‘This Is Us’ Season 5 Episode 4: Will Kevin's movie with new director help sort out his issues with Randall?
‘This Is Us’ comes with a whirlwind of surprises. For a long time now, Kevin Pearson (Justin Hartley) has been struggling to grasp at straws. After multiple failed attempts at having a perfect relationship, destiny put him together with his baby mother, Madison Simons (Caitlin Thompson). While he is still struggling with accepting she is the "special someone" in his life, a career opportunity knocks at his door.
Kevin gets a new movie offer. But will it work out for Kevin or fail just like many of his other past experiences? Teasing what may happen, creator Dan Fogelman told Entertainment Weekly, “It's a very Kevin-heavy episode, focusing on a kid who through his entire life has struggled, pushing through adversity,” adding, “And it's something that's playing a part in three different timelines for Kevin.”
In the fourth episode ‘Honestly’, teen Kevin (Parker Bates) faces trouble in the realm of football, and present-day Kevin (Justin Hartley) has difficulty diving into his new role in the legal thriller ‘Glass Eye’. “Kevin starts working with a new director who's a bit of a force of nature and a complicated force,” Fogelman hints. Not just that, Bates also teased in another interview with TV Insider that the audition and football sequence might be connected. “Well, I've played soccer since I was three years old, and I feel like whenever you try out for a team, it's the same as going into an audition because you’re kind of competing for what position you are trying to get. You need to practice and prepare for both, too, so yeah, I think they're pretty similar, but, of course, they are a lot of different, too,” he said.
Now, with that hint, it seems Kevin does get the role but not without a tough time with the director. In a teaser for the episode, we see Kevin meeting the director who gives him a piece of advice: “You are a good actor, or you can be one of the greatest!” So does that mean he clinched the part?
Through years of watching ‘This Is Us’, we do know that the show has a beautiful way of connecting the past and present together. Will the flashbacks with the Big Three hint of something bigger than we need to know? Could it tell us what happened with Kevin and Randall during their childhood days and help sort out their differences? We do know that the two brothers have helped each other in the past over their issues.
What is the one thing that could bring them back together? While they hated each other as kids too, there were moments when Kevin could fall back on his brother. Will the same cycle repeat in the present time as well?
Many Reddit fans want to see more of Kevin than Randall. "They honestly need to stop putting Randal’s story as one of the main focuses and start focusing more on Kevin and his new romance with Madison as well as the demise of him and Sophie. Randal’s story is getting boring and after watching season 4, I’m 100% with Kevin," one said and another posted, "Agreed, I'd love to see how Kevin and Sophie's marriage ends how he copes with it, and the start of his life in LA. Possibly even life during The Manny when he wasn't hating it so much. There's a lot left unexplored with him."
And as one fan concluded: "Let’s be clear, Kevin & Randall BOTH said horrible things to each other. Both of them need to apologize, the burden shouldn’t be completely on either. They’re also both going through life-changing moments & focused on their own issues and that’s completely understandable."
The two-hour episode of ‘This Is Us’ premiered on Tuesday, October 27, at 9 pm ET on NBC. Following that, one-hour episodes will air weekly. Catch the fourth episode ‘Honestly’ once it drops on November 17, 2020, on NBC.
