In a sweltering day in suburbia Pittsburg, the Pearsons decided to head to the local public pool to relax and keep the heat off. Like the previous episode, this 80s storyline is presented to serve present-day happenings, rather than stand on its own.
The flashback showed us Kate's first taste of bullying for being overweight and Randall's conflicted feeling of being with his family and the urge of reconnecting with other black kids in the community. This of course, raised some parental insecurities in the part of Rebecca, blaming herself for allowing Kate to eat too much and Randall feeling adopted.
This resulted to Kevin feeling neglected which led him to nearly get drown in the pool. He then told his parents about his feeling of neglect. This has been a rough time for Jake and Rebecca who only wanted to relax in the public pool. But we all know public pools are not the best place to relax especially with kids around.
Meanwhile, when Randall suddenly disappeared, Rebcca panicked until she found him playing with a group black kids. There's a bit of awkward moment with Rebecca trying so hard not be offensive with one of the kids' mom while the mom thrown her some serious shade about a family adopting a black. This is again the 80s, for which interracial adoption is not yet mainstream.
"Oh, we know who you are," one of the moms says with a smile when Rebecca introduces herself. "When a white family has a black child and they don't introduce themselves to any of us, we tend to take notice."
The other woman then told Rebecca that Randall has razor burn because he needs to be taken to a barber who knows his hair. It was surely uncomfortable but audience might have already recalled that this very woman could well become a good friend of the Pearsons as shown by a framed photo in present-day scene later in the episode.
In present day, Kate and Toby are having a lunch date when they they ran into Toby's skinny ex-wife to which Kate did a quick scan and got instantly obsessed. "I told you I was married before," he says. "Not to that," she shoots back.
This weight insecurity stemmed from Kate's first experience of bullying. When Kate ran into some friends from school, she gave them a big wave and smile but they acted like she is one gross garbage bin. She then received a note from saying "We don't want to play with you anymore. You embarrass us," with a pig face drawn on it.
Back to present day, Kevin is back in NYC for a Broadway production to which he got the role albeit being very late in the auditions since producers believe that he would sell tickets. The poll flashback explained why Kevin became an actor as he grew up craving for attention.
The episode ended up with the five of them huddled together after that supposedly relaxing day in the pool. It was another heartwarming episode for "This Is Us."
