't have given a damn if Sterling wasn't so good at his craft. Then there's all the other actors: the ones who played Hai, Mae, and all the Laurels. There was some Emmy worthy work in this ep.
• Randall and Beth talking about absinthe. I smiled at "five-hour man" and I smiled even more at Randall's saying he was a "six-hour man." I like that R&B are a married couple who enjoy sex.

 

[kili]

Quote

Quote

Laurel was a junkie who got what she deserved. No one heard the nurse say that in the scene?

Is that what she said? I knew she said something that probably wasn't nice but I couldn't make it out.

It could be inferred that is what they meant, but here is what they said:

NURSE 1: What kind of mother gets high after giving birth?
NURSE 2 : Wherever that baby is, he's better off.

It seems that the nurses weren't aware of the baby left at the firehall (and knowing that might not have improved their opinion of the situation). In their defence, getting high after giving birth isn't probably the best plan especially when you OD.  Did William use as well? I know he woke up to the baby crying. If they were both high, that's not very safe for the baby. If the baby is missing though, somebody should be looking for it and making sure it is safe.  

 

[Norma Desmond]

The birth mother story was useless, added nothing to the story, was cheap and predictable. I knew Randall would go swim, "meet" Laurel's ghost and scream in the lake just like her about 15 minutes before it happened onscreen.

 

Ugh.

[Norma Desmond]

22 hours ago, mtlchick said:

There was a lot of “that’s sort of convenient” when it came to her overbearing father, brother who died in the war (imagine that he may have served WITH Nicky and Jack!)

They'll probably save that for season 6.

[PRgal]

1 hour ago, Arcadiasw said:

I am curious about her parents. Did they try to find Laurel? With their money they would know she's in prison and her release. Maybe that was another reason she didn't see them. 🤷‍♀️

The Duboises could have disowned her.  I can see people like them doing that sort of thing.  

[Blackie]

What episode did they show Randall phoning Hai?  The last one? Maybe it was at  the very end and it was cut off by my PVR. So anyways I started off very confused.  Then the actresses who played Laurel girl, teen, and older adult didn't look at all like the prev episodes about Randall's birth.

Mostly I was not interested at all in this episode. Like others have said I would be more interested in a Miguel / Rebecca story. AND if they wanted to be super current they could show how the isolation and restrictions of the pandemic is hastening Rebecca's decline. This has been my experience with all the seniors in my life. Haven't lost 1 to COVID but now have lost 2 to dementia; 2 seniors that were physically fit and independent with  only some memory loss and confusion just 1 year ago.

Edited January 14, 2021 by Blackie
eta

[CrystalBlue]

2 hours ago, Adgirl said:

Prison reform advocates/activists have talked about this for decades that's why activists now are at "Defund" and "Abolish" language because no one paid attention to anecdotal insights of over sentencing and separation of families.

It's hilarious to see people saying things like "no one put it together". To the system and the people that support it, Laurel was a junkie who got what she deserved. No one heard the nurse say that in the scene?

Sending drug offenders to states far away was a mechanism to break gang ties and organized crime. 

The Black Pearsons need their own show. Maybe the network should sunset This Is Us and spin off to The Pearsons. We can visit rich uncle actor and aunt speeches once a quarter just to check in. 

That would be This Is The Randall Pearson Show.

[Adgirl]

2 hours ago, Blakeston said:

And while I have no doubt that there have been many unjust sentences to black women with public defenders, a five year sentence on the other side of the country for mere possession doesn't make sense. Why would it be federal?

How long have people been talking about police brutality and "it didn't make sense" until they watched a police officer kill a man on camera this summer.  

[tinderbox]

I’ve got to say....the weirdest TIU scene, by far, is this episode’s butt naked Randall screaming in the murky gator infested water with his old AND young ghost versions of his MOTHER.  Which writer thought that was a good idea?

[CrystalBlue]

6 hours ago, PRgal said:

Perhaps Hai's family didn't want him to marry a black girl (there's a lot of honouring/respecting elders in Confucian-influenced cultures like Vietnamese.  Even Canadian-born me has trouble sometimes.  And there's a lot of pressure to do this or that from the older generation (and you don't want to disappoint them))?  Language issues, maybe?  Hai wasn't as fluent with English back then.  

