This Is Us Review: Heart and Soul (Season 6 Episode 5)

This Is Us finds its sense of humor in a crucial hour.

For a show that brings such light to dark topics, it’s rewarding to see This Is Us Season 6 Episode 5, “Heart and Soul,” let the doom and gloom of finality go in favor of some light-hearted, self-aware roasting.

And I have to say, it is refreshing when the Pearsons acknowledge they are living in one truly messed up family sitcom.

Single and lonely are the concepts that lead this episode to its chaotic victory.

From the very first beats of Rebecca and Miguel’s post-Jack social outing, it is clear that this unusual tone will be unnerving as it resurrects a morbid humor I admittedly love.

Rebecca regurgitating the trauma of “Superbowl Sunday” during a speed dating round is the height of comedy with Mandy Moore’s flippant delivery of the line, “I wasn’t even in the room. I was eating a candy bar,” solidifies itself as iconic.

There’s also Beth and Randall’s worst-case scenario game that puts their loveable banter on full display as they spiral further into a panic.

Sprinkle in the pettiest of chaos as Beth figures out Malik and Deja’s dinner tactics the moment Tess asks her a personal question, and these two don’t need a blueberry pie to win us over.

Neither do any of the other Pearsons, for that matter.

Randall roasting Kevin for being terrible at one-night stands, completely unprovoked, is all the reward we need. So not only do the brothers have this beautiful moment of bonding, but it’s over a completely unhinged topic of discussion.

And because this episode has no chill, Kevin continues to be the punchline to many ex-girlfriend-related jokes. Cassidy, channelling Randall’s chaotic energy, shuts down any romantic ideas Kevin had about them, and she does so by kindly dumping boiling tea all over his dating life.

One has to hope Jennifer Morrison will stick around because Cassidy is an MVP. The few moments she spends onscreen expertly set Kevin straight and tease the return of the Sophie endgame plot.

Let’s face it, “You are chasing the wrong blonde in the wrong city” is a brilliant line, as is everything else this episode does.

This episode goes out of its way to demonstrate how ridiculous and awful the Big Three can be, so it is frustrating these exceptionally tense explorations have to turn sour with the mellow dramatics.

Kate explains Rebecca can’t babysit alone anymore beats after conveying to Toby how she regrets the time wasted fighting her mom. It’s a difficult conversation but packing the conflict tight seems like a cheap bid to build a more climactic ending.

Timing does suck, but it could have sucked a little less here.

Randall is not helping his case either. Malik and Deja’s not-so-subtle surprise leads to powerful deliveries and some juicy psychological drama.

However, that all unravels when Randall asks Malik to break up with Deja. Who provoked this man because there’s no justification for how extremely bizarre and unforgiving this turn in character is.

Despite more outlandish drama threatening this carefully orchestrated episode, the final beats do an excellent job of smoothing over these blemishes with honest dialogue for each member of the Big Three.

“Heart and Soul” isn’t afraid to fight back either, with Malik calling Randall out and Rebecca smacking Kate (can’t say I didn’t enjoy that just a little). The passion and the awareness on display here, especially with Kevin’s dating life, are refreshing.

It’s nice to have This Is Us be our mouthpiece for a change because yelling at the TV can only do so much.

If every episode of the final chapter could be this playful, unnerving, romantic, and funny, we would undoubtedly thrive as a society.

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

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