I thought the funeral scene presented them as college-age, or almost. That cabin: They didn’t start going to it until they were 9 or 10, they didn’t go after Jack died, but they clearly went there long enough to have some real emotional investment in it.
Every couple has that person who does way more for the relationship than the other person-- Jack for Rebecca, Toby for Kate, Randall’s wife for Randall, etc. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens.
When Rebecca gets asked to go out on the road with the band, she looks a little different - older and a little more up to date - AND they didn’t really show the kids then did they? So it could be that flashback WAS when they were more high school age - post the football game.
They showed Kate, who appeared to be in her teen/HS years.
I’m going to recant my early in the season comments about Kevin. I initially thought he was pretty shallow and uninteresting. He has grown throughout the season, but his last scene tonight brought me to tears. And Randall… No.Words.
These people really know how to peel an onion.
The kids are definitely mid-teens when Rebecca is getting ready to go on tour. Kevin is sexually active; Randall is writing a paper on Hamlet.
Kevin leaving another actor alone on stage at a sold-out premiere so he can run through the streets of New York and personally check on Randall – that’s so ridiculous it departs from any recognizable version of reality. Everyone in his family was there – he could have asked his mother or sister to go check on Randall, while he did his play. Come on!
Yep, I agree with @ JHS about that one. It was preposterous. I guess he was trying to do what “Jack would have done,” following his conversation with Miguel. But it wasn’t the responsible thing to do.
The kids are 16, BTW. At least Rebecca said she had put the kids and Jack above her own desires for 16 years.
Yes! I am watching. It’s my treadmill show. Love the characters.
Agree with JHS. Ridiculous that he would run off that way without trying to get someone else to go. But otherwise, good episode.
Running off with no explanation to anyone-talk about sabotaging your career.
I did think the episode last night was better than last weeks’s. I look forward to the scenes with Kevin the most. Also enjoy the ones between Randall and his dad.
So many shows have moments that wouldn’t translate into real life. I have been watching Grey’s Anatomy since day one. I often stop and think how incestuous it seems between the small group of doctors and how no one could have that many challenges in life (plane crashes, grenades detonating in the OR, active shooter in the hospital, on & on affecting only a dozen or so people). I completely agree about the unrealistic aspect of Kevin leaving the show, but I loved that he did want to support his brother.
We got so close to finding out last night how Jack died (via Kate telling Toby)!
Wonder if Jack sipping Maker’s Mark at the restaurant after he walked out on Rebecca is foreshadowing. Does he get drunk and die on the way home, on Valentine’s Day? Or does he develop (again) a drinking problem?
My favorite scene was Miguel and Kevin talking at the table. We don’t know much about Miguel yet, but the character was more appealing to me last night than in past episodes.
I believe this is one of three episodes that Ken Olin directed (he’s the producer for all of them), and I think these are the best episodes. This one reminded me so much of thirtysomething with the incessant onslaught of duties and stress with Randall, which reflected Olin’s own role as Michael way back when.
I also wondered if seeing Jack drinking at the restaurant was foreshadowing, or just there to throw us off since that would be so obvious.
Randall also chose to reach out to Kevin when he was having an anxiety attack, not anyone else in the family. It may have been unrealistic for Kevin to abandon his play, but it also said something about the change in their relationship.
You are so right about Grey’s, but somehow all the ridiculous emergencies and incestuous relationships seemed less unbelievable than an actor not walking onto the stage at that moment.
Well, just watched. Is that what some of you do? Look at every aspect of a show to determine if it’s "real life applicable " or not?
I’m in the camp of not feeling like every component needs to be true to life. What IS true to life? Realizing where you need to be even though something is important - maybe not play opening important but important moments. I’ll tell you something - one thing that made me cry outside of the fact that Randall and Kevin made me cry? Realizing that my son - my son would leave that stage and go rescue his brother/sister/friend. I know he would.
I found myself being fearful that we would find out what happened to Jack - and that this night was going to be it. I totally don’t want that moment to come.
The Miguel moment was special.
I think it does help in a show if things are at least what most people would do in “real life”. Reacting to a call of an unexpected death or serious illness or injury while you’re at work, yes , you would go. But, even with that, you would say something first to coworkers, family. I have gotten a couple of calls in my life where I had to act quickly. Most people have had that happen if you are around for awhile. Just taking off with absolutely no explanation, when the playwright, fellow actors , other family in the audience are impacted by what you did? No.
He had witnessed Randall on at least two occasions - as a kid writing the paper and that day of the play LOSING it. He recognized the symptoms. Whose to say he wasn’t worried for Randall’s mental health or physical safety if he was indeed (as he was) truly distraught or out of it?
We don’t know that he didn’t say something to someone on the way out of the theater. He had shunned Randall and pushed him aside many times as they were growing up. I saw it as a realization now that Kevin - perhaps for the first time as an adult - had to put Randall’s needs first.
I’m with you, @abasket. (I too have a son who would drop anything to help a loved one in need.) And I don’t actually think the scene was that unrealistic for the show’s plotline, given what we know about Kevin the character. We know he is impulsive and not always level-headed, particularly about his career - as evidenced by him walking out on The Manny and breaking his contract. Add to the impulsiveness his fear of failure as a stage actor, his guilt about his lifelong relationship with Randall, and his newfound desire to honor his father, and it is not so far-fetched that he would flee the scene to help Randall. And really, the scene was written to show the the depth of love between two non-biological brothers, despite their differences and issues. By getting caught up in the reality-check meter, you miss the poignancy of this new piece of the story! (I’m crying with you, @abasket!)
I too loved the Miguel scene, thought this was a much better episode, and was worried that they were going to reveal what happened to Jack last night and was not ready for that moment!!
I just watched the last episode and noticed that Miguel asked Jack to go out, saying, “You don’t have to drink or anything.” That must mean that Jack had a drinking problem, so those of you that thought that last scene with Jack having a drink alone on Valentine’s Day might be a sign of what is to come, could be right.
Has anyone been watching those clips where the cast talk about the show? I saw one and thought “Kate” was hinting at some guilt over her father’s death, as it related to her weight gain. Did anyone else interpret this? And now, with her refusal to talk about it with Toby, I’m thinking there could be some guilty feelings there.
Is Randall’s problem physical or emotional? My first thought was Parkinson’s. His birthfather has cancer. Does he suffer from anything else? What do we know about his birthmother?