This Is Us Review: A Hell of a Week: Part One (Season 4 Episode 11)

Randall has had one hell of a week — and one hell of an episode!

This Is Us Season 4 Episode 11, “A Hell of a Week: Part One,” is a tough watch. A groundbreaking and absolutely necessary watch, but tough none the less.

It wasn’t too long ago This Is Us came up with the nifty idea to have the show dedicate a trilogy of episodes to the Big Three. This decision has been met largely with mixed reviews as Kevin soared but Kate stumbled in their separate arcs last season.

Thankfully, Randall kicks off this season’s trilogy with a material heavy episode that Sterling K. Brown absolutely knocks out of the park. His ability to be the strong father and still demonstrate the ways Randall is coming apart at the seams is mesmerizing. When Sterling cries, we all cry!

“A Hell of a Week: Part One” is not good in the way a traditional episode of television should be.

The pacing feels sporadic, the unrelenting plot feels deliberate, and the absence of reassurance feels somewhat exhausting. Everything about this episode is tough to watch, but it’s also necessary.

The story This Is Us sets out to tell is a difficult one and instead of bending to the needs of the audience, the series bends the audience to understand the extremes this episode has to go to in order to succeed.

This will never be my favourite installment of the series because it’s not meant to be likeable. This episode is meant to be memorable and This Is Us accomplished that by using the debilitating confines of anxiety not just as a teachable moment, but as a scare tactic.

The first part of the Big Three trilogy is not a walk in the park for anyone that has experienced anxiety. This episode is incredibly accurate in duplicating an escalating panic attack for viewers and feels unrelenting from start to end. But triggers aside, this episode is incredibly important and sometimes importance has to outweigh our discomfort.

It would have been nice to have some kind of reassurance or closure with Randall’s untreated anxiety by the end of this episode.

There’s something to be said about the show’s decision to have Randall once again deflect help from professionals as he calls Kevin, a sweet but temporary coping mechanism, to get him through his latest panic attack.

This storyline has been going on for several seasons now and could have easily been resolved with Randall sitting down with a doctor or therapist.

It’s unclear as to whether or not the decision to continue this spiral of unhealthy behaviour is due to Kevin and Randall’s falling out later in the season. Regardless, it’s certainly a brave story choice that digs the jagged edges of this “knives out, guns out” episode in deeper.

It’s clear now. This Is Us intends for this trilogy to be exactly what it advertises — a week of unrelenting hell.

There are two very important steps This Is Us takes to make sure this Big Three trilogy succeeds.

First is the particularly great horror vibes this episode gives off. From the moment Jack is ripped away from a late-night viewing of The Shining by baby-faced Randall, viewers are made aware that his anxiety-fueled nightmares will be attempting Stephen King level creepy.

For the most part, those nightmares do just that. They bring the creepy while staying grounded in the basics of human fear. Jack eating dinner with the Big Three is not particularly scary but Randall knowing his father is supposed to be dead takes things to the next level.

The second step to success comes with the smaller setups for Kevin and Kate’s week of hell. It’s quite clever how this episode is able to set up for Kevin’s episode and tease the appearance of a blonde mystery girl, while still keeping him and the others at arm’s length.

What we’ve seen of Kate and Kevin’s individual episode arcs certainly looks promising.

Above all else, this is a story about marriage.

Randall asking Beth to stay with him for the night is such a sweet defining moment for not only the beginning of their relationship in college but a defining moment for this episode.

Beth is right by her husband’s side through this hell, pushing him to move past the stigmas of mental health and do something about it.

She will continue to fight for Randall because Randall is too busy fighting for everyone else — and that’s really beautiful.

Sterling K. Brown carries the burden of this heavy episode well. Clearly, he doesn’t need help with this one.

Nonetheless, it’s still comforting to have Jack Pearson close when the going gets tough. Milo Ventimiglia is in top form as the charming father, wrangling the kiddies into bed and protecting Randall from the monsters lurking about well into the night.

The message of Randall’s restless sleep montage is really driven home by the image of a toddler-aged Randall still struggling to find peace even with the world’s greatest father watching over him.

And I can’t express how much I love the fact that toddler Kate refuses to go to sleep unless Rebecca sings her a melody of Ram and Queen songs. How cute!

The polarizing nature of “A Hell of a Week: Part One” is exactly what makes this latest installment such a phenomenal piece of television.

This Is Us is proving that it can once again take on the heavy subject matter without letting the depressing nature of these difficult episodes drag the material down with it.

For the first time in a long time, it feels like the series is grasping ahold of the essence of Superbowl Sunday. An episode deemed one of television’s most devastating events, but also one of it’s best.

It would have been nice to see This Is Us relent a little in its final moments of Part One but I respect the show’s determination to completely wreck us with this one.

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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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