S04.E01: Strangers

[S.Batts]

On 10/4/2019 at 8:59 PM, Brookside said:

Curious as to how you know it's the same baby?  And why it would save money?  (It's not uncommon for babies to have flat heads from sleeping on their backs when the skull is soft.  They usually round out later.)

Go back and re-watch, the babies look exactly the same.   It's the same baby used for both scenes.   And why would it save money?  Um...not hiring two babies to play two rolls?  Pretty easy to do the math.  

[doodlebug]

1 hour ago, S.Batts said:

Go back and re-watch, the babies look exactly the same.   It's the same baby used for both scenes.   And why would it save money?  Um...not hiring two babies to play two rolls?  Pretty easy to do the math.  

It would only save a little bit of money, the SAG rate for extras which is what a baby would be is around $900 a day or $3000 for a full week.  This is Us probably spends more than that on food service every day.  If it was the same baby in both scenes, it wasn't because they were worried about paying a second baby.

Union rules are also quite specific as to how time much infants under 6 months can be on set.  A maximum of 2 hours a day with no more than 20 minutes of that spent in front of the camera is the rule.  So, even if it was the most passive, cooperative kid in the world; it is very unlikely that all the scenes with the baby were done in a single day or that there was some sort of massive savings using the same kid in all the scenes.  Amongst other things, it would take a lot longer than 2 hours to set up between scenes so that the same baby could appear in both and the union would require that the baby be dismissed before all the scenes could be set up and shot.

Most studios hire twins or triplets if possible since they can double or triple the amount of use they can get out of them.  I would expect that it probably wasn't the exact same baby in all the scenes but more likely, twins or triplets used interchangeably.  It undoubtedly took more than a single day to get the baby footage they needed, even with 2 or 3 babies available.

Edited October 7, 2019 by doodlebug

[debraran]

On 10/6/2019 at 7:15 AM, ShadowFacts said:

Just for a reference point, remember that Jack Pearson, fresh from Vietnam and around age 30, thought it was a bright idea to play poker with shady back-alley types, then try to steal money back from them in a bar.  And met his true love at a bar that night and his life course changed.  So they are probably going in that direction here with Deja and maybe a less rosy ending.  One difference is that Jack came from a very dysfunctional family and Malik's doesn't look that way at all.  The parents/grandparents get along very well, both are employed, are supportive of their son.  I am not crazy about the kid wanting to make more money the wrong way, but there is precedent in the show with old Jack P. 

That whole part of Jack's past is glossed over and never brought up. I'm not even sure he ever told Rebecca. It is a stereotype and having interracial children, we sometimes get tired of it. My daughter said most teens are played by 20-something year olds, but this kid seems like he is that age which is different, but that and the drugs, so tired.  I foresee his grandfather having health issues or dying and maybe needing money to help pay the bills. I see bad decisions and Deja being "saved" by her dad after a long storyline. I hope I'm wrong and I'd like her to meet someone who doesn't have a child and she can be a regular student who goes on to college and forges her own path. My daughter worked in an inner city school and you can find young men and women who have children but many who don't and try every day to make good choices.

We will see, not much drama in that but as far as I can see Deja doesn't know about the baby yet.

Edited October 7, 2019 by debraran

[gonzosgirrl]

15 hours ago, debraran said:

We will see, not much drama in that but as far as I can see Deja doesn't know about the baby yet.

Am I dreaming it, or was there some mention (spoiler tagging just in case it was in a preview - I'm just not sure)

Spoiler

where Malik asked Deja if she had 'heard' anything about him around school?

[meggonzo]

On 9/26/2019 at 1:12 AM, Tabbygirl521 said:

I was afraid at the end that Malik meeting Deja was also a flashback and that she would end up being the baby’s mom. 

Yeah, I was wondering if the scenes with Malik were flash forwards.  If he and his friends were juniors in those scenes, it would make sense with the timeline if he and Deja are freshman at the BBQ.

I'll have to re-watch the episode.  Are there any scenes that ruled out this possibility?

