S03.E08: Six Thanksgivings

[RedbirdNelly]

On ‎11‎/‎21‎/‎2018 at 2:01 PM, Ms Blue Jay said:

Yes, for me, he was just extremely unsettled.  Toby cares about people having a good time and liking him, and Tess just ran screaming from his face.  LOL.  That's why he acted like that.  But that's just my POV.  Also he probably sees Tess as a child still and he doesn't want to speak explicitly about her in a way that's inappropriate, so he's trying to play it safe.

I think family members tend to see younger members of their family frozen at a certain age 

I also was ok with Toby's reaction. It was a very Toby-way of telling Kate about it. Being straightforward "she got her period" is not very Toby. Saying something "full moonish" is.

[ChromaKelly]

Did the title of the episode change? I thought it was the number of people that Randall had met.

So, Miguel's kids were in their 20's when he divorced? The phone conversation he was having sounded more like one would have about younger children.

[CrystalBlue]

1 hour ago, ChromaKelly said:

Did the title of the episode change? I thought it was the number of people that Randall had met.

So, Miguel's kids were in their 20's when he divorced? The phone conversation he was having sounded more like one would have about younger children.

Yes, the title of the episode changed from the number to this one.  It aired under the title "Six Thanksgivings" but was previously titled the 18,000+ number, which made viewers wonder what it meant, but then they changed it.  Randall's essay was the big reveal as to what the number was, as you said, how many people he had met so far.

[theatremouse]

On 11/22/2018 at 1:38 PM, saber5055 said:

Now we find out Nicky is a medic. Holy cats. I guess because he saves spiders he decided to go that route. Not a wise choice, obviously.

I can't remember if it was the episode before the draft, or during that episode but before the draft part happened, but the show specifically mentioned he wanted to be a doctor. Based on what happened in this episode, I'm glad he never managed to be one, given that his refusal to treat a child based on who he might grow up to be is seriously unethical for a doctor.I get it, I get it, the horrors of war. He was fucked up. But I've seen too much MASH to give Nicky a pass on his behavior here, even if Bones did get blown to mush.

[kirkola]

I know I'm a bit late to the episode...Holidays & family get-togethers interfere with my TV habit.

 

I was annoyed with Randall and Beth for dragging poor Deja to a Homeless Shelter.  I get that they're all one big happy family, that they're trying to make inroads in a community, and it's a useful tool to bring your kids to an event like this to teach them civic responsibility.  But it felt a completely ego-centric to drag a former homeless kid out to feed other current homeless people.  She might have had a horrible reaction due to bad memories (worse than we've seen). 

 

I expected Toby to act the way he did.  He's Toby.  He does the big romantic gestures, and wise-cracks jokes, even when the situation isn't warranted.  It's clearly Kate's daddy-issues, that's she's even with him.  But, Toby has grown on me because he genuinely does seem to love Kate.

 

Also, I missed Kevin. 

[Rockstar99435]

I have never loved Rebecca as much as I did when she pointed out Kevin's movie's Rotten Tomato score with her perfectly smug mom voice. And I already love Rebecca.

[mcgkgm]

On 11/22/2018 at 12:12 AM, Blakeston said:

I don't think they ever mentioned the name of the college, but I have a hard time picturing any college being especially impressed by the tone he took.

Teenagers regularly try to show admissions committees how independent-minded and clever they are by writing, "Here's what's wrong with your question," instead of actually answering it. It usually just makes them sound like brats.

And "I can't name the one person who changed my life the most because I've met lots of people" is a pretty strange argument to make.

Late this this party, but this bugged me so much.  First of all, I thought it was kind of obnoxious to write an essay about how terrible the essay question was, instead of actually answering the question.  I hate the stupid "what is your greatest weakness" question too, but if it comes up in a job interview, I'm giving my bullshit answer and moving on to the next question, not getting combative with the interviewer.

But that's the tactic you want to take, ok.  So commit to it.  The last line about choosing the fireman completely negated the entire rest of his essay! "I couldn't possibly answer this multiple choice question because each option has it's merits, but, uh, D, I guess."  Come on.  But it also genuinely seemed like something a seventeen year old would write.  His parents should have pointed that out, though.

I'm surprised we didn't see the fireman's Thanksgiving.  It would have been at least as relevant and the William/Jesse one.

In the beginning when Deja got the text from her mom, there was a shot of her watching Tess and Beth and I got kind of a weird vibe, there.  But maybe it was more about Beth's mothering compared to her own mom's than it was about Tess.

[Pallas]

Quote

In the beginning when Deja got the text from her mom, there was a shot of her watching Tess and Beth and I got kind of a weird vibe, there.  But maybe it was more about Beth's mothering compared to her own mom's than it was about Tess.

 

I think it was more about the love and devotion Deja feels for her mother, and the love she is coming to feel for the Pearsons. How she experiences these as conflicting. How she imagines each of her parents feels about her connection to the other(s). Whether she must tell Beth that her mother called; whether she can wait to tell Beth that her mother called; whether she wants to tell Beth that her mother called. How the one thing she knows is that she doesn't want to hurt another mother -- nor be asked to choose between them.

[Violetgoblin6]

On 11/20/2018 at 10:00 PM, deaja said:

I was underwhelmed. I liked the Toby parts, Randall’s college essay, and Miguel standing up for Rebecca. The rest felt like filler. 

