Where exactly in Washington, D.C., will that take him?
Welcome to the final eight episodes ofThis Is Us.
Tuesday’s installment of the decade-jumping family drama (which was directed byJustin Hartley, a.k.a.
Randall (Sterling K. Brown) and Rebecca (Mandy Moore), on a road trip.Ron Batzdorff/NBC
Kate tries for a big job at her school!).
Rebecca jumped in, too, and soon the highway lanes turned into memory lanes.
Senator from Pennsylvania about his soon-to-be vacant seat.
This episode puts him in both a son and father role.
Each of the three Randall stories puts weight on that responsibility and on that title.
It’s something that he carries with a lot of pride.
He takes each of those roles very seriously.
Randall did the same, though his call could have greater implications for the entire country.
How instrumental was Rebecca’s poolside speech in freeing this superhero-in-training from what was weighing him down?
It’s a combination of all of those things.
And so Rebecca frees him of that takes those weights off and lets him go.
It’s a funny thing because she gives the speech to him twice.
[Laughs] The first one was for all her children.
How much of his story in the rest of the season will be spent chronicling his rise?
And how would you characterize his efforts to obtain that goal?
We are comfortably not a political show, very much so.
And I think that’s always been our sweet spot.
Spare no detail in describing that look.
Beth is also crushing it.
She’s in a different emotional and career space than she was the first time he ran.
So her reaction is going to be much different.
[Laughs]
Fair.
He just knows the right time to deploy the single tear.
And it is like a deployment.
But he’s so present in the moment, he just knows what to do.
There’s no part of him that’s false.
I’m always so stunned.
You’re literally writing an episode about a guy who’s awesome and who knows he’s awesome.
So you have to find a way to always make it feel relatable and aspirational as opposed to obnoxious.
[Laughs]But I feel like he’s earned it.
I think that was it finding that balance between confidence and whatever else might make confidence feel icky.
But he’s always great.
He’s always in that sweet spot.
What was the biggest turning point in his confidence?
It has been the puzzle pieces that he’s trying to put together.
Now that he has a complete picture up his entire personhood, there is no lingering past questions.
I think this particular season, it’s a combination of that.
Randall did not appear to have a Secret Service detail in the future flash-forward to Rebecca’s deathbed.
Will there possibly be even more of a political ascent after Rebecca passes?
Just how presidential is Randall feeling to you down the road?
I’ll say this: We have had every version of every conversation in the writers' room.
And the best version of it is going to be on screen.
He just said: “Well, I didn’t think he would listen.”
I think that Randall feels contrition about his overstepping; that’s the parents' dance, right?
That’s something that she both realizes and acknowledges by the end of it.
So, yeah, his relationship with Malik was certainly left open-ended.
Or were there a few takes where he said something to her?
It’s so much about what Rebecca’s saying to him in this episode about taking a step back.
I loved so much that she took back something that is so incredibly hurtful.
Any version of a response back would’ve undercut at the moment.
You know how to overwrite?
[Laughs]
Randall comforted Malik by telling him that sometimes the door reopens.
Deja said, “Maybe in the future, not now.”
Viewers saw her with a baby in the flash-forward.
How much hope should viewers hold out for Deja and Malik in the future?
“What lies ahead for her in the second half of the season?
And in that speech, in a lot of ways, put it all on the table.
And the reason is because it’s about to get worse for her.
So her ability to do that kind of thing is going to be compromised, in a real way.
And she does, too.
We wanted to pepper the entire season with this foreboding knowing.
And part of the reason why this episode is a pivot point is because it’s not long coming.
I mean, my gosh, what is there to say?
Look, I’m like the audience in this situation.
I am deeply saddened by what’s happening.
I’m also horrified by how realistic it’s being played out.
Episode 11, K.J.
It’s a lot.
I’m just like, “Kate!
I’m praying for y’all!”
It’s a lot.
The next episode takes place at Miguel [Jon Huertas] and Rebecca’s anniversary party.
Viewers have been promised the story after those years of estrangement about how they reconnected.
I know 100 percent we are going to see the breadth of their courtship.
And it is an element of the next episode, but something else subsumes it!
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
