This Is Us Review: Three Sentences (Season 1 Episode 13)

What starts off as a scattered episode somehow comes together convincingly at the end.

After feeling disconnected for the majority of the hour, This Is Us Season 1 Episode 13, titled “Three Sentences,” tethered itself to an emotional base in its final 15 minutes.

We open with the characters very much in their dispersed plot lines.

Kate decides against gastric bypass surgery in favor of a safer alternative — a boot camp weight loss program. Randall spends time with an upbeat, and newly chemotherapy-free, William. And Kevin, who is caught between two lovers, figures out who he wants with Toby’s help.

While all of this is happening, we cut away to 1990, when the kids celebrate their 10th birthday separately. Now that they’re older, they want to feel more like individuals and not just three in a pack, which is totally understandable, but a lot of work for their doting parents.

Rebecca and Jack try to manage three different birthday parties with different themes and guest lists, all the while considering the idea of having another child. It’s a sweet thought born out of Jack’s own nostalgia for the growing kids, but as the parents realize amidst the chaos of the parties, their plates are already full.

Out of all these story lines, the one that seems to be most irritating is Kevin’s. We’re all probably thinking, “who cares about these two girls,” right? We haven’t even invested enough time on them as women, let alone on the relationships, to care about Kevin’s decision.

Kevin being so torn is borderline obnoxious, given that he barely knows Olivia or Sloane. Any sensible person would think it’s much too soon for him to be in love with either one of them.

And that’s probably why what ended up happening came as a sweet surprise.

When Toby encourages Kevin to go to the woman he loves, and profess his feelings to her and tell her the three sentences that are in his heart, I’m all but certain he’s going to find Olivia and tell her he loves her.

But instead, Kevin knocks on the door, and a strange woman appears. We’ve never seen her before, but there he is, laying his heart on the line. He tells this woman that she’s the love of his life, and that when he lost her, he lost a piece of himself.

In this sweeping gesture, we learn that the woman is his ex-wife. Her name is Sophie, and she was Kate’s childhood best friend. Kevin hasn’t seen her in 12 years, but he clearly holds on to her still, proving why he hasn’t held onto a stable relationship since.

Even though love interest number three feels like it’s out of nowhere, like it’s a random thing the writers concocted once they realized both the Sloane and Olivia relationships were dead ends (because even those relationships felt random and had little to no buildup), Kevin’s history with Sophie — someone he knew since he was a kid, and someone we can see now see in the second timeline, growing up alongside him — feels like its tethered to something tangible, because it’s rooted in the past.

It’s clear that the past timeline serves to tell us what is in Randall, Kate, and Kevin’s current day subconscious. Their biased memories, individual experiences, and upbringing molded them into the imperfect, struggling, beings we know in the present.

I like the idea of Kevin having a love interest that is connected to those memories. Just as we hold dear to the flashbacks to their childhoods, everything and everyone in them, feels more special to us.

And by drawing on the birthday party to show Kevin’s then innocent crush for his sister’s best friend, it gives us that emotional connection that was missing in his relationships with Olivia and Sloane.

Can you tell them I’m already ‘shipping Kevin and Sophie? I see the chemistry!

In addition to Kevin’s reveal, we also learn definitively that Jack passed away when the Big Three were just teenagers.

While in bootcamp, which serves to help people understand the psychological reasons behind their eating disorders, Kate thinks back on the childhood trauma she’s experienced because of her weight. She also thinks about Jack, and has flashes to his funeral.

It seems like we will finally know the truth. This circumstances behind Jack’s death are always lingering in the pits of our stomachs, something we want to know, but dread all the same.

I’m not sure I’m ready to find out.

What did you think of this episode of This Is Us? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Reviewer Rating:

User Rating:

 

This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on NBC.

Follow us on Twitter @telltaleTV_

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!