This Is Us
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That attachment made every emotion in that episode hit harder.
They pull it off.
The grief and fear and pain in that moment!
It was Laurels, and now its Randalls.
Theres no turning back, folks!
Hai invites Randall and Beth inside and proceeds to tell them everything he knows about Laurel.
So what is Laurels story?
Well, Laurel DuBois grew up in a prominent New Orleans family but never felt like she fit in.
She does this by walking into the lake by her Aunts house and letting out a guttural scream.
He offers to cook for her, and they fall madly, secretly in love.
Feeling trapped, Laurel decides to flee to Chicago.
She begs Hai to come with her, but he cant abandon his parents.
And so she goes.
In the present day, Hais holding back tears.
You know hes playing all the what-ifs in his head, even after all this time.
As Hai explains to an increasingly antsy Randall, Laurel didnt make it to Chicago.
The cheapest bus ticket was to Pittsburgh.
Of course, we know most of what happens there.
Most of Randalls biggest questions have to do with what happened after this moment.
How could Laurel have survived but never sought out him or William?
She cant even call William to tell him because they dont have a phone in their apartment.
Then, because the prisons in Pittsburgh are overcrowded, shes sent to serve her time in California.
Sorry, friends, thats just not the way.
Laurel gets a little taste of happiness at the end of her life at least.
She carries the guilt and regret of never telling her son she loves him until the very end.
Okay, so that final part isnt happy, but the rekindling-the-romance-with-Hai part?
Id watch a show just about that part.
The Thanksgiving recipes!)
back at the hotel, he sneaks out to return to Laurels now his house.
This scene is aThis Is Usmoment to remember for a long, long time.
She tells him theres a sadness weighing him down and that he needs to let his pain go.
And then he screams a guttural, painful, cathartic scream.
On second thought, they shouldve just titled this episode Sterling K. Browns Emmy Submission.
That man is workinghard.
On the way home, Beth can already see that Randall seems different.
He is: Now he knows how much he was loved by both his parents.
He tells Beth hes ready to let go of the bad stuff.
He doesnt want to wait he calls him right then and tells his brother he wants to talk.
But Kevin cant talk.
Hes freaking out in his car because Madisons gone into labor and hes stuck in Vancouver.
Shes all alone at the hospital.
I never shouldve come here, he tells Randall before hanging up.
Just when we think weve released all the pain, were right back in the middle of it.
Of all the names for a family living in New Orleans, were going with DuBois?
Very subtle,TIU.
