Andrew Robinson
Spoilers will mainly be avoided, but minor spoilers may be present.
After one week off due to Election Day, This Is Us returned to NBC on Tuesday night, and a lot of ground was covered.
Summary
In the past, Jack and Rebecca embark on a spontaneous cross-country road trip to California after knowing each other for just one week. Further in the past, Jack and Nicky reunite in Vietnam. In the present, Kevin and Zoe travel to Vietnam in search of answers, both about Jack, and about each other.
Analysis
Judging solely by the summary, it doesn’t seem as if “Sometimes” covers too much. However, despite the absence of Kate, Toby, Randall, Beth, and Co. being noticeable, “Sometimes” doesn’t feel as if it should have been cut down to include more of our favorite characters. Milo Ventimiglia (Jack), Mandy Moore (Rebecca), Melanie Liburd (Zoe), and Paul Bond (likely one-off character Mr. Watterson) shine.
Ventimiglia is tasked with performing two entirely different roles: that of a Vietnam soldier, and that of a supportive, yet new boyfriend (are him and Rebecca on boyfriend/girlfriend terms at this point?). Though scenes of an episode are rarely filmed completely sequentially, this is still a tall order. Ventimiglia, however, delivers, as always. His speech to Mr. and Mrs. Watterson about their son is passionate and heartbreaking, his scenes with Nicky are brilliantly awkward and difficult to watch, and every scene that he shares with Moore’s Rebecca is perfect. Ventimiglia is fantastic in TIU, and he only gets better as each episode goes by.
A quick shout-out to likley one-off character Mr. Watterson – Bond is phenomenal in limited screen time. The way he speaks with Jack and, more impressively, the lack of many lines spoken by the character allows Bond the chance to shine. He does.
Once again, Moore proves pre-season two me incorrect by giving a great, heartfelt performance. One of the biggest gripes I had with season one and the early parts of season two were that I didn’t believe Moore was all that convincing in the show, but ever since that devastating, incredible therapy session with Kevin and the Pearsons in season two, I have become a fan of her work. In “Sometimes,” she does a great job portraying a girlfriend confused and worried about her boyfriend’s (I’m just going to go ahead and call them boyfriend and girlfriend) reluctance to open up, a hopelessly-in-love young woman, and one who wants more than anything to chase her dreams. This final point is perhaps her greatest work in the episode; when she receives feedback from the producers, her facial expressions alone are enough for the audience to capture exactly how she is feeling. This is the mark of a great actor; the great ones don’t need to rely on dialogue to capture their feelings.
Melanie Liburd gives what is perhaps her greatest performance of the season to date in “Sometimes.” One could simply judge her final scene of the episode, and realize how talented she is. I was scrolling through Twitter during the final ten minutes of the episode, but the second she dropped that bombshell, I immediately turned my phone off (sorry, Game of Thrones mini-trailer: you had to wait until after TIU ended!). Credit to creator Dan Fogelman for going to the depth that he decides to go with her, but sometimes a reveal like that can seem cheap and unnecessarily dark, especially in what is (mostly) a show that the whole family, regardless of age, can enjoy together. However, when I thought about it, the breadcrumbs had been laid for such a reveal for the past ten episodes or so, and Liburd does a fantastic job at making it entirely believable, and all the more heartbreaking.
A lot of TIU fans love Justin Hartley as Kevin. I’ve never been one of them, and “Sometimes” didn’t do anything to change my mind. In my opinion, Hartley simply has trouble portraying emotion and acting in any situation when his character is in a sub-optimal mental state. In a show that features many, many extremely talented actors, he just doesn’t compare.
The relationship between Jack and Nicky is fascinating. I mean, Jack went to war in order to attempt to protect his brother (we can argue the believability of such a story, but he did do it), and Nicky doesn’t seem to want much to do with him. It’ll be interesting to see how their relationship plays out. I’d love to get more scenes of them as kids, or at least young adults – there’s a lot to explore there.
I do have trouble believing that Jack and Rebecca would drop everything to drive cross country together, literally days after meeting for the first time. I know their love story is supposed to border on fantasy, but this is a hard thing to get past. Still, if one can suspend reality for a bit, their scenes in the car are great, and it’s cool to see their relationship blossom over the course of the trip, leading to that devastating final scene.
I’m still not digging the whole mystery Vietnamese woman in Jack’s life, but at least Fogelman and Co. are elaborating a bit. I’m still hoping against hope that the show doesn’t have some massive twist involving Jack and the mystery woman – that would feel extremely cheap, especially if another character is brought into the mix as a result.
Verdict
“Sometimes” is a solid episode. Some of the main characters are missing, and their absences are felt at times. However, many developments occur in the episode, so this loss is minimized. Ventimiglia, Moore, Liburd, and Bond are fantastic, and there are some truly devastating scenes, which is when TIU is at its best.
8.25/10
