That Was Us
A Change of Heart | "That'll Be The Day" (S2E13) | with special guest Lena Waithe
Tue, 11 Mar 2025
This week Mandy, Chris, and Sterling chat about first kisses, how dogs teach us how to die, and the magic of the writers on This Is Us. They break down 213, That’ll Be the Day, where Kevin takes a major step in making peace with his past, Randall learns the hard way about the realities of being a landlord, and Kate’s visit to a dog shelter brings unexpected surprises. Plus, the talented Lena Waithe, who guest-starred on 213, makes an appearance on the podcast this week! That Was Us is produced by Rabbit Grin Productions. Music by Taylor Goldsmith and Griffin Goldsmith. Follow That Was Us on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Threads, and X! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the episode about?
On today's episode of That Was Us, we will be discussing Season 2, Episode 13. That'll be the day. Kevin helps Randall and Beth with repairs on their new venture. Kate contemplates a surprise for Toby. Jack and Rebecca talk about starting a business together.
Hello.
What up, gang? Dramatic.
That was a dramatic reading.
That'll be the day, with a little bit of foreshadowing there, right? That's right. This will be the day. This is the day. This is the day.
For the rest of their lives.
Not the episode, but it is the day and the precursor to... The episode. The episode, right? The day the audience would not...
Shut up about it.
Shut up about it.
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Chapter 2: What are the key moments in Kevin's storyline?
It is these moments of like, My little girl is not a little girl in the things. And he had a section like this in season one where he was trying to sort of like talk her up.
The things aren't working anymore.
They're not working anymore. You're at the birthday party, right? And so this is a circling back to that again now. And just like, we just stop. Okay? Yeah. And it's almost like Jack doesn't have words. So he just has to... Stop. Yeah. Right? She winds up getting a hold of the videotape, maybe out of curiosity. I'm not sure exactly what prompts her to look at it, but she does.
She looks at the videotape and more important than seeing herself sing is that in the reflection, she can see her dad looking at her. Yeah. And Brown got a little teary on this one. Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Because my man is looking at this girl with pure, unadulterated love. Yeah.
Admiration, love. Just. Unconditional.
Beaming. Yeah. And so she comes back and she's asked, I wrote it down. I want to get it right. She says, don't stop.
Yeah, like never stop seeing me that way.
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Chapter 3: How does Randall's experience as a landlord turn out?
See? Okay, it's all coming back. No, it's all coming back. Junior high.
Okay.
Churchill Middle School. Yes. Little skinny Chris.
Look at that smile.
Is dating. Dating. Yeah. Remember when you used to date? Of course. And it just involved like talking to the person.
Sure.
Like right after lunch.
Yes.
For 10 minutes a day.
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Chapter 4: What unexpected surprises happen at the dog shelter?
So that's what happens in the past. Can we do Kotobi there? Sure. Yeah. Because this is one of the funnier openings, I think, to you guys. You're in bed on the computer. And then Kate walks into the bedroom and you hide the computer.
Yeah, you like slam the computer.
And she's like, what are you doing? You're like, nothing, nothing, don't worry about it. She's like, you're watching porn. You're like, no, not watching porn. She's like, what's your thing?
I know a season and a half of television would lead you to believe that I am, but I am not.
I love how casual. I'm not horny. The writers just write me this way. How casual she is. She's like, let's see it. Yeah, she's like, what are you into? What's the kink, big dog? Let's see if we can work this out. And you're like, no, it's not that. She winds up getting the computer. You relent. And it's puppies. Just pages and pages. Pet finder, right? What do you tell her?
What's the reason that you're on it for? Masturbation. What are we talking about? No, here's the thing. This is my favorite part, is when our producers try not to laugh. They're just like, what is wrong with this guy?
That's not why they were laughing. They weren't laughing about what was wrong with this guy, Sterling. They were laughing because it was a funny joke.
It was a funny joke.
Sterling, how dare you?
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Chapter 5: What emotional themes are explored in this episode?
