That Was Us
Agree to Disagree | "The Most Disappointed Man" (S2E7) with special guest Debra Jo Rupp
Tue, 17 Dec 2024
This week on That Was Us, we break down that intense courtroom scene with Randall's adoption case judge (Delroy Lindo) and how his scenes in this episode sparked major discourse among This Is Us fans. We also discuss Kevin's "nightmare" confession to Sophie, how Mandy, Chris, and Sterling are surprised by the show's twists and turns, and what it is like to gain an audience's trust. Were you surprised by William's legal battles briefly intersecting with Jack and Rebecca's court case? Plus, special guest Debra Jo Rupp (the social worker!) joins us to share her memories of working on the show! That Was Us is produced by Rabbit Grin Productions. 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 main topic of this episode?
on today's episode of that was us we will be discussing season 2 episode 7 the most disappointed man Randall adjusts to the foster system Kate and Toby take the next step in their relationship Kevin visits Sophie in New York and Jack and Rebecca finalize Randall's adoption
Hello, friends.
How's it going, everybody? Welcome to That Was Us, the five-star hotel of podcasts.
I love that.
The three Michelin star restaurant of podcasts.
As high as it gets?
Yeah, for Michelin star restaurants. This is the Mercedes Benz of podcasts. We're doing all right for ourselves. This is the Mandy Moore of podcasts.
Oh, wow.
The Sterling K. Brown of podcasts. Chris Sullivan of podcasts. Christopher Sullivan. I'm more like my favorite murder. Good.
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Chapter 2: What challenges did the cast face while filming with children?
That sort of thing.
Deborah Jo Rupp. Oh, Delroy Lindo. Popping up as our social worker in the present day. But let's talk about the past.
Yeah, this episode was like a surprise to me how emotional it was. Because I do remember the filming of it. As I was watching it, I was like, oh, this episode. It was challenging with children. Children are always challenging. And I think the trick of this show is obviously if you're an audience member and you're watching...
Oftentimes when we have flashback scenes to the children being quite little, like toddler age and maybe even younger than that, they're different kids all the time. And so sometimes children are children. They're toddlers. They're not supposed to be on-camera talent that listen to direction.
They have huge demands. They demand naps.
Huge demands.
They demand juice boxes. How were these young babies? How many did you have to work with as well?
There were, I think it was the same three for maybe two days of work that was split up, taking the pictures, which was sort of something that happens in the beginning of the episode. We're taking like family pictures. And then the actual courthouse scenes, like in front of the judge, it was the same children. And they're
they were wonderful and so adorable, but they're also kids and they're cranky because their naps are being pushed in weird directions and stuff. So I just remember it being maybe one of the more challenging shoots with kids that are, you know, one or one and a half or something.
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Chapter 3: How did the courtroom scene impact the storyline?
And he says it, and it's this interesting thing. And I have it happen within my house all the time, where I'm talking to Andrew in particular, because he's 13. Amari's still a baby. Because even Delroy says in the show, he's like, I didn't know what it was to be Black until I was eight or nine. One of those two ages, right? Which was the first time in which somebody called me a nigger, right?
And I know I heard this on set too, that there would be times in which he would say it, and then sometimes he would say n-word or whatnot. But for your coverage, he like said it. So you were like, boom, right? For sure. And it is one of those things, these conversations about race happen much earlier, I think, in households of color than they do in predominantly white households.
Because when you are the minority navigating your way through world, you have to know how the majority sees you. Women have an acute understanding what it's like to live in a man's world. Black people have an acute understanding of what it's like to live in a white world. LGBTQ people have a very acute understanding of what it's like to live in a straight world, right?
But the opposite doesn't necessarily hold true, right? So he's saying like, how are you going to deal with raising this black boy when you don't have a frame of... My father has heard it so many times. He knew. what to give me in this particular moment.
And you don't know what to give him.
