‘This Is Us’ Season 4 Premiere ‘Strangers’ Review: Crossing Bridges

Once again, This Is Us has delivered one astoundingly beautiful and tearjerking episode. Somehow, show writer Dan Fogelman and director Ken Olin have found a way to usher in a new era while still going full circle to the very things that attached fans to the show. The beloved Pearson family story is still central to the narrative of course, but the new season’s new characters have let loose a whole other dam of intrigue and heartbreak. And as early as now, they’ve surely already stolen a lot of hearts.

The new narratives in This Is Us’ season 4 premiere titled ‘Strangers’ runs beautifully parallel with the story of Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) meeting Rebecca’s (Mandy Moore) parents for the very first time. Here, we’re introduced to Malik Hodges (Asante Blackk), a teen dad who’s struggling with the concept of responsibility despite his dedication to his lovely daughter. Then, we meet Cassidy Sharp (Jennifer Morrison), a war veteran who’s struggling to reincorporate herself into normal life. Last but not least, we meet Jack’s namesake Jack Damon (Blake Stadnik) who was only just a little sickly baby last season. And despite the difference in times and circumstances, they all find themselves connected one way or another.

Jack Meets The Parents

A few days after their trip to LA, Rebecca invites Jack to meet her parents at a fancy dinner. Unfortunately, Jack would need to wear a sports coat and at that moment, he hasn’t even landed a decent job. However, he quickly brushes it off and assures Rebecca he’ll be presentable.

Ron Batzdorff/NBC

Later on, Jack goes to a shop looking for a coat where Miguel (Jon Huertas) works as a salesman. Finding that the coat was too expensive, he confesses to Miguel that he doesn’t have the money to pay for it yet. Sympathizing with him, Miguel allows him to borrow the coat. Jack only has to hide the tag up his sleeve.

At dinner, Rebecca warns her folks not to bring up the topic of Vietnam or their road trip to L.A. However, as soon as Jack sits down, Rebecca’s dad, Dave (Tim Matheson) pounces on him with careless remarks about Vietnam. Rebecca manages to stop her dad from going further, but her mother Janet (Elizabeth Perkins) then switches the topic to their road trip. In short, it was the worst Jack and Rebecca were expecting.

Father Wants Best

Despite this, Jack handled himself valiantly. After a little mishap, Jack finally found the courage to speak up for himself. As honestly as he could, he told them everything about himself from his parent’s troubles to his brother Nicky in that typical sincere and heartfelt Jack style. And by the end of it, he has gained everyone’s respect. As he lifts his arm to drink, Dave subtly signals him to tuck in the price tag that was peeking on his sleeve.

At the end of dinner, Jack and Dave had a little moment to themselves. And Dave straight up tells Jack that he’ll do anything to stop the relationship. He could see that Jack was a good man. But, he also wanted more for his daughter. Jack respects this, but he’s also not willing to let go of Rebecca and so the two men settle on a quite kind of agreement.

Responsibility

In the present day, we meet Malik and his father Darnell (Omar Epps). One day, an old lady with a car with Randall Pearson’s name on the plate comes into the auto mechanic shop Malik and his father Darnell works at. She immediately tells Darnell that she couldn’t fully pay for the repairs and Darnell assures her that she could just pay what she can.

Ron Batzdorff/NBC

Seeing this, Malik shakes his head and approaches their boss Castillo (Maximiliano Hernandez). Knowing that he has some shady side business going on, Malik asks for a job so that he could start saving up for his kid. However, Castillo only says he’ll think about it. Darnell sees this and later on, he warns his son not to even think about it. Responsibility is a heavy thing especially now that Malik has his own child. However, he also has the right to enjoy his teen years. So, Darnell urges him to attend a friends’ barbecue party that he almost passed up to take care of his child and enjoy.

At the barbecue,  one of Malik’s friends introduces him to Deja ( Lyric Ross). It’s love at first sight as corny as that sounds. And later that night, Deja comes home to celebrate Randall’s (Sterling K. Brown) birthday in their new home with a huge smile on her face.

Homecoming

Elsewhere in the episode, we’re taken to the war zone in the Middle East. Before setting off on a classified operation, Cassidy calls her husband Ryan. And the strain and sadness between them immediately become apparent. Before they could talk more, Cassidy is called to head out.

Cassidy and her team head to a village where she meets Dr. Asmaan, a Muslim woman and an asset who has a picture of the bomb-maker Nadir who has been very elusive to them. After a lot of misgivings, Cassidy manages to convince the woman to give up the picture in exchange for a visa for her and her child and water for the village. Later on, Cassidy finds out that the village was attacked to kill the bomb maker. When they return, the military pays off the village’s residents with $1200 for each casualty in the attack.

After that operation, Cassidy retires and returns home. And she immediately finds out that she hasn’t come home without baggage. After accidentally hitting her son, she submits herself to AA meetings for war veterans. While she’s talking, a chair suddenly comes crashing through the windows. As it turns out, it was Nicky (Griffin Dunne) who threw it. The police arrest him for it and call up Kevin (Justin Hartly) to bail him out. As Nicky’s being taken away, it’s apparent that Cassidy finds a connection with the old man.

Jack’s Song

Sometime in the future, we’re introduced to Jack, a blind musician struggling to make it in the industry. As he gets breakfast one day at a diner, he meets Lucy, one of the waitresses. And it doesn’t take long for them to hit it off. After a few years, Jack finally proposes and Lucy happily accepts. At this point, both of them are at the height of their careers. Lucy has just opened up a new restaurant and Jack’s music career is taking off. On the way to one of his concerts, Lucy nervously tells Jack that she’s pregnant. Despite her misgivings, Jack convinces her that they’ll make it work.

Ron Batzdorff/NBC

As it turns out, Jack is Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Toby’s (Chris Sullivan) one and only son. He’s the same child that they so painstakingly worried about as a child due to his retinopathy. And he is the grandchild of the same Jack Pearson who drove his wife to LA to pursue her music dreams. Strangely, he seems to be the very embodiment of both Jack and Rebecca.

‘This Is Us’ Season 4 Premiere Overall Verdict

This Is Us‘ season 4 premiere began as a confusing hailstorm of new characters. And up to a point, it was almost messy with question marks blaring red here and there. But, it quickly bloomed into quite the heartwarming episode. The writing was beautiful and the new cast members successfully gave it the life and grace it needed to be convincing. Stadnik’s song at the end was also quite the breathtaking touch which completely puts the puzzle altogether. Altogether, the episode was a welcome and refreshing interlude on This Is Us. And just by this premiere episode, I can already feel that this will be one amazing season.

This Is Us continues next Tuesday, October 1st with “The Pool: Part Two” at 9/8c on NBC.