Highlights, heartbreaks, and fan reactions from season 2, episode 17
Season 2, Episode 17 told a story This Is Us hasn’t told before, showing Deja’s journey with her mother and foster care and finding her way to the Pearsons.
“Welcome to the world, Deja,” Shauna ’s grandmother looks down at baby Deja and gives her a warm and loving welcome to the world. Such a sweet sentiment in an obviously less than favorable circumstance. It’s clear from the start that the only stability and nurturing love Deja will experience as a child is that offered by her great-grandmother. Of course, we realize right away we’re watching This Is Us when GG collapses and passes away within the first 10 minutes of the episode.
Skip ahead several years and we see Deja as we know her now, preparing a birthday dinner for her mom. Deja hurts her hand opening a can of tomatoes, an ingredient needed for her grandma’s jambalaya, but her mom is nowhere to be found because she decided to go out instead of returning home. Deja gets herself to the hospital for medical attention, but being a child, the hospital informs social services that she’s alone, which leads to Deja’s first stint in foster care.
Meet Raven, Deja’s foster care companion, who clearly has lived through some scary times. Raven is spirited, spunky, and tough. She tries to offer Deja friendship and wisdom, which she clearly developed through life experiences she shouldn’t have to have. Deja and Raven are separated after Deja comes forward about their foster dad hitting them. Raven tells Deja, “Next time you find a bed that feels a little safe Deja, don’t blow it.”
When Shauna completes her rehabilitation, Deja is relieved to finally go home and be with her mother again. Her first evening home, Shauna asks Deja if she’d be okay with her friend from rehab joining them for dinner. Although clearly disappointed, Deja agrees. Enter Lonzo, Shauna’s beau and future bane.
It is Lonzo who brings the gun into the home and why the gun ends up in Shauna’s car, leading to Deja’s removal from the home and arrival at the Pearsons’. “Everything happens for a reason” is the only silver lining that can be applied there. Once Deja spends time with Beth and Randall, she is introduced to a normal, happy life. She is still attached to her mother, and so she willingly goes back to her. But when Shauna sees the side of Deja that the stability and comfort the Pearson family brings out in her, she knows the most loving thing she can do at this point is to leave.
Next: This Is Us season 2, episode 17 recap: Deja’s big, amazing, beautiful life
What did you think of these highlights? What were your reactions to the episode? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to keep the conversation going over on Twitter at @thisisuscrying!
This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on NBC.