The Premiere of This Is Us Made It Official: Rebecca's Parents Are the Worst
After a wait that felt like forever, season 4 of This Is Us premiered on Tuesday, September 24.
Just as we predicted, the premiere introduced a ton of brand-new characters we can't wait to learn more about.
Plus, it also finally gave us insight into Rebecca's relationship with her parents, thanks to their first-ever meeting with Jack. Let's just say, uh, it wasn't that much fun.
Okay, This Is Us fandom. Can we all just mull, for a second, on how miraculous it is that Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebecca Pearson (Mandy Moore) are not just good parents, but model parents, despite both having been born out of actual dumpster fires? In tonight’s season 4 premiere episode, “Strangers," Rebecca's father (Tim Matheson) makes his first real appearance and turns out to be a bona fide monster!
That at least explains what he saw in Rebecca's mom (Elizabeth Perkins), who you’ll recall is an emotionally withholding, relentlessly critical racist. Jack’s dad (Peter Onorati), of course, is a violent alcoholic who physically and emotionally abused his wife and kids. And though Rebecca's dad doesn't quite rise to their level of awfulness, he's not far off.
When Rebecca randomly invited Jack to dinner with her parents and their friends at the country club, my immediate reaction was: Rebecca, WHY? Are you actively trying to scare this objectively great guy off after less than a month of dating, because otherwise there is just no explanation for this that makes any sense at all! 40 minutes later, my opinion had not changed. Let's briefly recall the horror, shall we?
As the dinner begins, Jack and Rebecca have just come back from their L.A. road trip—the one that ended with a music industry douche crushing Rebecca's dreams by telling her she's only "Pittsburgh good." Jack is endearingly eager to please, and has managed to borrow a sports coat for the evening thanks to a sympathetic store clerk named Miguel (so now we know how Jack met his BFF!)
Rebecca's mom, a.k.a Mrs. Malone, is extremely hung up on the fact that Jack “took Rebecca” across the country just a week after meeting her, and I have to wonder... does she think he kidnapped Rebecca at gunpoint? Does she not think Rebecca can make her own travel decisions? Does she have no respect for their daughter’s independence or autonomy as a young woman? Don’t answer that last one. Meanwhile, Mr. Malone immediately ignores Rebecca's instructions not to bring up Vietnam, and asks Jack about his time there while dismissively saying that it's "not even a real war." Okay, buddy!
Somehow, Jack doesn't snap. Instead, after taking some deep breaths in the bathroom, he comes back in swinging with a Poignant Pearson Anecdote? about his relationship with his little brother Nicky, ending on the revelation that Nicky died in Vietnam. Now, sure, we all know that this last part is a lie, but the Malones don't, and they have the decency to look at least a little chastised.
"Due respect," Jack says, "it may not seem like a real war, but I promise you, that war is very real to those of us who were there." There's a respectful silence, and when Mr. Malone discreetly alerts Jack to the fact that the price tag is sticking out of his borrowed sports jacket, it feels more like a favor than a diss. Maybe Jack's actually won his future father-in-law's respect?
Nope. The whole evening ends with Mr. Malone quietly and brutally telling Jack that he's not good enough for Rebecca. That, somehow, is the impression he was left with after hearing Jack talk about how he raised his little brother in a abusive household, and how he served his country in Vietnam, and how he took their daughter on a cross-country road trip just because she asked and he's crazy about her. The only possible way you could hear all of that and not jump abroad the Jack Pearson Train is if you are, indeed, a bona fide monster.
And now I’m back to wondering what on earth Rebecca was thinking! She has met her own parents, right?
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