In the episode "The Game Plan" not only do we find out where is Jack but also the reason why football is important to the family too.
The Game Plan might be as simple of an episode to understand, it's just like a real football with tough challenges for each one in the story.
Kate wants to watch the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday Night Football but Toby thinks it would be better that he tags along. She doesn't want that and wants to watch it alone, which for me is something I love to do too. But Toby doesn't stop, of course, and invites her to his football viewing party with his friend and that gave Kate a real discomfort. But after she leaves, Toby heads to her place to understand why she wants to watch the game by herself and it wasn't as creepy as she said it but it was plan as day to see. She watches football because of her dad, who's a Steelers fan.
And when Toby tells her that he would someday like to meet him, she brings him out in an urn. And later they, all three, watching the game together.
Both Randall and Kevin have some difficulties too as their game plan didn't go the way they wanted it. Randall and his wife to Kevin's hotel room for the night to have a night to themselves. She tells Randall that she is late and they go into the store together to get a pregnancy test. At first it didn't seem right to have another kid, but just as they were waiting for the test to come, they were at a place that maybe a son would be great. But the sad part was that she wasn't pregnant.
Kevin on the other hand, trying to get his storylines from his play down and watching his nieces. Instead of playing runway show with them, he had them, along with William, to read lines to help him in the play. Things got awkward for him when he had explain what death way. William talked him about doubting himself and later we got to see what the real Kevin does when he tries to express himself, pant an image.
Meanwhile, we get to see Rebecca and Jack in a state of one wanting kids and the other doesn't. It really turned their Super Bowl night to a real downer at times, but even though the Steelers won that game, the real victory was that they agreed to have children and started there at the bar, as Kate tells Toby how she was conceived.
In the episode "Career Days" when it's career day at Randall's children's school, the girls seems to want someone, like William or Kevin, that they can understand what they does.
Like in the previous episode, Kevin is having a bit of a hard time with the play. When rehearsing, there isn't a lot of emotion he throws out and Olivia shows him a way to deal with grief, going to a memorial. There he meets with the widow, Grace, and soon the two talk and learn about his father, who died but not much else. Later, Olivia and Kevin have a little memorial romance and by the next rehearsal Kevin uses not only his father's death of grief but the relationship that he and Olivia had too.
Kate's new job takes a bit of a turn when she had to take her boss's daughter to a party, who by the way acts like a total brat. Until she let her out of her car and made her walk to the party. But the two kind of made up as Kate tells her that she understands where she's coming from as she was trying to look like her mother, even though they may seem like the complete opposite. Also we've learned that Kate and Rebecca haven't spoken in some time.
Randall is a weather trader, whatever the hell that is, and is going to tell what he does at the school's career day. The kids probably would rather have Kevin or William, who are both talented at what they do, but Randall wants to prove to them that he has a cool job and that was with singing about it while playing the piano.
But when you look back when he was nine, Jack was working from construction sites to working in an office filing papers trying to make more money, even though he has a plan of starting his own company. But anyway, Randall's teacher wanted to meet with his parents and it was more than just his grades. She thinks that Randall would be better at a gifted school, where kids dress up in suit and ties not to mention carrying briefcases. Of course, Jack wasn't into the idea, but after snooping around and brought Randall to his job, seeing that he's smart at one point and pretends not to be at another.
But Jack tells him that he doesn't want him to be like other kids that in fact he wants him to be who he wants to be. And later, Randall was taken to the school along with his dad. That explains why he likes to wear the suit and work in offices and he expresses that to his family and William about it and tells him that he decides to take piano lessons from a neighbor down the street and that there will be a recital too.
I thought that "The Game Plan" was an excellent episode, using football as the theme and not to mention life and death. I really thought that Hartley's performance was really good as he was trying to juggle the kids and his play not to mention the scene where he was trying to explain death and talking to William about his struggle. Also Metz too was really good.
For "Career Days" I thought there was a really good balance of humor and drama and a little bit of embarrassment humor as well. The embarrassment humor coming from when Randall's piano performance about what he does. Yeah at times I had to rock back and forth, look around and hope that it would be okay and it did. I have to say that Sterling Brown really shined in this episode. Not to mention Ventimiglia, Hartley and Montgomery too. Hartley's performance with Molly Hagan stood out so well it might have been one of the top three highlights of the episode.
Overall, I give "The Game Plan" a 8.5/10 and "Career Days" a 9.5/10.
You can catch This Is Us Tuesday nights at 9/8c on NBC.
