This Is Us: “The Best Washing Machine in the World”

There’s a lot of truth to the saying, “You can’t choose your family.” For many people with complicated family backgrounds, this simply means they put up with unhealthy dynamics and relationships in an attempt to keep the peace and not contribute to an already hostile environment. Hurtful comments, negligence and traumatic experiences are swept under the carpet, never to be discussed again. Any shrink will tell you this approach only leads to feelings of resentment and abandonment festering inside you, preventing you from ever moving on. And any family will tell you that, while they may realize this ignorantly blissful method is by no means perfect, it’s the only way they’re able to keep up their idea of what constitutes the “perfect family.”

This Is Us has offered us a taste of Kevin and Randall’s relationship in earlier episodes, but in “The Best Washing Machine in the World” it becomes clear that they’ve never even attempted to resolve their childhood differences. Now that they’re living under the same roof again, they slip back into sibling rivalry instead of addressing head on the issues that have shaped their relationship. While Randall keeps his distance and subtly lets it be known that not all is forgiven and forgotten, Kevin channels everything he’s ever learned as an actor in order to maintain pretenses. When Kevin first turned up at Randall’s house, I was fooled into believing it may have been his way of trying to make amends, but if that was the case, he sure has a strange way of showing it. He acts like a spoiled Hollywood brat with a giant chip on his shoulder; he sullenly holds on to all the ways he feels Randall has wronged him and fails to recognize his own part in making his brother’s life miserable.

When they’re forced to spend an evening together without anyone acting as a buffer for the first time ever, all the shit that’s been swept under the carpet suddenly comes spilling out. Kevin takes Randall to a fancy restaurant, the kind of place celebrities frequent for a dose of selfie-posing and ego-boosting. He revels in the fact that Randall feels out of place here, and takes pride in fans and fellow actors showering him with praise and affection. He’s desperate to impress Randall, but it never once dawns on him to introduce him—not even as Randall, let alone as his brother. When Kevin figures out that Randall has never actually watched “The Manny,” he sulkily leaves the restaurant. He’s pissed off at Randall for not showing an interest in his life and his accomplishments and seems oblivious to the fact that he’s never done the same for Randall. He knows Randall is a “Wall Street guy,” but that’s as far as it goes.

As Randall chases him down the street, Kevin accuses him of always having shown him up, of always being Rebecca’s favourite. And it’s right at this moment that he spots a massive billboard advertising the new “Manny”—in which he’s been “replaced by another black man.” The irony of it all, and the ridiculously juvenile roughhousing it inspires in the middle of the street, creates a laugh-out-loud moment, one quickly followed up by four incredibly meaningful words. When one of the members of the crowd that has gathered around them recognizes Kevin and awkwardly asks whether he needs help, Kevin brushes him off with, “This is my brother.”