For the final time,This Is Ustold the story ofSusan Kelechi Watson’s beloved character, Beth Pearson.
Watson had a significant part in co-writing the last Beth-centric episode, titled “Our Little Island Girl: Part Two,” with writer Eboni Freeman. As many will recall, season 3 was when audiences first learned more about Beth’s childhood and dance pursuits in the “Our Little Island Girl” episode. Viewers last saw a glimpse of Beth as a renowned dance teacher in the flashforward scene during the season 3 finale. Now, in Tuesday’s episode, fans finally saw how Beth achieved a fulfilling career in the dance industry — which did not accept her at first.
Elsewhere, Rebecca (Mandy Moore) was navigating a new relationship with Matt (Matt Corboy), the salesman and single father she reconnected with during a speed dating outing. Everyone will be gathering for the Pearson family’s favorite Thanksgiving, including Miguel (Jon Huertas) and his girlfriend Marguerite. Meanwhile, Kevin (Logan Shroyer) tells sister Kate (Hannah Zeile) and wife Sophie (Amanda Leighton) that he was unfaithful in his marriage and cheated on Sophie with an actress in his acting class.
Below, Watson and Freeman tell PEOPLE all about how the “little island girl who danced before she walked” found her purpose and the importance of never giving up, despite the adversities.
Ron Batzdorff/NBC
PEOPLE: What was your intention with this episode?
EBONI FREEMAN: We’ve seen Beth in season 3 in a future storyline, we saw that she has this amazing dance studio and she is sort of like a Debbie Allen, and that she is basically living her dream, living this dance dream. And so, I think as we tie up loose ends in season 6 it was important for us to show how she got there. A big thing was to be able to tie up that storyline and the storyline from “Our Little Island Girl [Part 1]” and show really how she came from saying, “Hey, I’m going to now pursue this dance dream” and how she got there. That was a big important thing that we have for this episode.
SUSAN KELECHI WATSON: One of the things that I realized, post-writing with Eboni on it and after seeing it, was a major theme to me became releasing things in the past that have held you back and allowing yourself to be who you are now and finding this sort of greater place for yourself. Beth deals with a lot of demons from the past in terms of what dance has left her with. There are some scars there and there is sort of this moment that happens with her dance teacher Vincent (Goran Visnjic). She’s been trying to have that reckoning since she was in her teens. She finally gets to have it and release this place of shame that she’s been carrying with her, a place that she’s shied away from and that she’s hidden from her family.
Now she gets to face that demon and release it and say like, “I’m not gonna let that hold me back anymore. I know who I am and I’m gonna step into that fully. I’m unafraid to be that and there is a place for me in this world.” And she validates herself in that moment. I feel like that’s really the powerful moment of the storyline, is that she allows herself to release this past that has held her back and fully embraces this new future and she validates that for herself, which is really important.
For Beth’s phone call with Vincent decades later, in terms of writing that emotional dialogue, what was that like for you knowing that you would have to also act that out as your character?
SKW: That was the moment where I felt the character coming to an end. That was the moment when I was writing it, it was like a hurricane was going on in New York or some kind of tropical storm, so I had all this time to just sit and write. I remember writing into some of the monologues and stuff at the end and feeling like, “Oh wow, this is like Beth’s final opus in a way.” It’s like her last moment where we really see what’s going on with her, her really fighting for her dreams and fighting to let go of this shame and the guilt that she’s been holding onto. So it was really a moment for me. That moment was where it really clicked that wow, this character and the show is wrapping up and it’s coming to an end. It’s gotten emotional. It was beautiful, it was a beautiful thing to have been given to write. Because it was very poetic on those levels, the fact that this was like the last time we were gonna visit this storyline and I was getting to help, to put a voice to that really was a beautiful moment. Like full circle.
Why is the role of Philadelphia Ballet’s head of new student development and recruitment such a great fit for Beth?
