‘This Is Us’ Season 3, Episode 2 ‘A Philadelphia Story’ Recap: The Second Step Forward

Surprisingly, This Is Us is maintaining the emotional chill it had on its first episode of the third season. No bawling yet. There’s just a lot of moving on and setting eyes on a new goal for the Pearsons. But even then, it’s hard to remove that suspicious feeling that something’s brewing just a few episodes away.

For now, the Pearson family is gearing up for Kevin’s big movie premiere. Kevin (Justin Hartley) is starting to get serious with Zoe (Melanie Liburd) despite Beth’s (Susan Kelechi Watson) warnings. And Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Toby (Chris Sullivan) are making the best of their hopes for the invitro. However, they’re cautious about the whole Pearson clan knowing. Meanwhile, Randall (Sterling K. Brown) is once again trying to find himself through helping out in William’s (Ron Cephas Jones) old neighborhood.

When the dust settles

A few months after Jack’s (Milo Ventimiglia) death, Rebecca (Mandy Moore) still finds herself instinctively bringing two cups out from the cupboard. Fortunately, Randall comes along and accepts his mother’s coffee offer. As he takes a sip of the brew, Rebecca brings out a heavy folder. To their delight, it’s Randall’s acceptance from Howard University. Kate saunters in and congratulates her brother. But, as soon as Randall mentions Berkley, she turns sour and grabs a cookie to munch on.

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In the present time, Randall greets Deja (Lyric Ross), Tess (Eris Baker), and Annie (Faithe Herman) as they come out from their first week of school. Unfortunately, it’s only Deja who stays for the celebratory Froyo trip. Randall asks about school, and Deja admits that she misses her old school with her old drill team. Randall suggests making a club there, but Deja cuts him off.

Later on at home, Randall greets Beth who’s stressing out over a proposal with a back massage. As she’s telling him what to do, Randall tells Beth he’s taking Deja to the recreation center on William’s street the next day to meet Sky (Drew Olivia Tillman), a kid her age.

On the other hand, Kevin’s still cozying it up with Zoe. He admits that he was about to ask her to his premiere night. And they both agree that it’s too soon. Zoe adds that she’ll be flying out anyway first thing in the morning for her documentary. Kevin persistently tries to offer to drive her to the airport but, Zoe consistently refuses. She reminds him that she only wants a casual relationship to which Kevin quickly agrees to.

New homes

Back before the big three go to college, the Pearsons try to look for a new home. As they’re exploring a new house, Kevin makes a jab at how he’ll be staying home unlike the other two. However, Kate adds in that she’ll be staying too. She admits never sending in the tape Berkley asked for her callback audition. Randall tries to reason with his sister but, Kevin cuts him off. The realtor interrupts the tension and offers to give them a tour of the backyard. Rebecca follows, but Kevin goes the other way. And Randall notices that he’s hammered.

Ron Batzdorff/NBC

Later on, Randall confronts his mother. He hits home with Kate’s eating and Kevin’s drinking. And Rebecca insists that she cares. He accuses her of lying about standing up and about making everything ok. At that, Rebecca simply nods and declares they should head home.

On another side of town a little bit to the future, William greets a new tenant and her baby to the apartment building he lives in. He offers to help with the woman’s bags but, the woman strongly refuses his help. Later that night, William hears the baby crying from the woman’s apartment. Then he goes up there with a cooked meal kindly offering it to her which she finally accepts.

The woman introduces herself as Chi Chi (Yetide Badaki), and she’s from Nigeria. She and her husband were supposed to go to Chicago to look at real cowboys. However, he died before they could make the trip. But, Chi Chi still decided to come. William invites her to the celebration of his fifth year being clean on the community center. And Chi Chi thanks him. Then she let him hold her baby Sky to which she tells him that he’s a natural.