You actually make very good points.  Aditionally, the Vietnamese culture of Hai and his wife and children would probably not encourage friendly albeit platonic relationships with other women he used to date or love, hence the only waving from afar for Hai and Laurel.

[CrystalBlue]

1 hour ago, Blackie said:

What episode did they show Randall phoning Hai?  The last one? Maybe it was at  the very end and it was cut off by my PVR. So anyways I started off very confused.  Then the actresses who played Laurel girl, teen, and older adult didn't look at all like the prev episodes about Randall's birth.

Mostly I was not interested at all in this episode. Like others have said I would be more interested in a Miguel / Rebecca story. AND if they wanted to be super current they could show how the isolation and restrictions of the pandemic is hastening Rebecca's decline. This has been my experience with all the seniors in my life. Haven't lost 1 to COVID but now have lost 2 to dementia; 2 seniors that were physically fit and independent with  only some memory loss and confusion just 1 year ago.

I think we're talking about the next episode's preview where Randall calls Kevin, who explains he can't really talk right now because of his crisis du jour.

[KaveDweller]

2 hours ago, Blackie said:

What episode did they show Randall phoning Hai?  The last one? Maybe it was at  the very end and it was cut off by my PVR. So anyways I started off very confused.  Then the actresses who played Laurel girl, teen, and older adult didn't look at all like the prev episodes about Randall's birth.

Randall called Hai at the end of last week's episode, and Hai said he wished he could show Randall his mother's favorite places. So Randall said he'd like to come visit and Hai was happy to hear that. That was pretty much all they showed.

I thought it was kind of weird how Hai had a throwaway line about quarantining and testing. I think the show decided to write in COVID to try and be relevant, but whenever it becomes a roadblock they just ignore it and try to give a weak explanation. Why exactly did Randall have to go to New Orleans right away. In real life, most people are pushing off trips like that.

[30 Helens]

14 hours ago, Haleth said:

Push, Pooh Bear!

LOLOL.  “Mind over matter...makes Pooh un-fatter!”

[ProudMary]

14 hours ago, JayDub1987 said:

They're fictional characters. I generally wish death on at least one character every week....I won't say which one.

Hey, with this show, death is only the beginning!

[Aloeonatable]

9 hours ago, BrownBear2012 said:

Maybe focus on his kids a little this season...something other than Randall and his tortured self.

It seems like we aren't seeing much of the younger cast members because of the pandemic. We have yet to see baby Jack, and very little of the Pearson girls. However, I do agree that Randall's story is just tortuous now. 

We also may not see too much of Jack and Rebecca because of Mandy's pregnancy. Isn't her baby due in less than a month?

I guess it is going to be primarily the adult Big 3, at least for the foreseeable future.

[buttersister]

Quote

In real life, most people are pushing off trips like that.

Not Randall.

[bros402]

22 hours ago, bybrandy said:

I was sad for Hai and Laurel that they only got two years together and probably some of that time while Laurel was really sick and in pain... but other than that?   I didn't care.  I hope Randall has found some peace and I hope we see that going forward but I just genuinely didn't care about anybody in this episode other than Hai and even him only a little bit.   

Has Hai been paying the property taxes all this time?  Cause that's  heck of a gift.   All I could think when they were handed the keys is "have you considered the tax implications of this?   Have you asked about flood insurance?"   

Property tax in LA is 0.53% - so if the house were worth 250k, that's 1k in property taxes a year.

20 hours ago, cardigirl said:

I miss "Pushing Daisies" so much.

Same

16 hours ago, Haleth said:

Push, Pooh Bear!

oh my god I heard that in her voice

[Racj82]

On 1/12/2021 at 10:32 PM, Ohiopirate02 said:

As much as I wanted the show to flesh out Laurel, this sucked.  It's Laurel's story filtered through a man.  Laurel gets clean, but lives a half-life hiding from the world with her aunt.  All she gets are furtive glances with her first love.  Because they can't be together,  he's married.  There was no joy in her life until her last two years when she gets to be with Hai again.  Can these writers not think of a happy life for a woman without a man??

