This week's episode probably brought in more laughs than tears but all around it showed that you can have a good time at a memorial.
"What Now?" not only delivered some emotional points but it brought in some very humorist moments that shows that funerals are for celebration and not so much grieving and crying ( no offense). It also opened up a bit of about Jack's death just a bit, for which we might or might not know at the end of the season (I think not).
William left a not for Randall's girls to encourage them to throw a celebration of his life in lieu of his funeral. While things were coming around, Beth becomes emotional because she never got that proper goodbye from him, but at the end she gets a post card that William promised that he sent from Memphis.
Randall takes everything at easy with the funeral and all, but gets a gift from the office that's more tasteful than thoughtful (a box of pears that says thinking of you from the team). He confronts them after watching Kevin's play and tells his boss upfront how he spent a lot of his time (20 hours a week) to get everything working and after everything that he has gone through he tells his boss and others that he quits and walks out with a big smile on his face.
Not to mention, Rebecca tells Randall that she's sorry for what she has done but he doesn't regret meeting him late in life and that in fact he still loves her even more. For which, was one of my favorite scenes.
Kevin tries to get the New York Times critic to come back to his play after writing a review that he wasn't in because of helping with Randall. But after his play, the critic didn't show but that really didn't matter because he tells Sophie that he came back to New York for her. But later he gets a call from Ron Howard about a film that he thinks that Kevin is perfect for after seeing his play with his daughter.
Kate on the other hand takes the whole funeral duties seriously by getting the balloons. She breaks down and rushes out of the house while Toby tries to get her to speak about her dad. But Randall comes to easy her pain and tells her about a dream he has of both Jack and William talking about him just laughing.
Kate does begin to tell Toby about her dad's death but tells him that she's the one to blame. We see Jack still dealing with his emotions towards Rebecca and her band going out on tour.
When she was heading out, Jack only kisses her on the cheek and Kate looks at him and tells him to go out there to give her a proper goodbye kiss, but was too late. Dropping the kids at a sleepover, he heads over to the bar for an employee's retirement party, after rethinking he runs towards a payphone and tells Kate that he's going to fix his marriage and it was her that helped him see that and heads out, drinking and driving.
This was another great episode that really had a great balance of humor and emotional moments. Really the entire cast was outstanding. No one really out duo anyone at all. The writing was so so good. As much as Kate's storyline as been a bit slow I feel that it's getting better. Now even though we learn about how Kate blames herself for her dad's death, I don't know if we'll see how he dies at the end of the season. I just have that feeling that it might be at the beginning of the second season, but it would be nice to learn and overcome that event closing one season and opening another.
What did you think of the episode? Leave a comment.
You can catch the season finale of This Is Us Tuesday nights at 9/8c on NBC.