This Is Us: Susan Kelechi Watson on Beth's final breakthrough moment

On This Is Us, Beth Pearson has served as the glue, the rock, the voice of logic, the bottom-liner with the one-liners — however you analogize her, she is the MVP at Pearson East HQ, and she always does it with a sparkle in her eye and sometimes with a glass of wine in her hand. But Beth often plays a supporting role to those around her, which has meant backgrounding her own desires. In "Our Little Island Girl: Part Two," though, Beth would take center stage by staking her claim in the wings.

She began her new job at the City Ballet of Philadelphia, trying to launch a competitive scholarship program that would help the underdogs like she once was. She faced down old demons by finally telling chilly ballet god Vincent (Goran Visnjic) that he had lifted her up but then simply dropped her with a thud when he didn't see a future for her. Beth proved to be his opposite, serving as a model mentor to an underdog aspiring dancer in whom she saw so much of her young self. And in this act, she realized that her purpose was in helping others, drawing us a big step closer to the boss Beth that we glimpsed in the deep future, lording over the world (of dance).

Meanwhile, Kate (Chrissy Metz) felt like she was still in a long-distance relationship with Toby (Chris Sullivan), who was home but more married to his phone. She also exorcised a failed-friendship demon from the past while telling Kevin (Justin Hartley) that he needed to let Madison (Caitlin Thompson) pursue a romantic relationship on her own terms. Speaking of which, Madison's boyfriend, Elijah (Adam Korson), shed his fanboy/nice guy label by standing up to Kevin.

And back in past, young adult Kevin (Logan Shroyer) torched his marriage to Sophie (Amanda Leighton) with Kate's aforementioned friendship with Sophie going up in collateral flames. Miguel (Jon Huertas) battled jealous pangs when Rebecca (Mandy Moore) invited new boyfriend Matt (Matt Corby) to Thanksgiving dinner. But those roles would reverse when Miguel invited a companion of his own.

Let's turn on our Bluetooth headset, pop in a Thelma and Louise DVD, stress-eat some Thai dumplings, and try not to get scared around hats as we interview the two writers of the episode, the multi-tasking Susan Kelechi Watson and This Is Us co-producer Eboni Freeman. I mean, brine not?

This Is Us — Susan Kelechi Watson as Beth. Ron Batzdorff/NBC

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: In this episode, Beth reclaimed her power, vanquished more demons from her past, and realized exactly what she wanted to do with her life, setting her course for the end game that we've already glimpsed. How did you two go about creating this installment?

EBONI FREEMAN: In thinking about this episode, [creator] Dan Fogelman really knew that he wanted to give Beth a big moment in this final season. And one of the important themes was for us to, in her dance story line from "Our Little Island Girl [Part One]," basically tie up the loose ends of what we saw at the end of season 3, when we flash to the future, and we see that, "Oh, wow. Beth Pearson has this dance academy that looks pretty prestigious, and she's a Debbie Allen-esque figure at this dance academy." So a part of that was showing the audience how Beth got to that moment. The rest of the storylines came about in our regular story-breaking process of continuing to work out the arcs of the rest of our characters as well.

SUSAN KELECHI WATSON: I got the outline of it before I started, and they already broke down what was going to happen, scene by scene. So I was able to write into that, and write the dialogue from there, transitions and all that kind of stuff. I knew that this would be the moment where we find out how Beth reached the heights that she's reached in the future, as we saw when we had a little glimpse into the future.

I didn't know that she was going to be reckoning with her past in the way that she ended up doing so, but that was really the exciting part of it. It was this moment where she was going to release this shame that she's been carrying, and really step into a new version of herself and really embrace who she is now — and stand up to somebody who made her feel small in the past. That was really important. That feels like something that we can all relate to; that's something we've done or something we would love to do. But one of the most important things that she does is, in the end, validate herself. And what's great about her [is] she ends up validating it for herself and saying, "Yeah, I'm not the person who's meant to be in the spotlight, but I do a hell of a job in the wings." That's just as important for different reasons. I found that to be a beautiful surprise at the end of this.

In the first Our Little Island Girl, Beth gains the courage to confront her mother about dashing her dreams. Here, Beth musters additional courage to confront the other person who crushed her dreams and "discarded" her, finishing something that she tried to do decades ago. How do you compare those two moments of reclamation for her? Did you view this as not just "Part Two" in the title, but as the second half of her journey toward finally making peace with her past?

WATSON: I think that's the thing, right? [There] is a part two to it. One, reconciling things with her mom, and how that made her feel, giving up her dream. And then the other part of it was this man who she saw as her hero, her mentor, he was her everything during that time, and he just abandoned her at a time where she needed him the most. So it is well-titled in that way; it's the part two, right? Sometimes you're unpacking something — a trauma from the past — and you don't just unpack it once. Sometimes there's different things you have to unpack about it.

The other part of it was the person who she really looked up to and felt so much support from. For him to just completely move on from her was devastating, and she couldn't leave the scar of that behind until now. So it's interesting because there's this moment that that is echoed in a moment that I have — in a scene where Rachel [Hilson], who plays young Beth, is trying to tell Vincent at the bar how he made her feel and what he did to her just a year or two ago. She goes to speak and it doesn't come out. There's a moment where Beth is on the phone with him and she goes to speak, and that same pause happens [laughs], but then it starts to trickle out. I just found those two things so beautiful. She couldn't do it at that time, and now it's just as hard, [but] she's able to push through and get the words out. And as she continues to speak, the strength grows even more. She was able to unpack all of this stuff, it just took time. It took where she is now in her life. It took her encountering Stacey and all of these things to show her that she does have a place in all of this. It might not have been in the spotlight, but it's in the wings.

