Tonight on NBC their new honest & provocative dramedy series This Is Us airs with an all-new Tuesday, October 18, 2016, episode and we have your This Is Us Recap below. On tonight’s This Is Us season 1 episode 4, William’s reported as a loiterer in Randall’s (Sterling K. Brown) predominantly white neighborhood, exposing deep-seated racial tensions.
Did you watch last week’s This is It episode where Rebecca (Mandy Moore) made a surprise visit to Randall’s (Sterling K. Brown) home where she encountered his biological father, William (Ron Cephas Jones)? If you missed it we have a full and detailed recap, right here.
On tonight’s This is Us episode as per the NBC synopsis, “Rebecca (Mandy Moore) and Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) take Kevin, (Justin Hartley) Kate, and Randall (Sterling K. Brown) to the community pool on a hot day and quickly realize each child is going through their own struggles. Kevin auditions for his first Broadway play in New York and meets a determined actress who is less than impressed by him. Toby runs into his ex-wife while at a restaurant with Kate, which sends Kate into a spiral of self-doubt.”
So make sure to bookmark this spot and come back between 10PM – 11PM ET! for our This Is Us recap. While you wait for the recap make sure to check out all our This is Us recaps, spoilers, news & more, right here!
When Stella Kidd’s (Miranda Rae Mayo) ex, Grant (Guy Burnet) attacks Stella, behind Molly’s; Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) comes to her rescue and hits Grant with a pipe, cutting his throat. Stella chooses to go in the ambulance with Grant, but police hold Severide back from going so they can get his statement.
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This is Us begins tonight in the 1960s when the triplets are still young, showing that Kevin and Randall were always fighting with each other. Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) comes into the kitchen when he cannot fix the air conditioner and tells his wife, Rebecca (Mandy Moore) that they are all going to the pool today for some fun. After much begging, Rebecca agrees and promises her they will snag 5 pool chairs, and she will be able to read the rest of her book. When they arrive at the pool, it is packed and noisy. Rebecca asks if they are having fun yet.
Randall (Sterling K. Brown) is trying to do their daughters’ hair, when the younger one insists that her grandpa does it. William Hill (Ron Cephas Jones) seems to be fitting right in with the family, even more now that the truth is out. When asked where he got a scar on his arm, William begins to tell them but his wife, Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) says maybe it’s not a good story to tell them; assuming the worst.
William continues with the story and Beth learns that it is actually a good story and he was doing a good thing when he got that scar. William leaves for his walk, and just as Randall is gathering the family to go to work and school, Kevin (Justin Hartley) calls him and tells him he is now a New Yorker, the kids take the iPad and tell him he needs to come to her play, and she is going to be Snow White.
Kevin tells them that he is also auditioning for a play, his niece cuts him off and wants to hear the “Manny” voice. He is reluctant, but does it for his nieces. As Kevin is explaining to his brother his new plans, Randall cuts him off when he sees a police officer outside with his father. Randall comes running out, where the officer is harassing William for ID; Randall straightens out the situation and the neighbors apologize for calling the police.
Toby (Chris Sullivan) takes Kate (Chrissy Metz) out for dinner, where Kate notices him talking to a beautiful and skinny woman. When Toby comes back he tells her that is his ex-wife; Kate knew he was married before, but not to “that”.
We bounce back to the 60’s, where the family is at the pool. Kate is fooling around and Rebecca becomes embarrassed of her daughter and tells her to come back. At the pool, Kevin doesn’t like to get his face wet, so his parents tell him to sit in the shallow end and Randall will stay with him. Kevin says he doesn’t like Randall either. Their parents tell them to knock it off. Rebeca puts sunscreen on all three of the kids, but Randall questions them whether he really needs sunscreen, both Rebecca and Jack said, “Absolutely!”
Rebecca tries to convince Kate to put a shirt on because someone is going to comment on the way she looks. Jack defends her and says it is baby fat, and she is only 8 years old and kids haven’t turned mean yet. Rebecca is concerned about Kevin’s attitude lately, saying Kevin is very jealous of Randall.