I struggle to see what gender had to do with it. Nicky lived his life in isolation from those close to him as well. Most people want to share their life with someone. Don't know how the show is wrong for doing that. I would comend the show for showing that finding love or experiencing new love doesn't just end because you get older. Or because the one you loved more than anything dies. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

15 hours ago, 3 is enough said:

And I'm still waiting for the Rebecca-Miguel story.

I feel like they're never going to do that because they want Jack-Rebecca as the OTP of the show. Letting us see how Rebecca and Miguel got together would somehow tarnish that in the writers' heads because God forbid you love more than one person during your lifetime. They want to maintain the mythology of Jack as the love of her life. Miguel is just some guy who she happened to marry.

13 hours ago, Tango64 said:

Remember that show "This is Us," about the Pearson family? I used to love that show.

But I don't at all enjoy this new spinoff, "This is Randall's Genealogy."

An entire hour about a whole new group of people, with a sappy story full of contrivances and plot holes. If felt like watching the pilot episode of a new drama series set in the bayou. I would not be returning for the second episode.

To be fair, previous seasons had a lot of backstories of other random people. The episode where we saw the fireman who found Randall is the one that I remember wondering WHO THE HELL IS THIS GUY?

7 hours ago, debraran said:

That line was in no way, just nothing. Even the way he said it in a casual way. There will be (bangs head) something from that calif reference.

Yup. There will be someone Laurel met while in California who is going to pop up in a later episode so we will get a whole backstory on them too. Maybe we'll get a whole Orange Is the New Black spinoff with Laurel's adventures in prison. This show just can't resist expanding their universe into lots of people who are not the Pearsons. Every person who is subjected to a Pearson monologue gets their own episode!

Edited January 14, 2021 by ElectricBoogaloo

[Dowel Jones]

8 hours ago, Quof said:

Why? Are snakes and gators attracted to dangly things?

Haven't you ever heard Chuck Berry's version of "My Dingaling"?

 

7 hours ago, Norma Desmond said:

They'll probably save that for season 6.

Plot twist - The brother was misidentified as the dead soldier, and he's living somewhere, maybe even close to Nicky.  Randall has to go on another journey of discovery.

So, Randall now owns property in New Orleans.  Is he going to dump his apartment in Philly, quit the Council, and uproot Beth and the kids so they can move to Louisiana?  Maybe even run for office there?  Or is it going to be a summer retreat where he can howl at the moonlight?

[ItCouldBeWorse]

On 1/13/2021 at 1:55 AM, bros402 said:

Randall swam naked with his naked ghost mom. That is all.

He was definitely naked, but the older version of his mom was not. Still, your points stand.

On 1/13/2021 at 2:39 AM, kili said:

Wouldn't her brother have gotten a college deferral? (there is no way Dad wouldn't have made him go to college)

I wondered about that, too.  Maybe Dad instilled in him that it was his duty to go straight into the army, but I sure hope not.

On 1/13/2021 at 2:39 AM, ProudMary said:

It wouldn't surprise me if Hai still lives on the other side of the lake where his parents lived. I do wonder who was maintaining utilities, and covering insurance and property taxes on Laurel's lake house.

I agree.

The house where he cooked the fish for his granddaughter wasn't Laurel's house, correct? I haven't gone back to confirm. 

[Kirkydee]

About Laurel 'boring' boyfriend...

Remember when she and her Aunr were talking about him and Aunt May says " So, hes a dud, huh"? And they both share a laugh.  I figured he was either boring, bad in bed or both.

About Laurels 5 year sentence. Possible, maybe even probably she was charged with more than drugs. Child endangerment, neglect, etc.  Still ridiculous sending her to California.  Ohio? West Virginia? Stones throw away from Pittsburgh.

And I agree with an earlier poster about Kevin.  I see him helping out a victim in a car wreck and dropping his wallet in the melee

[ItCouldBeWorse]

13 hours ago, Arcadiasw said:

Maybe I missed it and correct me if I am wrong but if Laurel stayed with her aunt and avoided her parents for the rest of their lives, why couldn't she elope and stay with Hai and his family? Her need to leave seemed too contrived.

