This Is Us often gets an unfair (to my mind) rep for being emotionally manipulative. Sure, the show has always been known for its feels, and the marketing hasn't exactly leaned away from that—the tissue-box emoji that appears whenever you hashtag #ThisisUs isn't subtle. But in general, I don't find the show any more manipulative than most television.
However. Putting the character of William together with an adorable cat? That is a low blow, This Is Us, and one that feels specifically designed to make me cry. Also, how DARE you call Clooney ugly! That is one beautiful kitty; he just needs some love!
Okay. With all of that said, here are 22 slightly more coherent thoughts and feelings I had about this week's episode, "Clooney."
1. CLOONEY. It’s been less than thirty seconds of watching Clooney’s life on the streets and I’m already stressed out.
2. Wait, so Beth works in real estate? I was just having a conversation with someone recently about how, despite all the shots of Beth going to work and at her office, we have no idea what she actually does for a living.
3. “He’s so friggin’ romantic, he convinced me that I want the all-out traditional wedding.” Alright, so I’m very much on record as not liking Toby and finding him controlling, so maybe I’m reading too much into this line. But remember when Toby also convinced Kate she wanted to shout from the rooftops about her pregnancy, even when she originally wanted to keep it quiet for a while?
4. Hoo boy, has there ever been a more surefire recipe for drama than Kevin moving in with Rebecca and Miguel? Out of all three Pearson siblings, Kevin has always been the most openly hostile to Miguel, even though they bonded a little bit over that “Jack Pearson’s Son” moment.
5. Rebecca’s excitement over grocery shopping for Kevin is so sweet it’s killing me. Also, Kevin, when your therapist said to go nuts on sugar I doubt she meant to exclusively eat Skittles and Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
6. Madison’s entire purpose on this show is to be relentlessly nice to Kate, even when Kate is nothing but rude to her face. Nobody brings out the worst in Kate more aggressively than Madison, which would be fine, if Madison actually felt like a character in her own right.
7. They’re not seriously going to introduce a new mystery love interest from William’s past. Are they? I’m all for finding reasons for Ron Cephas Jones to come back, but between this and Jack’s mysterious brother, the writers are in danger of leaning too heavily on this bottomless well of Long-Lost Figures From The Past.
8. “I lost dad’s necklace.” This has to come back at some point later in the season. I have to believe that schoolmate of Kevin’s is going to find her conscience and mail it to him at some crucial point in the season—maybe in the same episode we find out how Jack died—and it is going to destroy me.
9. Miguel has every right to feel protective over Rebecca after the way Kevin tore into her. “I’m here to protect her” is maybe a little much, but at the same time I always feel sorry for older Rebecca because of how much time her adult children spend ripping into her. Randall’s anger at her last season over keeping William a secret was understandable, but she gets such a hard time from Kevin, and especially Kate. All of which is a long-winded way to say: I AM STILL TEAM MIGUEL.
10. “Wasn’t he a fancy man?” Alright, so this was already making me laugh, but then “No. Bi.” “Bye!” happened and now I am howling. I can’t even tell if it’s objectively that funny or just an unexpectedly weird bit of wordplay for this show, but either way: A+.
11. Beth has a point about Randall needing to go back to work. Fixating on William’s past is reasonable in some ways—there are so many unresolved mysteries there—but Randall is so ferociously smart and driven, and kind of obsessive, that he needs a more productive outlet. Something less soul-destroying than weather patterns on Wall Street. (I…never did entirely figure out what Randall’s job was, but I think I’m close?)
12. Finally, some development for Madison. This is awesome, and not least because Kate could use a friend who isn’t Toby. On the other hand, it makes Kate look like even more of a dick for all the times she rudely dismissed Madison in that support group. I mean, if she’d thought about it for ten seconds, she could have drawn the conclusion that Madison might have food issues that weren’t plainly visible.
13. “That would have been impossible. How do I explain this? Your mom and dad, they were one. There was no Jack, and there was no Rebecca. It was just Jack and Rebecca.” Honestly, it sounds a little bit like Miguel was in love with Jack and Rebecca, which is very legit. And as a Miguel apologist, I’m glad we’re finally addressing most people’s biggest issue with him, which is the assumption that he’d been pining for Rebecca all along, and swooped in to hook up with Rebecca when she was grieving and vulnerable. There’s never been a hint of anything between them in the flashbacks, but given how the Rebecca/Miguel twist was introduced in season one, you can see where that assumption comes from. Once again: TEAM MIGUEL.
14. So far, Clooney has been nearly run over by a) a car and b) a bike, barked at by a dog, almost trampled by people, and chased by those terrible terrible youths, and I am altogether not dealing well with any of this.
15. YES CLOONEY!!!! Truly, Clooney making it into William’s apartment and drinking his Lactaid is everything I needed from this episode. Am I the only one wondering if William’s poem is about Clooney?
16. Oh, nope. It’s about a Billie Holliday mural. Bless William for being a perennial enigma wrapped in a mystery wrapped in some beautiful, enigmatic poetry.
17. Wow. So Kate got extremely thin right before Jack died. I’ve wondered before about the increase in Kate's weight between her teen years and adulthood, and her having lost a large amount of weight in between explains a lot.
18. Randall and Beth buying this building together is such an unexpected and lovely resolution to this whole strange storyline. Almost as lovely as Randall finding Clooney and adopting him, which—much as I would love it—would probably be a sentimental beat too far, even for this show.
19. Oh god, it’s the Redhead Of Doom! Nothing against this girl, who I’m sure is lovely, but you’ll recall she is the final missing piece in the Jack’s Death Puzzle set up for us in episode one of this season. It depends on how long Randall and the redhead were dating, but Jack’s death has to be coming soon.
20. “When your father died, I had to let go of a lot of things, and happiness was one of the first things to go.” What a line. Thank god this show jumps back and forth through different eras and moods, because watching Rebecca lose Jack is going to be flat-out unbearable.
21. No. NO. NOPE. You will not set Jack Pearson up to finally go after his dream and start his own company and then kill him off, This Is Us. I REFUSE.
22. What if Randall and Beth turn their housing project into a long-term enterprise and call it Big Three Houses, though?
23. “Did we forget something at the mall?” Wow, I do not love the fire alarm without batteries as a final shot—it just feels like a cheap tease for what we already know is coming. But I am starting to feel more and more like the fire may be a red herring, something that happens before Jack’s death. And I do not know how to feel about that possibility.
24. One final thought for you: NBC confirmed last week that This Is Us will air an episode after the Super Bowl. Do we think they could be so cruel to kill avowed football fan Jack Pearson on the night of the Super Bowl? They couldn't. SURELY.
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