[himela]

It was funny cause I watched the episode in two parts and when I started the second part I was lost with these new people and I was wondering how I could have forgotten who they were since like 5 days ago that I watched the first part. I was saying to myself "ok I have no idea who these people are, I'm stupid". When the ending came, then I realized that nobody actually knew who they were until that moment and I was not that dumb 😛

I wonder if Jack Jr's blindness was caused by Kate's weight or was it random? I still find it next to impossible that a woman at 39 with Kate's weight can actually get pregnant and give birth to a healthy baby (other than the blindness). There are many things in this show that are not realistic and believable, but I think they went over the top with Kate's pregnancy.

[Crs97]

3 hours ago, himela said:

I wonder if Jack Jr's blindness was caused by Kate's weight or was it random?

Eye issues are very common with premature babies.  My son had emergency eye surgery when he was premature.  Retinopathy of Prematurity - the eyes aren’t ready and blood vessels may start to grow randomly, scarring the retina.  When the scars heal, they shrink and pull on the retina, which can detach and cause blindness.

ETA: This wouldn’t be the first time this happened to me, but did I unintentionally say something funny?

Edited October 15, 2019 by Crs97

[Scarlett45]

On 10/15/2019 at 4:51 AM, himela said:

I wonder if Jack Jr's blindness was caused by Kate's weight or was it random? I still find it next to impossible that a woman at 39 with Kate's weight can actually get pregnant and give birth to a healthy baby (other than the blindness). There are many things in this show that are not realistic and believable, but I think they went over the top with Kate's pregnancy.

The blindness was caused by the prematurity as @Crs97 detailed above. 
 

Women Kate’s age and size get pregnant spontaneously (from sex) and have full term babies every day, also from IVF. Yes it’s less LIKELY at their weight and size but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. It’s far from impossible, and more common now that there are more morbidly obese people now. My Mom has been an Ob/Gyn for 43years and her heaviest patient weighed in at over 500lbs (pregnant from sex not IVF). 

[doodlebug]

23 hours ago, Scarlett45 said:

The blindness was caused by the prematurity as @Crs97 detailed above. 
 

Women Kate’s age and size get pregnant spontaneously (from sex) and have full term babies every day, also from IVF. Yes it’s less LIKELY at their weight and size but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. It’s far from impossible, and more common now that there are more morbidly obese people now. My Mom has been an Ob/Gyn for 43years and her heaviest patient weighed in at over 500lbs (pregnant from sex not IVF). 

Yes, Jack's blindness is due to prematurity and, while it is true that older moms as well as obese moms are more likely to deliver a premature baby; most obese women over 35 will deliver at term or close to it.  Just as Kate has an increased risk of developing diabetes or high blood pressure, she has an increased risk of having a premature baby, but it is not inevitable.

BTW, nowadays, it is fairly uncommon for preemies to be blind because we're aware of the retinopathy that can develop and they are followed pretty closely by pediatric ophthalmologist who step in an treat the problem successfully in most cases.  Currently, there are nearly 30,000 babies born each year weighing less than 2.5 lbs which is the size where retinopathy tends to be seen.  Of those, about half develop retinopathy and it is mild in about 90% and they go on and are fine.  Only about 500 of those kids with severe retinopathy a year will be legally blind.  

[Mars477]

Yeah, risk factors are just that, risk factors.  They're not necessarily causal factors, although a modifiable risk factor such as obesity or (the rather unfortunately named) geriatric pregnancy can be causal to an extent when it comes to congenital disease.  Health is something that varies from person to person after all, and each individual's body, and the bodies of the offspring that they grow and birth, is different in ways that aren't completely understood.

Also, going back through this, it's weird how many people (even in the press) are calling Cassidy "Army chick" or "soldier" when it's made clear several times that she's a Marine.  There's 1) the fact that the Sergeant that escorts her refers to one of his riflemen as a "Marine", 2) that she calls her superior "Gunny" aka "Gunnery Sergeant" which is a Marine rank and not an Army one, 3) her undress uniform for when she returns home is a Marine one, , and it 4) has a GIGANTIC EAGLE, GLOBE, AND ANCHOR on the cap.

