Warning: This story contains plot details from Tuesday’s episode of This Is Us, “A Philadelphia Story.”
“A Philadelphia Story” spotlighted a kindly, beloved, big-hearted paternal presence on This Is Us — nope, not that one, the other one.
The second episode of the NBC family drama’s third season returned viewers to Randall’s late biological father, William (played by the Emmy-winning Ron Cephas Jones), who was seen here five years sober, welcoming a new tenant to his building and community, and just being the generous, decent soul we know him to be. But a deeper story of the episode centered on Randall (Sterling K. Brown), who made a heartbreaking, pained decision as a college-bound teenager and received not one but two bruising blows in the present, as he grappled again with issues of his identity and background as a transracial adoptee while joining his two worlds. Meanwhile, Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Toby (Chris Sullivan) revealed their IVF journey to Rebecca (Mandy Moore), who took a beat to come around to this high-risk procedure, but not before a jittery, unmedicated Toby lost his temper. And Kevin (Justin Hartley) invited the Pearson crew to the premiere of his Ron Howard war movie, and although new not-girlfriend Zoe (Melanie Liburd) seemed to want to keep her distance, she texted the equivalent of a door opening after the fact.
But that look on Randall’s face at the end of the episode? Sorry, Kate, you’ve got some damage control to do. Let’s grab a celebratory fro-yo, fellow milk enthusiasts, ponder the planet’s dwindling water supply, and get the real “Story” from the bookkeepers, This Is Us showrunners Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: This was a key episode for Randall in two different time periods. In the past, he turns down a chance to learn more about his African-American heritage at Howard to stay with his adopted family. In the present day, he is honoring that heritage by rehabbing his biological father’s building and rec center. It’s tough to watch him rejected by both sides of his background — first by Chichi [Yetide Badaki], who tells him that he’s not one of them, and then later when he finds out that Kate said that she was the only one in the family who would carry on the legacy of Jack [Milo Ventimiglia]. What do these rejections do to him, and which comment impacts him more?
ELIZABETH BERGER: I think they both do. So much of Randall’s life is this struggle to come to terms with his own identity. And I think he feels so connected to his black identity. He feels so connected to his adoptive parents and his family, but to always feel like you’re moving between worlds causes a lot of internal conflict. We’re glad that it’s painful, because that was what we were going for. [Laughs] But, yeah, it’s something that we’re going to continue to see him grapple with and come to terms with throughout the course of the season.
Would you describe it more as a journey of discovery or self-acceptance, or maybe both, as he seeks to carry on the legacies of both his dads?
ISAAC APTAKER: Both, yeah. Randall has such a unique backstory, and he’s always searching to figure out: Where do I belong? What’s my identity? Where’s my place in this world? So I think those things go together.
He’s been so embraced and loved by the Pearsons, but there’s always been that underlying tension that he’s different. Kate’s comment to Kevin that she’s the only one who’s going to pass on a piece of Jack tapped into that. He’s always had a strong bond with Kate, though. What will that remark do to their relationship in the short term?
BERGER: We’ll see next week what it does to their relationship. Kate loves her brother so much and feels so connected to him. And I think she was coming from a place of feeling so intensely about her own situation that she wasn’t choosing every word correctly.
APTAKER: She didn’t even say that to Randall’s face. She said it not even thinking, when he wasn’t there. So that this will get reported back to him — it hits him in a totally different way than she ever would have intended.
BERGER: But she will definitely have to deal with the consequences of not choosing her words a little more carefully.
Young Randall sees his mom — and his siblings in turmoil — after Jack’s death. After celebrating his admission to Howard at his friend’s house and seeing their family together, he calls Howard and withdraws his acceptance, saying that he needs to stay home for family. I imagine this won’t sit well with Rebecca. What can you say about his next steps to college? Is a reversal in the works in the next few episodes? And we know he met Beth at college…
APTAKER: We’re all hoping for a reversal. You’re going to see as we play more in the ’90s that Randall’s really the one who’s stepping up here and feeling like he can’t go all the way to Washington right now and leave his family in the state that they’re in. So that rejection of the admission is going to stick here. But, like you said, it does lead to him meeting Beth. So, we know as painful as that moment is, there is that silver lining — or, I guess, a gold lining.
BERGER: Yeah, we’ll find out this season. And we’ll see that Randall is so connected to Rebecca and feels so protective of her that it’s going to be a real struggle for him to not devote himself fully to taking care of her, which obviously should not fall on a 17-year-old boy. So watching him find that balance and be there for her, but also be there for himself, is something we’re going to be tracking throughout the season.
It was refreshing to see William back. We didn’t get to see him as much last season as we would have liked. Is this the primary way that we’ll be seeing him in the next batch of episodes, as Randall rehabs this building?
BERGER: We were really excited about how natural this felt with seeing Randall in this neighborhood and this building that his father inhabited, and then being able to flash to William in the same space felt so cosmically cool and exciting to us, that in this case it was extremely organic.
APTAKER: We love this William, and we love him with Chi Chi. But we also love to see him with our characters, and he hadn’t met them yet in this time. So in terms of time with William, we really jump all around and find tons of different ways to use him, both in this building world and also once he’s met our Pearsons.
Confession time. Did you know you were going to kill us with showing him holding Chi Chi’s baby?
BERGER: [Laughs] When we all watched it in the edit bay, we were like, “Well, that’s the most powerful moment of the episode right there!” Even though there are others that we love as well.
APTAKER: In the writers room, it started to question of, “I wonder if William has held a baby since he gave up Randall.” And we were like, “I don’t know. He doesn’t have a lot of friends with babies, so quite possibly not.” And that really got us excited.
NEXT PAGE: “What you’re seeing is just the tip of the iceberg of where Toby’s going to go.”
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