This Is Us Season 5 Episode 6 “Birth Mother” Review

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

I’m surprised the title of the episode wasn’t New Orleans. I’ll start there. The episode felt like an unofficial part two with season one’s “Memphis”, which centered around William and his life prior to dying in the same episode. Season one is the absolute best season, so this episode didn’t top that one for me, but there were definitely similarities. The biggest difference between William’s episode and this episode—Laurel’s—was the work needed to build Laurel up as a loveable character.

Season one did a great job on building William’s character and his story starting from the pilot episode and ending on the “Memphis” episode. There was payoff for the investment in William’s character and story. Laurel Dubois, on the other hand, needed to be officially introduced, developed, and made sympathetic all in one episode. Good thing the writers know what they were doing because they nailed this episode so well. Laurel was formally introduced, she was developed over time, and the reasons why she didn’t look for Randall were sympathetic.

Hai is also a brilliant storyteller. Beth is right. This man should try to sell off this story, but Hai is a humble Vietnamese man with the greatest love story on par with The Notebook. It didn’t matter. Hai was already more than grateful to tell Laurel’s story to Randall, her son.

Side note: Randall and Beth own a farmhouse now. Also, everyone quarantined and took COVID-19 Tests before making the road trip to New Orleans. The COVID-19 pandemic IRL is also still ongoing.

This episode was a beautiful story about Randall’s birth mother Laurel, and the life she led prior to Randall and William. And of course, the life she led after she gave birth and came back to life. The mystery is officially solved, and Randall has closure with both his birth parents. The screaming in the ocean will be a thing I do someday. It sounds like an amazing way to relieve some stress. I mean, those screams did sound amazing!

So here’s Laurel Dubois’ story:

Laurel grew up in a prominent New Orleans family, but she only liked her older brother Jackson and Aunt Mae, who had been disowned by the family. Then Jackson died in the Vietnam War, which caused Laurel to swallow her grief in an unhealthy way. Then Aunt Mae advises Laurel to let it all go, and that lead to Laurel swimming in the lake.

Then the amazing “let it all go” scream began. This also was the start of Hai and Laurel’s love story. Hai, a refugee from Vietnam, became a fisherman to support his family. One day, Hai heard Laurel screaming and dove into the lake thinking she was drowning. She wasn’t.

They met later on at farmers’ market, where Hai said, “I cook. You eat.” Laurel and Hai fell madly in love with each other. However, Laurel’s father told Laurel she must marry a man named Marshall from the bank he worked at. As a result, Laurel decided to go to Chicago in order to escape. Hai, on the other hand, had to stay behind for his parents. Present day Hai was holding back serious tears when telling this part of the story. The “what-ifs” were definitely getting to him.

What if I went with Laurel? What if we stayed together? What if…?

Laurel didn’t make it to Chicago, but she did arrive in Pittsburgh. This part of the story was already covered earlier from William’s story. The ending where she overdosed on drugs was reused, the part of the story that Randall wants to know the most. Why did Laurel never look for him or William? What stopped her?

Prison. Prison stopped her. Hai explains that Laurel ended up in the hospital, where she was arrested for drug possession. Laurel pledged guilty to the crime, and was sentenced to five years in prison. She couldn’t call William because they didn’t have a phone in their apartment, so she calls her dad. When the dad whispered her name, the tears spilled out.

To make the story even worse and sadder, because the prisons were overfilled, Laurel was sent to serve her time in California. After getting released in 1985, Laurel goes back home to New Orleans because she doesn’t think she deserves to be Randall’s mother, and didn’t go looking for him. Laurel lives with Aunt Mae and spends most of her life receiving small snippets of happiness from Hai waving and saying hello in the farmers’ market. Hai had a wife and kids now during that time, so it was all he could give to his true love.

After his wife passed away and the kids have moved out, Hai noticed Laurel had stopped coming to the market. Hai stopped by Laurel’s home out of concern, where he learns she has terminal cancer. They spend the next two years together, until Laurel passes away in May 2015. In her last dying moments, Laurel confesses her biggest regret: not being able to tell her son that she loved him.

Randall and the imaginative scene with Laurel was one of the best This Is Us moments ever. I cried so much watching him scream and speak with his mother. The “I love you” moved my heart and soul to realms I didn’t know existed.

So, this whole story is incredibly sad and tragic. You have done yourselves a good job, This Is Us Writers. You have, once again, made a lot of people cry. At least you made me cry. It’s not nice to make people cry like this on a regular basis.

After five seasons, Randall finally gained closure on his birth parents. They are just two imperfect people who loved him. He went on the journey for his origins, and the payoff was more incredible than he could have ever imagine.

Randall doesn’t want to hold onto bad stuff anymore. And the first thing he does is call Kevin to make things right.

However, Kevin is still a mess and went to Vancouver for the movie instead of staying with Madison. Now Kevin’s freaking out because Madison went into labor. Kevin had made a mistake in choosing his career over his family. The same mistake Kevin made with Sophie, his first wife. This cliffhanger was a good one to leave us on.

Thank you so much for reading my thoughts on this This Is Us episode! This was one of the best ones I had watched in a long time. I loved the season one vibe I got from it. The show needs to recapture that vibe more often. Like every episode more often. I’ll see you all for the next episode! Let’s keep the tissues coming. I’m crying a bit from writing this review.