This Is Us Season (4×05) Storybook Love Review

For our review of the last episode of This Is Us, click here.

Synopsis: Rebecca hosts a dinner party; Kevin tries to support those around him; Randall faces concerns about how his family is adjusting to the new home. (IMDb)

Storybook Love is a personal favorite This Is Us episode. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why, but it just resonated with more than any recent one has. Maybe it was the fact they shed light on anxiety and dealing with it or the emotional flashback to Rebecca and Jack pre-kids, or when the family got together after the boys had moved out of the house.

There were simply so many beautiful things going on that it left me crying more than usual by the episode’s end. But want to know the best part? Milo Ventimiglia directed this week’s episode, making it perhaps the biggest reason why it stood out so much. Maybe he should be directing all the episodes.

In the flashbacks predating the children, Jack and Rebecca are busy trying to make the perfect dinner after moving into their new home. It’s not exactly going as they would have hoped, but it ends up being the best one they ever had. Watching Jack run around the house screaming because a bird got into it was perhaps the highlight of that whole scene. Didn’t it just give you all the happy feels to see them like that?

Last week’s episode left off with Kevin casually leaving a message on the answering machine saying he and Sophie got married. It seemed like he was on his way to a lot more resistance when he got home, but it was okay, for the most part. Kate’s a bit frazzled, but Randall is preoccupied with Beth, and even Miguel is at their family dinner for reasons unknown at the time.

Again, dinner seems to be going disastrous with everyone at each other’s throats. There’s anger, resentment, sadness, and frustration all boiled into four people, so Rebecca takes a stand. She wants them to process Jack’s death in a way that they remember his good and bad times. Hence, why she shares the hilarious bird story from her and Jack’s dinner.

In the present, Kevin is busy trying to get through to Nick while helping Cassidy out. Unfortunately, Cassidy’s husband isn’t too keen on having Kevin around, even though he just wants to help. He just might be a tad bit jealous because come on, who wouldn’t be?

He manages to finally get through to Nicky, who shares a childhood story about him, Jack, and their father. There were not many fond memories of their father, but the ones that did exist always had to do with ice cream.

Randall is going through an interesting phase in his life where he and his family are trying to adjust to their new life. Tess, for the most part, is struggling with her sexuality and coming clean to her classmates. Which is why when she’s asked about a cute boy, she reluctantly agrees and ignores her true feelings. This prompts an anxiety attack, not very different than the ones we’ve seen Randall have in the past.

Randall tries to relate to her, but she’s ashamed of having her father’s anxiety passed down to her. But Beth will not let anyone bask in that shame for too long because she knows William had it too, and between the three of them, they’re all her favorite people. If only Randall would agree to go to therapy…

Kate’s in for a surprise when she learns that Kevin and Randall have sent the piano from their childhood to her house. With it come so many amazing memories of the music they created together, but there’s also a stack of Polaroids hiding within it. They all spark happy thoughts until she finds one of her and her boyfriend at the time. Something tells me it doesn’t exactly spark anything positive. And that is all but confirmed when both she and Rebecca cryptically mention how things would get worse from there on out.

This Is Us continues to shine and excel as it so naturally has done over the course of 4 seasons. We are surely in for a big treat this season, and this episode was just a little sneak peek.

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