This Is Us Season 2, Episode 16 Recap: "Vegas, Baby"

Before a short break for the Olympics, This Is Us really worked at tearing us all apart. We experienced Jack’s (Milo Ventimiglia) death, and the day of his funeral. I basically flooded my apartment with tears. It was a lot!!

The creators have recently promised that we’d get a more positive show for a few episodes, and kicking it off with a trip to Vegas seems like the right answer.

It’s time for Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Toby’s (Chris Sullivan) bachelor and bachelorette parties! VEGAS BABY!

We meet up with Kate and Toby getting ready to leave for Vegas. Toby is trying to decide whether go “Clooney Ocean” or “Frank Sinatra Ocean.” Kate quotes Oceans 11 for her answer in a very cute couple moment. They’re much more into the staying at home and chilling together scene, but I feel this will be fun.

Unfortunately, it felt like a lot of Kate’s day was overtaken by her siblings and some drama. She does enjoy some cosmos, though, because “Carrie Bradshaw is timeless, and so is her favourite cocktail.”

We join Randall (Sterling K. Brown) and Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) when Deja (Lyric Ross) showed up at their door at the end of the last episode. She explains that her mom is past due on gas, and asks for financial help so that the heat is back on before child services does its next visit. Randall makes her promise to call earlier next time if she needs anything, and not wait for the heat to be off for weeks.

Beth is lit because they’re going to Vegas with Kate and Toby, but Randall is stressing that Deja might need something while they’re gone.

BETH IS A VEGAS ICON! She’s whooping out of the limo roof! She’s drinking straight from the bottle! She gets pulled on stage at Magic Mike Live! She’s definitely here for a good time, even if Randall feels they were a “pity invite”.

Briefly, on the way from the airport, they get in a tiff when Randall says it’s easy for her to “disconnect” from what’s going on. Obviously, this doesn’t go down crazy well.

Deja calls at dinner, and she and Randall have an uncomfortable phone call. It doesn’t sound like things are going that well with Deja and her mum, as she tells Randall they’re “making it work.”

After the call, Randall shows up at Magic Mike Live to tell Beth that he doesn’t think everything is okay. They get in a big fight, with Beth saying that she just wanted a break for one night and Randall saying she’s not caring about something important. Kate gets involved and, when Beth asks her not to be, Kate says that Randall “has made it perfectly clear who is more important to him.” That felt a little out of left field to me, but Kate did also make it clear that she and Beth aren’t close.

After the fight, Kate confesses to Randall that she knew she would “lose him to someone as cool as Beth.” Apparently they used to watch Sex And The City together and bond, so cute.

Kate also tells Randall that Toby really just wanted his boys weekend to be about bonding with his future brothers-in-law. Randall and Kevin (Justin Hartley) head up and grab Toby from his room and hit the town, which makes me hopeful for them being bros!

They have a heart to heart, with them all sharing a little about their lives. Toby apparently has a brother, but they’re 10 years apart and don’t get along. He also tells the Pearson brothers that he wants to impress them, because they impress him.

Kate heads up to Beth’s room, and they have a little bonding sesh. Kate tells her that it’s really hard for her to make friends, and that Beth has always intimidated her. She’s flawless, in Kate’s eyes. Beth tells her about the reality of it all — her job isn’t what she wants, the building is a lot, and she’s really attached to Deja.

When they land back at home, Beth takes them to go see Deja. When they arrive, Deja and her mom’s apartment is abandoned. In the closing scene of the show, they spot Deja and her mother sleeping in the car.

Kevin is also in Vegas, which is a completely different challenge for him post-rehab. When housekeeping comes to the room to drop off additional towels, he tells her that “Coming to Vegas at this point of my life is my Mt. Everest, and I’m going to conquer it.”

When they’re at dinner, he sees one of his co-stars from his most recent movie. She tells Kevin that she got completely cut out of the movie because they’re going in a “different direction.” Kevin instantly realises that half of his scenes were with her, and we see him visibly take a knock back.

He excuses himself from Toby’s night at the club, and he heads back to the room. He’s struggling to resist drinking, especially with the mini bar.

He does end up going back out though, and resurrecting Toby’s night out with Randall.

In a great moment, Kevin calls Ron Howard to let him know he made a wrong decision about cutting him out of the movie. But, it turns out that he didn’t! The Kevin/Sylvester Stallone scenes were apparently amazing, and they’re focusing on the father/son plot line now.

We also see the housekeeper count all of the bottles of alcohol in Kevin’s room, meaning he didn’t drink any of them. Things are looking up for Kev!

In the first scene of the show, Jack is already here. Phew, because for a second I was a little worried there would be minimal Papa Pearson. We see a montage of three of Jack and Rebecca’s (Mandy Moore) anniversaries, consisting of very romantic gestures.

Rebecca asks for a year off from the grand gestures, but the kids want to do something nice for their parents. Young Kevin (Logan Shroyer) is making a meal that Rebecca has always wanted to try, while Young Kate (Hannah Zeile) and Young Randall (Lonnie Chavis) are doing some top-secret research.

Plans fall apart though, as even the best laid ones do. Kevin has a little freak out about if his parents are going to get divorced. Sophie’s (Amanda Leighton) parents are getting divorced, and he’s worried that his parents don’t want to celebrate their anniversary.

Rebecca and Jack agree to “never do nothing again” because they both missed celebrating. But then! The kids pulled it out of the bag and set up a romantic spot on the roof. There is a meteor shower that night, which is just so perfect.