Randall and Beth Make a Surprising Adoption Decision on ‘This Is Us’

(Warning: This article contains spoilers for This Is Us, “A Manny-Splendored Thing.”)

Toward the end of the first season of This Is Us, Randall decided that he wanted to impact a young life in the same way his was impacted, and he told Beth that he wanted to adopt a child.

In last week’s season premiere, the perfectly-imperfect couple debated the topic for quite a while. Beth was on the fence, but she ended the episode by doubling down on Randall’s proposal, suggesting that they look into adopting an older child.

Tonight, in the second episode of the season, Randall and Beth finally made their decision. Another child will be entering the Pearson family very soon. But, that addition might not be permanent.

Following Beth’s idea, the couple chose to apply to become foster parents and take in an older kid who most other families would overlook. As you can imagine, this didn’t come without a lot of fuss on Randall’s part.

He worried about their ability to raise someone who already had problems. Since both of the girls were angels from birth, Randall thought that maybe he and Beth weren’t great parents, that their daughters were just well-behaved.

Fortunately, Beth talked some since into him. At the end of the episode, Randall decided his wife was right, and he was ready to finish the foster parent application.

New episodes of This Is Us air on Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.