#and thank gawd randall didn't bring another stray relative home

[frazzledsoul]

So before tonight’s episode I was kind of anxious about how far the show wants us to sway away from being #TeamJack and I’m glad that they didn’t . . . because other than the lying, I still kind of take his side in the issue of How To Deal With My Unmanageable Booze-Addled Sibling.

Kevin learned a hard lesson tonight: that sometimes you can’t save people who don’t want to be saved, and it can’t all be tied up in a nice little bow. Unfortunately, it caused him to fall off of the wagon. I doubt that Kevin will take this lesson to heart and learn that sometimes managing your responsibilities is tricky and that sometimes you have to cast out bad influences and concentrate on the ones that need them most.

Kevin, being the literal drama queen he is, will probably spend a lot of time angry at Jack for betraying him after he went to such time and effort to look into his past. I think Rebecca is a little different: she knows that Jack lied to her and is a ngry, but she also knows he isn’t here and that it doesn’t do any good to continue focusing on it. I think she also knew by the end of her conversation with Nicky that Jack’s brother was an extremely difficult person to deal with and that Jack’s decision to focus on his wife and kids instead was an entirely sympathetic one.

I know the bulk of this storyline is focusing on Kevin, but I find Randall’s position to be more interesting. He knew all along that Jack had stuff in his past he didn’t want his family to know about, and he felt it was dishonoring his wishes to poke even further. He’s been a husband and a father for decades, so he understood why Jack needed to keep outside responsibilities at bay to focus on his family (something Randall himself has not been doing a great job at lately). He understands that Jack may have had a few off days and some struggles he couldn’t articulate, but it didn’t outweigh all of the good things that he did. Randall’s been enmeshed for family life for so long that he doesn’t get overwhelmed by petty jealousies like Kevin had with Miguel or the fact that his father was not in fact a saint (and having dealt with Rebecca’s decades-long secrecy, he’s probably more in a position not to judge his parents than he used to be).

Kate is in the middle: she’s now starting to embark on family life herself and knows it isn’t entirely about her anymore (Kevin, who fails to understand why either of his siblings can’t drop all of their plans to care for their long-lost sekrit uncle, obviously doesn’t quite get this). So she can understand that while knowing all of this stuff about her father can be shocking and disappointing, it doesn’t change what she remembers about him. She’ll have the same struggles and disappointments that Randall did, and it won’t always be perfect.