“Don’t Let Me Keep You” is one of the rare episodes of This Is Us not to feature the present-day or future timelines at all, focusing entirely on Jack and his memories of his mother. So all of the storylines centering around the adult versions of the Big Three, their children, or the elderly Rebecca (Mandy Moore) are put on pause until next week. As is usual for the series, “Don’t Let Me Keep You” jumps back and forth through time, but unlike most This Is Us episodes, the most recent scenes occur in 1986. Jack spends the episode recalling various memories of his mom, mostly from his adulthood after encouraging her to leave his father.
Who does Camryn Manheim play on This Is Us?
One of the earliest memories we see is Jack driving his mom, Marilyn (Laura Niemi) to move in with her cousin Debby (Manheim) in Ohio, not long after moving out of her husband’s house. As they drive, they set up a weekly Sunday night phone call at 6 p.m., and Marilyn also asks Jack to visit her there, which he promises to do. But it turns out that Jack never kept that promise, since when he arrives at Debby’s house, we learn it’s been 13 years since he’s been to see his mother. It quickly becomes evident that although he never missed his Sunday night calls with his mom, he didn’t really know her at all.
How did Jack’s mom die on This Is Us?
After arriving in Ohio intending to plan his mother’s funeral—possibly what Jack saw as his last chance to be the son that he wished he’d always been—he learns that Marilyn planned her entire funeral before her death (of an aneurysm, which means she didn’t know she was dying when she planned it; she just knew she would die eventually, and didn’t want to be a bother). All that’s left for him to do is pen a eulogy, and pick out something for her to wear. Lacking all inspiration for the eulogy, Jack heads to a local bar (inviting cringes from those of us in the audience, who are aware that Jack is an alcoholic, even if he doesn’t realize it yet), where he is invited to sit with Debby and a couple others who were close to his mom. As they reminisce over their fondest memories of Marilyn, Jack silently downs one drink after another, realizing he has nothing to contribute. A little drunk when he returns to Debby’s house, Jack calls his dad, Stanley (Peter Onorati), telling him that Marilyn died. Jack realizes he’s made a mistake when his dad offers to come to the funeral, and Jack angrily tells him he’s not invited, taking the opportunity to blame him for the strain in his relationship with his mom—even though throughout the episode, we’ve seen Jack distance himself from Marilyn long after Stanley was out of the picture. Later, when Jack goes into Marilyn’s room looking for a dress for her to wear, he finds a box of unused ice skates she kept under her bed, waiting on a visit from her grandkids—a visit that never happened.
Who was Marilyn Pearson on This Is Us?
Even though the episode centers around her death, we get to know Jack’s mother Marilyn better in “Don’t Let Me Keep You” than we ever have previously. After leaving Stanley, Marilyn set out to make a new life for herself, picking up new friends and hobbies (and eventually even a boyfriend) in Ohio. Still, the trauma of her abusive marriage hung over her like a dark cloud her whole life, which became painfully apparent in the (heartbreakingly brief) Sunday night phone conversations she shared with Jack throughout the years. Repeatedly, they would discuss visits that would mostly never materialize, with Jack urging Marilyn to come see the kids and her asking him to bring them to Ohio. Even though Jack tried to downplay it, it was evident that returning to Pittsburgh was a traumatic proposal for Marilyn, since that is where her husband abused her for so long. But Jack is distracted by his family and is reluctant to travel with three young children, despite his mother’s attempts to play up the fun of Ohio with her description of a nearby pond that freezes in the winter, where local children go skating. At the end of each short call, realizing Jack isn’t fully present, Marilyn lets Jack go with the same phrase: “Don’t let me keep you.” A flashback to Marilyn’s one and only visit to Jack in Pittsburgh, when the triplets were babies, shows that although she managed to make the trip, she’s obviously anxious about being seen by her ex-husband. She repeatedly looks out the window, asks if Jack thinks Stanley knows she’s there, and is hard to engage in conversation. She asks for Jack to be the one to visit her next time, and he agrees, although we know that visit never materializes. In Ohio, Jack learns that his mom had a boyfriend named Mike, and that Mike was caring for Marilyn’s cat, who she’d named Cat Benatar. Like Debby, it quickly becomes apparent that Mike knows much more about Jack than Jack does about him. As Mike recalls Marilyn’s great laugh, Jack says he can’t remember the last time he heard her laugh, saying she was always on high alert around his dad and making it clear that those memories are still at the forefront of Jack’s recollection of his mother. When Mike tells Jack that Marilyn thought of him as her hero, and that their calls were the highlight of her week, Jack gets visibly upset, saying he missed her whole life.