Guess you really do have to spell everything out on broadcast TV.

Edited October 19, 2019 by Mars477

[Aloeonatable]

On 9/28/2019 at 7:16 AM, Forsaken said:

No they don't do subtle at all. The fathers speech was your basic cliche father thing to say. I am surprised there was no mention of how he loves to hunt deer and has a closet full of shot guns!

The problem is the writers aren't consistent. If she means that much to him why did he let her go off with a strange man? Not really the way an over protective father behaves. And in that era parents still had a lot of control.

Let her go off with a strange man? Rebecca is an adult, that seems to live on her own (though we don't know that for sure.) She did mention, in the episode that her parents thought she was crazy to do so, but she seems to be somewhat independent. I'm of that era, and if I were over 18 my parents would not be able to "control" me regardless of how much they cared about me. 

[Scarlett45]

7 hours ago, Aloeonatable said:

Let her go off with a strange man? Rebecca is an adult, that seems to live on her own (though we don't know that for sure.) She did mention, in the episode that her parents thought she was crazy to do so, but she seems to be somewhat independent. I'm of that era, and if I were over 18 my parents would not be able to "control" me regardless of how much they cared about me. 

I agree with you. In this episode Rebecca was over the age of 21, and appeared to live in her own apartment (maybe with roommates) because she mentioned “my parents house”. She did tell her parents she was going (which was a considerate and safe thing to do), but yeah there’s no way they could’ve stopped her. 

The 1970s weren’t the 1870s. Parents often think their grown children do foolish and unsafe things, and give them speeches about it, but they cannot prevent it. 

21 hours ago, doodlebug said:

BTW, nowadays, it is fairly uncommon for preemies to be blind because we're aware of the retinopathy that can develop and they are followed pretty closely by pediatric ophthalmologist who step in an treat the problem successfully in most cases.  Currently, there are nearly 30,000 babies born each year weighing less than 2.5 lbs which is the size where retinopathy tends to be seen.  Of those, about half develop retinopathy and it is mild in about 90% and they go on and are fine.  Only about 500 of those kids with severe retinopathy a year will be legally blind.  

Yes. A co-worker if mine was born very prematurely in the 1960s, she doesn’t have any serious health problems (like CP) and she’s cognitively normal but her eyes were destroyed. She’s thisclose to being legally blind. A much rarer occurrence for babies who are peers of Jack than premature babies born in the 1960s. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

The beginning of Jack & Miguel's friendship:

They all found their way to each other:

[mostlylurking]

On 9/24/2019 at 10:14 PM, CleoCaesar said:

I get that Milo V needs a paycheck, but is their story really necessary, 4 seasons in?

Yep, I’m over it.  Milo kind of annoys me with his mushy way of talking too.  At first I though Rebecca’s dad was doing Jack a solid gesturing to the tag on his jacket, but then he had to get all territorial and be a dick.  I mean, he wasn’t wrong, but yeah.

So if Deja is like 14 does that mean teen dad is also 14-15ish??  He looked really young. Is it summer?  That would explain why teen dad was working instead of in school.  I wonder where teen mom is.

I’m glad adult Jack is doing well.  I couldn’t care less about the army lady.  Nicky is already a secondary character so she’s even further removed.  At least teen dad will be connected to Deja and Jack Jr. is, well, Jack Jr.

 

[millennium]

Ugh.  Zero interest in the new characters, especially Baby Toby and his improbable singing career.   His treatment of the waitress in their first meeting was arrogant and cringey.  Blindness is not a license to be an asshole.  

So why all the new faces?  Did the writers run out of ways to make the original Pearsons annoying?  If they're going to fast-forward 20 years, why not make it 200 years?   Let's keep going and see the story of Captain Jacko Pearson, commander of the starship Cornsandwich ...