This Is Us Season 4, Episode 12
“A Hell of a Week: Part Two”
Posted by Shannon
There are two things I know for sure. First: Justin Hartley is consistently delivering one of the most underrated performances on network television. I will NEVER understand why he doesn’t have at least a nomination count to rival Sterling K. Brown. Second: my assumptions about the fate of Kevin Pearson’s love life will always be wrong. Honestly, folks, please consider this my official resignation from any and all predictions about who’s saddled with morning sickness in the back of the family cabin. I don’t know! I can’t guess! You’re all your own!
Now with that out of the way, back to my first point. It’s not like we needed any further evidence on behalf of Mr. Hartley. I’ve been screaming about it for years, as has Kim. When I think about the first time This Is Us delivered a Big Three trilogy, I think about Kevin. I think about him screaming and sobbing on the front lawn of a one night stand, clawing at himself, writhing in addiction and misery. It’s one of my top five episodes from the show’s history. And so far, this Kevin-focused episode is my favorite of the new trilogy as well. “A Hell of a Week: Part Two” delivered yet another opportunity for Justin to act his beautiful heart out. (Logan Shroyer also nails it, as per usual.) It’s a perfect exploration of grief: its immediacy, its evolution, its closure.
In “A Hell of a Week: Part One,” the focus was on Randall’s processing (or lack thereof) the ramifications of the fire, but it didn’t focus on the lead up or initial few days following the tragedy. As recent as it was, Randall still had the distance of about a year’s worth of time marching on. For Kevin, the lone family member outside of the house during the fire, there’s a natural distance even on the night it all happened. The details hadn’t yet been filled in, but we knew he was off with Sophie, presumably at a party in the woods.
Sophie and Kevin had been friends since they were kids and started dating early in their teens. Because of that long history, I’ve frequently commented on how notable it is that Sophie didn’t seem to have any association with the rest of the Pearson clan; now, it all makes sense. Sophie didn’t click with Jack and Rebecca (or Randall and Kate) because they spent most of their time at Sophie’s house – with her mom Claire, who offered a beautiful respite for Kevin’s sometimes challenging relationship with his parents. Making connections with friend’s parents is such a strange, delicate, and beautiful thing. For a kid who’s not getting the kind of emotional attention they need, it’s natural to attach on to a receptive, separate adult – someone who speaks their heart language, who doesn’t have the baggage or responsibility of one or both of the full time parents, and is somehow able to deliver precisely the kind of support one wishes they could find at home.
None of that is meant as a knock on Jack and Rebecca. But it’s been shown time and time again that Jack could speak to Kate’s spirit, and Rebecca to Randall’s, but neither of them quite had that kind of a relationship with Kevin. Jack couldn’t see past himself on their last Super Bowl at home to know the impact that the pain of Kevin’s broken leg and career loss would have on the old family tradition. He couldn’t articulate the right words for Kevin that day, couldn’t divert his focus. (And frankly, even if he could have, Kevin probably wouldn’t have let him. Lest we forget, teenagers are just as hard as parents.) Claire, though, could give Kevin exactly the right frame of reference. He doesn’t even have to explain himself; Claire knows.
The same thing happened the week of Rebecca’s birthday dinner, when Sophie and Kevin came home from New York to celebrate. Kevin didn’t even want to go inside that day. He put on a big front with Sophie, claiming to be worried Rebecca would make a big fuss over him and his new acting career, plastering his head shot all over the new house. But that’s not Rebecca’s style, and Kevin knows it. He’s more heartbroken than he’d ever admit that Rebecca didn’t watch his debut appearance on Days of our Lives – and he’s already sensitive that he had to bring it up first. The “least favorite child” angst of it all collapses his shoulders; Sophie could feel it, even if it wasn’t so physically apparent.
