Warning! This article contains spoilers from the latest episode of This Is Us. Read at your own risk!
Tonight's This Is Us had just about everything. There was drama with Deja and her newly introduced mom, Toby proposed to Kate, and Kevin seemingly broke things off with Sophie. On top of all that, fans were treated to a cameo appearance by Ron Cephas Jones. William returned to the show tonight and gave viewers a callback of sorts with an another perspective of the Season 1 scene in which he met adult Randall for the first time since abandoning him as a child. Suffice to say, it was heavy and heartfelt.
This time around, we got to see things from William's perspective as Randall's biological father sat at a table, armed with drugs and the news that his cancer was more aggressive. Earlier in This Is Us, we had learned William caught a break decades earlier when a judge decided to give him a second chance at avoiding prison if he could manage to stay clean and get his life together. It was presumed that William was able to keep that promise up until his battle with cancer drove him into a depression similar to the first, which was caused by the loss of his mother, girlfriend, and Randall all in a very short time. Luckily, Randall interrupted William just before he was about to shoot up, and as all fans know, his life changed for the better.
As with most things in This Is Us, the scene seemed to have a deeper message beyond the fact that the show can bring in the wonderful Ron Cephas Jones whenever they feel like it. Jones shared his perspective on the moment in the digital aftershow and opined that the scene played very well with a real-life mantra those who enter recovery programs for addiction hear often:
There's this saying in recovery, 'Don't leave before the miracle.' That scene is perfect for that phrase. Just before he's about to leave for the miracle, the miracle knocks on the door. I think my older self would say to my younger self 'I'm so glad you didn't leave before the miracle. I'm so glad you hung in there somehow, because look what you have now.'
It's a moment that Randall will likely never find out about, given that his biological father is no longer around to share it. That's a shame considering This Is Us seemingly told the story in an effort to draw some connections between William and Deja's mother, who appears to have made some mistakes of her own in the past. Perhaps the coming weeks will show Randall come to a better understanding with his foster child's mother.
This Is Us is all new November 14th at 9 p.m. ET on NBC. Of course, we at CinemaBlend are still trying to crack the code as to how exactly Jack is going to die, and we have a bunch of insights as to how it all eventually goes down. Read more about that, or for more on great fall programming, visit our fall premiere guide.
