Beth's desire to dance will always hold a special place in my heart.

As someone born to write, I identify strongly with her need to dance despite her mother's disapproval of her career choice and her attempt to have a more conventional career before realizing what she was supposed to be doing.

She finally found her true calling on This Is Us Season 6 Episode 6: teaching other dancers. What a powerful, emotional resolution to Beth's series-long career journey!

Beth's attachment to Stacy could have gone in a different, less fruitful direction. In the hands of less talented writers, she might have over-identified with the student who was so much like her and becomes blind to that student's shortcomings.

Fortunately, it didn't go that way, and instead, Stacy helped Beth find her purpose.

Beth: Stacy, I will sit with you on this stage until the audience gets bored and all leaves one by one. Or, you can get up and start again. Either way, know two things: you cannot disappoint me and I ain't going nowhere.
Randal; [to Deja and Tess]: You're gonna forget a lot of things as you grow up. But always remember how amazing your mother is.

• Permalink: You're gonna forget a lot of things as you grow up. But always remember how amazing your...

When Stacy began dancing, I could feel Beth holding her breath and praying it all went well. I was relieved when she began dancing superbly, then heartbroken when she fell.

That led to one of Beth's most empowering speeches, and even better, to Stacy being able to pursue a career as a dancer after all.

And then there was Randall's reaction to Beth's getting on that stage with Stacy too.

Beth: Stacy, I will sit with you on this stage until the audience gets bored and all leaves one by one. Or, you can get up and start again. Either way, know two things: you cannot disappoint me and I ain't going nowhere.
Randal; [to Deja and Tess]: You're gonna forget a lot of things as you grow up. But always remember how amazing your mother is.

• Permalink: You're gonna forget a lot of things as you grow up. But always remember how amazing your...

Randall's comment was one of the first reminders that This Is Us truly is almost over. We won't be able to share every aspect of the Pearson girls' growing up or find out what they remember and don't remember about Beth.

We'll get a glimpse of their future in that final flash-forward to Rebecca's deathbed. But that's all we get: a glimpse and the rest left to our imaginations.

But as hard as it's going to be to say goodbye to the Pearsons, at least we get stories like this. I loved Beth finally confronting her old ballet teacher after all these years and taking back her identity as the girl who danced before she walked.

And the flash-forward to Beth in her office getting ready to talk to recruits, complete with a bulletin board full of success stories, was a beautiful testament to how many lives she will touch now that she's found her purpose. Wow!

As much as I loved this story, I was disappointed that Deja's conflict with Randall over Malik was not mentioned.

It seemed that had all been forgotten as the girls came to support Beth. When Randall made his speech about always remembering Beth's amazing, I wondered what Deja was thinking.

Beth has been the voice of reason for this Malik situation, but we left off with Deja wanting to graduate early and move to Boston with Malik while neither of her parents approved of this plan.

The Malik story doesn't have to be the center of every episode, and this one was about Beth. But still, some mention of the unresolved conflict would have been nice, even if it was only a short scene where Deja agreed to put it aside for the moment to support Beth.

There were some interesting parallels between the Kevin/Elijah storyline in the present and the Miguel/Rebecca one in the past.

In both cases, the men had to put up with the woman they want being with someone else. Of course, the difference is that Miguel ends up with Rebecca eventually, while so far, it seems Kevin and Madison are over.

As Elijah said, if Kevin is biding his time until Elijah is out of the picture, he may be waiting a long while.

Miguel is in the position that Elijah may be in someday, too, since Rebecca already had kids who didn't want a stepfather at first.

Still, though, it did seem like the same situation across generations. I hope that Kevin will take some advice from Miguel about this when he arrives at the Pearson cabin for Thanksgiving.

The Kevin/Sophie situation was also oddly parallel to Toby and Kate's problems.

Kevin and Sophie were on opposite coasts most of the time while Kevin pursued his acting career, and that distance contributed to Kevin cheating on Sophie.

Similarly, Toby is not around a lot, and when he is, he's making work calls until all hours of the night. Kate isn't likely to cheat on Toby, but the distance and the lack of time together, ever, is killing their marriage.

And with both Toby and Kate mentioning that Kevin's presence is a problem, but both refusing his offer to move out, I'm worried that they may blame Kevin when their marriage finally implodes.

I wish we didn't know that Toby and Kate aren't going to make it. It might pack a bigger punch that way.

After all, Kate and Toby are often in crisis and always work through it, so if we didn't know that they're headed for disaster, it might be shocking that they don't overcome their problems this time.

Anyway, the big question is why Toby is working so much. It's one thing to take a job he loves in another city, but even when he's home, he seems to be on the clock.

Is Toby's new job that demanding, or is he using work to hide from the more significant problems in his relationship? If it's the latter, that's tragic since his lack of attention to his marriage is part of what will kill it.

Kevin was spiraling downward during and after cheating on Sophie. I almost forgot he was an alcoholic, but all his drinking over his guilt was the beginning of his downfall. Sophie leaving likely won't help that, either.

The main point here, of course, was that Kate lost her friendship with Sophie because she protected Kevin--only for Kevin to accuse her of NOT having it years later because she suggested Madison wait till a better time to tell him she didn't want to go to the Pearson Thanksgiving.

It didn't seem like a coincidence that young Sophie was a lot like Madison in looks and personality. It's almost as if Kevin found a similar relationship that got screwed up again by his perceived lack of ability to commit.

But for the love of all that is holy, please don't let this foreshadow that Kevin and Sophie will end up together in the end. That's been played out several times over, and it's beyond time for Kevin to move on.

Your turn, This Is Us fanatics. Hit that big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know your thoughts! And don't forget to check back toward the end of the week for the latest This Is Us Round Table discussion.

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This Is Us airs on NBC on Tuesdays at 9 PM EST/PST. The next new episode airs on March 8, 2022.

Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on X.