Susan Kelechi Watson’s Beth Pearson has always been a fan favorite among the sprawling cast of NBC’s timeline-hopping family drama This Is Us. In Season 6, she’s been a crucial factor in grounding the show’s wrap-up. Rather than allowing her dramatic in-laws and husband to indulge completely in their big emotions, Beth has lovingly reminded them (and the audience) that drama isn’t the only way to go, whether with pointed asides or perfectly timed punchlines. She brings the family and the show back down to earth and models her own distinctive brand of motherhood, all while getting a characteristically low-key — but moving — conclusion to her dance career arc. From her silent comfort of her daughters to her amused responses to her in-laws’ antics to her firm support of a fallen dancer, Beth has quietly provided this final season with a necessary dose of unsentimental solidity — alongside some of its biggest laughs.
This Is Us follows the Pearson family over the course of nearly 100 years, from flashbacks to the childhoods of parents Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) through to flash-forwards of the 2040s when Rebecca is near death. Jack and Rebecca are parents to the Big Three, twins Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Kevin (Justin Hartley), and the adopted Randall (Sterling K. Brown), born on the same day and brought to the same hospital where Jack and Rebecca had their twins but lost a third baby. The show spends most of its time in roughly our present, with significant detours back to the Big Three’s young childhood and teenage years. Beth is Randall’s wife and one of the many characters connected by blood or marriage to the Big Three, who also get their own backstory-rich flashbacks. It’s a tear-jerker, whether by leaning into the tragedy that shaped their lives (Jack’s early death from smoke inhalation being the primary one) or by drawing connections across decades and timelines to the love and memories that bind this family together.
But Beth isn’t typically one to draw those tears. Rather, she is “the least stressful person in this whole family,” as Kate dubs her, more down-to-earth and less prone to flights of feeling than her husband or his family. This has never made her dour or a killjoy, though; instead, she has always been a welcome dose of common sense, good humor, and clarity — the acerbic, intelligent, and firmly loving partner, sister-in-law, and mother who has no problem pointing out foolishness when she sees it. Watson brings a magnetic warmth and a quick tongue to Beth that combine to create one of the most dynamic and beloved characters on the show. We’ve seen her come through marital struggles, career uncertainty, and the stress of fostering and adopting Deja (Lyric Ross). When called upon to bring Beth’s pain and turmoil to the surface, Watson is more than up for the task. But she shines especially brightly as the solid, witty force that helps keep Randall’s feet on the ground without holding him down, and while reaching for her own stars at the same time.
This has all been true from her first appearance, and she’s been a standout from the jump. She and Randall have had one of TV's most enviable partnerships — even their beautifully performed but much-maligned rough patch in Season 3 has faded to a blip in their supportive and affectionate partnership. But as the show hurtles toward its conclusion and emotions are running higher than ever, Beth’s dependability and quick wit have proven even more welcome and essential to completing the show’s tapestry. When Randall insists they’ll have a relaxing Thanksgiving, her response makes us laugh, preps us for the stress to come, and at the same time gives us permission to give over to the tears we know are coming: “I love your heart. Dig your ambition. But the Pearson epitaph will read, ‘Lovely people. Cried a lot. Dramatic as hell Thanksgivings.’” In a later episode, as Kate clutches Randall in an unexpectedly tearful hug, Beth releases the tension hanging thick in the house (and offering an oasis of humor in an episode that will only get more stressful) with a simple “Let’s…let this happen." This season has showcased Watson’s top-notch comedic timing more than ever, making us laugh before we inevitably cry.
A particularly shining example of this structure and Watson’s easy facility with it is in her showcase episode of the season thus far, “Our Little Island Girl: Part 2.” It’s the follow-up to a beloved Season 3 episode that filled us in on Beth’s backstory, including her own tragic loss of her father and a dance dream deferred. The Season 6 sequel brings Beth full circle, and on the night of the recital that could determine the success or failure of the scholarship program she now runs at a high-level dance academy, Beth is feeling the pressure. She goes to her husband and tells him she needs what she and the audience has absolutely come to expect in a moment of crisis: “I don’t mean to put too much pressure on you, baby, but I’m freaking out right now, and I’m going to need one of your all-time greatest pep talks, and I’m going to need it now.” Randall squares up, puts on his best big-speech voice, and the audience prepares to melt. But he gets about four words in before Beth interrupts. “Dammit. I gotta pee again,” she says, apologizing and running off in search of a bathroom. It’s a laugh-out-loud moment just when we’re primed for feelings, and it’s perfectly Beth. The big Randall speech has to wait — she has stuff to do. It’s funny, it’s grounding, but in Watson’s hands it’s also a lovely moment of the unspoken strength of their marriage. She doesn’t need the speech; she knows it already. She’ll go pee again, and she’ll be fine.
