These Theories About Randall’s Mom on ‘This Is Us’ Could Explain What Happened

Nicole Pomarico
·4 min read
1
These Theories About Randall’s Mom on ‘This Is Us’ Could Explain What Happened

From Cosmopolitan

Every time it seems like This Is Us is finally answering our questions, it ends up asking five more that present us with new mysteries to solve, and right now, that mystery resolves around Randall (Sterling K. Brown) and his mom—his biological mom, not Rebecca (Mandy Moore). At first, Randall and the rest of the Pearsons believed that Laurel was dead and had been since he was a newborn, but as Randall has discovered, there was actually a lot more to the story than that.

As the story of his biological parents goes, his dad, William, freaked out when it seemed like Laurel had died after giving birth in their apartment, and split when the EMTs thought they couldn’t revive her. But what William didn’t stick around to see is that they actually did get her back, and now, there's a chance that Randall can reconnect with a side of his family he never even knew existed.

What we know so far:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by This Is Us (@nbcthisisus)

After a couple of flashbacks revealed that Laurel didn't actually die shortly after Randall's birth, we found out a bit more about her when This Is Us returned in January. Thanks to Randall's accidental striptease video going viral, a man named Hai was able to track him down and let him know that Laurel actually died of cancer in 2015. At first, Randall was upset that William had lied to him, but upon further conversation with Hai, he found out that William actually did believe that Laurel had died... and now, Randall and Beth are about to go to New Orleans to find out who she was when she was alive (yes, in this pandemic).

The question now is this: Who was Laurel and how will this end up connecting to the bigger This Is Us universe? We've been watching this show for five seasons, y'all—we know everything is connected, and fans have so many theories.

Randall might have a half-sibling out there.

The fishing scene flashback did hint that Laurel may have had children with someone other than William—the parents of the granddaughter he was fishing with, obvs—so what if Randall has an actual blood sibling somewhere? He's been longing for family who will understand him better than Kate and Kevin do, after all.

She may have had a good reason to not go looking for Randall.

Sure, William thought Laurel was dead—but Laurel knew she had William and a child out there, so why didn't she go looking for him? There has to be a good answer to this question, and one fan on Reddit believes that she may have found out that Randall had been adopted by a loving family and didn't want to ruin the good thing he had going.

We're about to find out a lot more about her.

The Tuesday, January 12 episode of This Is Us is called "Birth Mother," and according to the promo, it's all about Laurel's history and all of the parts of her life Randall never got to see. Hopefully, this will give us a lot of answers... though some of them might not be what Randall wants to hear.

Randall could end up spending a lot more time in New Orleans.

A clip from Tuesday's episode from People also revealed that the land and the house that once belonged to Laurel now belongs to Randall. Of course, it's hard to see Randall and Beth uprooting their lives and their children, especially since Randall is so passionate about his job as a city councilman, but this could definitely get interesting.

She could end up being a significant part of the storyline.

What we do know for sure: This revelation about Randall’s mom is going to be a Pretty Big Deal. According to what showrunner Dan Fogelman told Entertainment Weekly in November, a “full, beautiful story” is about to be told.

Just be sure to keep in mind that this is This Is Us we’re talking about, so it’s totally possible the writers will end up blowing us away with something we never saw coming later this season. But for now, we know that Randall’s mom didn’t die when William thought she did, and Randall is about to find out a lot more about her. The rest of the blanks will be filled in soon!

You Might Also Like