This Is Us season 2 episode 7: Are Kevin and Sophie over?
This is a man who has spent the better part of the season giving in to some addiction problems, and to go along with it he’s also someone who has struggled time and time again trying to maintain relationships. His history plus his addiction and his tendency to self-sabotage put him in a position where he couldn’t take the pressure anymore. What Sophie wanted was actually pretty reasonable — him not letting her down again. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to figure out a way in which to make things work between the two of them … mostly because he couldn’t make things work with himself.
Kevin’s breakup with Sophie was based off of the premise that he was never going to be the guy who would be there for her and that the man wanting to get back together with her was an artificial version of him. In his mind, he was not actually that guy and would never be, even if he wanted to.
This was heartbreaking; CarterMatt really should be used to this as a longtime This Is Us viewer, but the reality here is that it still stings, especially because we know that Kevin wants to do the right thing and be happy, but he seems to be eternally broken.
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For Randall, he’s willing to do everything that he can to fight for Deja being a part of his family — but he also wants her to know her biological mother in a way that he didn’t get a chance to with William. This is why he decided that it would be okay to let her take a call from her while she was behind bars. He wanted the two of them to maintain some sort of relationship.
Meanwhile, this episode brought you more of Ron Cephas Jones as you got the sense as to the path William went on prior to Randall showing up at his door. It was a painful story that showed you more of how badly he really did want his life to work out, and how it one point it felt like had nothing else to live for. It was one struggle after another after another; after watching this, it makes the story from the episode “Memphis” and Randall and William getting to share an experience like that all the more poignant. (This is, in our mind, still the signature This Is Us episode.)
What do you think of Kevin and Sophie’s breakup?
Share some of your thoughts in the comments! Also, be sure to head over to the link here in the event you want to preview some of what is coming on the NBC series next week.
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