This Is Us Season 4 Finale RECAP: We Find Out Who Kevin’s Pregnant Fiance Is and We Can’t Even …

So many chills! All the chills, really. Not enough sweaters in the world for these chills. The show truly built up a good head of steam going into the season finale, and as per usual, there were bombshells to spare!

This episode was like leftover chicken noodle soup–good the first time, great to savor again the next day, and the next. Rich, and layered.

RECAP:

“Baby” Jack is all grown up and singing to the pregnant wife he calls “Boo.” Suddenly, it’s showtime and Jack’s wife is in active labor. But where are his parents???

Okay, this sounds super odd knowing what we know now about her, but when I first met the beautiful dark-haired woman at the art gallery, I thought she might be Kevin’s mystery fiance. Uh, no. But she is hung up on a movie star (nice tease, Us writers!), but it is not her Uncle Kevin, thank you very much! (More on her beginnings in a minute.)

2020: Baby Jack gets a triple-layered birthday cake for his big day, just like his mama and uncles did when they were growing up as the Big Three. A sweet montage of Pearson birthdays, past and present, was the icing on the cake (couldn’t help myself, folks).

2020: Over with Uncle Kevin, the movie star calls his Uncle Nicky (YAYAYAY!). “What”? Nicky grunts. Oh, how I have missed that sweet, crusty man.

Haha: Uncle Nicky, on a billboard he saw with Kevin in it: “I think it’s an ad for your nipple?” Actually, it’s a cologne ad, and we all get to see it in all its glory at the end of the show.

2020: Randall and his family are preparing to fly to LA for their littlest relative’s birthday party, and even Beth is mmm-mmm-ing about Randall’s strongarm “tactics” to coerce Rebecca into doing the clinical trial.

In Kate and Toby’s back yard, Randall and Kevin chat quite cordially about Rebecca’s surprise change of heart regarding the trial. (Beth, right after Rebecca was about to make her announcement: “Oh, I forgot a thing in there …Mmmm indeed!) “Congrats on one year, bro,” Randall says at the conversation’s end, referring to Kevin’s one year anniversary of sobriety. Recall that a year ago, he drove Kate drunk to the hospital to give birth.

Just pondering sadly, are these the last kind words these brothers will exchange for a long time?

And then, new characters are thrown into the mix. We meet red-haired Sadie, her dad, and a seemingly untameable horse named George. How will they fit into the Pearson puzzle?

Back in 1981, as the Big Three babies celebrate their first spin around the sun, Rebecca and Jack remember Kyle, the baby they never got to take home. Jack has an idea: Let’s pack up three one-year-olds and go visit Dr. K at the hospital where they were born.

2020, again: Toby and Kate have the same idea, sort of, and the three of them (including their wee little man baby) take a top-secret trip to the hospital where Jack was born.

(So funny how they kept dropping these hints the size of a blimp about their “secret” and absolutely no one took the bait!) “I haven’t been the best version of myself this year,” says Toby, in the understatement of the season, “but we’re all here now…”

Seriously, he is back to his old kind, funny, stable, loving self, but that was quite a rocky road there for a while, no thanks to Lady Kryptonite.

My heart did melt like butter in a frying pan, though, when Toby suggested they adopt. “The Pearsons have a really great track record when it comes to adoption,” he points out. Randall, Deja, and now …. Kate and Toby’s future daughter, who is, in fact, the beautiful dark-haired woman at the art gallery, who dashes off when she learns that her brother Jack’s wife has given birth. Chills!

I also adored the flashback to 1981, as Dr. K poignantly related how he would sing “Blue Skies” to his unborn child, a baby who would die in utero. After their baby’s death, Dr. K and his wife would listen to the song constantly as they grieved. “The song made us happy and made us sad,” he said. Life is like that, happy and sad, joyful and tragic. “Let the joys and tragedies cozy up to one another,” he said. “Let them co-exist.” Wise and timely words from Dr. K. But then again, did we expect anything less? “Life has a way of shaking out to be more beautiful than tragic.”

Back to Kate and Toby deciding to adopt … I am wondering why neither one of them is at the hospital with Jack, his wife, Baby Hope, their grandchild, and their daughter? I am afraid to know the answer to that question, aren’t you?

