‘This Is Us’ Season 4, Episode 4 ‘Flip A Coin’ Review: Power of Little Decisions

From last week‘s streak of heartwarming moments, this week’s episode of This Is Us continues to warm hearts and make eyes misty. And with every one of these episodes, I continue to fall in love again and again with the show. Tonight’s episode had the perfect mix of humor, second-hand cringe, and a boatload of pure and sweet moments. But, what really strikes me here is how the new characters are pulling in with the old ones so seamlessly. Everything’s just falling into place and the new characters don’t feel so new anymore. It just feels like they’ve been part of this narrative all the way back to the first season of This Is Us. And that is amazing.

In this week’s episode of This Is Us titled “Flip A Coin,” Randall (Sterling K. Brown) finally meets Malik (Asante Blackk). And as expected, that little detail about his child doesn’t sit well with Randall or with Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) either. Meanwhile, Kevin (Justin Hartley), Cassidy (Jennifer Morrison), and Uncle Nicky (Griffin Dunne) grow closer as they open up more to one another. And as for Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Toby (Chris Sullivan), they’re still in the process of learning about baby Jack and this new chapter of their marriage.

Baby Jack Goes to Music School

Timothy Omundson’s appearances on This Is Us have been very shortlived so far. But, each time he’s onscreen, he’s a delight to see. And as it turns out, his character Gregory, Kate, and baby Jack have become regular walk buddies. One morning after their walk, Kate takes baby Jack to his very first baby music class. Unfortunately, they get to the class late because Toby got held up looking for Jack’s favorite toy.

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The sudden overload of stimuli shocks baby Jack. Needless to say, the poor kid was miserable. On the ride home, Kate blames Toby for it going so far as to accuse him of not being there for his son because of his gym time. But, it doesn’t take long before she apologizes. They both just want Jack to live his life as fully as other kids. When they pass by the beach, Kate suggests they spend some time there where they introduce Jack to the calming music of the sea.

Mama Pearson Meets Mama C

Down in Philadelphia, Beth is nervously gearing up for the opening of her dance school. Because aside from the opening itself, her meticulous mother Carole (Phylicia Rashad) is also coming to the event. At the mention of her, old memories come to light, particularly the first time Rebecca (Mandy Moore) met Carole.

That time, Rebecca left Kate at home to do her own thing while she visits Randall at college. We find out later that Kate used this time to buy some new records and even get herself a job at the record store. Meanwhile, at school, while having lunch, Rebecca catches Randall staring at Beth who was also having lunch with her mom. So, she drags her son over to their table. While doing the awkward introductions, Randall passes Beth his lemon without a word. Shortly after, he and Beth manage to excuse themselves from the awkward situation.

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With the kids gone, Rebecca and Carole bond over their similar situations having both lost their husbands recently. The difference between them is that Rebecca and her whole family are still struggling to heal while Carole has already chosen to walk forward with her head held high. Carole conveys this difference later on to Beth and tells her to find someone who’s not as broken as Randall. Harsh.

However, Beth seems to have no plans to give up on Randall. When she visits him later on, she asks him about the lemon. Randall tells her that he remembered her asking the waiter for lemon with coke on their first date. If she walks out on a man like that, she’d be an idiot. Luckily, Beth was smitten.

On a side note, when Rebecca gets home, she and Kate start enjoying their evening full of hope and bliss up until they hear their voice messages. Kevin’s voice starts off telling them all about how he is in LA and then suddenly, he’s saying that he just married Sophie. Guess no family was invited to Kevin’s first wedding, yikes.

Possum Cemetery

When Beth and her family finally get to the dance studio, they are greeted with a foul odor. As it turns out, a possum has died in the walls hence Randall calls it the possum cemetery. In the midst of that, Randall finally meets Malik. Despite Deja’s warning, Randall still goes full-on awkward dad mode. But, honestly, what is This Is Us without Randall Pearson’s awkward dad moments?

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Fortunately, Malik gets it. He’s a dad too. And as he rambles on comfortably, he begins rambling about his daughter. By the third time Malik mentions his daughter, Randall’s smile slowly slips from his face. This information doesn’t sit well with Randall and Beth and they don’t want Deja to do anything with Malik.

Further adding to the stress of the situation is that damn smell preventing Beth from holding her grand opening. Carole suggests they move the date. At this, Randall snaps at her. She has had it out for him since the beginning and he’s not allowing her to tell him what to do this time. Since they can’t do the grand opening inside, they move the tables, chairs, and decorations outside. In the end, it still turns out to be a huge success. As they watch Beth entertain her guests, Randall and Carole finally patch up. Carole admits that she didn’t want him for Beth before but, now she sees the strength in him. And Mama C approves.

The Manny Says Goodbye In This Is Us

As for Kevin, he’s still hanging out with uncle Nicky. And one morning before they head to a meeting, Kevin finds out that his old show, The Manny, has been canceled. Sadly, no one seems to understand how much that means to him.

When they get to the center, they find Cassidy arguing with an old lady. They were all misinformed with the time and now, they had 5 hours to kill before the meeting begins. Quickly taking the lead, Kevin hauls both Nicky and Cassidy to his car and takes them to see trailers in hopes of convincing Nicky to let Kevin buy him a new one.

Ron Batzdorff/NBC

Everywhere they go, it seems that there’s someone there who’s a fan of The Manny. And each time they meet a fan, Kevin greets them all with smiles and kindness despite what he’s going through. Cassidy quickly takes note of that. Seeing this side of Kevin, she tells him that his life is weird. And from being a dick, she apologizes and acts a lot nicer. She even tells Kevin the story of how her husband, who’s now trying to divorce her, proposed to her.

On the ride back to the center for the meeting, Nicky opens up and tells the bittersweet story of why he doesn’t want to change his trailer. As the story goes, there was this girl, Sally, he had a relationship with before he went to war. But, he stopped writing to her midway. When Nicky came back, he decided to take a risk. He bought the trailer and went to her house to rekindle their relationship. But, she wasn’t home and he knew that it wasn’t meant to be.

Later on, at the meeting, Cassidy notes that a lot of Kevin’s fans kept telling him how the ending of the pilot touched them. With her curiosity getting the better of her nonchalance, she asks him about it. Kevin tells her that when they were shooting the pilot, the baby just wouldn’t stop crying. No one in the audience was laughing at the jokes. And his spirits were crushed. But, near the end, Kevin asks the director to let him handle the situation. Miraculously, he gets the baby to stop crying. From this tumultuous relationship between the angry baby and the manny came such a sweet scene where they finally connected with each other. And that’s how the show and Kevin’s career took off.

The next morning, Nicky comes out to find a huge brand new trailer beside his. And out of it comes Kevin who starts calling him neighbor. It just seems that there’s no getting rid of Kevin a.k.a Hollywood douchebag anytime soon for Nicky.

This Is Us continues Tuesday, October 22nd, with “Storybook Love” at 9/8c on NBC.