The Pearson twins anticipate meeting Stallone.
Kevin asks, gleefully.
Im on a movie set saving Sylvester Stallones life!
Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC
Not bad, he quips.
(Hes being generous.)
Kates speechless, Kevins delighted, and the Stallone show has begun.
Hes not willing to go there.
In any case, Stallone throws his screen partner off his game.
He gets through it, however, and the emotions of Deja Vu finally start to click into place.
Our dad died and its very sad, but I dont need therapy because of it, he says.
And Kevin pushes back harder and nastier: Im not like you.
I dont need to walk around and be sad and damaged just because you are.
He leaves Kate in tears.
Stallones character is pinned under a Jeep.
Justin Hartley gives whats far and away his best performance to date in this episode.
Kate, its really hard for me with Dad, Kevin admits as their conversation nears its end.
She can only reassure him that itll get easier.
Maybe one day, she says.
He pops a painkiller after hanging up.
She sees them in a blur and hears the information theyre passing on like jumbled, incoherent blather.
Randall picks up on her discomfort and expresses his concern to the agencys representative.
She retreats in fear, a raw indication of a history of abuse.
But this beingThis Is Us, Deja Vu doesnt end on so bleak or unsettling a note.
We see the meaning of the episodes title play out in a pair of pivotal flashbacks.
He then explains, tenderly, why shes given him a feeling of deja vu.
Yet an earlier scene involving Deja might be even more significant to the episode.
After her fight with Beth, she wanders into Tess and Annies room in the middle of the night.
The girls engage with her.
Shes informed by Annie that she might lose iPad privileges if she does something wrong.
Amazed that theres such a thing as iPad privileges, Deja mutters, This house is crazy.
We then flash back to Williams first night at the Pearson home and an encounter he had with Annie.
She tells him he should stay; William says he wont.
Ive been sleeping in my apartment doing things my way for a long time, he explains.
What if Im bad at I just dont want to let any of you down.
