After another unexpected though fortunately brief hiatus,This Is Usreturned tonight with the season’s seventh episode.
Let’s start with the present.
But later on set, Kevin gets a momentous call.
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Madison thinks she’s going into labor six weeks early.
Shell-shocked, Kevin tells Foster.
The soon-to-be-father up and leaves.
En route to the airport, Kevin asks Miguel to book him a flight home.
One near-miss involves a reckless driver cutting him off.
Soon, Madison informs Kevin that she was right she’s in labor.
He assures her he’ll be there in time.
Miguel then tells him about a flight leaving Seattle in two hours.
Rebecca starts to say something about putting Jack on a pedestal, but their connection fails.
As the call drops, Kevin encounters a car accident (nice bait and switch, writers!
Also, it’s the same car that cut him off!).
Despite his rush, Kevin stops to help.
To keep the man conscious, Kevin discusses his impending fatherhood.
He stresses how much he wants to be what Jack was: “He was just there.
My dad was the mostthereperson that ever lived.
Everything that I do, I do with his voice in my head.”
Kevin says Jack would have saved the manandmade his children’s birth.
Two flashbacks woven throughout the episode drive home this point.
Then, a middle school-era Kevin is getting ready for football camp.
He, too, is struggling with pressure from his father.
Later in the episode, after his team loses, young Jack finds his dad drunk and ornery.
Throughout the drive, Jack’s father berates him, until Jack tells him off.
In their hotel that night, Jack finds Kevin puking.
Then Kevin says his coach calls him stupid.
Jack’s face goes cold.
Jack orders the coach to never again call Kevin stupid.
His menacing demeanor frightens the coach into submission; he practically flees the bar.
Kevin doesn’t press.
Yet, Jack says his father wasn’t all bad.
Back in the present, Jack expresses shame for pressuring Kevin; he’s apparently become his father.
Kevin insists Jack is a much better father, and Jack says Kevin will be even better.
Madison
When Madison first calls Kevin about potentially going into labor, she’s home.
She gets herself to the hospital.
Throughout their ensuing update conversations, Madison seems upset and frustrated Kevin isn’t there.
Later, Madison stresses over the idea of going through the birth alone.
The only people she wants to be there are Kate and Kevin, so she’s out of luck.
But soon she gets a call from… Randall.
He and Beth offer support while Kevin is en route.
He says they can send food to her room or stay on the phone with her if she wants.
Now we just need to see if Kevin can be there for Madison himself, in person.
Something tells me Jack Pearson’s son will find a way.
