‘This is Us’ Episode 2 Recap: Growing Pains

Warning: This recap for the “The Big Three” episode of This Is Us contains spoilers.

After the pilot’s big twist ending took nearly everyone by surprise last week (more on that here), it was unclear if the story would flash forward, backward, or both — and how much overlap there would be between the parents and present day. The second episode certainly started to fill in the gaps of the show’s structural game plan for viewers and, more importantly, given how equally funny and teary it was, it proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that we have all found something to fill the Parenthood-sized hole in our hearts. Here’s what went down with our new favorite TV clan this week.

JACK AND REBECCA
We opened on family breakfast circa the late eighties with young Kate already struggling with weight and being made to feel different (read: lesser) because of it. Mom, who ultimately means well, makes her daughter eat cantaloupe stuffed with cottage cheese while her brothers eat sugary cereals, and it clearly is already weighing on her.

When dad walks in, he turns up his nose at her mediocre meal and with the simple act of sprinkling some fruity loops on her plate we see that Jack is the good cop in this parenting duo. It also becomes clear after an exchange about the empty coffee pot that some hefty tension has developed between Jack and Rebecca that didn’t exist eight years ago in episode 1. (Nor did Jack’s bad Tom Selleck ‘stache, by the way.)

Related: ‘This is Us’ Star Milo Ventimiglia Didn’t See that Twist Coming Either

Fade to Jack downing whiskey at the bar minutes after work lets out and complaining to his best friend Miguel about his less-than-perfect home life. Randall is being called “Webster” at school, the boys are fighting, and Jack isn’t getting much quality time with the woman he married now that she is constantly busy with the kids. Miguel warns him to come correct and reminds him that he married way above his station. “I would be careful not to give her a reason to notice,” Miguel says. He later calls and retracts his caution, feeling that he overstepped and reminding Jack how much he loves the couple.

It turns out Jack’s bar bro was right, though; Rebecca has clearly had enough when Jack misses yet another shift of putting the kids to bed and she confronts him. He tries to make it all better with an expensive gift, but Rebecca stays the course. “The drinking has to stop,” she tells him. “You have to rein it in, because I won’t have it in my house. Be a man and fix it.”

After a night spent in the doghouse (actually, outside their bedroom door) Jack makes a lot of promises: “No more drinking. I can for you. When I was a little boy, I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up. I never had a good answer until I was 28, the day that I met you. I wanted to be the man that made you happy. I’m going to be an 11 for you. Screw that, I’m going to be a 12 for you. I’ll be an 11 for the kids.”

KATE AND KEVIN
Kevin meets with his team to strategize after his Jerry Maguire-style tirade went viral. His agent is not sympathetic and reminds him that she took the least funny person on the entire planet and got him commercials, soaps, and eventually a job that pays almost $3 million a year, “making [him] so famous that [he] can wear a ski cap when it’s 80 degrees outside and no one would say a damn thing.” The outlook is grim: He is contractually bound to The Manny for the next two years, the network could bankrupt him, and he’s legally unable to work for the next two years in television or film. In an effort to fix things, the agent has organized a party that night at her home for the purpose of Kevin’s mea culpa with the studio head (a great Brad Garrett cameo).

Kevin heads over to Kate’s for advice and to plead that she come to the party with him for moral support. Though Kate’s anxiety about her size immediately kicks in, Kevin clearly doesn’t notice because it seems it has and will always be about him.

Later that day at support group, Kate hulks out on the anorexic girl and another group member with a positive story. Toby takes her aside to find out what’s making her so angry. Kate admits she doesn’t want to go to the party. She’s hangry. She has nothing to wear. Toby really wants to go with her — to make Kate feel more comfortable, but also because he’s a total showbiz junkie. Naturally, Kate agrees.

At the party, Toby — wearing a vintage suit and fedora that Kevin makes fun of — takes Kate for a spin on the dance floor and she sees people staring and laughing. He gets her drunk to help her let it roll off her back, but eventually she can’t avoid the truth. “It is always going to be about the weight for me,” she says, in one of the episode’s most heartbreaking scenes. “It is at the core of who I am. Eight tequila shots can only mask that for a couple of hours.”

Kevin’s talk with the network bigwig is way less successful. He apologizes for the way he handled himself, but suggests they let him go with God and just move on. No such luck. Mr. Big first cuts him down to size and then throws in threats for good measure. He snarls, “Would I have known you from one of the waiters had she not pointed you out? No. I don’t care what happens behind the scenes of my network’s third-rated show. I am building a home on St. Maarten and my favorite wife and I are going to move there. I plan on drifting through the next two years like I’m on morphine. Replacing a lead on a show is not drifting. Take the money kid and ride out the next couple of years. Otherwise, I will Nagasaki your life and career and make you a bigger laughing stock than you already are.”

RANDALL
While in bed together, Beth tries to work up the courage to ask the tough questions. Randall says they should not start censoring themselves after 17 years together so she drops the bomb: “How long is your crack addict biological daddy going to be sleeping in our 6-year-old daughter’s bedroom? What is our endgame?” Randall’s first goal is to get his dad to a Thursday appointment with a specialist and reminds her that he’s a former crack addict.

The next morning they wander into the kitchen to witness grandpa’s lecture to the kids on vices, telling them that his vice was drugs. He later apologizes for oversharing with the children, but admits, “I really enjoy being here. It fills me in a way that I don’t deserve.” He asks for bus money, but is cagey when asked where he is planning to go. He returned very late and went straight to bed, making Beth suspicious. Just as she’s about to ask the “questions he will be too polite to ask” like what he does with the money he borrows, where he goes, and if he is really sick, Randall walks in. His bio dad admits he returns to his place every day to feed his ugly cat named Clooney. He didn’t want to tell them about the cat because he knew Randall would suggest bringing Clooney back to their place, but one of the kids has asthma and he didn’t want to ruffle feathers because he is enjoying his time there so much. “Six months ago, a doctor told me I had three to live,” says grandpa. “I never thought I’d have anything to care about again other than an ugly cat.”

Beth sighs. “Well, now I feel like a bitch.”

THE WHOLE FAMILY
The episode ended with the first real overlap of the siblings. Kevin calls Randall from the mixer for advice, but Randall is stiff in a way that we haven’t seen before. “Because you care what I think,” Randall scoffs. Kevin’s honest answer is accompanied by a flashback that reveals he continued to choose the mean boys over “Webster.” “Because I care what everyone thinks,” he admits. “I was not a very good brother to you, was I?”

“No,” says Randall. “But you still got time.” And when his brother says he plans to go inside and eat crow like “the whore that I am,” Randall isn’t hearing it: ”Mom and dad didn’t raise no whores.” Inspired, Kevin decides to move to New York and do theater.

And because a shocking cliffhanger is apparently going to be This Is Us’s jam, unexpected guests arrive at Randall’s door. His children scream that it’s grandma and grandpa, but when Randall gets to the foyer, we see an aged-up Rebecca. She’s still sporting the moon necklace Jack gave her so many years ago, but she’s accompanied by none other than Jack’s bar buddy Miguel. What the what?

When you’ve recovered from the shock, let us know what you thought of episode 2 in the comments.

This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on NBC. Watch clips and full episodes of This is Us on Yahoo View.