Right. And so I'm curious, like acting through it, like, because there's visceral things that will happen as an actor. Like what I'm imagining is like, I'll figure it out. You know what I'm saying? He's my child. I'll figure it out. So I'm just curious for you.
That is exactly where I came from. And the defense that they sort of give him, with all due respect, he was dropped in a fire station. He was abandoned by his father. We love him. He's our child. He's all we've ever known. We're all he's ever known. But as a human, I do understand where he's coming from as well. So it's like, again, the balance as an actor of...
Trying to sort of like draw that boundary and draw that line and going like, I can't let that infuse my performance or infuse my way of thinking.
It is a great scene. It is a great story when nobody is wrong.
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Chapter 4: What lessons about race and parenting are discussed?
That show was pretty good.
It was an exceptional moment.
It was depth.
Beautiful montage. I wept. This is all juxtaposed with- Wait, can I finish this part?
Oh, yeah, yeah. Because there's one more scene with both judges. That's right.
Yes.
Together. And what, hold on. You said, you do anything good today? Yeah, I don't know.
You? I don't know. Yeah, Delroy and this judge that was in charge of William's life. That was great.
It was, again, yes, chef's kiss. It was perfect. Yeah, time will tell. Okay.
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Chapter 5: How does Kevin's addiction storyline unfold in this episode?
Chapter 6: What emotional moments are highlighted between Randall and Deja?
Energetically, it's like, no, I don't like these places. This don't feel good. So we go. Randall has this moment where he shields her eyes because he doesn't want her to see handcuffs. And she's like, I haven't seen handcuffs before. And he's like, I've seen handcuffs, too. And she's like, on TV or real life? I'm like, come on, man. Like, real life. And he's like, it's TV. On TV. Right?
We go in there, uh, Deborah Jo Rupp, our social worker is telling us good news. You don't have to be between a partition today. You actually get a chance to hug your mom. Right. She's so excited. So looking forward to seeing her mom. We go inside, we're waiting. I'm talking about her hair again, just trying to be silly, get her to laugh or whatnot. Enjoy yourself.
Deborah Jo comes up and she says, you know, something happened. She doesn't want to see. Yeah.
She opted out of the visit.
I was like, I didn't know she could opt out. Like she said, yeah, you know, it's court order, but she has the option of not, you know, coming. And I sort of like say something, I was like, man, who's looking out for this kid, man? Like, this is some bull. Like we, she went through all of this stuff to be here, to see her.
I'm like, and it's sort of like indicting her as well as like, you guys, somebody has to be caring for this child. And she's like, look, bro, you coming after me? And this is, this is shout out to all social workers. Unquestionably. They're saints. The things that they see.
Yeah, it's nuts.
It is incredible because there's a very high turnover in social work. It's a matter of like two, three years sometimes.
Understandably.
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Chapter 7: How do the characters navigate their family dynamics?
Yes. That's the prison part of your personality. People are like, I don't want to be here. No. I definitely don't like this.
I want to see you angry, just like on the sidelines and not at me.
And you need it so that people can tell the difference between this situation. You do. And that situation. Absolutely.
Absolutely. So then we get home, we have that scene with R&B, and then Randall goes back to visit Shawna himself.
Yes.
And we see that Shawna actually got jumped, faces sort of black and blue, beat up, says, I didn't want my daughter to see me like this. And they sort of have this conversation about who's best for Deja, what not. Randall says something like, well, I'm on this side of the glass. And again, she's like, you think you know my story. Like, you know, I was trying to get myself right.
And then comes Lonzo. I'm carrying his gun for him, sort of try to keep him, you know, something from happening to him. And I just got caught at the wrong time with somebody else's stuff, right? And the interesting thing about it is that Randall then has a moment of realization after recognizing that he was very judgmental and assumed that he knew who this woman was. People did that to my dad.
He's like, I thought about William. He's talking to Beth at the end of the episode.
Yeah, that monologue.
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