This Is Us Review: Don’t Let Me Keep You (Season 6 Episode 4)

From that first shot of a boy tugging a sled across the snow, it’s clear that this will be no typical episode of This Is Us.

This Is Us Season 1 Episode 4, “Don’t Let Me Keep You,” is an achingly beautiful solo journey for the show’s titular father and beating heart, Jack Pearson.

This Milo Ventimiglia-led character study trades in the back lots of LA for blustery Ohio suburbia, and the episode is better off for it, soaking in the gorgeous cinematography of this new lens.

Milo Ventimiglia’s performance throughout this showcase is stunning. He truly obliterates any mediocrity that dares touch his stand-alone outing.

Guided by a solid arc and open-ended dialogue, Ventimiglia demonstrates how beneficial Jack outside his comfort zone can be. It is through the silent moments of turmoil that Jack’s struggle plays across his expression and tugs at our heartstrings.

It’s hard to believe this series once hinged on Jack’s death when episodes like this rely on him to bring so much life to the world he inhabits.

We come away glad to have met Marilyn through Jack’s eyes rather than jitted we spent an episode with a cousin no one talks about.

Between the cozy sweaters, the friendly townspeople, and a stop at the local diner for some coffee, Jack’s solo journey reeks of nostalgia and excellence.

Jack is characteristically reserved throughout the episode, shutting down any surfacing emotion as he tends to do.

So when the time for his grief to combust has seemingly passed, it’s a gutting experience to have him break down so suddenly and without warning.

Jack’s versatile journey of grief is entirely at the mercy of Ventimiglia, and in these final sob-filled beats, I have to think he knows it too.

There is so much admiration for an actor that can bring new layers of depth and emotion to life in a character he has played for six seasons. Yet, Jack Pearson’s diluted charm and dependability have never wavered, always there for the series to lean on.

Despite the bleak circumstances of Jack’s journey, this change of pace and condensed story telling is a welcoming relief.

That may not be a good sign for the season when we are only four episodes in, but sometimes, Jack Pearson is all we can handle after a hectic day at work.

The concept of this solo outing is straight to the point and driven by raw emotion rather than timeline logistics. The sombre exploration of grief should feel taxing, but it is propped up by lovable characters and notions that happiness prevails.

The trauma that Jack and his mother endured eclipses this episode, driving it forward and dragging it down. It is devastating that Jack never knew his mother’s smile or laugh because of abuse, and that fear hid her from him even in adulthood.

That same ugliness attributes to the lighter notions of Jack and his mother’s second lives. They may have never made it to the ice rink, but they found happiness separately.

So, seeing those worlds collide as Mike wrestles with the kids and Jack laces up the skates for the outdoor adventure his mom always planned feels rewarding.

This episode berates us with heavy topics, but it rewards us with a full-circle ending. It plays to the strengths of its grief study on both ends of the spectrum, pushing the audience to reopen those motherly wounds, good and bad, for a brief moment.

“Don’t Let Me Keep You” is every bit the emotionally satisfying, tear-jerker it needs to be.

This Is Us has always been good at taking our worst fears and throwing them back at us in profoundly beautiful ways. It’s made some genuinely sour topics into the sweetest of lemonade.

This episode reminds us that we don’t watch this drama series because it makes us sad. We watch because it can be so freeing emotionally.

If this raw character study can take the remnants of Jack’s regrets and turn them into a loving message of hope, I have to believe this final chapter can transcend into something noteworthy.

And when all else fails, there’s always Jack Pearson to fall back on.

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

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