Negatives:

1) no Kevin (the two seconds didn’t count)

2) the whole Vietnam stuff feels like it’s going nowhere

3) Randall/Beth/Campaign manager drama seemed introduced but zero resolution 

4) William is boring as hell. William and Jesse are even more boring.

Everything else was filler to me.

All I have to say about this episode (that I put off watching for two weeks!) is that those showrunners will try just about anything to put Ron Cephus Jones in an episode. It's starting to appear awfully contrived. 

 

On 11/20/2018 at 11:13 PM, ams1001 said:

Not sure about the one-child thing these days, but my friend has three kids adopted from China (plus two bio kids and multiple pets; their house is crazytown). The first was a girl who they brought home at about 18 months old (she's 11 now). The other two came home at age 6 and 7 (now 13 and 14), both boys adopted at the same time but from two different areas of the country. They all have varying special needs (though their daughter was too young for most of her issues to be noticeable at first), and the boys were older, which I'm guessing is a factor. (I don't know the details, but I believe the rules on adoptions were tightened up somewhat after they adopted their daughter, but the fact that they had already adopted made it easier for them to adopt again after that. As it was, they had to wait until she turned 30 to even apply in the first place.)

Do we know the same family?? I taught a child in this very situation. 3 adopted from China, all special needs. Many furry critters. But three bio kids. Hmmm. Perhaps I remember wrong? It was an unusual situation. The mom was wonder mom for sure. 

 

On 11/20/2018 at 11:42 PM, chocolatine said:

Kevin broke his leg playing football some time in the fall, so him having the cast on Thanksgiving makes sense. Jack died roughly two months later, on Super Bowl Sunday, and Kevin got the cast off before the funeral.

William and Jesse add absolutely nothing to the story. I understand that both actors are very good and the show wants to feature them, but there was too much going on in this episode already. Why not do a web extra or something like that, and leave them out of the main show?

I think cellphones were around in the late 90s, but they were much bulkier. Miguel's phone looked like a BlackBerry, a little ahead of its time.

 I agree that Miguel's kids are assholes, especially since they are older than the Pearson kids. They were in their 20s when their parents divorced and in their 30s when their father married Rebecca.

The Vietnam story is not interesting to me, and Jack's pretty-boy hair keeps taking me out of it.

Randall in his underwear is the kind of pretty I don't mind seeing, but the election storyline still blows.

I loved Deja giving out extra cookies at the soup kitchen, and Annie's teddy bear/iPad/Pilgrim Rick hat setup for Kevin.

Yeah. Miguel's kids are my age. In 1980 at Froggys during the super bowl Shelly was talking about having a six yr old, my age in 80'. I always remembered their ages for this reason. That Miguel and Shelly got an earlier start having kids, like my parents (who are the same age as Jack and Rebecca plus a yr each). 

 

On 11/21/2018 at 9:26 AM, PRgal said:

Didn't they say we'd know by episode 9 who "she" is?  I also can't see how it could be Tess's girlfriend - maybe Tess's FIRST girlfriend (but one she still kept in touch with after they split).  Tess is in her 20s in the future episodes. How many people REALLY still see their first girlfriend or boyfriend in their 20s?  Especially someone they were "a couple" with in, what, fifth grade?

I married mine. ;0) just sayin'

 

On 11/22/2018 at 1:12 AM, Blakeston said:

I don't think they ever mentioned the name of the college, but I have a hard time picturing any college being especially impressed by the tone he took.

Teenagers regularly try to show admissions committees how independent-minded and clever they are by writing, "Here's what's wrong with your question," instead of actually answering it. It usually just makes them sound like brats.

And "I can't name the one person who changed my life the most because I've met lots of people" is a pretty strange argument to make.

Howard University

[Violetgoblin6]

On 11/23/2018 at 7:48 AM, ShadowFacts said:

 

Oops. Error. Apologies. 

Edited December 1, 2018 by Violetgoblin6

[love2lovebadtv]

On 11/20/2018 at 10:59 PM, Kira53 said:

If my memory serves me this is the third Thanksgiving episode in three years.   I wonder if there’s any other TV show that was able to have three very different thanksgiving episodes in there first three years?  They really packed a lot of Thanksgivings during many decades and every major character was featured in a important Thanksgiving in their life.  Amazing writing feat in an episode that is less than one hour.

I was surprised that Miguel’s daughter and Son-in-law could adopt a boy from China?  I thought that Chinese parents still preferred males and adopted out their female children because there was still a one child law. Has the law changed in China? I suppose the child could come from Korea or somewhere else in Asia but I thought Americans were able to adopt infants from China because the law created a incentive to to give up girl babies so their one child could be a boy.

I don't remember them saying the baby was from China. 

[MsChicklet]

On 11/25/2018 at 5:42 PM, WhosThatGirl said:

Also Miguel’s kids are way worse than the Pearson’s. In fact I think the only Pearson who has been downright rude to Miguel at times is Kevin. Then again we haven’t seen much of his interactions with Kate.. yet. But Randall has seemed to accept him enough that his kids know him as their grandpa and he has always seemed fine with him. At least as an adult. I feel like we have not seen much of Kate and him solo. I also think Kevin May have been distant towards him because it’s not like he and Rebecca were super close and that just added to it.

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.

[WhosThatGirl]

18 minutes ago, MsChicklet said:

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.

Yeah, I didn’t notice the dancing at the wedding, but I know they have always seemed fine when we have seen them on screen. That said we could see a flashback at some point to see how things progressed.