In tonight’s penultimate episode of This is Us, we see, the family matriarch Rebecca imagine herself boarding a beautiful train while her loved ones tenderly bid her farewell. Meanwhile, Déjà confesses a secret, and the mysteries surrounding a young child involved in a vehicle accident and a medical researcher unfold. Obviously, the episode is packed with endless tear moments. Let’s read the This Is Us Season 6 Episode 17 Recap
The episode begins with a family we’ve never met before at the top of the hour. Dulé Hill plays the father (The Wonder Years). He cracks jokes with their three children in the backseat as his wife chuckles. When his brother bats his soccer ball out of his hands, the youngest, Marcus, unbuckles his seatbelt and leaps into the Wayback. The family is immediately involved in a car accident, but everyone survives except Marcus, who requires surgery. But we’ll return to this family shortly.
The hour begins where episode 16 left off, with her unconscious. Nurse Laila puts lotion on Rebecca’s hands at Kevin’s house, but the elder woman is unresponsive. We see Rebecca as a late-twenties version of herself, dressed in a stunning crimson gown and riding a lavish train in her head. And William (Ron Cephas Jones), Randall’s biological father, makes an appearance as the first person she meets. Rebecca explains that she is waiting for someone. She inquires about the poetry that gave her Randall’s name. He reads it to her and then invites her to join him at the bar cart. She hesitates a moment remember, she’s waiting for someone but he says it’s fine, and they walk away.
“I’m waiting for someone” #ThisIsUs pic.twitter.com/dNk5SXmc4T
— Mandy Moore (@TheMandyMoore) May 18, 2022
The family is eating together. Toby (Chris Sullivan) thanks Kevin (Justin Hartley) for the offer, and they banter like the Toby we all love. With the exception of Kate (Chrissy Metz), who is hurrying back from London, where she is unveiling her California arts curriculum, Phillip (Chris Geere) arrives with Toby and Kate’s children, and everyone is present.
Déjà (La Trice Harper) arrives at the farewell party with a secret: she’s expecting a child. She does, however, inform Randall right away (Sterling K. Brown). “I’m pregnant,” she says. “You’re going to be a grandfather.” He’s overjoyed, and as he hugs Déjà, she lets his happiness rub off on her.
We desperately NEEDED this good news. 😊 #ThisIsUsFinalChapter pic.twitter.com/w2idnfhYm6
— This Is Us (@NBCThisisUs) May 18, 2022
However, she seemed more anxious than excited about the pregnancy at first. she and the baby’s father aren’t married yet, he works all the time, and she just started her residency — but the joy in Randall’s eyes can’t be dimmed. “I’m very happy, Déj,” he says, teary, as she adds that she hasn’t told her boyfriend about the baby yet.
when the action shifts to a lab where a young scientist named Marcus is over the findings of some cancer study he’s been performing. His cancer study led to a breakthrough in another illness: Alzheimer’s. when Marcus’s employer asks whether he has someone to go home to. And the camera pans to a family photo that shows he’s the Marcus who was in the backseat of the doomed automobile. (all is explained below)
Déjà’s partner arrives while she is asleep at the Poconos residence that night. Deja informs her baby’s father that she is expecting, and he surprises her while she is sleeping. In This Is Us Season 6 Episode 17, it’s Malik who proposes to her.
“I have loved you since we were 16” #ThisIsUs #ThisIsUsFinalChapter
I knew we were going to see Malik again!! ❤️ pic.twitter.com/izYEwJFHRr
— Helen (@Helen_Saeian) May 18, 2022
After all, she and her first love reconnected. he even opened the restaurant he’d always wanted to open. Malik, contrary to Déjà’s fears, is ecstatic about the pregnancy. He’s been in love with her since he was 16, and he’s excited to marry her and start a family with her. Another happy conclusion for a Pearson young love story.
Pearsons bid their final goodbyes
Rebecca’s blood pressure is plummeting, and Layla doesn’t think she’ll make it through the night, she tells Kevin and Randall. So everyone meets in the living area before going into the Pearson matriarch’s bedroom one by one to say their goodbyes. Nicky breaks the melancholy tension by joking about who should say farewell first after the nurse tells them she doesn’t expect Rebecca to survive the night.
