Episode 5 saw Cassidy (Jennifer Morrison) shoot down Kevin (Justin Hartley) in his attempts to explore a relationship, telling him he needed to stop going down destructive paths and start making healthy romantic choices. That led him to contact Elijah (Adam Korson) with relationship advice about dating Madison (Caitlin Thompson), although we suspect Kevin still harbors feelings for the mother of his children. We also saw Déjà (Lyric Ross) and Malik (Asante Blackk) inform Randall (Sterling K. Brown) and Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) that Déjà is planning to leave high school after the first semester of her junior year to move in with Malik in Boston, a plan neither of her parents are too thrilled about. And finally, episode 5 gave us a look into Rebecca’s (Mandy Moore) first foray into dating looked like after Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) died—surprisingly not with her eventual husband and Jack’s best friend, Miguel (Jon Huertas)—and also saw Kate (Chrissy Metz) breaking the tough news to her mom that she didn’t want her babysitting her kids anymore, due to her progressing dementia. Lots of storylines to follow, and it looks like we’ll be picking several of them back up in “Our Little Island Girl: Part Two.” Here’s what we know about what happens next on This Is Us.
Is there a This Is Us Season 6 episode 6 promo preview?
Played during the closing credits of episode 5, the promo preview (above) for “Our Little Island Girl: Part 2” opens with Rebecca returning home from a date with Matt (Matt Corboy), the single dad she reconnected with while speed dating with Miguel in the previous episode. It seems that their coffee date has turned into something a little more, but based on the reactions of teenaged Kevin (Logan Shroyer) and his then-wife Sophie (Amanda Leighton), we’re guessing Rebecca hasn’t told her West Coast-based son about her new relationship. We also get a glimpse of modern-day Kevin on the set of The Manny reboot, where he is visited by Madison and Kate. Kevin wants to make plans for Madison and the kids to fly out to Pennsylvania to spend Thanksgiving with him, but she informs him that she wants to stay in L.A. for Thanksgiving, along with the twins. The disappointment on Kevin’s face is a look we’ve grown very accustomed to ever since he has moved out of Madison’s garage, begging the question yet again of just how long it’s going to be until he admits he’s not actually okay with their current arrangement. We then see Beth entering a dance studio, as she says in a voiceover, “The fate of this whole program rests on me choosing the right dancers.” A woman (who looks like Beth from behind, although we can’t be totally sure) walks down a line of young dancers, most of whom don’t seem to fit the typical body type for ballet, which recalls the first “Our Little Island Girl,” when a young Beth was told she lacked the skill to be successful as a ballerina, due in part to her body type. The dancers in the promo are also mostly people of color, which also echoes young Beth’s storyline in the Season 3 episode, where she started being overlooked by her teacher as soon as a second Black ballerina joined her otherwise all-white class. “Trust your gut. It’s never steered you wrong,” Randall tells Beth in the promo as she contemplates her decision. “I can’t fail at this again, Randall,” she then says in front of a stage (possibly right before her recital?). We see Beth standing in a dance studio looking pensive as we hear her repeat, “I can’t.” We don’t know if Beth is referring to the failure of her own dance studio, which she was forced to shut down in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, or her dance career, which she abandoned before college, or both.
What happens next on This Is Us Season 6 episode 6?
Based on the promo, the title, and the fact that “Our Little Island Girl: Part Two” was penned by actress Susan Kelechi Watson along with This Is Us scribe Eboni Freeman (who also wrote the Season 3 episode “Our Little Island Girl”), we expect episode 6 to focus mainly on Beth’s storyline, with Kevin’s and Rebecca’s being touched on only briefly. From Beth’s voiceover in the promo preview, it sounds like she will be responsible for selecting dancers for some sort of elite opportunity, and that the fate of the entire dance program rests on her decision. When Beth took the job at the dance conservatory, she confided to Rebecca that she was concerned about participating in the same broken and racist system that crushed her dreams of being a dancer as a teenager. Rebecca encouraged her to work to change the system from the inside, which may now be the challenge Beth faces as she selects her dancers. Does she use the same criteria that her teachers used—the standards that kept her always in the ensemble, never a soloist, no matter how hard she worked—or does she go against the grain and offer those opportunities to the dancers who would typically be overlooked? And of course, Beth will be dealing with this while also navigating a parenting crisis with Déjà, who will be approaching the end of the fall semester, when she plans on withdrawing from high school to take her G.E.D. so that she can move to Boston with Malik. Beth cautioned Randall in the previous episode that if they don’t handle this situation well, they could forever damage their relationship with their daughter. The first “Our Little Island Girl” provided a deep look at Beth’s own complicated and tense relationship with her mother, whose approval always felt just out of reach. That dynamic is likely at the front of Beth’s mind as she works to preserve the relationships she has with her own daughters, even when she doesn’t approve of their decisions. It also seems that we’ll be getting more of a look into Rebecca’s post-Jack dating life, this time focusing on how she approaches the topic with Kevin, after seeing the clash she and Kate had over the matter in episode 5. We know she doesn’t stick with Matt long-term, but this storyline could explore how the Big Three each dealt with the idea of their mother moving forward with her life after losing their father, before she finally settles down with Miguel. And of course, there’s the ongoing awkwardness of Kevin and Madison’s tenuous co-parenting dynamic, which Kevin has struggled with all season. Madison’s decision to spend Thanksgiving separately is clearly not going to be received well, but is it because Kevin doesn’t want to spend the holiday without his kids, or is it because he still has feelings for Madison? We suspect it’s a bit of both, but the appearance of Sophie in the flashback indicates that This Is Us is determined to keep her in the mix as well.
Are there any This Is Us Season 6 episode 6 spoilers?
In November 2021, Moore shared a since-deleted Instagram post from Watson on her Instagram Stories, celebrating Watson’s writing on “Our Little Island Girl: Part Two,” and saying that Moore is “so proud to be a tiny part of it.” That seems to indicate that although Rebecca is in the promo, she won’t be in the episode very much, which is in line with our suspicion that Beth will get the bulk of the screen time in the episode. In an interview with TVLine, Watson seemed to confirm that the episode will include scenes in the past, present, and future, only two of which we glimpsed in the promo. She also said that while she doesn’t dance in the episode except for “one little turn,” she does “pass the torch” to other dancers. We wonder if this touches on her abandoned dance dreams in the first “Our Little Island Girl,” and if she’s going to give another young dancer the opportunities she never got herself. TVLine also asked if we will get to see Beth as a business owner again in the final season, to which Watson answered, “I don’t know if you remember that we flashed forward to Beth in this really great position in this dance theater, and we get to see how she got there.” Based on the promo, it seems likely that “Our Little Island Girl: Part Two” will play a significant role in that journey. Watson also said that episode 6 includes “one of [Beth’s] most emotional scenes this season,” so grab your tissues, because when Beth gets emotional, so do we. While we’re waiting for This Is Us to return on February 22, 2022, here’s every way that you can watch the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
