'This Is Us' Season 2, Episode 3 'Déjà Vu' Recap: Awkward Pearsons and Sylvester Stallone [SPOILERS]

On the latest episode of NBC’s family drama series “This Is Us,” we dig deeper into all kinds of hidden feelings from the characters. And feelings of being ‘uncomfortable’ and ‘embarrassed’ will be a recurring emotion for all characters. Additionally, the show invited its first actual guest star—Hollywood bigshot, Sylvester Stallone.

Sylvester Stallone gets on Kevin’s feelings

As we all know, Kevin (Justin Hartley) is about to get his big break in an upcoming movie with director Ron Howard. To him, this is his biggest opportunity to hitch a spot in his acting career—and he gets to act with Sylvester Stallone in it. On their first meeting, the two Pearsons are starstruck.

Apparently, their late father Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) was a big fan of the buff “Rocky” star and Kate (Chrisy Metz) didn’t hesitate to share a few stories with him. Both Kate and Sylvester click—making the actor feel closer to Kevin than Kevin wants him to be. Before shooting, Sylvester prompts him to open up about Jack, but Kevin shrugs this off, afraid of feeling too much on such an important project. But it doesn’t end there because the character that the young Pearson is playing is a son-figure to Stallone’s character as well.
Kevin blames Kate for interfering in his shoot, but they soon reconcile without so much as a few words—their very own twin magic. In these scenes, we discover that despite the years that have stretched, Kevin is still in pain because of his father’s passing.

Randall Copes With the adoption of Deja

When Deja comes into the Pearson home, she finds herself in an awkward situation. This is understandable. But when Beth discovers a few cigarettes on Deja’s bag, the atmosphere begins to tense. To ease the tension, Randall tries to talk to Deja by opening up about his very own adoption days and associating it with his new daughter.

Although as soon as Randall mentions the 12-year-old girl’s mother in jail, Deja ups, and leaves. Randall is not disheartened though. Because he believes that it’s part of their steps to a healthier family.
The present and past clash as we see young Randall feeling disappointed, unwelcomed and out of place after knowing that the woman who replied to his newspaper ad was after money. While he coped with his feeling of unbelonging in his adoption home in his past, his now adopted-daughter feels the same in the future.

Jack Distances himself from Rebecca

Now on the fragile relationship of the Pearson couple, Jack finds himself in a desperate situation where he tries hard to change himself, and at the same time, feel awkward over the situation. Rebecca (Mandy Moore), tired of the distance and ‘no sex’, pulls a “Jack Pearson” on him and takes him to a surprise date. But because Jack is far from feeling like his young, juvenile self, he shuts Rebecca down and admits that he feels ‘uncomfortable’ with it all.

But as soon as the couple converse, things begin to settle and the couple grows closer—but not quite alright. They’re working on it though, and surely the fans would rather have them take their sweet time. There is little revelation about Jack’s death on this episode, but “This Is Us” continues to tug on our hearts.
“This Is Us” continues next week with “Still There,” Tuesday, October 17 at 9/8c on NBC.