This Is Us puts Beth center stage (sort of)

“I hate to break it to you, but you’re basically my best friend, Miguel.”

“Back attcha.”

Thanksgiving has long been This Is Us’ signature holiday, so I’m glad the show didn’t let this season’s delayed airing schedule stop it from squeezing in one last Turkey Day episode with the Pearsons. Two, in fact, as this week is really just the prelude to whatever fireworks await us in the next installment. After all, you have to let a turkey brine before you cook it—at least if you’re following Emeril’s recipe. And “Our Little Island Girl: Part Two” puts a few Thanksgiving-related storylines on the stove to simmer as it places Beth’s emotional journey front and center.

Indeed, it’s almost a little strange how much screentime Kevin and Kate get in an episode that’s otherwise designed as a sequel to season three’s “Our Little Island Girl.” While that first deep-dive into Beth’s backstory devoted its entire runtime to the little island girl who danced before she could walk, this episode tosses a lot more balls into the air. After last year’s abbreviated COVID-season, it feels like This Is Us is scrambling to fit everything in before it ends. (It’s too bad the show didn’t get a 20 episode order to make up for the two hours it lost last season.) But within those parameters, I think “Part Two” does a solid job of giving Beth a moving emotional arc, even as it keeps things ticking along elsewhere.

It helps that Beth’s story is ultimately a pretty simple one. Her new job as the Head of New Student Recruitment and Development at the City Ballet of Philadelphia offers yet another chance to reflect on the traumatizing end of her own youthful ballet dreams. While the first “Our Little Island Girl” grappled with Beth’s dance journey as it related to her parents, “Part Two” examines it through her relationship with her teacher Vincent (a returning Goran Visnjic). Co-written by Eboni Freeman and Susan Kelechi Watson (a.k.a. Beth herself), this episode is thoughtful in its dissection of the tricky power dynamics between teachers and students in competitive artistic fields like ballet.

Vincent isn’t abusive or cruel in a conventional way—in fact, he’s always kind and polite on the surface. But there’s something unsettling in the cognitive dissonance he has with his students. When Beth is his star pupil, he treats her like a human being, investing deeply in her physical and emotional future in the dance world. When she starts to struggle, however, he tosses her aside for another dancer, falling back on the idea that it’s his job to cultivate talent, not emotionally coddle his teenage pupils. Vincent is an avatar for “the way things are” in the dance world. But Beth believes there are better, more humane ways to raise kids through the rigors of dance, whether or not they go on to be stars.

Though I initially thought the scene where Beth rushes onstage to help her fallen student Stacey was way too over-the-top, it won me over the moment Beth firmly plants herself onstage and tells Stacey she’ll sit there with her until the entire audience leaves if she wants. Sure, the episode is clearly exaggerating the nuances of the ballet world to drive home its point, but I also think there’s subtly to the way Beth decides that the best way to make her mark is one kid at a time. (I started sobbing just in anticipation of that shot of her board filled with successful former students.) Plus I enjoyed the mix of wish fulfillment fantasy and “you’ve gone off the deep end” madness of the scene where she calls up Vincent decades later to finally give him the “screw you!” speech she wanted to give as a teen. It’s not entirely rational behavior on her part, and that’s what makes it so compelling.

Speaking of rational behavior: Let’s talk about the “brunch beauties” a.k.a. Kevin, Kate, Madison, Toby, and Elijah. A big part of the fun of watching This Is Us is debating its characters’ behavior after the fact, and this half of the episode offers no shortage of opportunities in that department. Where should the twins spend their first Thanksgiving? How can Kate be a good friend to both Kevin and Madison? Is Elijah actually a good guy in all of this? And why on Earth don’t Kevin and Madison have a formal custody arrangement yet?

Here’s my take: If Madison can’t be away from the twins because she’s breastfeeding, the show needs to explicitly establish that because otherwise it seems like the most obvious solution is for Kevin to bring the kids to Thanksgiving at the cabin with his family while Madison enjoys a calm holiday with Elijah. (In exchange for her getting Christmas with the twins or whatever they work out.) This particular holiday is clearly more important to him than it is to her, especially with Rebecca’s declining health. And I don’t think Madison comes off particularly great in her refusal to acknowledge that, especially when Kevin goes out of his way to invite Elijah to join too.

Of course, Kevin is no paragon of virtue either. There’s great character detail in the way he keeps offering to leave Kate and Toby’s house if they want him too, only to ignore the very obvious cues that that’s exactly what they want. It gives Kevin plausible deniability that he’s in the wrong, while still allowing him to get exactly what he wants. Ever since he was a kid, Kevin has been defined by his dual desires to prioritize his own comfort and think of himself as a “good guy.” And throwing parenthood into the mix is bringing those desires to a head in increasingly unreconcilable ways.

Speaking of self-proclaimed good guys: I’ll be especially curious to hear how people respond to Elijah in this episode. I think the show wants to play his big “I’m not going anywhere” monologue as a genuinely romantic moment, but I actually found it kind of aggro and off-putting. While Elijah has previously come across quite charming, there’s an undercurrent of him weaponizing his “nice guy” status here that raises some red flags for me. Is he a truly supportive partner like Miguel or is he more like Rebecca’s 1990s beau Matt, who does seem awfully eager to invite himself to Thanksgiving?

Indeed, the flashback portion of this episode mostly sets up things we’ve long known were coming: Miguel and Rebecca continue to lean into the “just friends” direction, perhaps to both of their regret. Kevin reveals he cheated on Sophie not long into their teenage marriage. Kevin and Kate continue to toe the line between supporting each other and enabling each other. Plus the show tries to parallel the Kate/Kevin/Madison situation by retconning in some Thelma and Louise-style best friendship for Kate and Sophie, even though that’s never actually been a part of its worldbuilding before. (I’m firmly calling shenanigans on that one.)

All of that is mostly set-up for next week, however. The climax of “Our Little Island Girl: Part Two” focuses on giving Beth emotional closure and a firm new direction in life. Like so many of the Pearsons, she’s had to walk a rocky road to finally find her full circle happiness. Only in this case, she’s also able to make that path a whole lot less rocky for the dancers who follow in her footsteps.

Stray observations

• It’s weird that there’s zero follow-up on Deja’s big “Well, that’s gonna be a problem” moment from the previous episode. I suspect that’ll be especially jarring on a binge-watch.
• On the one hand, Toby’s instant friendship with Elijah is incredibly cute. On the other hand, given what we know of where Toby and Kate’s marriage is headed, is that yet another sign that Elijah might not actually be the right match for Madison?
• Teen Kevin watching King Of The Hill was a perfect late ’90s pop culture detail.
• Hannah Zeile and Logan Shroyer are doing a great job of modulating their performances to match Chrissy Metz and Justin Hartley as teen Kate and Kevin get older.
• This Is Us is taking one more break next week for the State of the Union and then should be airing straight through to its series finale on May 24.