And Lena has to leave for something. I gotta go grab something, I'll be right back. And Kate's just stroking the dog, petting the dog, and saying the whole time, this isn't gonna work. Like, I thought I was ready for something like this, but I'm just not. But she never stops not petting the dog. Her hand is on him the whole time.
And I was like, I don't know if your words and your actions are in synchronous, but she does get teary or whatnot. It looks like she's gonna leave and says, I'm sorry, I just can't do this. She comes home, she comes home to her man, and she tells him, like, look, I went to this pet shelter today thinking that, you know, maybe a dog would be the right thing.
You remember, you say, I talk too much on this thing. No, you don't. It just dawned on me. I think I talk entirely too much on this podcast.
No, you are such a great leader.
I appreciate that. You are. It's very sweet. But you were in the scene. You have a better perspective on it than myself.
No, she comes home and says, listen, I know that this seems like it means a lot to you. Yeah. I've thought about it. Dan and the writers give a little bit of a head fake, like it's not going to happen. Right. And then she says, but I did.
Yeah. And she says, come out into the hallway or whatnot. And I would like to say for a dog that has never been in a house... that I thank you for just staying still. No, listen. Talk to us a little bit, because I know a little bit of this. The old saying in Hollywood, babies and pets. Don't work with them. You can't really control them.
It makes a day of shooting difficult. And our writers just kept adding more children and more pets. Yep. At every turn. How was this dog? This dog was great. This dog was great. This dog was well-trained. I cannot remember the dog's real name. Okay.
Wait, can we also talk about the fact that, like, where did he go? One of the great TIU mysteries. Wait.
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Chapter 6: How do the characters deal with change and growth?
That was funny. That made me laugh. Kev comes. He's there. Kev is looking off of that thing from the past about trying to find something to do. Stay busy.
Staying busy. And to be helpful.
Wait a minute. Is he also, do we see for Kev, because we can kind of do these at the same time, is this when he's going through his list of people that he needs to make amends with? Yes, to make amends too. Yeah. So he's made amends with me. He's made amends with mom, et cetera, et cetera. We don't see the whole list yet, right?
But he just, he comes to find his brother and he's like, oh, you're doing renovations? Like, perfect. I would love to be of assistance. How can I help? I got the door. Cool, cool, cool. He goes to do Don Lewis's, it's Don Lewis, right? It was her door. Fix it. And she says, there's a wall. That my husband put up and then he left. And so like, if I can knock this out, that would be great.
He's like, you know, I'll knock out the wall. So Randall's like doing his repairs. There's the one thing, them walking down the hall.
Oh, the slow motion gun show?
The slow motion gun show, which is the funny part about it is Justin is much bigger than me. Like, I'm a fit dude, and I own all my- I think Justin's an inch taller than I am. He's tall. The man is a big man. He's a big man, and he's got big arms. Yeah. So I was like, let me show how Randall feels when he's with his brother. And he looks over at me like, bro, please, what are you talking about?
So like Brown tries to bring all the sexy that he can to like tearing down a radiator and like plunging the toilet.
And Justin's in slow motion just like with a sledgehammer.
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Chapter 7: What are the memorable quotes from this episode?
That's the Kudrow joint? Yes.
Lisa Kudrow, Michael Patrick King. I watched that first season and became obsessed. I was like, what is this? Who is this? Who is Valerie Cherish? What is this? And so I was one of those people that had the DVD and listened to the commentary. And then because people were so obsessed, 10 years later, they did a season two.
That's right. That's right.
And so when I got a call, they were like, you want to go in for the comeback? I said, do I want to go in for the comeback? Yes, of course.
What? The comeback of the comeback.
So I go in, and it's just taped. And then she's like, okay, Michael Patrick King's directing this episode. He'll look at it. I was like, oh, Michael Patrick King wrote Sex and the City and is an icon? She was like, yeah, he's directing, and he'll look at the tape and see. He picked me. I come in. I play a journalist that's giving value shares a hard time.
Yeah.
And I even asked him if I could kind of adjust the line. He was like, yeah, yeah, that sounds better. I said, okay. Now he and I, our parking spots are next to each other.
Yes! Let's go. I love that.
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