I wouldn't assume that Hai's parents would have wanted a non-Vietnamese daughter-in-law, and Hai would not have wanted to be "disrespectful."  Also, Laurel's father probably could have made Hai's family's life difficult if he had wanted to.

[debraran]

Someone with better eyes than mine said she thought it wasn't Kevin's car either they showed with him talking to Randall in,  but also noticed one had a roof rack and his didn't, etc. There is also no  one in that car and Kevin's wallet is far from the vehicle. No emergency vehicle so after the fact or someone walked away. I wasn't worried about the handsome star of the show changing in any way that effected the end scenes we saw but fans do catch many things. I hope the writers are on their game now after pregnancy test mistake. ; )

Edited January 14, 2021 by debraran

[JudyObscure]

On 1/13/2021 at 2:39 AM, kili said:

Wouldn't her brother have gotten a college deferral? (there is no way Dad wouldn't have made him go to college).

I'm not sure what year it was, but college deferrals were only a sure thing until about 1965.  After that the boy had to be married and later on he had to  be married and have a child.  The country kept running out of young men to sacrifice in that no-chance war so that politicians like JFK could be sure of re-election.

[circumvent]

On 1/13/2021 at 2:03 AM, MBayGal said:

Well that was . . . different.  Too bad I didn’t care.  

i thought it was weird that Hai would just give the house to Randall when he was living there.  Then I realized that Hai had two weeks to get the house ready for Randall’s visit, stock the fridge and all, while R took two weeks off from his duties to his constituents — you know, the people trying to survive a pandemic during an economic downturn — so he could quarantine before coming to NoLa.  Presumably Hai had his own home somewhere.  

Maybe Laurel’s family left their estate to the jilted almost-son-in-law.  They must have known Laurel was back in town.  Maybe they disowned her.  Please show, don't waste another ep explaining these things to me!

My feelings too. I actually dozed off several times and didn't feel like rewinding to catch up. 

The part of quarantining and traveling got me thinking: I fairly recently found out that planes are actually safe at the moment - unless the new stronger strain changes things - and I wish they had included the reasons why in the story.

Then I started thinking that maybe the shows are going to have to pause again because of how bad CA is right now, and also that the industry might have contributed to this, with all the productions coming back.

[Luckylyn]

I’m betting we’re going to find out that Laurel’s brother knew Nicky and/or Jack in Vietnam.  Or if he didn’t know them he somehow indirectly impacted them.

[qtpye]

On 1/12/2021 at 10:02 PM, gonzosgirrl said:

Well, at least now when asked if I have a least favourite episode of This Is Us, I'll have an easy answer. Frankly, I'd like that hour of my life back. 

Are the writers actually trying to make me dislike Randall? When he so snidley interrupted Hai (Jai?) with his snotty "Notebook" comment, and demanded answers, I wanted to slap him. 

I wish I could have felt something with that whole soap opera in the lake at the end,  but no. 

I always enjoy seeing Chi McBride.  That's the only good thing I have to say about this one. 

Cookies to those who predicted Madison going into early labor.

 

On 1/13/2021 at 12:50 AM, funnygirl said:

Young Hai is FINE! 

 

Young shirtless Hai made me swoon.

There were some touching points in the story but it really felt unnecessary.  Laurel was lucky that Randall got adopted by a loving family...what if he had been lost in the system and was suffering horrible abuse?

Does anyone know what the heck happened to Randall's apartment building? Is it still being maintained?

[PRgal]

1 hour ago, Luckylyn said:

I’m betting we’re going to find out that Laurel’s brother knew Nicky and/or Jack in Vietnam.  Or if he didn’t know them he somehow indirectly impacted them.

And since Nicky is back in the Pearsons’ lives, we may see more of that later this or maybe next season.   The saga continues (cue music). 

[nlkm9]

This is the first episode i fast forwarded through- to me just so boring but glad Randall has resolution as i read the posts.

[himela]

1 hour ago, nlkm9 said:

Randall has resolution

For the 5th time since the start of the show...

Edited January 14, 2021 by himela