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This Is Us star Susan Kelechi Watson teases Beth showcase episode: 'I realized this was her final opus'

Watson co-wrote this week's installment — and you can watch a clip below.

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Published on February 22, 2022 02:57PM EST

This Is Us returns tonight after a three-week hiatus, and you might want to slip on some pointe shoes to celebrate, because you're dancing back into the world of Beth. "Our Little Island Girl: Part Two" — which was written by Susan Kelechi Watson and TIU co-producer Eboni Freeman — finds Beth at her new job, readying a group of dancers for a big recital.

"We get to see Beth become empowered and own herself and her purpose," Watson tells EW of the episode. "To really get firm in what she wants to do in life, and it's really beautiful. She has been scarred by what has happened in the past, especially within the dance world. How she was treated and the loss of her father have really left scars that she hadn't dealt with. She gets an opportunity to reckon with those things."

This TIU installment — the sixth of the final 18 — also felt like the beginning of the end to Watson. "As I was writing it, I started to tear up because I realized that this was her final opus," she says. "This was my way of also starting to say goodbye to this character. To be able to write her words in that moment was really beautiful."

In an exclusive clip from "Our Little Island Girl: Part Two" (above), Beth frets that she has more than 200 applicants for only 15 spots in her academy. "The fate of the whole program rests on me choosing the right dancers," she tells husband Randall (Sterling K. Brown). Randall gives her a glass of wine and some sound advice — and our gut says you will agree as well.

This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.

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This Is Us star Susan Kelechi Watson teases Beth showcase episode: 'I realized this was her final opus'

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