This Is Us Season 5 Episode 1+2 “Forty: Part One” and “Forty: Part Two” Review

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

On October 27, 2020, This Is Us returned with a two-hour premiere dedicated to new storylines in addition to the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter Movement—specifically the protests that sparked in response to George Floyd’s murder. The choice to include these felt inevitable only because This Is Us takes place in our reality and deals with uncomfortable truths twenty-four-seven.

Also, it would’ve felt impossible not to include the pandemic and the racial reckoning happening in our country. However, this also means there’s no escape from reality. This feels personally fitting as my Writers’ Group—in our last Skype meeting on October 18, 2020—was discussing the meaning behind “escaping reality” while watching television and how to “prepare for reality” when you eventually have to go back. Thanks, This Is Us writers, for picking up on that awesome wavelength we writers seem connected to.

Picking up where we left off in the season 4 finale, Kevin walks back into the house—fresh from his screaming match with Randall—to process Madison’s pregnancy and the early signs of COVID-19. Then the show time skips and montages the new normal in the pandemic and the George Floyd news breaking out—where Randall starts unraveling under the weight of it all in addition to turning 40. As tradition with every season premiere, the Big Three—Kevin, Randall, and Kate—celebrate their 40th birthday.

Since he started therapy with a white woman therapist, Randall began processing his Black identity and his personal issues in addition to shouldering everything the Black Community is going through, but all that pushes him to a moment of realization while speaking with Malik—his daughter Deja’s boyfriend: As a Black person raised in a White family, he was left alone to experience all the Black struggles silently. When Randall said “it was a lot for a kid to be alone with”, and how he never said that part out loud, Malik asked him, “Why?”—like why has he never said that out loud?

Then later in the episode, Randall and Kate have an uncomfortable conversation regarding her white guilt—how she is starting to notice the racism in this country like it’s “new” and how it “feels different”—where Randall simply tells her that it doesn’t feel different to him, and how he’s never brought it up before because he didn’t want to make his white family feel bad. Randall wanted to keep them comfortable, but “where does that leave [him]?” He’s exhausted.

After this intense conversation, Randall calls his therapist on the way home and “breaks up with her”, saying he needs to find a Black therapist to process everything going on with him, as he feels he can’t be fully himself with her. She takes the “breakup” very well like a true therapist should.

On top of the COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement stuff being weaved into the narrative, the two-hour premiere also decided to revisit the most emotional aspects of the show—bringing the show back to the beginning—to deliver more pain for us. For those trying to escape reality with This Is Us, you have failed miserably.

The flashbacks within flashbacks regarding Randall’s biological parents were the freshest in terms of getting new information. While sad and tragic is Jack and Rebecca’s trip to the hospital for the Big Three’s birth, we have experienced this since the “Pilot” multiple times at this point, but it did offer sprinkles of new information from Jack’s point of view. How Jack and William crossed paths twice in the hospital was a great thing to add into the episode without going overboard like having them talk to each other.

Kevin’s side of the story regarding the pregnancy and his romance with Madison wasn’t given the show’s full attention—neither did Rebecca’s diagnosis aside from following up with her disappearance—but the precious time we did get was memorable and heartfelt. They are also sort-of engaged, but neither of them had clarified if they are or not despite Kevin proposing to her.

Overall, I have missed This Is Us. I enjoyed the season 5 two-hour premiere, and I’m quite excited for the next episode coming out on November 10! I believe they are skipping next week because the 2020 presidential election… that’s right… there’s no escape…

Thanks for reading this episode review, everyone! I’ll see you all on November 10 for the next episode of This Is Us!