This Is Us Review: Brotherly Love (Season 5 Episode 13)

This Is Us Season 5 Episode 13, “Brotherly Love,” recognizes that the relationship between brothers is nothing short of ugly and complicated.

This Is Us also recognizes that no brotherly duo embodies the ugly and the complicated more than Kevin and Randall — and thus, this stellar character study is born!

This is an episode entirely in its wheelhouse. An open dialogue between two talented actors that follows no particular structure, but always follows its heart, is exactly the kind of dialogue-heavy drama this series thrives off.

And if we’re being honest, it’s what we thrive off too.

This series has been nothing but honest with us during its five-season portrayal of the Pearsons. It’s why I choose to believe the Pearsons are television’s most realistic portrayal of family, even when their story is anything but conventional.

This Is Us almost always prioritizes telling authentic stories over stories that appeal to the shock value of typical network dramas. This means good stories have been sacrificed for mediocre ones, and episodes have sometimes fallen short trying to appeal to our shared experiences rather than our desire to be entertained.

But every once in a while, staying grounded in real relationships and relying on their raw nature to carry an episode to the finish line pays off in ways flashy shock-value can never quite replicate.

At the end of the day, we don’t have to understand Randall and Kevin entirely, and we certainly don’t have to pick a side in their disagreement, to understand just how complicated family can be.

By forcing Kevin and Randall to have this long-overdue conversation the moment Kevin arrives, the episode side steps any unnecessary build-up and gets right into the thick of what remains of this brotherly relationship.

The smart choice to limit the characters to Kevin, Randall, and Jack cuts out any unnecessary side-plots.

The youngest brother storyline doesn’t quite fit seamlessly into the larger structure of this episode, but it plays its part nonetheless in demonstrating the divide that led to Randall and Jack’s blow-up. And Jack with the toddler Big Three is the cutest pairing, so these scenes are never entirely wasted.

As nice as it is to see the disgruntled nature of this episode take on a more reserved tone for present-day Kevin and Randall, it is a pleasure to see the college years drunkenly wrestle in a bush on the side of the street. It’s necessary chaos for an episode void of physical conflict.

Otherwise, each scene flows together as one long and strenuous monologue. The structure leans on some particularly excellent volleying of dialogue to articulate the two sides of this relationship. It helps that both actors deliver the dialogue with agreeable expertise.

Kevin’s initial apology sounds reasonable but Hartley delivers the dialogue slightly stinted, allowing the lack of sincerity to come through ever so subtly.

From there it is just a matter of Randall’s condescending silence and the resentment he held back all his life to drive an honest reaction out of Kevin, and later, a sincere one as well.

Kevin’s reckoning with the aggressions Randall faced is necessary growth for a character that has only grown stronger when forged in the fires of family drama. His response has to be unpolished, angry, and raw because he’s coming to terms with a negative narrative he had yet to consider in this new era of Kevin Pearson.

Randall’s ability to hold up a mirror to Kevin’s insecurities in a way that allows them both to reflect on the issue, rather than play the blame game, is the most appealing aspect of this dynamic between Sterling and Hartley.

By understanding each other as performers, their characters are allowed to evolve through this journey organically and messily, which is entirely authentic to a disagreement that has no set outcome.

Sterling continues to bring a subdued sadness and desperation to Randall’s journey through racial identity that makes the man’s desire to be heard by his family, and not resented for his concerns, all the more heartbreaking to watch.

Randall’s ghost kingdom and the racial undertones of a disagreement rooted in his Blackness is once again handled with an expertise that demonstrates This Is Us understands the difficult tasks of peeling back the layers of Randall’s larger adoption story.

It’s refreshing to see this series continuously inject honest discussions about race into the plot without making the gesture feel like a cheap bid to stay relevant. The dialogue that drives this episode aims to educate its characters first, and the audience second. That’s an important distinction in its success.

These micro-aggressions, fantasies, and concerns Randall is raising about his precious childhood are a part of his DNA and they are as imperative to his growth as self-awareness is to Kevin’s.

The amount of care used to slice open these old wounds is commendable. This Is Us has every opportunity to go for the throat and duplicate the explosive lawn fight that drove Randall and Kevin down this path.

Instead, the show exercises commendable restraint to paint a stronger narrative when it comes to the quieter highs and lows of the Pearson brothers dynamic.

At the end of it all, the show and the cast understand these characters enough to help them navigate slower pacing and unrelenting one-on-one dialogue with reassurance.

This episode’s structure gives Kevin and Randall little room to breathe but these two never feel like they’re grasping at air as they beat the same points over and over.

Our love for our siblings is often irrational, infuriating, and downright confusing to navigate. Thankfully, this episode is none of those things and everything we need Kevin and Randall’s reckoning to be.

—

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

Critic Rating:

User Rating:

 

This Is Us returns May 11th for the season’s final three episodes.

 Follow us on Twitter and on Instagram!

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

15 Moments From ‘WandaVision’ That Are Truly Marvelous