SKW: It is because she now views that as a way to see students not just for their talent, but their passions, their dedication and also a way to nurture them as not just students for their talent but also to fully nurture them. Who they are is just as important as what they do. And this is the first time an idea like that has been introduced into that institution. It’s usually just about the talent and who is the most talented and it’s very competitive in that way. But what she wants to try to do is make sure that these students know that it’s not just about them becoming the person in the spotlight, but if they become the person in the wings, like her, that’s just as important. It’s an idea of total wellness. It’s not just about the dancers' performance and they shouldn’t just be judged on the basis of that, which is what’s so beautiful about her relationship with Stacey (Jazlyn Martin).
When Stacey falls [during the showcase], it’s part of it. The fall isn’t the thing that’s gonna crush her. It’s letting her know that getting up is gonna be the thing that you have to decide if you want to do. And if you get up, you know you can move on past this moment. The whole idea of “I can and I will” that she introduces to this student is very important, it’s making that decision so that through the ups and the downs if you decided that you are gonna do this it’s understanding that the ups are a part of it and the downs are a part of it. But either way, she’s going to support them regardless, which is the support that she didn’t have as a child.
EF: For me, I really connected to Beth’s story as a former dance student — shout out to Debbie Allen Dance Academy [laughs] — and I think one of the things that I thought was amazing about being one of Debbie Allen’s students was that I felt like there at the academy, obviously, you’re there because you wanna be a professional dancer and because it’s such a competitive world, such a hard world to make it in. Obviously, some are going to make it and some aren’t, probably the majority aren’t. But I think that when I was there, what you come away from it is that you’re part of that family. whether you made it or you don’t and I think for any students who have been a part of that academy and who have gotten to know Miss Allen, just know that she cares about you beyond whether you made it as a dancer. She’s proud of all of her students and whether you’re a doctor now, whether you’re in law school or working as a writer. I think that part of the story, I found quite personal to my life and especially the relationship that Beth ends up developing with Stacey.And you know those personal moments of her pouring into her life based on past failures that she’s had and building her up, those are the things that I look back and I really appreciate as a young dancer.
SKW: I would’ve liked to have had someone like that when I was dancing, especially in the early years. Listen it’s a performance-based art/industry. It’s about being not only a dancer but being a great dancer and those dancers get that… and I understand that part of it. It was like if ever at any moment you did not look up to that expectation, then there was a sort of cutting off. It felt like you really kind of did get cut off from the support, the same type of support that you would have if you were one of the top dancers. On one side I understand what the industry is but on the other side, it didn’t allow for moments of change or growth in a person’s life, i.e. what happens with Beth is her father has passed and her body changing. So, it didn’t allow for certain things, you know to be factored in. Whether or not those things do change the trajectory of a dancer’s life, which it might, it doesn’t mean that there can’t be someone on the other side of that who understands what you’re going through and who will try to at least still support and be there for you as you make transitions and things like that. So, I appreciated seeing that in the storyline.
The flashforward scene neatly tied a bow at the very end. An older Beth happily pinned Stacey’s Houston BalletNutcrackerflyer on her expansive wall of photos featuring her many students. Is that flashforward in the same timeframe as Rebecca on her deathbed in Kevin’s future home?
EF: Yes, that’s in the same timeframe as we see Rebecca’s death.
Susan, did you get to write the dialogue for your costars, like Justin and Chrissy?
SKW: That was Eboni.
EF: That was both of us.
SKW: I did Beth’s storyline and Eboni did that storyline and then we brought it together. Once we both finished, we brought the whole thing together. Then we went through it together and rewrote everything. So, yes, in the end, it ends up being both of us. … Working with Eboni was an amazing process and she made it so easy and fun. And so creative, we just worked really well together.
Writing for Chrissy and Justin was really fun because I could hear them in my head. [laughs] I could hear them in my head and just knowing them not just on set, but also as the characters. It was really interesting how I don’t pay attention to those things because I’m not in the writer’s room, of course, all the time. But it really surprised me how much I could hear them. What they would say in that scene felt very specific when we were writing it. It felt like, “Oh, wow I could hear that they would probably say this or that,” which was surprising but it made sense. After six seasons you get to know them really well.
This Is Usairs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.
source: people.com
