Milo Ventimiglia made his This Is Us directorial debut on Tuesday night, delivering to viewers an episode that gave them a look back at Kate’s relationship history.
It wasn’t exactly a perfect record, even she had to confess.
We begin with flashbacks… in which the Big Three came over for dinner at Rebecca’s new house.
There were Kevin and Sophie, newly married and having decided to exchange voews after seeing several non-sign signs.
There were Randall and Beth, who were settling into their relationship.
And there was Kate, who was apparently alone — until her record store coworker/boyfriend, Marc, showed up. He explained that he didn’t want her to face the family meal by herself.
The thing is, Kevin and Randall felt a strange vibe from Marc, in part because he was 23 and Kate only 18.
Their admissions led to an HUGE fight that Rebecca had to break up, only for everyone to eventually calme down and return to dinner after Rebecca insisted they move forward following Jack’s death.
As for action and developments in the present?
Kevin and Randall arranged for the family’s old piano to be brought to Kate’s house as a baby present.
Kate, for her part, discovered photos from the dinner in the stool of this large instrument and showed the picture of her and Marc to her mother with a cautious look.
“I was trying so hard to hold it together that year after your father died, and I wanted to believe so badly that you kids were happy, I didn’t see what was happening,” Rebecca told her daughter, to which Kate responded:
“I didn’t see it either.”
Uhh, to what are they referring here, you guys?!?
WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED?!?
Meanwhile, Tess suffered a panic attack at school.
In response, Randall tried to relate to her via his own anxiety struggles, but Tess didn’t want to be like her father.
Randall then beat himself up over passing down his worst trait, which prompted Beth to remembeer a conversation she once had with William… in which the latter told her he had anxiety and lamented giving it to Randall.
From here, Beth propped up Tess — whose panic attack stemmed from the prospect of coming out at school — and Randall by sharing William’s battle and pointing out that they also shared many positive qualities.
Beth proceeded to encourage Randall to visit a therapist before his anxiety got the better of him again, yet he was adamant he was just fine.
Finally, we get to Kevin:
He followed through on his offer to assist Cassidy in winning back her husband, Ryan.
Ryan came to a ceremony where Cassidy was being honored for her service … but he peaced out of there before it was even over.
Kevin later yelled him, but Ryan explained that he was trying to keep from crying because the military broke his “favorite person.”
Ryan warned Kevin to stay away from Cassidy, which Kevin took as a sign that he still had strong feelings for her.
Kevin also bonded with Nicky over a Pearson family tradition of cutting boxed ice cream like a cake — something Jack used to do with him.