Trying to fix things

Back to the present, Randall takes Deja to the rec center. She’s immediately taken in by Sky’s group. As they’re playing, Randall finds out just how rundown the building was from Chi Chi. He also finds out that no matter their complaint, nothing is being done. So, on Chi Chi’s challenge, Randall heads out to find Councilman Brown (Rob Morgan).

Ron Batzdorff/NBC

Randall finds the councilman soon enough at the barbershop. The two exchange stories of how they’re trying to do their fathers proud. And Randall manages to convince Councilman Brown to do something about the rec center. Brown promises to send a maintenance crew within the day, and the two shake hands on it.

On the other hand, Kate and Toby agree on not telling Rebecca or the other Pearsons about their invitro. And as the party’s dressing up for Kevin’s premiere, Toby finds time to look up his symptoms linking them back to antidepressant withdrawals. He tucks it away, however, and continues to act normally. Before they hit the road, Miguel (Jon Huertas) suggests getting a snack for the road. He finds some caramel cream in the fridge, and Toby declines. The two men fight over play tug of war over it for a bit until Kate’s hormone shots fall out. Toby tries to save the situation by lamely proclaiming he’s a heroin addict.

Until they reach Kevin’s apartment, the women continue bickering about it. Kate keeps insisting that it’s what she wants using the reason that she’s the only one who’s going to carry on a piece of Jack. Kevin asks about himself but, Kate doesn’t seem to take him seriously to his offense. The mother and daughter continue bickering until suddenly, Toby explodes. He tells Rebecca off before storming away.

Pearson legacy

Meanwhile, after waiting a whole day, no maintenance crew came to sight. So, Randall took it upon himself to start fixing the broken street light outside the rec center. Back to the past, Randall and Rebecca make up over their squabble. Rebecca tells Randall about the new house Jack took her to look at a few months before the fire. It was bigger and had more light but, the couple refused to move because they loved their home. Rebecca also admitted that she’s still having a hard time and she’s doing the best she can after losing Jack. And as Randall sees his friends parents having fun at the party they threw him that night; he remembered Jack and Rebecca. Because of this, he cancels his schooling at Howard and chooses to stay closer to home.

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A few years forward, at William’s fifth year celebrating being clean, Chi Chi came. She sat down just in time to hear William’s speech about their community. Because for people like him who didn’t have families, that is the only thing they’ll have close to it. As William said, it’s not as warm as a family, but it’s ok. They have the place and each other, and that’s something.

However, in the present, it seems that Randall didn’t belong just as William did. As he and Chi Chi walk out of the rec center, Chi Chi makes it clear that Randall isn’t one of them. He’s spent the whole day with them but, instead of staying and getting to know the community, he spent the entire time looking at the problems. And he might not even know why. Randall nods his head before remembering that he has a premiere to head to.

Reconciliation with the truth

At the premiere, Kate apologizes to Kevin about what she said earlier. Kevin easily forgives her and admits that it wasn’t about having kids. It was more about taking him seriously. As he remembered, it was only their dad who was hard on him because he took him seriously. And he still isn’t sure if he’s worth taking seriously. On another part of the globe, Zoe watches Kevin’s interview. Changing her mind, she sends him her landing schedule and when and where to pick her up much to Kevin’s joy.

Ron Batzdorff/NBC

Later on, Kate starts to panic because Toby’s still missing and she needs her hormone shots on time. Rebecca comes along and calms her down. Then she offers to do it for Kate. As the mother and daughter get to spend some time alone, Rebecca admits to having her weakest moments after Jack’s death. She regrets not having done more for Kate. But, Kate also admits to having made her own choices.

As the whole family, complete with Beth and Toby, settles in, Kevin catches up with Randall explaining the whole invitro scenario. Randall suddenly gets distracted with Kate’s declaration that she’s the only one to carry on a piece of their father. And Kevin tries to snap him out of his reverie but, the lights dim and the movie starts.

This Is Us continues next Tuesday, October 9th, with “Katie Girls” at 8/7c on NBC.