This Is Us Review: A Philadelphia Story (Season 3 Episode 2)

This Is Us Season 3 Episode 2, “A Philadelphia Story,” starts off quiet with Rebecca instinctively pulling two mugs out of the cupboard before remembering Jack is no longer there beside her.

It is a powerful scene — one that once again puts Mandy Moore at the forefront of grief. Transitioning from that gut-wrenching devastation she felt on the night of Jack’s death to that same level of devastation but in the subtly of blank expressions is eerie and sad in the best possible ways as a viewer watching.

This Is Us relying on Rebecca and the Big Three’s emotional connection to Jack to create an episode based entirely around grief isn’t necessarily uplifting — but it is definitely gripping.

At times, “A Philadelphia Story” should feel irritable and dull.

After all, the Pearsons and the terrible habits they formed after Jack’s death are on full display in their early stages. But This Is Us has done such a good job of establishing the relationships between the Big Three and their parents that it becomes riveting to find out anything we can about this family.

Even after two full seasons, these past storylines are still shaping the people we see in the present.

Which is why Rebecca is such an excellent anchor to tether this episode down. She is a problematic character that tends to envoke pity but not love from the audience. However, here’s the thing about well written and problematic women like Rebecca, they are the strongest characters, the most captivating, and by far the most versatile.

We have seen many moments of Rebecca’s life as a mother — but a mother is not entirely who she is. The premiere showed us a completely different side to Rebecca before she found Jack and the series has shown us the tougher Rebecca who learned to live without Jack.

“A Philadelphia Story” is just beginning to piece together the newest version of Rebecca for us and it may never be a puzzle we get to see solved, but the journey through her complicated and sometimes ugly life is exciting and captivating even in the saddest of moments — especially in the saddest moment.

There will always be another version of Rebecca we haven’t seen and that is the most promising part of this series.

Rebecca might not be the best mother at times but it is Moore’s brutally honest portrayal of the fact that allows for the quieter scenes in this episode to be heard so well.

And Kudos to the show for portraying a grieving Rebecca in such a natural and realistic way, right down to her hair and makeup.

Where This Is Us actually stumbles in this episode is not in the quieter moments of the past, but rather the explosive events of the present.

It feels like there is very little room for the present storyline to breathe. At every turn, Rebecca and Kate are bickering, Toby is getting irritable from withdrawal, and Randall’s generosity is being shoved to the side.

This constant tension makes the shift between past and present storylines feel much more forced and choppy in this newest installment.

These transitions aren’t always as smooth as they should be, making the recurring developments feel rushed at times. In turn, trying to keep up with two storylines that completely contradict each other’s tones leaves the past and present to stand out for contrasting reasons.

The present storyline deals with some compelling developments and a few rare moments with the entire Pearson family, but between teenage Big Three and William’s first encounter with Gigi it doesn’t feel like the present arc gets the screen time it needs in “A Philadelphia Story” to come off as strong as last week’s arc.

This episode at its core is about a grieving family and the bottomless pit of despair they were pushed into after losing Jack.

While “A Philadelphia Story” pays off in exploring the teenage Big Three’s coping mechanisms, it is the theme of grief in its entirety that really brings everything together at the end of the episode.

We get to see This Is Us cleverly tackle grieving in various forms.

We have Kate mourning the child she lost and Toby mourning the child they’ll lose. Randall is grieving his inability to never make the right decision and Rebecca is not only grieving her late husband but her inability to be there for her kids when they needed that push.

Grieving doesn’t always come in the form of mourning a lost relative. It can be so much more complex than that and this episode beautifully encompasses the human experience of coping with a loss of each and every kind.

It is this kind of groundwork in these episode arcs that allows for the show to form lasting bonds with the audience — bonds that keep people entertained even if the episode is on the bleaker side.

Somewhere someone is making a connection between an event in their life and the Pearsons’ lives. Whether that’s being a triplet who lost a sibling, a mother that miscarried, or a child who grew up knowing they were adopted, people will gravitate to what reflects the best and worst parts of themselves.

And This Is Us has plenty of human moments in just this episode alone for people to find themselves in — which is ultimately what allows for the Pearsons’ grieving process to come off as an authentic experience.

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

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

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