Oh how the tables are turning.
Just last week we were worried that Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia) was too perfect of a man on This Is Us, and tonight, his flawless facade started to fall apart a bit. Turns out his support of his wife going on tour with her band was not exactly unwavering, and the resulting fight between Jack and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) almost made Jack unappealing, for once.
At first, to Rebecca, he acted as if everything were great. He was happy to play single parent for a month while she went on tour, and was even joking that he has met their kids before and knows a little bit about how to take care of them. Then, Jack unleashed his real feelings to Miguel (Jon Huertas).
"How the hell is she going on tour?" he wondered. "I mean, I could deal with the piano bar a couple nights a week, but a tour? I mean, who does she think she is, Janice Freakin' Joplin?"
Then, at one of Rebecca's shows, Jack learned that she once briefly dated her bandmate, Sam from True Blood (that's his name, right?). Jack sorta lost it, and even abandoned his and Rebecca's Valentine's Day plans for bacon cheeseburgers and onion rings.
At home, Jack confronted Rebecca, and while she explained that she and True Blood Sam only dated for two months when they were teenagers, Jack didn't want to hear it.
"I don't want you going on tour," he told her, saying that he was only being supportive earlier because he was trying to be a "good guy."
Rebecca expressed that she just wanted to be able to do something without the kids or Jack in her way, and that set Jack off again, since never thought of himself as being in her way. Jack ended up enjoying their Valentine's Day tradition all alone.
Meanwhile, this is clearly the start of Miguel's "I'm not that bad, I promise!" tour. He did his best to tell Jack he was being crazy when he was all worried about Rebecca's bandmate, and then years later, he was there for Kevin (Justin Hartley) when Kevin was on the verge of a nervous breakdown before his play premiered.
Apparently, Kevin reminds Miguel a lot of Jack, and Jack was always Miguel's go-to when he was feeling nervous. While this did not help Kevin with his play (since he bailed before the lights went up), it did help him with Randall (Sterling K. Brown).
Randall spent the entire episode in various stages of panic attack. Between Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) having to go spend time with her injured mother and William (Ron Cephas Jones) antagonizing his nurse, along with his job being threatened by Sanjay, Randall was in full meltdown mode.
When he told Kevin over the phone that he wasn't going to make it, Kevin could tell there was something wrong, and did what he thought Jack would have done (and what he had seen Jack do when they were teens) by rushing to comfort Randall instead of being there for his play.
And elsewhere, Kate did not go to hook up with Duke in cabin 13, but she did go to tell him off for being a jerk. That got her kicked out of the camp, since his family owned the camp. She reunited with Toby and together, they decided that before they got married, they needed to know each other's secrets. But when Kate couldn't get herself to talk about her dad's death, Toby thought that maybe they needed to put the wedding on hold until they both felt totally comfortable sharing everything with each other.
So to recap this recap: This is the most we've ever liked Kevin or Miguel, and the least we've ever liked Jack, and it's really throwing us off. This is us, confused about everything.
Side notes: Loved Rebecca popping out from behind that wall after hearing about Kevin having sex with Sophie. Then, when Jack's sex speech mostly just consisted of him yelling, "Condoms!" and "Respect!," we decided we need an entire episode of the Big 3 getting "the talk."
This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on NBC.