We Need To Talk About The Last Second Of 'This Is Us' Season 4, Episode 10
This Is Us spent much of the first half of Season 4 building up the storyline of Rebecca's memory loss. From minor issues here and there to her disappearance at Thanksgiving that triggered Randall to find a doctor, the Pearson matriarch's health has been a running issue. But so has Randall's. While Tess has shown signs of inheriting her father's anxiety disorder, she's at least getting therapy. Randall, meanwhile, has not. But that might be about to come to a head, as fans ask: Who is in Randall's kitchen in This Is Us Season 4, Episode 10? Warning: Spoilers for This Is Us Season 4 follow.
It was the very last frame in This Is Us' midseason premiere episode. After walking in the front door from his overnight flight, Randall stops to check in on everyone in his family quietly sleeping. Annie, Tess, and Deja are all safe. In his room, there's his wife, Beth, also fast asleep. Randall, thankful to be home and clearly in his feelings over his mother's beginnings of memory loss, declares he's popping downstairs for a drink of water.
Except when he gets downstairs, it's not empty. The back door is open, and there's a man in a hoodie standing in the kitchen. It's not a person viewers have seen before. From all appearances, Randall has accidentally walked in on break-in in progress in his own home.
The cliffhanger doesn't let fans know what happens next. Is the man in the kitchen alone? (Does he have a gun?) One assumes Randall will most likely survive this encounter, mostly because Sterling K. Brown (as far as everyone knows) is still contracted to play the role for two and a half more seasons. Moreover, this isn't Game of Thrones; This Is Us doesn't just go around killing off lead characters willy nilly.
There's also the chance this might not be a home invasion, but the set up sure looks like it. Furthermore, an incident like this was always a possibility once the Pearsons left their quiet suburb with the gated property and the pedestrian-unfriendly landscape. Though someone desperate enough to stage a home invasion of this type is probably rarer than the local news would have you think, crime in Philadelphia is 55% above the national average.
What points to this turning out to be a home invasion is that studies show that it's not what the burglars take when they break-in. That's just stuff. It's the psychological after effects. Considering how Season 4 has set up Randall to reach his anxiety breaking point, this might be the incident that causes him to snap.
