This Is Us season 2 episode 17 review: Loving and letting go
To Randall, Deja was special. He saw a little bit of himself in her as a young woman who was brought in to a family that she was not related to by blood, and she was trying to find her place. However, there were also big differences. Deja didn’t find that home until so much later in life; she had went through so many unspeakable, difficult experiences already. Her mother does love her and this episode feels like proof of that; yet, she was just incapable of being the mother that Deja needed for the vast majority of her life. She didn’t have the resources, didn’t have the money, and at some points didn’t have the time. Much of this stemmed from her being a mother at the age of 16.
Sometimes in life, there are people who just can’t get ahead. Maybe it’s a function of choice, or maybe it’s a function of circumstance. Deja was born into struggle and struggled to stay afloat through most of her life. Perhaps the most poignant moment of this whole episode was her talking about how many different beds she had stayed in, knowing just how difficult it was to actually find a place in which to call her home. That’s why she was so intent on sleeping in her own bed when she actually arrived back at Randall’s with her mother in tow in the midst of their latest crisis.
It was after seeing Deja in this environment that her mother did what seems to be the biggest symbol of love that we’ve seen from her to date: She chose to leave. She saw that this was the first time in her life Deja could actually be a child and her life could be better. She realized the benefits of this versus the drawbacks of her continuing to live a life of disarray with her. She allowed her to have a different path; we’ll see where it goes from here.
CarterMatt Verdict
The biggest person to credit within this episode is Lyric Ross, the young actress behind Deja who continues to tell her story with such humanity and power. She plays the character as a desperate, at-times shell-shocked teen looking to find a home, but unable to process some of those emotions. She’s never been able to know what’s best for her and Ross channeled that beautifully. For anyone who related to a story of struggle and what it means to make difficult decisions, we have a feeling that This Is Us season 2 episode 17 is a story that is right up your alley. It was a thing of beauty, a story told in a way that was so gripping that we were okay not seeing some of the other familiar faces for the week.
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