Again, I don’t want to sound like I’m giving Rebecca a hard time here. God knows the woman had an impossible task and a million things to do; she had a new job, a new house to keep in order, a daughter fighting with her older boyfriend, and a son who refused to tell her about his nightmares – not to mention another kid who just eloped right under her nose. I’d be shocked if Kevin even mentioned to Rebecca that there was still a chance he’d be on the episode when he called to tell her his line had been cut. But he’s playing what I suspect is a very relatable and always unhealthy game; he’s testing to see if she’ll watch anyway, knowing she probably won’t, and using the results to prove his own thesis that she doesn’t love him as much as her other kids.
Claire gives Kevin exactly the kind of reception he was “worried” his mom would give – the one he was hoping for, the one he needed. The first thing out of her mouth is how wonderful he was on Days. She registers all the makeup they had on him, and she couldn’t be bothered about his line being cut. She hits every single note out of the park in mere moments. But that’s not all Kevin was looking for at Claire’s; once they have a moment alone, he makes a request for Sophie’s grandmother’s emerald ring. It’s a family heirloom, one Sophie’s always wanted. Kevin knows they robbed both their families and themselves from the wedding of their dreams, and he’s hoping the ring can at least start to make up for it. Honestly, until this conversation I’d nearly forgotten that Kevin and Sophie were already married at this age. It feels like they’re mere moments have passed since the party on Super Bowl night. They’re babies. Claire’s right to say no, to gently insist that he earn the ring, the same way her parents did.
And she was right because he doesn’t earn it. Not until it’s way too late.
Which brings us to the modern timeline. When Sophie is calling Kevin over and over, texting him “IMPORTANT” in all caps, he’s hard at work on reshoots for the M. Night Shyamalan movie. He’s even trying to tell Shyamalan – SHYAMALAN!! – that the newly penned ending isn’t as good as his first. (Babe. Just don’t.) There’s a meta through line here, but if I’m being honest, I don’t know if it works. Or at least, it doesn’t work yet. A huge part of this episode focuses on endings. Shyamalan tells Kevin that he’s going to shoot “the ending everyone wants and still won’t see it coming.” There’s a consistent touchpoint of Kevin and Sophie spending years trying to invent the perfect ending to Good Will Hunting after promising each other they’d never finish the film. It’s possible this is the end of their story, and that’s the reason this is all happening. (It’s also possible we haven’t seen the end of Sophie, but as I’ve CLEARLY stated I am retired from these types of predictions and I WILL NOT COMMENT on this matter.) It’s possible that there’s some larger, more abstract point that the show is trying to make about not knowing what will become of Sophie and the emerald ring that her fiancé also, apparently, didn’t earn. But none of it is solid, and without the hindsight of knowing exactly how this is all going to wrap up, it just doesn’t quite gel the way I suspect the show wanted it to.
All that said, there’s a lot to love in this storyline. Kevin showing up for Sophie during the loss of her mother is the absolute best of the Pearson penchant for flying across the country at a moment’s notice. He owes it to her to be there – and to be quiet and unobtrusive in his support. Kevin doesn’t demand attention or kudos for showing up out of the blue. He arrived at this funeral mourning the loss of an important parental figure in his own life, fresh off the hall pass fiasco and undoubtedly feeling deeply vulnerable. Kevin’s sobriety is still relatively new; he’s wide open emotionally, even moreso than usual, and the timing of Sophie’s call HAD to twig something hidden in his heart. That this would bring them together now, when he was so ready to throw in the towel romantically? When he still loves her – when he’ll always love her? Kevin keeping his own shit in check during all of this and not projecting his own romantic feelings is nothing short of remarkable. It’s the right thing to do – and it’s one more point of evidence that Kevin Pearson is fundamentally sweet and lovely and a Good Person.
I especially want to call out the ways Kevin consistently checks her boundaries during the entire visit. He doesn’t impose himself during the funeral, leaving out of respect as soon as he sees her standing with her fiance. She knows he’s there; if she wanted to see him, she could have. But him calling Sophie rather than appearing unannounced at the reception, and working up to the knowledge that he’s out front and ready to come in if and only if she wants him to, was outstanding. (Also damned if that shot of him reflected in the window, watching Sophie speak to him on the phone, wasn’t absolutely pitch perfect. Justin Harltey is ACTING THROUGH GLASS. He’s so good, I can’t take it.) It’s a perfect temperature taking throughout the whole delicate situation and he always keeps Sophie and her comfort level at the highest level of import.
