The problem with This Is Us’ Big Three trilogies is that it’s really hard to find parallel stories that are equally important for all three Pearson siblings. Last time, Kate got the short end of the stick with a middle episode that just didn’t quite sing like the others. This time around, that unlucky position falls to Kevin. While we don’t yet know how the final entry in this trilogy will fare, between Kate’s present-day marital problems and her ominous teenage experience with Marc, the show at least has two big, meaty storylines to work with. The problem with “A Hell Of A Week: Part Two” is that Kevin’s storyline feels scattered and unmoored. It lacks the thematic focus of Randall’s anxiety episode, and rather than filling in details about Kevin’s past and how it relates to his present, it just made me frustrated about how much of Kevin’s life we’ve skipped over.
To be fair, “A Hell Of A Week: Part Two” warns us upfront that we might not be satisfied by the end of the hour. In a cheeky opening sequence, Kevin complains to M. Night Shyamalan about the lack of resolution in the new ending of their film. It’s a clue that even though “Part Two” seems to promise some kind of resolution on the Kevin/Sophie dynamic—either they’ll get back together or they’ll realize they’re better as friends—the episode will ultimately end on a less decisive middle option. After an emotional day, Kevin and Sophie seem to settle on the “just friends” route, which sends Kevin running into the arms of Madison, of all people. (I can’t believe the show finally broke the seal on this pairing!) But not only is Kevin lingering in regret over his bad timing in life, we see Sophie looking longingly at the family ring Kevin once committed to earning for her. There’s not quite a sense of finality between them yet. Maybe there never will be. After all, this is almost the exact same place we left them back in “Don’t Take My Sunshine Away.”
As established in the preschool-era flashback storyline, Kevin doesn’t like change and he doesn’t like saying goodbye. He can’t sleep without the sheep mobile that used to hang above his crib. Kevin wants to hold on to what he had, which is a perfectly understandable impulse when you’re a kid, but not always the healthiest outlook when you’re an adult. Holding onto the comfort of the past can become destructive—both for yourself and for the people around you. On the other hand, there’s a fine line between knowing when to tap out and knowing when to fight for what you really want.
The present-day portion of “Part Two” actually works pretty well. Improbably, Kevin has somehow emerged as my favorite member of the present day Big Three, and Justin Hartley has consistently turned in phenomenal work ever since fully locking into the character in the previous Big Three trilogy. This episode builds on Kevin’s complexities as he returns to Pittsburgh to attend the funeral of Sophie’s mom Claire (Jennifer Westfeldt). Once there, he tries to find the right balance between supporting Sophie without blowing up her life with her fiancé Grant. Or maybe, just maybe, he does want to blow up her life with Grant.
Alexandra Breckenridge also does lovely work capturing the complexities of Sophie’s grief. She had a loving but tumultuous relationship with her mom, who had a long battle with MS before she died. Sophie’s already difficult situation is made even harder because Grant hasn’t experienced the death of a parent, nor did he really get a chance to know her mom. Kevin’s own familiarity with parental loss, not to mention the fact that he was close with Claire, makes him the ideal person for Sophie to grieve with. But is their connection something more than that? That’s the tension that hangs over their scenes, and the fact that they’re both aware of it only makes those scenes more compelling.
Where this episode falls down is with its flashback storyline, which mostly made me realize how frustratingly little we know about Kevin’s character-defining adolescence. Some TV shows anchor their entire runs around the four formative years of high school, but This Is Us has reduced that time in the Big Three’s life to just a handful of episodes—far less time than we’ve gotten with their elementary and middle school years. That’s not hugely detrimental for Randall and Kate, who feel like people who had their personalities shaped elsewhere, but it’s a huge hinderance for Kevin, who feels like the kind of person whose personality was really shaped by his high school experience, not to mention his high school romance.
Tellingly, this episode actually jumps back in time to Kevin and Sophie’s high school days—a rarity for This Is Us, which tends to keep the Big Three’s storylines moving in one direction in each of their timelines. We see a more extended look at what Kevin and Sophie were up to the night of Jack’s death, which included seeing the first two-thirds of Good Will Hunting and then committing to never actually watching the real ending. (Again, Kevin doesn’t like finality.) Yet the dynamic between teenage Kevin and Sophie feels broad and thinly drawn. It’s a cutesy relationship with no sense of depth or specificity. I still don’t have a good sense of how they handled the emotional rollercoaster of Kevin’s injury and Jack’s death. Nor do I understand why they spontaneously got married without telling their families, especially when Sophie’s defining traits are her practicality and empathy.
