Well, I fell asleep halfway through, guess I’ll rewatch both This is Us and New Amsterdam this afternoon lol.
Episodes like this are why I still watch the show. Agree with everyone else that the actresses who played young and younger Beth were great, and uncanny in how physically similar to Susan Kelechi Watson they are. Just perfect, including the natural grace of the younger actress and the near-miss balletic skills of the teen. Also – I thought Phylicia Rashad was amazing. And Beth’s father was a wonderful character.
The only thing I thought was strange was that they completely divorced it from anything that was happening in the rest of the series – no mention of Randall’s life changes, not even a shot of Beth with her own daughters, no mention of Zoe’s relationship with Kevin.
Good episode, and, as others have said, really good casting for the younger Beths. At least now we know how she’s involved with a dance school/troupe in the future.
I enjoyed this episode a lot, and I agree that the young actors playing Beth as a child and as a teen were very good. What amazed me was that the teen actor also had the eye dot that Susan Kelechi Watson has. I didn’t notice with the younger girl. I mean, how do they do that? Is it done digitally? Is it an amazing bit of serendipity that they found this wonderful teen who also had the eye dot? Wow.
Phylicia Rashad played Beth’s domineering mom well. What an unlikeable woman.
wow, I didn’t think her Mom was unlikeable at all! Pragmatic, sensible, smart. Perhaps domineering, but not unlikeable. You can tell Beth loves her Mother and I felt closeness between them. My mother is an Edith Bunker and I can’t tell you how many times I wished I had an intelligent mother like hers.
The young beth has the same mouth and biting the bottom lip as big Beth. Manerisms are so similar as if to be genetic. I too was taken aback by the story line. Phylicia Rashad doesn’t do anything bad. And I love the actor who played her Dad. How do you dance before you walk? But with that Island Girl stuff, they had me hook, line and sinker. Loved young Beth. Tells us a lot about older Beth. I didn’t like her as much as Randall, Kate and Toby and Kevin before this episode. Now I feel like I understand where she comes from. That’s half the battle of understanding anyone.
I found the mom unlikeable, especially when she told Beth she would help her research new firms and help her get a new job as if she was a child. I thought Phylicia Rashad was excellent at portraying this controlling character. I did like that they gave her some appeal at the end when she explained how her husband had been her balance and she was now without him. I thought it was one of the better episodes this season. I think I heard last week that there were only six more to go and that reminded me that this show ended early last year. I believe they said the next new episode is on March 5th, so we have to go without next week.
Beth is one of my favorite characters on the show.
This is a favorite episode - like so many others - but in a totally different way. How captivating it was while only being about Beth/Bethany.
The music towards the end - the Aretha Franklin song, I’ll Say A Little Prayer For You- took me DOWN. Sooo touching.
Also, her mom pulling her walker out of the car as she yes, continued into work. And her relationship clearly with some of the kids at her school. Perhaps always wanting the very best - and very most - out of those special kids to her - including Bethany.
Question: my DVR cut off just as Beth ended her dance and that woman walked in the room saying she was good - what else happened? Should I have recognized the woman? Did anything else happen??
The woman seemed under the impression Beth was there to take classes, and suggested she was too advanced for a beginner class, and then Beth said she thought she wanted to teach.
Ahhh, thank you @rockvillemom ! Often the show ends on a cliffhanger of sorts - I wasn’t sure what I missed!
The cliffhanger was in the scenes for next episode - Kevin drinking and Kate hospitalized!
I did see in the previews Kate on a stretcher. Damn, Kevin.
I say a little prayer…was written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David for Dionne Warwick although I understand Aretha Franklin did a version…was it Aretha or Dionne (my favorite) at the end of this episode? Dionne is so distinctive…there’s no missing it if its her.
You may be right that it was Dionne - I just did a quick google search to find the artist to go with the song I knew it was - and for some reason Aretha’s version popped up - but I think it was Dionne. It was just so fitting.
The song appears to be Lianne La Havas’ cover of the song, which was released in 2016. I’m answering my own question here. And yes, the original which came out in 1967 was Dionne Warwick, written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach as stated above. <3
@alwaysamom asked
It was a special contact lens.https://www.etonline.com/this-is-us-star-susan-kelechi-watson-and-producers-on-showcasing-the-brilliance-of-beth-119966
I also loved the episode - Rashad was just great. The iron fist in the velvet glove. Pushing her and wanting her to follow only a path at which she could be professionally successful. (Sound like any parents on these boards?) And Carl Lumbly was almost unrecognizable as the father (and that’s a good thing!). It explained a lot about Beth. And how she got back into dance, foreshadowed in an episode a while back.
I also loved that moment arriving at college when Bethany went to sign her name on the name tag, paused and wrote “Beth”. I wondered if that was meant to be a putting her childhood in the past, or choosing a name different than her mom called her.
So do we know where Beth and Randall go to college? (This is CC after all). Earlier it sounded like Randall was headed to Howard but then he declined that. And the scene in the episode did not look like a HBCU.
Still it must have been near D.C. Because Beth’s mom drove her there.
@surfcity — There was a VERY brief shot of the registration table for new students with a sign next to it and at the top of the sign it said Carnegie Mellon! I wasn’t sure if I had missed that this is where they met earlier in the series. It made my husband and I chuckle since my son is looking into CMU, but we haven’t visited yet. 