Jumping back to 2016, Kate is on the phone with her twin Kevin, telling him all about Toby’s skinny ex-wife. Kate is insecure about her, and Kevin tells her that Toby is with her now. Kate even suggests maybe Toby is fulfilling his “fat-girl” fetish with her. Kevin tells her to get off the internet and encourage him on his audition. He arrives late, and after insulting the play-writer and the main actress, they do the audition, where Kevin is bombing it.
Randall takes his dad shopping for new clothes, and then tells him they are going to the pharmacy to get his medications. Randall confronts his father about that morning with the police, and how his dad thinks he doesn’t live in a black man’s world. Randall tells William that he does live in the black man’s world but he bites his tongue and chooses not to argue and fight over every little thing.
Back at the pool, Kevin is calling his dad to pay attention to him. Jack is unable to relax, as he is trying to keep his eyes on the kids at all times. Rebecca calmly tells him it’s impossible, as there are more kids than adults. Kate goes over to some girls she knows and asks them if they want to play with her, instead, a girl hands her a note saying it’s from all of them.
When Jack says he is watching, suddenly Rebecca says she can’t see Randall and asks Kevin where his brother is. Rebecca admonishes Kevin telling him he was responsible for watching his brother, Kevin sinks to the bottom of the pool, holding his breath.
Kevin comes out of his audition and is telling Kate how disastrous it was, but Kate encourages him to go on. Kate is parked outside Toby’s ex’s store, and Kevin cuts her off when he figures out that he is lost. Kate walks in the store, and when his ex-wife asks her if she needs anything, Kate says no, and she assumes Kate is there for the job. Meanwhile, Randall takes William to his daughter’s play.
Rebecca is too busy looking for Randall to see that her daughter, Kate is upset. The note says, “We don’t want to play with you anymore, you embarrass us.” And there is a pig’s face drawn on it. Rebecca finds Randall playing with other black children, and tells him she was worried about him. One of the mothers steps up and when Rebecca introduces herself, she says they know who she is.
That when a white family takes in a black child but doesn’t acknowledge any of the black families, they all tend to notice. Rebecca says that she just didn’t want him over there, and she didn’t mean it to be racial. She begins to walk away with Randall, but comes back and says that he is her son and she doesn’t care if they are okay with that arrangement or not, and thanked her for watching her son, but she has him now.
Before Rebecca can get Randall back to their spot, the woman tells Rebecca she needs to find a barber who can cut black hair, and the itchiness he is having is from razor burn. Rebecca also learns that the black children there is the reason Randall wanted to go to this pool and not the other.
Randall and his family are in the auditorium where his little girl is playing Snow White. Randall is thinking more and more like his father, and observes how the parents and audience find it funny that a black girl is playing such a “fair” maiden.
Kevin meets the main actress he insulted, when he is lost and they go to the bar together. She tells him to go back to LA and doing Broadway is nothing like doing TV shows. She tells him if he is serious to go back home, get to class and get some training. She gets a text, chugs down a shot and smashes the shotglass. She stands up from the table, he asks if she is all right, and she says, “You got the part, hopefully the Manny will sell tickets!”
Rebecca is telling Jack what just happened at the pool, and Jack suggests that maybe the woman was trying to be helpful, not condescending like Rebecca thinks. Kevin continues to beg for his father’s attention. Kevin ends up in the deep end, trying to catch a football. His parents’ back is turned to him, and he is drowning. He manages to save himself, and still nobody notices him.
Rebecca finds the note the girls left Kate. Jack is furious, but she stops him from doing anything. Kevin confronts his parents, telling them they never watch him and he almost drowned. When Rebecca tries to comfort him he yells at her to not touch him; he goes on to tell them they are too busy making sure Kate doesn’t eat too much and Randall isn’t TOO adopted. He then asks them, “Meanwhile, where is Kevin? Oh guess what, he’s dead!” Jack apologizes to his son, and tells him he is trying. He says this is his first time and that he should have been there and will be there.
When Randall begins scratching again, Rebecca goes back to the woman and asks if she has the name of a barber. She gives Rebecca it and more advice for Randall. Rebecca asks if Randall could play with her son sometime after school, the woman says sure. Rebecca asks about sunscreen and she laughs; Rebecca says she knew it, and for her to tell Jack.