Elsewhere, the introduction of Claire sits somewhere between an interesting revelation and a frustrating retcon. It’s fascinating to see what teenage Kevin’s life was like outside the Pearson family home, but it’s also odd that we’re just now meeting this figure who apparently played such a major role in his adolescence. (And was his mother-in-law for a good number of years!) That’s no fault of Jennifer Westfeldt, who’s an immediately winning presence in her own signature way. Her relaxed, free-spirited style of parenting is clearly a welcome respite for Kevin, even as it proves frustrating for Sophie. It’s just strange to meet Claire for the first time in the same episode in which we also have to invest in the graveside speech where Kevin says a poignant goodbye to her.
Of course, the one caveat to all of this is that This Is Us is uniquely capable of rewriting or revisiting its own history at anytime. Maybe, eventually, the teen Kevin/Sophie relationship will cohere in a more satisfying way, particularly as we delve into their youthful marital dynamic (which this episode also doesn’t really do). On its own, however, “A Hell Of A Week: Part Two” feels a bit like filler dressed up with the veneer of pathos. This Is Us uses Shyamalan to reassure us that the show has a bigger plan:“Trust me Kevin, this is the ending everyone wants, and they still won’t see it coming.” Now it’s just a matter of how much we trust him.
Stray observations
- It’s wild to think that after telling preschool Randall to tough it out and go back to bed, Jack immediately spends all that time searching the house for Kevin’s sheep mobile.
- This episode repeats extended sequences from the previous one (i.e. Kevin and Sophie’s arrival; Kevin and Randall’s phone call), which felt like screentime that could’ve been better used elsewhere.
- Just as I was pondering whether it was sweet or weird for Kevin to leave his headshot on Claire’s grave, there’s a great joke where he immediately takes back the gesture.
- I loved the shot of Kevin reflected in the window as Sophie answers his phone call inside the living room.
- Good Will Hunting is, of course, a film about a guy who learns to process his trauma and work through his commitment issues before putting everything else aside to chase after the woman he loves. So, yeah, there could definitely be some Kevin Pearson parallels there.
- The “Sad Three” agree to escape their problems with a trip to the family cabin, which seems like an incredibly unhealthy way for Randall to manage his debilitating anxiety, but also very much in keeping with the Pearson family’s “just soldier through” ethos!
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This episode was nice. As you said, the current timeline was a lot more compelling than the flashback sequences. Which isn’t necessarily an issue, but when we’re still in the dark about a huge portion of Kevin’s formative years, it makes the end result ring a little hollow. We still are only given breadcrumbs about some of the most important years of his life. Though I will say that it’s always nice to check back in with Sophie. Every time we see her I find myself enjoying her character even more. I feel as though the writers have done a good job at making her an interesting foil to character and it’s been enjoyable seeing how she exists in his chaotic orbit. I would appreciate if she and Kevin were endgame.
Kevin was on Days of Our Lives around the year 2000? Did he ever have a scene with Jessica Lockhart or Dr. Drake Ramoray?
I mean Kevin did say he had cancer…who better to treat him than the good doctor himself?
I will say this episode got me much more invested in Kevin/Sophie as a couple than anything else has so far. Not that I disliked them before or anything, but their present day scenes together were really tender and moving. They gave a lot more weight to their decades long connection than any flashback scene so far.
This season, sometimes I feel like I’m watching the Kevin Pearson version of How I Met Your Mother. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing…
All I could imagine was Kevin’s rained-upon picture in a few days. I’m glad he took it back.
Seemed like Claire wanted to bang Kevin the way she kept touching his face. Jesus that was uncomfortable to watch.And when the movie cut out, open bar at the concession stand? That might be the most unrealistic thing I’ve ever seen on this show and that’s saying a lot.
Yeah, I thought Kevin/Sophie’s Mom was going to be a thing and possibly part of the tumultuous Sophie/Mom relationship.Free tickets for another showing would have been more likely than all-you-can-eat.
This episode was heavily invested in junk food: donuts, popcorn, fresca/prosecco. I’m wondering if they’re indicating this is young love, fun in the moment but not substantial or good for them in long run. Agree, Claire seemed a little too into teen Kev.
