This is Us season 3, episode 14 recap: The Graduates

This is Us returned, again, after a one-week hiatus. And it will be airing every week until the season finale in April.

This is Us just ended, and I’m still crying. You’ll know why if you watched or when you watch.

Basically, Randall is his father, Jack. And it doesn’t even matter than Randall isn’t Jack’s biological son.

Ok, now that I have reeled myself in a bit, let’s dive into the recap.

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The theme of tonight’s episode, “The Graduates” centered around – you guessed it –graduation. The flashback showed us the Big 3’s graduations… yes, graduations – plural. Randall graduated from his school, while Kevin and Kate were to graduate on the same day from their high school.

Kate is furious with Kevin because he has decided to move to New York with Sophie to become an actor. She refuses to attend her own high school graduation. For real, she doesn’t go.

Meanwhile, Rebecca is struggling to witness her kids’ graduations without Jack. While at a store buying a new video camera to commemorate the events, she runs into a fellow parent she knows from the PTA, and he asks her out on a date.

I mean, slow your roll dude, she’s been a widow for four months. She completely recoils from the guy, rightfully so.

In the present, Toby decides to throw a huge graduation celebration for Kate, who has completed her final eight credits to get her degree. He invites the whole family and even the other three graduates from the winter semester and their families.

It’s so sweet and so Toby. In a goofy way, Kate really did marry someone like her dad.

Rebecca is elated to see her daughter in a cap and gown finally. She’s so proud of her, not just for graduating, but for not following anyone else’s idea of how she should live her life. She’s proud that she did it at her own pace and said they were alike in that way.

And that’s so true, too. They both go against the grain. They’re both strong women.

Off the wagon

We all know from two episodes ago that Kevin is hitting the bottle again. Here, he’s been in LA the entire week and hadn’t been to see Kate once. He even lied to Zoe about a spa day with her.

Kate knows immediately something is wrong with Kevin. Call it twin intuition, but when Kevin suddenly leaves the graduation before the ceremony, claiming he had a meeting with Steven Soderbergh.

But really, he was just triggered by a shaker.

Kate leaves after the ceremony and finds Kevin in his hotel room and all the booze. She forces him to go to a meeting and decides to take him there herself.

As they ride to the meeting, Kate’s water seems to break. But Kevin is unable to drive them to the hospital because he’s drunk.

The look on Toby’s face when they arrive at the hospital by ambulance was lethal.

Deja the academic superstar

Randall visits Deja’s 7th grade English teacher because she posted Deja’s personal essay online without permission. The story was about how she lived in a car, and now kids were making fun of her in school, calling her Pontiac.

Deja’s teacher is mortified and feels terrible, immediately taking the essay down. But she thinks Deja is gifted and was proud of her. In fact, she thinks Deja should skip a grade and go right to 9th grade next year on This Is Us.

Deja wants no parts of it because she likes her routine and stability. Randall thinks it’s more important now than ever, that one of them has to be with the girls on nights and weekends and thinks Beth should “put a pin” in her dance teaching dreams.

I swear I thought Randall was going to say that he’s giving up his council seat. Because seriously, Beth just got her joy back! Don’t take it away Randall! Pay for the damn expensive babysitter!!

Right before World War III broke out, Randall gets the call that Kate went into labor.

So, what does he do? He hops on a plane, and he’s there by Kate’s side with Kevin. When he appears in that door frame the floodgates open.

And this is intertwined with the flashback when the Big 3 are at a graduation party talking about if they are still going to be close when they’re older.

Well, they may not have started this series super close, but they are now. And I’m here for it.

This show!

This is Us is new every Tuesday until the end of the season April 2. Watch all the episodes anytime.

Read the last episode’s recap.