‘This Is Us’ Season 5 Episode 6: What was Hai and Laurel's beautiful love story and did Randall deserve the house?
True love is never lost. The heartwarming story of Laurel (Jennifer C Holmes) in ‘Birth Mother’ sheds light on a beautiful romance as her old lover Hai Lang (Vien Hong) invites Randall Pearson (Sterling K Brown) to reveal secrets from the past.
“If I am being honest your mother was the love of my life,” Hai says. “After the war ended, I decided to become a fisherman. It was there I saw Laurel for the first time. Or should I say heard her the first time?” Laurel was screaming to get rid of all the negativity, only Hai had no clue about it. Reminiscing those moments, he said, “I couldn't stop thinking about the woman who wasn't drowning.”
The two met again when she spotted him selling fish. “Hey, it's you. It's you from the lake.” He dips his face in a tub of water to mimic the drowning episode and then introduces himself as Hai. Enchanted by her, Hai then gives her a fish. To tell him she is not a good cook, she acts like she might die after eating food and he giggles. Offering to cook for her, Hai says, “I cook you it.”
Narrating the story, Hai tells Randall, “I still remember the look in her eyes. They dance in the shadows. Being with her was the best time of my life.” The two whispered to each other, “Tôi mến bạn,” which means “I love you,” in English. Hai then told Randall, “Although it was complicated for her. She was getting married to someone.” He tells Randall of a suitor Laurel's father Paul Dubois (Chi McBride) had found her. While sneaking into the house, her daddy asked her to say yes to Marshall Winston's (Anthony Hill) proposal.
Not willing to marry him, Laurel sneaked out of her house and went to Hai. "I can't stay here any longer. I love you, Hai... come with me. But Hai had responsibilities. "My parents wouldn't have survived without me," he tells Randall.
When Randall asks her why she never went back to his father, Hai says, "The nurses told her he died. She ended up in the hospital. When she woke up, she cried, "I need my baby." She recovered in the hospital for a few days. Then the police showed up and she was arrested for drug possession. The only reason she couldn't reach out to William was that the two never had a phone.
"We don't have a phone. I need to call my boyfriend but we don't have a phone," she told the cops and then dialed her dad's number. Her father picked up and said "Laurel" but she didn't answer. Laurel's lawyer made her plead guilty. The judge sentenced her to five years.
Hai then narrated, "The prison in Pittsburgh were overcrowded. So Laurel was sent to California. She didn't talk much about that time. And I didn't push her. There wasn't a single night when she didn't dream about you."
A tear rolls down Randall's eyes and he asks what year was she released. "Laurel didn't have enough money. For a one-way ticket. She came back to Mae who told her, "She wanted to look for you. So she went to the only place she knew. You have nothing to be ashamed of." But, Laurel told her, "I had a child. I had a baby with a man who loved me. A boy. I don't know where he is." She then says, "I was no good as a daughter and I am no good as a mother. Why couldn't I be good to him?"
Mae tells her, "If you don't let the guilt go, it will strangle you." She goes into the lake, screams again and lets all her pain out. However, the smile is gone. She meets Hai again and they wave at each other. "We had a few moments... small but enough. We were close but it took decades. After my wife passed on and my children left. Laurel was the only one." Hai lived with Laurel until the very end.
"Every day with her was perfect," he said. "If only we had more of them. It's strange. After all this time I could still hear here. Before saying goodbye, Hai gives him the key to the house and says "It's yours." When Randall says, "I don't know how to thank you for today," Hai replies, "I should be thanking you." Randall pens all of it down in his diary.
As the episode comes to a close, Randall is happy. "I know my birth story. And it is not just being left at the fire station. It's two people. Two imperfect people. Who loved me." Should Randall have left the house with Hai? And where was little Lin? Will the NBC show answer all these questions? Well, only time will tell.
‘This Is Us’ premiered on Tuesday at 9 pm ET on NBC after the mid-season winter break with Episode 5 titled ‘A Long Road Home’ on January 5, 2021. Episode 6 titled ‘Birth Mother’ aired on January 12, 2021.