It’s only after Sophie ducks into his car for a getaway that these two can have a genuine conversation. From both character’s POV, the whole sequence is muddy and confused and sad. What’s crystal clear, though, is that these are two people who know how to support each other in grief. They know each other in that natural, intrinsic way only hometown loved ones, people who knew your parents and your upbringing and your favorite donut shop, really ever can. It’s such a specific kind of comfort. It’s exactly what she needs right now, and he knows it. Kevin is able to visit the clearing in the woods where his childhood ended and be at peace – and he’s able to pivot it back to Sophie, the girl he loves, as a point of comfort for her BECAUSE of that ending. Because she’s seen him come back from it, even though it took him through hell. So they sit together, and cry a little, and finally watch the end of Good Will Hunting. Kevin would never admit how heartbroken he is that Sophie has moved on – he’d never want to burden that with her more than she already, always, will know. The beautiful irony is that he earns that emerald ring the moment he knows he can’t possibly do anything other than blink back tears and bring her home.
It would have been easy to make the main crux of this episode Kevin and Sophie alone. Obviously, their emotional arc is pivotal to this hour. But I’m so grateful that Kevin was also given the space to mourn Claire – not just the ring, not just his many failed attempts with the woman who has been, so far, the love of his life – but this parental figure who was “always rooting for you… she was your biggest fan.” The monologue he delivers at her grave was a perfect thank you and a perfect goodbye all at once. And I can only imagine that Claire would have found it charming and hilarious for Kevin to first leave the teenage headshot she had kept with her all those years, then run back to grab it muttering “I’m not doing that, that’s super weird.”
So begins the puzzle piece scene at the end of all these joined episodes; Kevin lands back in LA, so beaten down that it’s no wonder he makes an immediate run for his sister’s house. Instead of Kate, Toby and Jack, he finds Madison, fresh off a breakup, house sitting and feeling generally miserable. It would have been a lovely friend moment for Kevin to tell Madison how much he envies her ability to stay and fight as compared to his skill set of cut and run – except they, somehow, fall into bed together. Hers is the blonde head next to him in bed when Randall calls in the middle of his panic attack. Kevin and Randall hatch a plan to take off to the cabin together and lick their respective wounds, and Kevin dials Kate in too – who’s “about two seconds away from my marriage completely imploding.” The Sad Three set their getaway plan, and the stage is set for the final installment.
Colors of the Painting
- I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that the show makes it clear Claire wasn’t perfect either; Sophie’s devastated when her mom buys them a vacation package to see the Northern Lights instead of using their savings to fix the pipes in the house. It’s a special kind of brutal to have to be the voice of reason when you’re a kid, and this one went right through me.
- I will always be a sucker for the perspective switch that only This Is Us can pull off. The way they linked from Randall’s home invasion to Kevin’s cell phone and vice versa was masterful.
- Part of the reason I was so convinced that Sophie would be it (other than the fact that the show obviously set us up) is that a substantial amount of this plot was taken directly from High Fidelity, when Rob and Laura reconcile once and for all at her father’s funeral. Y’all, there were SO MANY moments when my notes devolved into writing “High Fidelity” over and over and over.
- Maybe this is an only child thing, but I thought it was notable that Kevin’s response to Kate’s emergency is to pick up Randall so they could all go together.
- We still had the framing device of Jack shepherding the Big Three through their first night in big kid beds, and while his lessons to toddler Randall were a little more life defining, the sentiment for Kevin is especially important this week; Jack reminds his son that even through loss, he’ll always love again.
- This Is Us is off next week, but when we return, it’ll be Kate’s installment. Presumably, we’ll find out exactly what’s going on with the potentially abusive older boyfriend. Considering how dire this trilogy has been so far…I suspect we should all buckle up.
What are your thoughts on “A Hell of a Week: Part Two”? Let us know in the comments.
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