We're approaching the end game for the show now. Was finishing this episode bittersweet for both of you, feeling like "Beth's Jedi training is essentially complete"?

WATSON: For sure. I was writing her monologue and it was emotional to write it because I knew that this was it for her story line. And it was wrapping that up. It was the moment of really being emotional, but really being grateful that I got a chance to be a part of that — not just as the actor, but as the writer and being able to contribute to how this moment was going to really happen. It was really a beautiful time. It was emotional, but it felt like a real full-circle moment.

FREEMAN: It was definitely full circle and beautiful, because "Our Little Island Girl [Part One]" was the first episode of television [I wrote], and then for my final episode on the show to be able to not only work with Susan again in this beautiful story that ties everything up, but also to be able to work with her behind the scenes and co-write it and produce it, it was just a really awesome experience. We really had fun writing it.

Dan offered every cast member a chance to take charge behind the scenes, and most chose to direct. You and Chrissy elected to write an episode. Why did you choose this path?

WATSON: I chose that path because I felt it was the most organic of the direction I'm moving in. Especially post-This Is Us. I've already written a script, and writing has been a part of my journey since I was in elementary school. And also, the opportunity to produce on the show was really something that lines up with everything I'm doing outside of the show as well. So it just felt like the best fit for me. I was really thinking that I would direct, but I was going to direct more to just have the experience of directing. It's not something that I necessarily feel like I want to do in the future. But writing is something that I definitely am going to be doing, and I have been doing.

What was the biggest challenge in pulling this episode together?

WATSON: I feel like — and Eboni, you might agree — it was finding our Stacey, right?

FREEMAN: Yes! [Laughs] It was finding Jazlyn. Stacey, who was played by Jazlyn Martin, was a huge thing, because I think back when we did "Our Little Island Girl [Part One]," it was a huge thing to find Rachel Hilson, who plays teen Beth. And that was amazing because she's just an awesome actress, as well as she not only embodied Beth Pearson as a character, but she was a former dancer herself, so she was able to really play that part with authenticity. Because for all of us who are dancers and who were former dancers, we know that a dancer walks a certain way. They carry themselves a certain way.

When we were finding Stacy, we obviously wanted to find someone who could dance, first of all, and who could perform and who could embody a dancer as authentically as possible. But also someone who could act their butt off, who could play alongside Susan and hold her own. For me as a writer, it was awesome to see Susan and Jazlyn together in their scene. There was such a wonderful vulnerability that Jazlyn had. Susan, when we both saw her audition, we were texting each other, like, "Oh my gosh! She's got it!" [They laugh.]

How will the strides that Beth made in this episode — and the victory she had — help her with challenges in the family? Deja (Lyric Ross) is currently on the precipice of war with Randall over moving to Boston and in with her boyfriend.

WATSON: Well, for most parents, the victory is short-lived. [They laugh.] Gotta enjoy it in the moment, because the next moment's coming for you. And it comes with Deja and Malik [Asante Blackk]. Yes, [there's] more going on there. Look, Deja's getting older and feeling herself and feeling like she wants to start doing some decision-making for herself and she's very much in love and it's her first love. And you can't deny that Malik is a great guy. But as she starts to get in over her head and some of this decision making, Beth and Randall are definitely going to have to continue to step in there and to figure it out.

Before the end of the series, will viewers get to see cousin Zoe and Mama C one more time?

FREEMAN: I can pretty much say that we won't.

Speaking of finding your voice and owning your power, who did it best in this week's episode: Beth or Elijah?

WATSON: That is good! They both exhibited some real courage and passion right there. I'm going to say Beth, because she had to wait longer to do it.

FREEMAN: That's right.

WATSON: She has more time, and there's more weight behind it. I think that Elijah's shooting his shot and I can dig it, you know what? I'm proud of him for doing that.

The show recently resurfaced Cassidy (Jennifer Morrison). In this episode, Sophie (Alexandra Breckenridge) was texting with Kate. Any hints about what's to come with Sophie?

FREEMAN: I can't say whether we'll see Sophie again, but I think that that was important. We always work thematically on the show as far as what happened in the past and what's going on in the present. We learned that she was in the middle of Kevin cheating on Sophie and it broke up her friendship. What's happening in the present with Madison and Kevin echoes that. So it was just a great full-circle moment to have Kate reach out to her at the end of the episode.

If Miguel had his "I Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore" moment when Matt asked out Rebecca at the speed dating event, did Rebecca have hers when Miguel said he was bringing Marguerite at Thanksgiving? It's getting interesting there.

FREEMAN: I've heard a lot of people say, "Hey, in the sixth season, we want to see how did Miguel and Rebecca actually fall in love and get together?" All we know so far is that they connected on Facebook years later after Jack's death. But we do know that there was a period of time after Jack's death where Miguel really was helping out with the family and really being there for the Pearsons.. So, yeah, Rebecca's totally getting jealous [laughs] in that moment of Marguerite.

Finally, can you each offer a quick tease for the next episode?

WATSON: Thanksgiving always brings drama.

FREEMAN: Pearson Thanksgiving will be the mother of all episodes.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

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