Hai invites Randall and Beth inside and proceeds to tell them everything he knows about Laurel. Things get real immediately: When the Pearsons comment on the lovely farmhouse by the lake where Hai seems to live, he tells them that this house actually belongs to them. ItвЂ™s kind of hard to believe that Hai is the type of guy to be scrolling through viral internet content and clicking on вЂњShirtless City Councilman Video,вЂќ but you know what? Humans are complicated.ДЄfter apparently quarantining and getting a COVID test and then (it looks like) driving from Philadelphia to New Orleans, Randall and Beth come face-to-face with the man who knew RandallвЂ™s mother. The grief and fear and pain in that moment!ДЄ lot of the emotional heavy lifting is left to our narrator of sorts, Hai, who is the guy who saw RandallвЂ™s viral striptease, recognized the name William Hill, and reached out with the answers to the questions about RandallвЂ™s birth mother that Randall didnвЂ™t even know to ask. I mean, I was even moved by the small moment when LaurelвЂ™s father whispers his daughterвЂ™s name into the phone when she calls from prison but canвЂ™t bring herself to speak. Since we barely know RandallвЂ™s birth mother, Laurel, and have never met anyone in her life aside from William, so much of the emotional connection to this story rests in great performances. That attachment made every emotion in that episode hit harder. вЂњMemphisвЂќ obviously has a leg up, since by the time that episode rolled around, we had already gotten to know and love its subject, William Hill. The two episodes work as a pair, bookends to the birth story Randall has been searching for his entire life. Honestly, IвЂ™m surprised they didnвЂ™t go ahead and title this episode вЂњNew Orleans,вЂќ because we all know that this show lives for symmetry. ItвЂ™s hard not to see вЂњBirth MotherвЂќ - in which Randall and Beth travel to New Orleans to learn the story of RandallвЂ™s birth mother - as a companion piece to that episode. ItвЂ™s not a stretch to assume most people would agree that season oneвЂ™s вЂњMemphisвЂќ - in which Randall and William take a road trip to the titular city so Randall can learn more about his birth father before William dies, and we all collectively raised sea levels with the amount of tears that poured from our faces - is one of, if not the, best episodes of This Is Us to date.

He will not divide us season 5