This is our multiverse of m̶a̶d̶n̶e̶s̶s̶ sadness. #ThisIsUsFinalChapter pic.twitter.com/71UsbV4MyG
— This Is Us (@NBCThisisUs) May 18, 2022
First up is Beth. she often used Rebecca as her model. Beth then thanks Rebecca for her role in shaping Randall’s personality and announces that she will now be responsible for his care. “Thank you for helping me with that complicated, fantastic, gorgeous son that you raised,” she says to Rebecca. Rebecca sees both adult and college-age Beth in the next car as she hears actual Beth say goodbye.
R&B stands for Rebecca and Beth now. 😭😭😭 #ThisIsUsFinalChapter pic.twitter.com/VJNOH2IK1k
— This Is Us (@NBCThisisUs) May 18, 2022
However, William reminds her that the train is moving quickly and that they must continue, so they board the bar car…
Kate’s airplane is ready to take off, at that very moment. She was there because the curriculum she designed is being translated into other languages, but she regrets going. Rebecca would not have wanted her to forgo the trip, both Randall and Kev assure her. She asks them to tell Rebecca that she loves her and that she is on her way as she sobs.
SHE MADE IT. 😭 #ThisIsUsFinalChapter pic.twitter.com/838dzxTrqU
— This Is Us (@NBCThisisUs) May 18, 2022
Kate arrives the next day. Rebecca had been anticipating her arrival. “Hey, Mom,” Kate says to her mother. Bug, it’s me. I’m here. Mom, I adore you. “I’m in love with you.” Rebecca then steps inside the caboose.
Kevin plays a Joni Mitchell record in the living room later, and everyone listens to “The Circle Game” while telling stories about Rebecca. Sophie takes a step back to bid her mother-in-law farewell. Then there’s Toby, who can’t help himself from cracking a joke (“Rebecca, you can tell me: You love me more than Philip, right?”) Annie enters as well, thanking her grandma for teaching her that it was fine to be small as long as she understood she could grow into any size she desired. While all of this is going on, Déja texts her baby’s father a photo of the positive pregnancy test with a bunch of emojis.
Everyone has a crush on @TheMandyMoore! ALL THE AWARDS. 💐💐💐 #ThisIsUsFinalChapter pic.twitter.com/f3a97QMT3h
— This Is Us (@NBCThisisUs) May 18, 2022
People leave one by one until Kevin and Randall are the only ones remaining in their mother’s chamber, waiting for the end. They share a few laughs at Rebecca’s bedside as they discuss whether Pilgrim Rick was a real person or if Jack made him up and how unusual their father’s physique was for the time. Randall makes a light joke about the painting Kevin mentioned in Season 1 hanging on a frame near Rebecca’s bed. As Randall wonders if Rebecca can hear what they’re saying.
“I wanted to say the ideal thing to you, Mom,” Randall adds. But I have no idea what that is. I’m not sure whether you can hear me, Mom, but I love you. We’re all set now. You improved us. Thank you for all of the dinners. Thank you for making us feel so special. Thank you for beating up David Adams for hitting me in the head with a baseball bat one time.” “I love you, Mom,” Kevin adds. “You tell him, ‘Hey,'” Randall tells his mother as his final words. “You tell him ‘Hey,'” Randall says as he kisses Rebecca on the deathbed. All three kids are taken aback as she squeezes his hand in an apparent response.
Rebecca sits down on the railway bed, turns around, and sees Jack laying next to her. “Hey,” she adds with a smile. He responds, “Hey.”
In the end, together again. #ThisIsUsFinalChapter pic.twitter.com/Q0QM8IqJho
— This Is Us (@NBCThisisUs) May 18, 2022
Final Ride on ‘The Train’
Viewers may see what’s going on within Rebecca’s thoughts, which manifests itself on a train. Let’s explain it Rebecca meets William (Ron Cephas Jones). He reads it to her and then invites her to join him at the bar cart. She’s looking for someone, but she ends up following him. he then pushes Rebecca to the bar car, where Dr. K is the bartender.
Five minutes in and William shows up? Yeah, we're not surviving this episode! 😭 #ThisIsUsFinalChapter pic.twitter.com/dPt5EiVfx1
— This Is Us (@NBCThisisUs) May 18, 2022
Dr. K appreciates Rebecca’s parenting, expresses surprise that she survived her childbirth and subsequent loss of a kid, and then Jack praises what she made of her and her family’s lives, commends her resilience, and says she deserved a break. Rebecca notices her sons at various ages as he speaks, but Kate isn’t present.
