It’s Thanksgiving and the family holiday is full of festive fun and tradition for the Pearsons- until a long-kept secret comes tumbling out:
SPOILER ALERT!
In the 80s Rebecca cooks up a batch of cranberry sauce in preparation for Thanksgiving. The Pearsons are taking a six-hour road trip to Rebecca’s parents’ house and although Jack has all the essentials (a Paul Simon cassette and a bag of Doritos) they’re not very happy about going- in fact Rebecca is downright tense about her nit-picking mother. Of course her best laid plans are literally shattered when rowdy Randall and Kevin come play-fighting into the kitchen, knocking the sauce out of her hands and onto the floor. It’s a mess alright.
At 06:30am on Thanksgiving in the present, an excited Randall starts prepping for the festivities. As Beth says to William, “Pearson Thanksgiving is a whole thing, you’ll see”. Randall is overjoyed that his mother and his biological father will be with him this year. Throughout the day he follows through on a few faithful family traditions: a 4 kilometre hike followed by an annual screening of Police Academy 3. When Beth gets a minute alone with Rebecca, she gives her an ultimatum: tell Randall the truth about knowing his father before the end of the day or she will. We soon find that there never seems to be a good moment to do it.
In the past, the Pearsons are on the road but it’s not fun- Randall and Kevin are fighting, Kate’s complaining about her horribly itchy sweater and Rebecca is frantically trying to fill a new bowl with store-bought cranberry sauce. Just when things can’t get any worse, the tire blows out and they’re left stranded. With the sun setting, Jack suggests they walk to the nearest rest stop, about 4 kilometres away.
Toby is looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with Kate’s family in New York, but she’s got some bad news for him: she wants to take a break. After falling off her diet last week and feeling unhappy she needs some time to work on herself and get it together. They’re both heartbroken and to top off the awfulness, Kate’s flight to New York hits some serious turbulence. Just when she thinks she’s about to die, she has an epiphany: she wants to have gastric bypass surgery.
Still hiking up to the gas station the Pearson kids discuss what they’d do for Thanksgiving as adults. Randall says he’s never going to celebrate it and the kids end up confessing that they hate going to Rebecca’s parents for the holiday- not just because of grandma and grandpa but because Rebecca gets mean and tense and “you always have this weird and high voice”, Randall explains plaintively. Rebecca is dumbstruck.
Kevin invites his one-time-lover-and-current-co-star Olivia to Thanksgiving dinner at Randall’s. She agrees to come but she’s not exactly a pocketful of sunshine and nothing Kevin does seems to cheer her up- she’s had some terrible Thanksgivings in the past and Kevin’s family is almost too wholesome for her to handle. She makes an attempt to run away but after a conversation with William decides to give Thanksgiving a try, and give things with Kevin a try too.
In the past, the Pearsons reach the gas station and unfortunately discover that nothing can be done to help them til morning. Rebecca calls her mother to ask for a lift and instead gets an earful about being late- it’s in that moment that she decides they’re not going to her parents’ for Thanksgiving, they’re going to spend it together in a ratty old road lodge. In their stuffy room, with cold, day-old hot dogs and cheese and crackers, a new tradition is born: Pilgrim Rick, a character Jack invents (complete with hat) to cheer up the family and make the best of the situation. They also find an old video tape of Police Academy 3.
In the present Miguel chats to Kevin about wearing ‘the hat’ for the kids, he wants to be Pilgrim Rick this year. Kevin declines his request, but later, decides to pass on the hat and seemingly makes peace with the fact that Miguel is part of the family.
When William divulges his usual Thanksgiving tradition- listening to some old tapes of him and his friends playing music- Randall decides to retrieve them from William’s apartment, because, after all, this may be his last Thanksgiving. At William’s apartment Randall finds the tapes, but he also finds a letter in William’s drawer with his mother’s handwriting on it. Later, as everyone goes around the table to talk about what they’re thankful for, a stone-faced and angry Randall pulls the letter out and reads it aloud. Inside is a picture of him as a child. Rebecca tries desperately to explain but Randall only understands that she lied to him about his father and kept him away from his family. Devastated at his mother’s betrayal, he leaves the table.
In the past, Randall chats to his mother as they’re all lying in bed together. “I changed my mind,” he says. “I want to have Thanksgiving when I grow up…. I want every Thanksgiving to be like this for the rest of my life.”
This is Us Episode 9 airs on Monday 24 July at 19:30. In this episode, the siblings head to the family cabin after their chaotic Thanksgiving and reflect on all that’s passed between them.
Learn more about This Is Us Season 1 here.
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