Is Jack Pearson a good guy on This Is Us?
Jack obviously carries a lot of regret about his relationship with his mother, evidenced in little moments throughout the episode like when he tries to find something to wear for the funeral, insisting on black even if it means buying an expensive new suit. Yet at the same time, Jack seems determined to hold his memories of his parents at arm’s length, to the point where he tells Rebecca not to bring the kids to the funeral. Although he blames the decision on the weather and the long drive, his repeated insistence that “it’s not worth it” seems to speak to something deeper. At the funeral, Jack begins his eulogy, and is obviously struggling for the right words, starting with generic terms of endearment that could be true of anyone. But then Rebecca shows up with the kids, despite Jack’s request that they stay home. Seeing his own wife and children finally seems to unlock the part of Jack that he’s been trying to repress for the whole episode. He finally begins to speak from the heart, speaking about the trauma that both he and Marilyn endured, and how they both did their best to move past it. It’s clear at that point that Jack’s strained and distant relationship with his mother, the short phone calls, the vague talk of visits that would never happen, all of it was related to Jack’s own trauma with his father. As much as he loved her, he always associated his mother with the part of his life he wanted to leave behind when starting his own family. His attempts to be the best dad ever were his attempt at making up for the sins of his own father, but it wasn’t until Rebecca brought the kids to his mother’s funeral that he let himself truly grieve his damaged relationship with her. Back at Debbie’s house, Jack looks at the box of ice skates, and finally takes his kids skating on the frozen pond his mom was always talking about. When they return home, he makes his kids hot dogs and tomato soup, just like his mom used to make for him after he played out in the snow (a memory he previously hadn’t remembered until she reminded him).
What happens next on This Is Us?
Since episode 4 didn’t feature any present-day storylines, we’ll be playing catch-up next week with episode 5, titled “Heart and Soul.” The official synopsis reveals, “Kevin visits the construction site; Malik and Déjà share controversial news at dinner.” The construction site is likely the cabin that Kevin (Justin Hartley) agreed to build for Rebecca based off of Jack’s design, and where we’ve already seen the family congregating in the series’ flash-forwards. At the end of the earlier Season 6 episode “One Giant Leap,” Nicky (Griffin Dunne) announced he’d be returning to the East Coast and would be helping Kevin oversee construction, so we can presume he’ll be there too. As far as the “controversial news” that Déjà (Lyric Ross) and Malik (Asante Blackk) will be presenting to the Pearson family, considering the track they’ve been on lately and Déjà’s pushback to the hard line that Randall (Sterling K. Brown) drew about her visiting Malik in Boston in “Four Fathers,” our guess is that the couple has decided to move in together. Of course, it could be something less extreme, like that Déjà has decided to commit to regular weekend visits to see Malik, regardless of what her parents think, but something tells us that this wouldn’t be the type of news they’d break together over a family dinner. Plus, on This Is Us, the show rarely ever chooses the less dramatic option. As a dark horse candidate, Déjà could be pregnant, but we doubt that’s the case. Malik already has a child with his ex-girlfriend and we know that the adult Déjà is pregnant in the flash-forwards. It feels like having a present-day pregnancy storyline and a future pregnancy storyline with the same character might be too much, and would also be re-treading the same story ground we’ve already seen with Malik. Next, did Jack’s journey through his memories of his mother give you all the feels? Here are 50 films to watch with your mom.