She survived, and what a thing she made of it all. #ThisIsUsFinalChapter pic.twitter.com/vgPdFP5QYa
— This Is Us (@NBCThisisUs) May 18, 2022
Rebecca thanks Dr. K and continues down the train with William. Rebecca sees Sophie and Kevin as toddlers and teenagers, then Toby with baby Jack and last young Annie as real-life Sophie, Toby, and Annie bid their goodbyes.
all the different ages of Kevin and Randall together 🥺 #ThisIsUs pic.twitter.com/k424SRgr59
— ♡ (@tvgoldtweets) May 18, 2022
She eventually runs across Miguel (Jon Huertas), who tells her that she is still his favorite person.
After all these years, it's still her. #ThisIsUsFinalChapter pic.twitter.com/tbWsnKT81n
— This Is Us (@NBCThisisUs) May 18, 2022
Then William and Rebecca arrive at the caboose, which we heard is special to Rebecca earlier this season. Rebecca refuses to enter because she is “waiting for someone,” but when she hears Kate’s voice, she is content. Young Kate sits beside a bed in the caboose, her jar of lightning bugs providing the origin for Rebecca’s affectionate nickname for Kate, Bug.
Rebecca laments the loss of her mother “If something makes you sad when it ends, it must have been quite fantastic when it was occurring…,” William says in a typical This Is Us speech. The conclusion is not depressing… It’s only the beginning of the next breathtakingly wonderful thing…”
I am not Okay!😭💔
“If something is sad when it ends, it must have been pretty wonderful when it was happening.” #thisisus #ThisIsUs pic.twitter.com/eRbvTQXWVb— JustCallMeJess (@JessSays24) May 18, 2022
William walks away, and Rebecca sits on the bed before lying down. She discovers Jack alongside her as she turns over. When she says “hey.”
Who is Marcus This Is Us Season 6 Episode 17
Season 6 Episode 17 of This Is Us begins with a foreboding tone. When an unknown family of a father, mother, two sons, and a daughter involves in an accident. They arrive at the hospital, where Marcus Brooks, the unbuckled son, is scheduled for surgery on his wounded leg. The father goes to bring them coffee in the waiting area, where he bumps across Jack Pearson. In 1998, this car accident occurred on the night of the home fire. Jack offers Marcus’s worried father the counsel that Dr. K (Gerald McRaney), the Pearsons’ beloved obstetrician, imparted 18 years before when life gives you lemons, make something resembling lemonade.
"I like to think that one day you'll be an old man like me talking a young man's ear off explaining to him how you took the sourest lemon that life has to offer and turned it into something resembling lemonade”. #ThisIsUs 🍋 #ThisIsUsFinalChapter 😭 pic.twitter.com/95j9QDjXaV
— Tina Keel (@LadyKeel) May 18, 2022
Marcus’ father returns to his family in the waiting area after Jack is taken to a room to be checked out. Marcus passes out on the operation table, but Jack appears to be in good health in his hospital bed. Rebecca hurries to the vending machine while the doctor rushes to Marcus. Marcus recovers, but Jack succumbs to cardiac arrest as a result of smoke inhalation. When Marcus survives, that quote becomes his family’s slogan, and Jack leaves his impression on them forever. Marcus’ doctor was the same one who was treating Jack.
Marcus is now a scientific researcher who wants to contribute to the fight against cancer. We meet adult Marcus at a medical lab undertaking cancer research, which is intertwined with this night. He walks with a cane and a limp when he hurries to alert his boss about a potential breakthrough, presumably due to his childhood injury. Marcus’s boss claims that his findings are insufficient to rescue the project from being shut down due to a lack of funds. Marcus then complains to his siblings about wasting years chasing something that never materializes. His sister cites the family motto the lemons wisdom Jack offered all those years ago. Marcus appears to have followed that advice in the future. When his drug trials fail, he turns to develop Alzheimer’s disease medicines. As a result, the circle of life rings true for the Pearsons. Marcus is connected to the Pearson narrative because of that revelation and the hospital analogies.
The circle of life rings true for the Pearsons. Marcus is connected to the Pearson narrative because of that revelation and the hospital analogies, but another connection is indicated throughout the episode: Marcus may be involved with Déjà. That, however, is a misdirection, and Déjà’s mystery is unrelated. the audience prepares to do it all over again for next week’s aftermath series finale episode, which will bring this important Pearson story to a close.
