‘This Is Us’ Season 3 Finale: Randall and Beth’s Path & ‘Her’ Explained (RECAP)
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Season 3 finale of This Is Us, “Her”]
This Is Us took viewers on a wild ride through Season 3, but it was the finale that will remain in fans’ minds for months to come. Yes, “Her” lived up to everything and more when it came to much needed answers and and confirmation.
But finales are a dish best served room temperature when it comes to This Is Us because there’s never a complete happy ending. Below ,we’re breaking down the exciting updates that were made and the less-thrilling conclusions we’ve come to after tuning into the end of the show’s junior year.
Randall & Beth’s Resolution
(Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC)
So, the many fans who were losing hope when it came to their favorite couple weren’t given much to cling onto when the episode opens with future Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) making coffee alone in a spacious kitchen. The scene shifts to the present as a quiet Beth makes coffee in her house while Randall (Sterling K. Brown) makes coffee in his Philly office. As Deja (Lyric Ross), Tess (Eris Baker) and Annie (Faithe Herman) eat breakfast, Randall comes walking through the door, and the tenseness between him and Beth is palpable.
Beth likens their situation to an experience in an escape room where the girls were freaking out, but her and Randall found the door to escape. “I’m not seeing the door here, Randall,” she tells her husband about their current state.
Randall came home to bring Deja to a supposed debate team meeting, and as they drive in the car, she asks Randall when he and Beth forgot how to talk to each other, implying that she sees the tension herself. Randall is clearly saddened when he asks if Deja thinks Annie and Tess can see it too. Meanwhile, back at the dance studio where Beth teaches, she’s asked to pick up an extra class, but the exchange between her colleague and herself makes it obvious that Beth’s mindset is different than her coworkers.
As for Deja, she proves herself to be the true MVP of this storyline as she reveals there is no debate team, but instead she’s led Randall to one of her old foster homes. Her moving speech surmises that Randall won the lottery twice — the first time when he was adopted and the second when he landed Beth. This straight-up truth breaks through, and when they stop for burgers he makes a call to his manager to discuss the possibility of his resignation. Beth has her own plans, though, as she looks for Philly real estate — a spot for a dance studio of her own.
(Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC)
When Beth arrives home late, Randall is waiting, and he tells her what happened with Deja and that she was right about him winning the lottery. He tells her he plans to resign, but she stops him and says that they’re going to move to Philly and downsize. “Randall, I found a door, I’m gonna open my own dance studio,” she tells him.
Randall is hesitant about selling their house since it holds so many memories, but she says it will be okay. “We don’t work when we’re apart, but together, baby, together we set the world on fire.” And when the episode reaches its end we learn that Randall and Beth are still married and the team we’ve come to love over three seasons.
Kevin Can’t Compromise
(Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC)
When Kevin (Justin Hartley) and Zoe (Melanie Liburd) are left to babysit Tess and Annie, Kevin’s admiration for Zoe’s maternal side is so obvious that it hurts because you can guess where his hope will lead. After agreeing to not have kids and stay with Zoe who refuses to have them, he’s clearly considering ways to convince her otherwise, but she’s unflinching in her decision.
Meanwhile, Kevin has a sweet heart-to-heart with Tess, who opens up to her uncle about the uncertainty she faces after coming out to her family. He steps up to the challenge as he offers the best advice he can muster. He relates to her in that he was uncertain of who he was deep down inside just like her, “I don’t think we figure out exactly who we are all at once. I think it happens over a long period of time — piece by piece.”
Later on, when Kevin points out how great Zoe is with Tess and Annie, she sees where his thoughts are heading, and she shuts him down. When they’re back at their loft, she essentially tells Kevin that he made the wrong choice, and we later see her packing her things. As of now, Zoe and Kevin are over, but in the flash forward there is mention of Kevin — the house that the Pearsons are convening at belongs to him. When a young boy walks by Randall in the future timeline, it’s implied that it’s Kevin’s son as he tells the adults his dad went to pick-up take-out.
Kate’s Baby Mama Drama
(Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC)
Baby Jack appears to be on the upswing despite arriving early, but he still needs lots of care in the hospital, and it’s clear that Rebecca’s (Mandy Moore) getting on Kate’s (Chrissy Metz) nerves. While Rebecca and Miguel (Jon Huertas) continue to look for a place nearby her daughter and Toby (Chris Sullivan), Kate is struggling for dominance in the hospital against her well-prepared mother.
As the doctor instructs Kate, Toby and Rebecca on some methods to keep Jack alert while off of his ventilator, Kate can’t get a word in edgewise as Rebecca takes over question time. The tension leads Kate to have a mild freakout over Rebecca’s butting-in when the grandmother implements the doctor’s directions in a brief moment of panic. Later on, they make up though, as Kate tells Rebecca that she’s sometime insecure because she doesn’t feel as though she’ll ever be as good of a mother as Rebecca was.
By the episode’s end, Kate and Toby return home, where Rebecca and Miguel are waiting to greet baby Jack, who now is able to breathe on his own. Shortly after their arrival, Kevin comes through the door, telling them he’s back in California indefinitely without revealing his break-up with Zoe. And in the future timeline, we don’t see Kate, but Toby indicates that Jack is around when he tells Randall, “I just talked to Jack and they’re on their way.” But it’s unclear if “they” includes Kate.
Hospital Beds
(Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC)
The past timeline includes a hospital stay for matriarch Rebecca, who has a car collision at the episode’s start. Throughout the storyline, Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and the kids worry about her being in the hospital alone, and when they decide they can’t sleep without her there, they return to see her. This particular plot serves as a nice parallel between the past and future, as the episode ends with Randall entering the hospital room as a boy and a side room in Kevin’s room as an aged adult.
When Randall enters the unknown room, an elderly Rebecca is revealed, and she seems to be in a fog — is she dying? It would make sense, but that’s not the most shocking detail. Instead, Nicky (Griffin Dunne) is sitting in the room with Rebecca, offering fans another mystery to hold onto until the show returns.
This Is Us, Tuesdays, 9/8c, NBC
