This Is Us sure loves a devastating backstory, and we can’t help but love it too.
Tonight’s episode told the tale of what happened to Randall’s birth mother before and after Randall (Sterling K. Brown) was born, and it was, in typical This Is Us fashion, both wildly sad and extremely poetic. We’re also pretty sure there’s a movie in there that we would watch.
Basically, before she even met William (Jermel Nakia/Ron Cephas Jones), Laurel (Jennifer Holmes) fell in love with Hai (Vien Hong) in New Orleans. She met him when he thought she was drowning, but she was actually just letting out some rage in the river. They had to hide their love from her rich and powerful father, who had plans for her to marry someone who was also rich and powerful, and she tried to get Hai to run away to Chicago with her but he felt like he couldn’t leave his family.
Instead, she left by herself and ended up in Pittsburgh, where she met William.
