Let’s Discuss ‘This Is Us’: Uncle Is a Stalker Now
Life can be funny like that.
The young people are living their youth, the old people are remembering their youth, and all the people are on road trips. Yes, Mother and the woman Uncle used to know are in a very somber state about having lost their girlish necks, while the various male supporting characters don’t seem to care much at all about the toll time has taken. This seems accurate. The children are having sex (non-traumatic), and one of them goes to Harvard. Let’s see what else happened this week on This Is Us.
MAY I ASK ABOUT UNCLE?
Well, yes … Uncle is a stalker now, I’m afraid. He’s found someone on Facebook who he believes to be the woman he used to know, and he was able to find her current address via a search engine, and now he is going to confront her as a surprise. Uncle has taught us all a very good lesson about attempting to remove ourselves from those websites that display our personal information, hasn’t he? Searchpeoplefree.com and the like. Generally you have to call these companies to get them to remove your listing, and we see now that it’s worth it. Otherwise you have Uncle showing up on your doorstep to tell you he’s been pining after you for 50 years, which upsets your bad husband who used to be Laura Dern’s bad husband on Big Little Lies.
Even though Uncle made no attempt to contact the woman he used to know before dragging Mother and Mother’s Special Friend on a road trip to visit her, the woman warmly welcomed the whole Mother gang, and even seemed to remember Uncle once he reminded her of every detail about the time they spent together in 1969. The group had an awkward dinner, during which Uncle confessed he did not regret the decades he spent pining after the woman. The woman, however, does regret something: providing her husband with a television. Now all he does is watch television and eat the chicken she makes. Well, well, well … seems things aren’t so perfect in the life of the woman Uncle used to know after all, are they?
On the bright side, Uncle is flying back to the east coast to move in with Actor Brother, and he found his future wife on the plane.
HOW IS MOTHER?
She is not yet dead. Mother recalls being young, though, which she is no longer, and that is death, in a way. In the past, she drives a car and signs along to the radio with undead Father while they revel in their happiness and youth. In the present, she and the woman Uncle used to know discuss how they used to like looking at themselves, and dancing, and now they don’t. Huh. It’s almost as if advancing in age is relentlessly miserable and we should all just end it right now, isn’t it? Just when we’re about to take the necessary steps, Mother’s Special Friend is nice to her and gives her a bird broach, and they decide to resume salsa dancing. Whew. I guess we’ll keep living, for moments like these.
AND MOTHER’S CHILDREN … BROTHER, BROTHER, SISTER?
Not mentioned.
WELL … WHAT OF COUNCILMAN BROTHER’S ELDEST DAUGHTER, THEN?
She is on a “Road Trip to Harvard,” so to speak. After lying to her Councilman Brother father about visiting a friend, Daughter takes a bus to Boston where she is almost immediately confronted with the mother of Daughter’s Young-Father Boyfriend’s Child. Is the mother nice to her? Well, not particularly, but it seems like her life is not relaxing, so you can forgive her.
Daughter’s Young-Father Boyfriend is not having a very easy go of it, either. For one thing, he’s a Harvard freshman. For another thing, he’s a young father. For a third thing, he soon has to take his shirt off and show the camera his little boy torso, because Daughter wants to do it. Oh no.
First, though, Daughter kindly lets him finish a paper while she puts on a dress. She looks, frankly, quite stunning. I suppose this pair is sort of the new future Councilman Brother and Wife, wouldn’t you say? The children have intercourse after attending a party, and the experience is pleasant for both of them. Then, in the future, Councilman Brother’s Eldest Daughter is pregnant. We’re left to wonder: did she have a years-long gestation period, or did the pair eventually do it again?
We can only wait and see.
