Carrot Cake Is Sad and Dumb Questions Are Charming - S:3 Ep.1 "Nine Bucks"

Here are this week’s Really? Moments:

Hold your hashtags – there is a new phrase in town: “Swear on Oprah.” Randall makes Beth “swear on Oprah” that she will not confront Zoe and Kevin about “knocking boots” on his birthday. Beth, of course, breaks her promise, so she makes amends by donating to Oprah’s foundation. Women across the country will now be taking – and breaking - oaths on O magazine, because YOU get your trust broken! And YOU get your trust broken! And YOU get your trust broken!

Never serve carrot cake at a birthday party. After Kate is told that the risk of IVF is too high, Toby offers to cancel her birthday luncheon. Kate says no and puts on a brave face. However, when the carrot cake comes out, Kate cannot hold it together and loses it. Moral of the story: Never serve carrot cake at a party. Carrot cake is sad. Carrot cake makes people cry.

Jack likes a woman who asks dumb questions. The night that Jack and Rebecca go on their first date, Jack tells Rebecca that he just got back from Vietnam. Rebecca then asks, “Was it awful?” Stupid question, but when asked by a cute girl in a beret, it’s CHARMING! Then she goes deep, asking whether Jack likes cats or dogs, and pepperoni or mushrooms on pizza.  Jack is enchanted. I guess after ‘Nam, Jack needs a dose of dumb to treat his PTSD.

10% is a hard concept for some people. After the doctor has second thoughts about Kate’s IVF, she asks Kate and Toby back to help them get pregnant, but explains that there’s just a 10% chance of success. Kate is ecstatic; Toby, understanding what 10% means, is not.  I have gone through infertility, and 10% actually means, “We will do it because we can bill your insurance company, but no, this won’t work”. Kate, on the other hand, seems to have no clue that 90% chance of failure is a very large number.

In This Is Us world, a man with a mustache is a grown-up with a job. At the end of the episode, Jack goes to visit Rebecca after their first date, but sees another man kissing Rebecca.  He has a prominent mustache, is better dressed, and has a bigger… bouquet of flowers than Jack. Pre-married Jack has no mustache, but grows one after he’s married. The only conclusion is that the producers want us to know a man with facial hair is a grown man.

Really? (Rating from 1-5: 1 means nothing too far-fetched happened; 5 means that someone else has died at the hands of a faulty crockpot):

I give this episode a 2. It is early in the season, so I am staying conservative in my rating. Nothing too far fetched happened in this episode, like Jack dying at the hands of a crock pot.