Also in 2020: Sadie is not ready to give up on George despite his wild ways. “Don’t you think it’s too early to give up on him?” She asks her father. He turns out to be Madison’s OB, and uses that question on her, about Kevin. (Apparently, he will be an important character next season.)

Yes, MADISON, you pregnant future fiance of Kevin, you, it’s too early to give up on Kevin. She’s pregnant from their one night together, and all alone in the world. Because of her Bulimia, she never thought she would be pregnant, never mind with TWINS! Then again, there’s always a chance of multiples when you are dealing with the Pearsons. “Dealing with” being a euphemism for connubial togetherness.

But Papa Kevin doesn’t know yet about the manifold blessings about to be dropped in his lap. He’s too busy figuring out that Rebecca must have had her arm twisted by Randall in order for her to do a 180 on the decision to go to St. Louis for the trial. When she uses the exact same language to describe the trial–“an investment in my future”–that Randall did, the gig is up. (Beth’s face says it all. )

The two brothers are just getting warmed up, fighting about their opposite views of how their mother’s treatment should be handled.

Just as things are getting out of control, Madison arrives at Kate’s door, wanting to tell Kevin he is going to be a daddy.

Kevin impatiently tries to blow her off, calling their night together “the whole stupid thing.” Ouch, ouch, ouch. Now that will leave a bruise …

What he doesn’t know is that the story Madison will tell him is more important than any story he has ever heard in his whole life. It’s bigger than his fight with Randall, which escalates into some truly cruel words.

Kevin: “This is about you saving Mom.” (Fair enough)

Kevin: “I would have walked through literal fire (to save Jack).” Implication: That Randall failed to save Jack. (Seriously unfair.)

Randall: “Dad died feeling ashamed of you…He was proud of me, but ashamed of you.” (Nooooooo!)

Kevin: “The worst thing that ever happened to me was the day they brought you home.” (I can’t even. It’s unbearable.)

Kevin seems to regret the reckless words the moment they are out of his mouth. He closes his eyes in regret. But it’s too late. He can’t unsay those words or unburn that bridge.

Montage time: In 1981, as Dr. K sings “Blue Skies” to his wedding picture, the music overlays a film collage: There is Uncle Nicky congratulating Kevin on his one year of sobriety, and Cassidy, who is …forlorn, sheepish, rueful?… at the mention of Kevin’s name. And then Sophie, walking down the street in New York and laughing out loud at Kevin’s “nipple ad.”

Which brings us to Kevin, who walks back into Kate’s house with a heavy heart and a joyful one at the same time. “I’m all in,” he tells Madison. “The love of my life will be my child.”

“Children,” she says. It’s twins for Kevin!

We meet the twins briefly in a future scene by Rebecca’s death bed. They are beautiful, and Kevin is obviously a doting father.

That scene had so many details in it. Like who was NOT there: Miguel and Kate, for starters. Those two have never been in any future scenes and that scares me!

Another detail: Uncle Nicky IS there, at Rebecca’s bedside, wearing a WEDDING RING. Does this mean Miguel dies and he marries Rebecca? A long shot said my husband on our social distancing walk through the neighborhood. He’s probably right, but what if???? He certainly marries somebody, because that hand shot was by no means an accident. There are no accidents with these wily writers!

Just like Baby Hope’s name, the show gave us a boost of promise. As the brothers are shown in silhouette at the foot of their mother’s bed, Kevin places a hand on Randall’s shoulder.

And I go limp with relief! You go limp with relief! We all go limp with relief! I predict next season will be fraught with tension between Kevin and Randall, but then something DREADFUL will happen, such as the death of someone they love, and they will find their way back to one another.

Well, that’s a wrap for 2020, fellow Us fans! I have loved writing these recaps and interacting with you on every tiny detail–haha. Let me know your thoughts, feelings, and predictions for what will happen next season.

My biggest question: How do Madison and Kevin go from near-strangers who did this “whole stupid thing” to being engaged in six months???

Is there any coming back from those horrible words between Kevin and Randall? How?

And will Rebecca actually go to the clinical trial? Because we know she is at the 40th birthday party for Kevin and Kate at the cabin in September, which is not 9 months away. Thoughts??

Don’t be a stranger now! We Us fans need to stick together. For now, let’s make our last post-show confab a good one!