‘This Is Us’: Three new developments from Season 3, Episode 6’

Screenshot+from+This+Is+Us+Season+3%2C+Episode+6.+%28Hayley+Solomon%2FAmherst+Wire%29

Screenshot from “This Is Us” Season 3, Episode 6. (Hayley Solomon/Amherst Wire)

Did you catch last week’s episode of “This is Us?” The episode touched upon the importance of voting, and continued to develop the storylines of the Big Three. If you haven’t watched the episode, stop right here and go watch, or beware there are major spoilers ahead.

Present: Randall gets on the campaign trail while Beth tasks a risk with a special job offer.

The biggest part of this entire episode is Randall’s storyline and where he will go from here. We first see Randall continuing his campaign trail by heading down to Philadelphia while leaving Beth home with the kids for the day.

He first goes to a church service to prove to his Philadelphia district that he belongs with them and stands with them. Yet, it backfires on him, as Councilman Brown is in attendance as well, welcoming Randall in front of the entire congregation. To the people, Brown seems like a pleasant host, but he makes sure to call out that it is Randall’s “first” time here and he is from “out of town.”

While almost feeling defeated, Randall gets a call from Kevin, obsessed with finding out about Jack’s past in Vietnam. He is so absorbed with finding out the truth, with no help from Zoe, that he comes to meet Randall in Philadelphia. Randall is embarrassed to be seen with his movie-star brother and decides to have them meet in a small Korean restaurant.

Contrary to Randall’s assumptions, the Koreans in downtown Philly love the “Manny,” which Randall decides to use to his advantage, and he goes out to help them register to vote while campaigning with the help of Kevin wearing one of Randall’s campaign shirts. During that time, a young Korean man named Jae-Won comes up to Randall, criticizing him for never stepping a foot into this neighborhood before, asking why he should consider voting for him.

Randall addresses him stating that yes, he’s never been in this neighborhood, but follows it up with a powerful speech explaining why he does care. Clearly convincing the public, Jae-Won goes to meet with Randall later that night, proposing to be his campaign manager. We don’t know much about him besides the fact that he has had experience on the campaign trail, so Randall immediately hires him.

Meanwhile, Beth is with the kids all day, helping them sell Girl Scout cookies. They show up late to the supermarket as another group gets to the front first, and Beth does not bring a “swiper” for people to be able to use their credit card. Her kids, obviously upset, get angry with her and Beth ends up snapping at them. She is still clearly not doing well after being fired from the company that she helped create. After seeing how stressed Beth is, Deja talks to her to calm her down, telling her to tell Randall how she is feeling. She tells Beth, “He loves you like he’s in a Disney movie or something,” which is so accurate.

Beth apologizes to Deja and her kids for snapping and listens to Deja’s advice by talking to Randall about how she is feeling later that night, stressing that she is not doing okay. Randall then offers her a position on his campaign team, telling her that she’s the best teammate he’s ever had. While Beth seems a little nervous about taking on the position with her husband, she agrees, and we’re all so happy she did.

Present: Kate helps Toby work through his depression.

During this episode, Toby is struggling to get back into his normal routine and onto his medication. Kate is handling pregnancy on her own, having to worry about everything around her including balancing an incident with their dog Audio — where he swallowed a rock — and taking care of Toby. Toby even says to her that he is worried she will grow tired of him, see his depression as a burden and leave him. Kate pushes past the stress and reassures him that she signed up for better or for worse, and she’s here to stay.

Looking toward the future, it is hard to not think about when we see Toby in bed alone on the phone with Randall. It leaves us to question if this will affect him in years to come and if he’ll ever fully heal.

Present: Kevin and Zoe head to Vietnam.

Kevin becomes obsessed with Jack’s time in Vietnam, even calling Randall and going to downtown Philadelphia to talk to him about it in person after Zoe ditches him to work on some post-project work. He is specifically interested in the photo that Robinson gave him of Jack with the Vietnamese woman wearing the necklace that Kevin now wears.

Kevin reminds Randall of a time from their childhood when they peeled the wallpaper off the wall because they could not believe that there was something underneath. He uses this to explain that this is how he is feeling right now — he is peeling down the wallpaper of their father’s life and can’t seem to stop.

After helping Randall campaign, Kevin goes back and decides to go to Vietnam himself to find out more. He offers Zoe a visa to go, and they decide to take this trip together. It was revealed last season that they would be taking this trip together, but what they will learn there is still a mystery.

Six emotional episodes into this season and we still have a lot to learn. What we are going to learn in the next episode is unsure, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

“This is Us” will be back with a new episode Tuesday, Nov. 13 on NBC at 9/8c.

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