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‘This Is Us’ Season 5: What really happened to Randall's birth mom Laurel? These 5 theories could solve the mystery

Assuring there's more to come, Dan Fogelman said, 'We're not too far away from sharing a lot of information with the audience'

What happened to Randall Pearson's birth mother Laurel after William “Shakespeare” Hill left her? Is she still alive? ‘This Is Us’ seems to have jumped the shark with its latest twist in Season 5. Two big cliffhangers... and no answers! Dan Fogelman has some explaining to do and fans can't wait to see where the story will go. 

The third episode ‘Changes’ introduces a little girl Lin and her grandpa on their fishing trip. Through the heartwarming scenes, we find out that her grandpa learned to cook fish for a special someone. “I will not tell you who I cook for but I will show you how I cook for her,” he teases. The little one is intrigued. “Her... It's a girl.” Then she asks, “The woman you're trying to impress with your cooking... Is she the woman in all the pictures around here?”

Not ready for a complete revelation, her grandpa says, “So many questions... In such a little body.” But then he spills the beans. “Lin, it's the woman in all the pictures.” The camera then pans over to a picture of him and a young woman. And she is Laurel — Randall's biological mother. The photo looks quite similar to Jennifer C Holmes, who portrays the young Laurel on the show. 

After that twist, fans can't stop wondering how the two met. As one viewer put it: “Wow. I'm really interested to see how exactly Laurel is going to be brought into the show.” Here are the five biggest fan theories floating around that may help solve the mystery. 

Did Laurel give birth to two babies?

“#ThisIsUs loves dropping multiple babies on us. What if Randall was a twin & mom was in pain because there was another baby, & William (not a medic) didn't know. Don't ask any questions that make sense like what about the paramedics. I said what I said. #ConspiracyTheories,” one posted and another said, “Bro...! What if Randall’s birth mom had another baby and that’s who becomes his therapist? Because he is struggling with his relationships with his adopted siblings... Thoughts?”

Did William hide something?

“Now that I think about it... There’s no way Randall’s mom survived and just left never coming back to the apartment to look for William and Randall or even drugs tbh. It’s gonna come out that William hid something and it’s probably in the book of poems he gave Randall. #ThisIsUs,” one fan said. And another posted, “The only problem with Randall’s mom being alive is everything. His whole backstory with William is now extremely unbelievable. William stays in the same neighborhood his whole life but never comes across his wife or goes back to their apt to get his things. Come on. #ThisIsUs.”

Did she have amnesia?

“I wonder if Randall's mom Laurel has amnesia? Did she get thrown into rehab? #ThisIsUs,” one fan said. Well, if we analyze that chain of thought, it might be a logical explanation as to why she didn't remember William and go back to him. 

What's the Vietnamese connection?

“Soooo, did Laurel meet the Vietnamese man before or after William,” one said and another added, “Although the grandpa and granddaughter are Vietnamese, I don’t think the scenes take place *in* Vietnam. They could just be down the road from Randall for all we know #ThisIsUs.” A third chimed in, “Wait, who’s the woman in all the pictures? Is that Randall’s birth mom? And is this Vietnamese man and his granddaughter somehow gonna be connected to Jack and Nicky’s time in the war???”

Is it Laurel at all?

“I’ve been fooled one too many times before sooo excuse me for being a bit cautious about assuming it was Randall’s moms. Won’t believe it until it’s confirmed. K THANKS. #ThisIsUs,” one said and another posted, “I don't think that's Randall mama in the picture yall I just gotta feeling #ThisIsUs.”

Let's strike off the fifth point as Fogelman confirmed that it is indeed Laurel in the picture. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he said, “The story right now is not only incomplete, it's barely even painted. So in short order, a full, beautiful story is going to be told. I think it will be a satisfying and elegant answer to a lot of stuff, as opposed to something that necessarily begs more questions.”

Sketching out whether the Vietnamese man and Nicky's Vietnam war connection is just a coincidence, he said, “That's certainly purposeful. Not just because of Jack having served in Vietnam. When the story is told to completion, you will see that it has to do with time and real-world history. And the fact that you're going back into a story in the past, it's existing inside of the same world and world events that were existing in that same time period when Jack was in Vietnam.”

“So there is connective tissue. I've always set out to make the show feel like one of those sprawling family sagas that span a few generations in a novel, where there are different chapters, different periods, and different points of connection, even if they're not direct points of continuation. The Vietnam War could have had a myriad of butterfly-type effects that could have affected the same family's story in surprising and different ways.”

Assuring there's more to come, he added, “What you've seen right now is the first point of connection. In next week's episode, that will start locking in a little further, and we're not too far away from sharing a lot of information with the audience.”

The two-hour episode of ‘This Is Us’ premiered on Tuesday, October 27, at 9 pm ET on NBC. Following that, you can catch one-hour episodes starting at 9 pm from November 10, 2020. Catch the third episode ‘Honestly’ on November 17 at 9 pm ET.