This Is Us Review: Number Two (Season 2 Episode 9)

In part two of a trilogy that gives The Big Three special, individually focused episodes, Kate takes center stage.

Going into This Is Us Season 2 Episode 9 “Number Two,” it was clear that this episode was going to be about Kate coping with her miscarriage.

But because of this show’s biggest strength in telling a single narrative through different intertwining narratives, this episode is about more than that.

One of my favorite things about this episode is that when we tread back into the teenage era, we jump into the same scenes we saw in This Is Us Season 2 Episode 8, “Number One,” except this time, it’s from Kate’s perspective.

This gives the episode a sense of immediacy, and it’s honestly such an exquisite thing to see from an editing standpoint.

For example, much of the flashbacks are about Kate’s, seemingly lack of plans for college. In one scene, Kate jokes to Randall that any college would be lucky to have a dork like him because of his perfect grades, and then the camera rests on Rebecca, who has a thoughtful reaction to what Kate says.

This moment was obviously missing in Kevin’s narrative because we were looking into this scene through his eyes as he was lurking by the doorway. It proves that this stylistic element of showing us the same scene but from a different angle, can really be effective in conveying emotions and perspectives that we otherwise would not have noticed.

Given that the teenage years were formative for all of the Pearson kids, seeing the same flashback but through a different character’s lens grounds adds a really nice commentary of how everybody’s life and memory and experience, is as vivid as your own.

Teenage Kate is my favorite version of Kate. There’s a real relatability about her and it’s easy to identify with the struggles she’s facing.

The conflict between Kate and Rebecca is especially visceral during this era. The traces of resentment and dismissiveness are there, and the look of surprise on Rebecca’s face when she discovers that Kate is applying to a music school without her knowledge is so filled with mixed emotion.

Mandy Moore continues to do fantastic work this season with her wordless acting, and this episode is really one of her best.

Later, the mother and daughter duo share a great scene in the hospital where Kate apologizes to her mom for not telling her about the college application. It’s mostly because she doesn’t want to disappoint Rebecca in case she doesn’t get it.

Finally a connection is made between Rebecca’s own difficult relationship with her nightmarish mom, and the inadvertent way she developed a difficult relationship with her daughter.

The irony of this gives so much depth to this storyline, and I’m glad Rebecca finally pointed it out here. How unbearable is the thought of repeating our parents mistakes, even when we promised ourselves that we wont?

Rebecca tells Kate that it’s her job to always have her arms wide open for when her child comes to her, which is exactly the thing Kate resists throughout her life, until towards the end of the episode in present-day, when Kate crumbles into Rebecca’s arms following the miscarriage.

There’s just so much to this relationship, and the more we learn about it, the more I like it, especially when it is hyper-focused in the teen era.

Now, back to the present-day storyline, which deals with Kate and Toby in the aftermath of the miscarriage head on.

Miscarriage is so common, and it can be a really interesting thing to explore on TV, but this episode sometimes does what I feel like This Is Us has been doing a lot of this season, and that’s approaching things with a heavy hand.

The episode keeps flashing back to the moment when Kate loses the baby. And while it feels realistic that this life-changing incident keep creeping up on Kate and Toby’s minds — especially since it’s only the day after — this use of re-showing this awful moment, just feels gratuitous, and reeks of the kind of emotional manipulation the show tends to be guilty of.

But then the episode bounces back with a terrific Rebecca and Kate scene, and some of the best Toby and Kate scenes we’ve ever had.

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The biggest takeaway from this episode is how in dealing with trauma, we sometimes push out the people who are closest to us, the people who will understand us the best, and in this case, Kate does it both to her mother and her fiance.

But in the end, they both come through for her.

And maybe that’s the perfect encapsulation of Kate’s story. She always keeps her feelings close to her chest, but when she does allow herself to be vulnerable, she realizes that her biggest supporters are there for her, with arms wide open.

Other final thoughts:

• I am not totally invested in Kate and Toby, but I do think Toby, as a character, has improved significantly this season. In this episode in particular, I liked how protective he was of Kate.
• Kate catching a moment between Jack and Rebecca outside of the hospital is interesting. I guess it’s supposed to show how the parents take a private moment to display their emotions. I wonder if this scene will be revisited in the future from either Jack or Rebecca’s point-of-view.
• The last of the trilogy will be all about Randall, and the things I’m most excited to see apart from Sterling K. Brown knock it out of the park, is Randall’s perspective during the teen flashbacks. I imagine some great Randall/Jack goodness, and maybe even some key Randall/Kevin scenes.

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

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

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