Kate is in the midst of an interview with Toby’s ex, Josie, and they end up liking each other, even though Josie has no idea about Kate and Toby. Later, Kate visits Toby, and when he asks her what is up, she tells him the good news is that she got a job. Toby says, “That means there is bad news…”
Jack rescues the situation with young Kevin, and now approaches Kate to help her cope with her heartbreak. He asks her if she has a shirt, and when she says no, her dad said that he has one. It was the t-shirt Rebecca said she hated before they left for the pool. Jack says it’s because her mom is jealous of the shirt.
Jack tells her where he got the t-shirt, and it came from a magical place called Daytona Beach. Kate asks if she can go there, he tells her to promise him she will never go there. Jack tells her the story of how he got the shirt, that he saved a traveler from 3 men who were harassing him; the traveler gave Jack this shirt, and that it was a magic shirt. That whoever wears the shirt, their enemies will see them only as the way you want to appear. Kate puts it on and says she is going to go with “princess”. Jack tells her that he wants her to know he sees her as a princess without the shirt. She says, “thanks Daddy.” Jack crowns her with her mom’s sunglasses.
Toby is very upset with Kate, for getting a job with Josie. He says Kate stalked her like a serial killer. Kate goes on to rave about Josie, and that she initially wanted to know about her, like was she fat and then got skinny, was she mean; but Kate admits she thinks Josie is really great. Kate confronts Toby about what he wants. Toby tells her he doesn’t want a skinny person, he wants a sane person!
Kate is now angry and tells him that wasn’t nice. He says he is tired of being nice, and that a total stranger tells her she is great and she believes her; Toby tells Kate she is nice and she thinks he is lying. Toby tells Kate he empathizes with her about being fat all her life.
Toby admits that Josie was terrible to him. She cheated on him, lied to him and then took half of his life-savings. He then adds that he gained 95 pounds, in one year, after she left him. He goes on to tell her that he even considered suicide a lot; that he drank alone a lot to solve his problems. Kate apologizes that she didn’t know and her issues are not going to go away over-night; Toby reassures her that he isn’t going anywhere either.
Kevin calls Kate, who doesn’t answer the phone. He tells her that he got the part, and he asks her to call him because she is always the one to tell him how great he is, and she isn’t there. Randall is sitting in his kitchen, drinking a glass of wine, when William comes in praising about his granddaughter. William says he offended Randall somehow and Randall says he didn’t.
Randall asks if William was clean when he rescued the bus full of black kids, and at that time Randall was living in the “whitest” place on earth; he kept a notebook, and every time he met a new black person, he would put a mark in the notebook. He says every time he met a black man, he always wondered if he could be his father, but he never asked out loud because he loved his father; his WHITE father.
Randall tells his dad that he is a strong, successful black man. Beth and him give a lot of thought about how they raise their girls, and the fact that his daughter didn’t find it unusual that she was playing Snow White, was the whole idea. He admits that he doesn’t know everything, but he wouldn’t change a thing about his parents, and he will not apologize for it. William says he shouldn’t.
William sits in front of Randall and tells him it has been three weeks and he still hasn’t said the words. Randall tells him he doesn’t have to. William tells him he is sorry, deeply sorry. William calls Randall “son”, there is a pause, then Randall tells William he can wear whatever he wants when he goes for his walk. William says he likes his new khakis just fine, and they laugh together.
The doorbell rings at Randall’s. Randall’s daughter opens the door, and it is Uncle Kevin at the door. He gives Beth and Randall a hug and says he is there because he is missing his fan-club. Kevin asks if he can stay there for a bit. Beth and Randall both hesitate but say yes. William walks up behind Randall and Kevin says hi to him.
Randall introduces William as his biological father. Kevin looks stunned, but he shakes his hand and says, “that will probably be a longer conversation but, it is good to meet you!” Before they could talk any more, Randall’s daughter Annie takes him to the other room to watch her playing Snow White. William looks at Randall and asks, “is that the manny?” Randall tells him it is, and William says he loves hat show, and wants his autograph.
The show ends with the three kids laying on their dad’s chest. They are the last sitting at the pool, where Jack asks Rebecca if she is still reading. She says she is on the last page, and Jack closes his eyes to go back to sleep with the kids.
THE END!
