This Is Us 4x07 "The Dinner and The Date" Episode Review

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

This episode had me thinking on Randall’s character growth and the parallels we’ve been getting with him lately. The season’s taking their sweet time to explore Randall’s teenage / childhood with his parents, and how that’s affected Adult Randall’s skills as a parent for Deja and the other girls in the present day. In this episode, we’re taken through different stories centered on Deja’s date with Malik (skipping school), the sit-down dinner after it ends and they get caught, and then Young Randall’s family dinner with Mr. Lawrence. It was layered really well, and reflected Jack’s own insecurity in raising a Black kid and not “measuring up”.

The tensions during both dinner scenes were high and awkward. During the dinner in the past, Young Kevin would make things awkward for Randall, and Jack’s very passive aggressive was felt by everyone at the dinner table. In the present day, Beth and Malik’s mother were about to break the thin ice they kept hovering around each other. Randall goes ballistic inside seeing all his daughters play with Malik’s baby girl.

The flashback between Deja and Malik was the light-hearted content. The ending to their skip day made my heart flutter for a moment, but then the ending with Malik’s grand gesture gave Deja the best day ever. I ship them. I approve this cute romance. I easily loved this part of the episode best.

Overall, a well-structured episode that didn’t have Present Day Kevin and Kate to take extra space. Sometimes, this show stuffs too many storylines at once without balance, but this episode isn’t an example of that. The show’s getting better at not over stuffing.