In a show that’s deeply invested in motherhood, Beth offers her own alternative brand of it, and this season has seen it put to new tests. Their adopted 17-year-old daughter Deja is in love with Malik (Asante Blackk), a single father from their Philadelphia neighborhood now studying at Harvard. When Deja sneaks away one weekend to be with him, the couple’s apology dinner turns tense as they prepare to announce their plan for Deja to graduate early and move to Boston. Randall falls hard for the act all three daughters put up (including Eris Baker as Tess and Faithe Herman as Annie), but it’s Beth who has an unsentimental but loving bead on all her children. “Tess is showing unusual interest in things she is off the charts uninterested in, and I ain’t heard a knock-knock joke in this house in a clean seven years,” Beth asserts “It’s a TACTIC, it’s all TACTICS, they’re TACTICS.”
Her firm hand and watchful eye also make her a remarkably empathetic mother. After Deja sneaks off to Boston, Beth determines that either she or Randall need to stay cool (after suggesting burying Deja in the backyard, of course). So rather than berate her, Beth sits with her silently, a gentle hand on her ankle, until she’s ready to talk. She is a similarly solid source of maternal love when Deja comes home after another unsanctioned trip to Boston, this one ending in a breakup. She knows Deja is hurting more than anything Beth and Randall could pile on, so she wraps her in a hug. Beth understands her girls, and when Randall lets his big Pearson feelings guide his parenting, Beth is there to offer a solid foundation of care without indulgence. It is another welcome source of contrast in a season that is especially interested in Rebecca’s brand of motherhood, as her illness quickly robs her of the ability to put it into practice.
But Beth can pull off a big dramatic Pearson speech as well as any of them, though as always it is with her distinctive calm and incisiveness. She gets two in “Our Little Island Girl: Part 2." While her late-night call to confront an old dance teacher and reclaim her power is the more stereotypically Pearson speech, the more impactful moment — and the one that is most Beth — is when the dancer she was most worried about (Jazlyn Martin), the one who had her nervously peeing all night, falls during her pirouette. Despite knowing that this mishap could derail Beth’s own fledgling career at the studio, she simply sits with her fallen dancer onstage. Her big speech is not about her own feelings, but about her student’s. “I want you to know that I will sit with you on this stage until everyone in this audience gets bored and tired and leaves one by one. Or, you can get up. Start again,” Beth offers, with her characteristic warmth and unsentimental sincerity. “Either way, know two things. You cannot disappoint me, and I ain’t going nowhere.” It’s a beautiful moment, showcasing what’s best about Watson’s Beth and the ways in which she both fits in precisely with her chosen family and stands apart, offering another way to be.
With a minimum number of monologues but maximum impact, Beth is a welcome dose of clear-eyed un-sentimentality without ever killing This Is Us’s big, cathartic mood. While she’s always been a relatable force, one that can be a guide for audiences less inclined to tears and declarations, her practicality has been even more crucial this season as the show ramps up to its endgame. Between Rebecca’s advancing illness, Kate’s marital turmoil, Kevin’s search for himself, her daughters’ teenage drama, Randall’s adjustments to his girls growing up, and the increasing speed with which the show is racing toward the far future and Rebecca’s probable death, emotions are running higher than ever. So it’s even more crucial for Beth to bring the show back to earth every now and again. By reminding her loved ones and those of us watching them that not every emotion needs to soar, and by having the characters acknowledge that she’s right, it helps earn the moments that do fly off into emotional orbit. Susan Kelechi Watson’s expertly calibrated and lived-in performance is the key to that success.