Very correct on both counts. I was saying out load, “Don’t do it, Kevin! Don’t bang your mother-in-law.” And, yeah, a cheapo theater like that—don’t get me wrong, I loved being able to go see a movie for $2, but the occasional interruption was par for the course. The concession stand was where they made all their money. MAYBE if an individual customer is complaining up a storm, they offer them free snacks. But no way in the world they’d just volunteer that to everyone—let alone let them have everything they want!
Oh, as long as I’m typing: having Jack tell Randall to suck it up but going crazy looking for Kevin’s mobile was an interesting contrast to the scene a while back where Kevin complained that the parents didn’t pay attention to him because they were too busy making sure Kate wasn’t too far and Randall wasn’t too adopted. Not necessarily a contradiction, but an indication that the parents weren’t always consistent in which child they devoted more time to, which makes sense.
I felt the same on both counts. As endearing as she was, I was also waiting for a “point to where she touched you on the doll” moment. And I was an assistant manager at a movie theater, I screamed “that’s some bull” at the TV when he said free snacks. There’s absolutely no way that’s going to happen, nor would the usher be the one to make that call or report that to the auditorium. Emergency passes yes, but definitely not all you can eat concessions.
Maybe I feel this way because network TV’s bar has been dropped so low, but I’m always impressed with this show’s ability to time-jump so freely. We have 1) toddler Kevin, 2) little boy Kevin, 3) lame-legged high school Kevin, 4) actor post-married-to-Sophie Kevin, 5) current Kevin, and of course, 6) future Kevin who is no longer speaking with Randall. Oh, and 7) baby Kevin, too! Just the fact that I’m able to keep all these timelines clear in my head makes me feel kinda smart.
The whole not-watch the ending of Good Will Hunting and their made-up endings has to be one of the cheesiest things I’ve ever seen on this show. And that’s saying something.
I love how Kevin keeps insisting he’s “ready” for a wife, kids, a home, etc. but the second he wakes up next to Madison, who was clearly in a vulnerable state when she & Kevin finally “connected”, he’s making plans to leave town IMMEDIATELY. Story checks out, to be honest, but UGGHHH.
I think he means he’s ready for the right woman, and he clearly doesn’t think Madison is the right woman. I won’t be surprised if she’s the fiancee though. He probably knocked her up last night.
Since the show was given a massive three-year renewal (including this one, bringing it up to a minimum of 6 altogether), I do wonder if Madison indeed is the one. She’s been a character who’s been around enough to warrant an expansion. But you know, we are talking about This Is Us. I can’t imagine Fogleman and Co. able to resist putting Kevin and Sophie together in the end. Like Forrest Gump and Jenny, I do believe they go together like peas and carrots!
He might have knocked her up, and she might be the fiance we see in the flashforward… but yeah it’s pretty fucking obvious that ultimately Sophie will use the emerald ring to propose to him.
I predicted back at the beginning of this season that it would be the townie girl he picked up at the gym who wanted a quiet life – they’re going back to the area where he met her, could be that too?
That’s what I’ve been rooting for!
I found it more annoying that he was like:“Okay, now I’ve decided that I’m ready to find the love of my life and start a family… it’s been like a week now and I still haven’t found the same storybook romance my parents had. Will I ever? waaaahwaaaahwaaaaaah.”
Nothing shameful about vulnerable sex. If they are both in the same headspace.
It was good to see Sophie, but- WORST EULOGY EVER. Did the writers not catch this? It made Sophie look a teense monstrous.
Also too will I be trying ProFresca? Prosescca? You bet I will.
Just as I was pondering whether it was sweet or weird for Kevin to leave his headshot on Claire’s grave, there’s a great joke where he immediately takes back the gesture.I immediately thought that weird, and laughed so hard when he went back to pick it up. I have a feeling they’re going to draw out the Kevin/Sophie story line before having them finally get together… But I wouldn’t doubt it if Sophie & Grant break up(or something happens to Grant), and then she runs to Kevin but he’s in a relationship (because of course it would happen like that).
“It’s wild to think that after telling preschool Randall to tough it out and go back to bed, Jack immediately spends all that time searching the house for Kevin’s sheep mobile.”My take on it is Randall is a good boy who’ll listen to dad, besides he didn’t need a specific item. Kevin on the other hand needed specific item and probably wouldn’t be good boy and listen to daddy like Randall.