This Is Us Review: In the Room (Season 5 Episode 8)

This Is Us Season 5 Episode 8, “In the Room,” is the most COVID-centric episode yet as social distancing dictates how the Pearsons are celebrating the birth of the next Big Three.

Despite our hesitation to have This Is Us delve into the pandemic, this latest installment expertly weaves real-life drama with the heartwarming events of the night. This allows the emotion of this special occasion to come through.

It’s safe to say this special episode makes us feel lots of things.

It’s understandable that this would be an emotional episode, and the inability to have all the Pearsons “in the room” for the occasion creates riffs that go much deeper.

It’s one thing to see Toby crying when he lays his eyes on baby Hailey for the first time. It’s an entirely different beast to have Toby crying in the parking lot with a man whose wife is in the same hospital on a respirator because the reality of the situation — our situation — is not without its moments of emotional devastation.

However traumatic to relive, this is a familiar experience we can instantly connect to without having to connect with the people orbiting the Pearsons in these sensitive moments. 

This allows us to appreciate the tether of this episode that much more, and accept it as This Is Us sets aside its usual tricks for a fourth-wall-breaking tribute.

I am still convinced Nasir and Esther are Miguel’s parents. That said, the truth is so much more important than that.

This Is Us makes a point of using video-call as the main source of communication throughout the episode. It’s a detail that goes unnoticed as we hear the most ridiculous drunk-Kevin story, and it is a detail in our own lives we are quick to overlook.

The episode pulls a fast one on us by introducing two strangers, only to reveal they are not tied to the Pearsons in the ways we think. The real-life Nasir Ahmed led the team that would create the compression technology necessary to communicate through video and photos.

The episode ends with a history lesson and a fifty-year love story. It’s not this show’s style, but the dedication to Ahmed and the desire to show us that even though we can’t be with each other, we can still be there for each other is entirely This Is Us.

I can’t help but wish we could have more of Nasir and Esther, as their story really is the glue holding this episode together in the end. I would have appreciated more from this stranger subplot in the quieter moments of “In the Room”.

This Is Us has learned to do two things very well in its five years on the air, compelling us to care about random strangers and building entire storylines around seemingly ordinary objects.

So it’s no surprise that Mandy Moore’s increasingly captivating portrayal of Rebecca brings a damaged finger painting to the forefront of this story.

This show’s ongoing devotion to using Jack Pearson as emotional leverage to any huge milestone continues to be successful. Of course, Rebecca promised Jack they would be there for it all and now she feels she’s let him down. Of course, Moore has to stare longingly at a family fingerprinting for the entire episode.

It’s all rather brilliant use of Jack and Rebecca for an episode building a powder keg of emotion at every turn. That said, I’m sick of this show manipulating my feelings with things as insignificant as a piece of wet paper.

The lead-up to the new Big Three’s birth is rather uneventful when compared to Kevin’s fast-paced introduction. It gives you the illusion that this episode is a filler at times, despite the arrival of the next generation becoming increasingly essential to the show’s survival.

The smaller interactions are sincere but we hardly see Kevin and Madison bask in the birth of their children together. I feel more connected to Kate and Toby — and that man is crying in the parking lot.

Now that this huge milestone is behind This Is Us and the conflict from the first half of the season is cleared up (including Randall and Kevin’s feud!) I hope the series takes the opportunity to jolt us out of this pandemic-hangup.

This episode is still a proud reminder that not even a pandemic can keep the Pearsons from being there for us when we need them most.

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 Tuesday at 9/8c on NBC.

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