Andrew Robinson
Spoilers will be avoided for the most part, but minor spoilers may occur.
Summary
Kate undergoes a medical procedure. Beth and Randall deal with unexpected occurrences. Kevin is thrown by a question surrounding his movie. In the past, the origins of Jack and Rebecca’s relationship are explored.
Analysis
This isn’t my favorite episode of This Is Us. The episode is absolutely jam-packed with important storylines and reveals, which one may think is something worth celebrating. However, I feel as if this things are happening solely for the purpose of playing with the viewer’s emotions. TIU has toed the line on this issue before, as I have duly noted, but it feels much more prominent in “Katie Girls” than usual. Take Beth’s major development, for instance. Is it really plausible that this would occur on the very same day as Kate’s procedure, when Randall is away, and when Randall almost makes a rash decision of his own? Life is a series of unexpected occurrences – that’s what makes it so great – but the events in “Katie Girls” just seem to be a tad too unrealistic for a show that has built its entire base on intense realism.
This feel of a lack of realism is even more prevalent when the show goes into the past. Rebecca and Jack were going to end up together – we all knew that – but the way the show has it happen just feels fake. They could have went deeper with the initial difficulties in the relationship; they could have really explored how Rebecca ends up leaving Alan, her reemerged high school sweetheart, for Jack. Instead, we are given an unnecessarily quick answer to that question that borders on absurdity. TIU is better than this, and has never shown a reluctance to make the audience wait for answers in the past (*cough Jack’s death cough*), so it is very unlike them to rush a storyline as much as Jack and Rebecca’s feels rushed and messy. TIU is capable of much better things that they showed in Tuesday night’s episode.
With that said, “Katie Girls” also has its great moments. It is heartbreaking to hear Teenage Kate (Hannah Zeile), who has clearly gained a lot of weight, to speak the way she does, but it is entirely plausible and feels like the best way to transform Kate from the bubbly young girl (played by the impressive Mackenzie Hancsicsak), to the mostly-happy teenager with aspirations of becoming a singer, to the woman overridden with guilt and sadness that we meet in Season 1. While parts of Kate’s (Chrissy Metz’s version) dream sequence seem a bit overdone, Zeile’s performance makes the scenes some of the more poignant of the episode.
By far the best part of the episode is when Beth reveals to Randall how she, Toby, and Miguel keep in contact. “It’s mostly just GIFs” ended me, and the hilarity definitely fits all three characters, while furthering the notion that the Pearsons are, put simply, a lot to deal with. A brilliant little scene that makes the episode much more enjoyable.
With Beth’s advanced storyline in “Katie Girls,” we can only wonder how her and Randall’s relationship will be affected. They have my favorite relationship on the show (sorry, Jack and Rebecca), and I would hate to see them suffer. All relationships have their troubles, though, and my guess is Beth and Randall will prove that. However, it will be nice to see Susan Kelechi Watson and Sterling K. Brown have more serious scenes; both are extremely talented, and can sometimes go underappreciated in the dynamics of the show. If their relationship does hit a rough patch at some point, it will be interesting to see how the actors handle the changes.
Kevin suddenly becoming a sleuth is something that I didn’t see coming, but am here for. He has come a long way in accepting his father’s death, and I think his actions in “Katie Girls” represent the necessary next step in both his storyline and his recovery from his father’s death over two decades ago. He looks to have a huge part in the upcoming arc, which should be interesting, as I’ve always pegged Kevin as one of the most unlikable characters on the show, and Logan Shroyer (Teenage Kevin) and Justin Hartley as some of the weakest actors on TIU. Hopefully their involvement (particularly Hartley’s) in the upcoming story arc will change my opinions.
Jack’s dad sucks. I want someone to punch him in the face. That is all.
With next week’s episode seeming to promise a focus on Jack’s time in Vietnam, I am excited to see how the show handles war, and Jack’s involvement in it. This could also be one of the few times that we see Milo Ventimiglia (Jack) act without Mandy Moore (Rebecca), Jon Huertas (Miguel), or any of the kids by his side, which should be a fun experience.
Verdict
“Katie Girls” is one of the weakest episodes of TIU that I have seen in awhile. Too much of it feels unrealistic, forced, and convenient for the writers, making for an episode that is hard to look at with rose-tinted glasses. However, it has its redeeming moments (thanks, again, to Susan Kelechi Watson and Hannah Zeile), and still represents one of the best shows on television. Still, in “Katie Girls,” Fogelman and Co. do not bring their A-game.
6.5/10
