This Is Us -- The Premiere
As promised from the promos, William is back in a story about how he met his neighbors Gigi and Skye. He was sitting on the stoop of his apartment building when she arrived off the bus. He tried to be friendly, but she wasn't really having it. One day when he heard her baby crying he came by with an offer of food and she let him in. The rec center he goes to was having a gathering to celebrate his five years of sobriety and he invited her to it. She tells him that she Nigerian and she met her husband when she was nine. They always wanted to come to Texas. Her husband died and she decided to come to the US but came here instead of Texas. She offers to let him how her infant, Skye, and tells him he's a natural. She comes to the rec center as William is telling the group that she gave him the greatest gift of all when she let him hold her baby and said he was a natural.
In the present, Deja is having trouble fitting in at her new school. It's a little too white for her. So Randall takes her to the rec center where Gigi and Skye are. When he sees the place is in need of repair he hunts down a councilman who promises to send someone right away, only he's just shining him on. Randall decides to change a burned out light bulb and points it out to Gigi and doesn't get the praise or thanks he thought he would get.
Gigi was a stranger from a strange land but she fit into the rec center because she sat down with the people there, talked to them and go to know them. Gigi tells Randall even though he's William's son he isn't one of them because he wanted to fix everything for them instead of sitting down with them and getting to know them.
Things turn even more sour for Randall when he arrives at Kevin's premiere and Kevin mentions what Kate said about she being the only one to pass on a bit of Jack. Kevin doesn't realize that stings Randall as much as it stung him when Kate said it. He looks over at Kate and she smiles at him not realizing she just got put to the top of his crap list.
Kevin has a nightmare about his movie premiere where Kate is crying and Jack is alive and he was so bored he fell asleep. He wakes up in bed with Zoe. He tries to casually offer her to come to his premiere as his date but she shoots him down saying she just wants to keep this thing casual.
Kevin's very crappy day which is supposed to be one of the best days of his life turns a bit crappier when he gets a gift basket with a bottle of booze in it. He flashes back to being a teen a drinking on an empty football field seeking applause then went on the empty school stage seeking applause there. So that seems to be how he turned his football glory dreams into footlight glory dreams. He confides to Kate that Jack was always the hardest on him and he wanted to make Jack proud of him, but Jack is dead and can't be there at his premiere so he'll never know what he's achieved.
Making Kevin's special day even more special is Kate and Rebecca arguing about her doing IVF. Kate snarks at Kevin that she's the only that will pass on a bit of Jack, which Kevin takes exception to. But she sneers at the idea of Kevin ever having children of his own. Then Toby rails at all of them because he's shooting blanks and he and Kate want to have a kid so they all need to back off. Kate says after Toby storms out she's never seen him like that, that's because he's off his meds.
So in the end Kevin walks the red carpet alone. His father is dead and can't be there, Rebecca's primary focus is on Kate and her baby-making drama and the woman he's sleeping with blew off his premiere because she felt she had something more important to do. The story of his life.
Earlier in the evening Kate wanted to hide her doing IVF from Rebecca but Miguel got in their fridge and knocked a box over and it fell on the floor in front of Rebecca. Rebecca wasn't thrilled because she knows it's dangerous for someone of her weight to be doing this. But when Toby isn't around to give her her hormone shot, Rebecca does it for her. She apologizes to Kate for not stopping her after Jack's death when she started putting on weight again.
The Rebecca and Jack backstory for the episode is Rebecca having to look for a new house after Jack's death. She keeps hearing Jack's voice echoing in her head. So she takes the kids to look at a new house. During it Kate announces she isn't going to college because she didn't submit the video she made, so she and Kevin will be staying home, while Randall goes to Howard University.
During the house showing Randall realizes Kevin is drunk and he confronts Rebecca saying she lied when she said she'd take care of them all. That Kevin is drunk all the time and Kate is back to eating junk and gaining weight and she doesn't seem to care. She tells Randall it takes everything she has just to get up in the morning and after that she has nothing left.
It seems Kate may be eating to get Rebecca's attention. She seems to purposely do it in front of her waiting for her to react, only she doesn't. Not even when Kate tells her she's gaining weight again and Rebecca says it's a tough time so it's okay.
In the end Randall decides he can't go away to college, so he tells Howard University he wouldn't be coming, after all. This seems to be the point where Randall and Rebecca's roles reversed with him being her support and helping her to get through the loss of Jack since Kevin and Kate were wrapped up in their own dramas about Jack's death.
