This Is Us 4x06 "The Club" Episode Review

Major Spoilers are included in this episode review. Please read with caution.

This episode had good parallels and different arcs using the golf course as a center piece this time instead of dinner. Jack and his father-in-law hit the golf course, then Jack and a Young Randall go to a golf course, and finally… Randall and his Council Men visit the golf course to play. Apparently, Randall and Jack don’t play golf very well in any of these three scenarios, but we’re learning things. There were other developments in this episode too: Kate and Toby are dealing with weight again, Kevin is still helping Uncle Nicky and has a sexy encounter with Cassidy… of course he did.

I’m tired of Kate and Toby dealing with this. I thought a big fight was going to okay, but the writers downplayed the undertones that are still present and clearly not working. I wasn’t too invested in this after seeing the direction they were going with them… again.

Kevin and Cassidy were predictable. I was hoping the writers were going to trick us and make them friends without benefits, but then they slept with each other. However, the hookup doesn’t guarantee that Cassidy will be the mother of Kevin’s future kid. I’m not liking this part of the episode either actually. Let’s talk about Golf and the main plot of this week’s episode.

Jack and Randall’s feeling about Golf are explored in addition to their struggles to fit in being drastically different. Like Young Randall said, Jack was uncomfortable playing on golf courses, but Randall wouldn’t have been allowed on one. Then, Jack said the wrong thing about “not seeing color”, but he learns from this mistake at the end of their game.

This is explored further in Young Jack who tries to impress Rebecca’s father Dave without compromising his dignity. This endeavor proves difficult as Dave belittles Jack, buys nice clothes for him, and tries to set him up with a better job. Jack gets drunk on the course as a result and almost fights Dave before Young Rebecca breaks up the tension. This shows us Jack’s experience without it fully belittling Randall’s struggles and his closeness with Mr. Lawrence, the only black teacher at his private school.

Then, the scene where Jack apologizes to Young Randall ties all three stories together. Jack passes on the lesson that Randall would need to learn how to play up or down the games to get ahead. This lesson is shown towards the end as Randall’s revealed to have been letting the other Council Men play better on purpose to gain their support. Randall then gives one “for his Pops” and closes the episode with an emotional swing!

Overall, the other storylines were clearly weaker to give more breathing room for the Golf Course stories. Honestly, I would’ve cut the other two stories to give us more time with the Golf Courses as that’s where the heart of the episode is. We could’ve waited a week for Kate, Toby, and Kevin.