This Is Us Recap 11/05/19: Season 4 Episode 7 “The Dinner and the Date”

This Is Us Recap 11/05/19: Season 4 Episode 7 "The Dinner and the Date"

Tonight on NBC their honest & provocative dramedy series This Is Us airs with an all-new Tuesday, November 5, 2019, episode and we have your This Is Us recap below.  On tonight’s This Is Us season 4 episode 7 called, “The Dinner and the Date,” as per the NBC synopsis, “Deja pushes the boundaries of Randall and Beth’s trust; Jack and Rebecca invite Randall’s new teacher over for dinner.”

So make sure to bookmark this spot and come back from 9 PM – 10 PM ET! for our This Is Us recap. While you wait for the recap make sure to check out all our This is Us recaps, spoilers, news & more, right here!

Tonight’s This Is Us Recap begins now – Refresh Page often to get the most current updates!

This Is Us begins tonight with Deja Pearson (Lyric Ross) sitting on the bus with Malik Hodges (Asante Blackk). He jokes that he would have given Deja back after she took a baseball bat to her father, Randall Pearson’s (Sterling K. Brown) Mercedes. She is tired of people talking about Philly Cheese Steak before, she’s never been to Max’s Steaks. She talks about when she was a child and came to Philadelphia with her mother and aunt. She can’t remember too much as there were Christmas lights but it was warm out. She hates not remembering things from when her grandmother was alive. Malik suggests they skip school and he can show her “his Philly.” All the students get off the bus when Deja sits back down, smiling at what they are doing.

Randall returns home to see Beth Pearson (Susan Kelechi Watson) with Deja, sitting in the living room. Randall demands to know why she was with Malik after she was told not to; she gives him an attitude and they order her to get to her room and she is grounded for a decade.

Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia) is dressing while Rebecca Pearson (Mandy Moore) is applying makeup. She feels he is definitely getting very dressy for this dinner, she gets defensive when Kevin (Justin Hartley) wanted his teacher over for dinner, he refused but now he is encouraging Randall’s teacher Mr. Cory Lawrence (Brandon Scott) and his wife Trish Lawrence (Skye P. Marshall) to come over. He explains how curious he is about this teacher since Randall is so invested in him.

Meanwhile, Cory and Trish get ready for the dinner as he retrieves a poetry book for Randall. He says Mr. Pearson invited them and it is just dinner. She laughs as he puts on her coat.

Randall learns that Beth invited Malik’s parents in hopes that they will work with them to splits Malik and Deja. She reminds him this isn’t a recruitment dinner, this is for them to get to know his parents and to see if they are good people; and maybe they don’t have to keep the kids apart. She asks him to have an open mind as it is the only way they are going to get through this. Kelly Hodges (Marsha Stephanie Blake) and Darnell Hodges (Omar Epps) proceed to drive to the Pearson’s home for dinner, with his mom mad that they skipped school but his father said he only missed one day of school in 3 years.

Beth asks Deja to go get her sisters for dinner. She begs Randall to not take his anger out on Malik. The doorbell sounds and Beth reminds Randall to keep an open mind, like her open-toed shoes.

Mr. Lawrence arrives as Jack watches Randall and his teacher do their secret handshake. In the present day, Mrs. Hodges asks everyone to stay a little quiet as Malik’s daughter is sleeping. Deja and Malik arrive at Max’s restaurant with Malik revealing there is a cheese named after his grandfather. She feels it is dope that everyone there knows his name and she doesn’t have anything like that. Malik takes her outside and brings her back in, introducing her to everyone so she feels like she is a regular there now.

Deja is introduced to the Hodges as Annie Pearson (Faithe Herman) and Tess Pearson (Eris Baker) come down the stairs, immediately saying it is crazy that Malik has a baby. Beth says dinner isn’t quite ready, offering them wine. She takes Kelly to the kitchen as Randall suggests he and Darnell can discuss the children’s situation. Randall doesn’t feel very good after their short chat, telling Beth that Darnell thinks they are booshy.

A young Randall (Lonnie Chavis) shows Mr. Lawrence his bookcase, as Jack explains he made the bookcase himself. He comments how Randall made a mistake with the books, he put the books in order according to publication dates but he mixed one up. Kevin (Parker Bates) calls him the adult version of Randall, making everyone laugh. Jack takes Kevin into the other room as Rebecca tells them dinner is ready and they proceed to the kitchen.

Malik shows Deja around to all the special places he knows. Deja stares at the mural feeling it is beautiful. Malik compliments her on her beauty and takes several pictures of Deja, finishing their day with ice cream, causing Deja to recall the time she came to Philly with her mom. Malik shows her a park, saying it was kind of like his own backyard, even bringing his daughter, Janelle there sometimes. The two lay down on the grass and look to the sky as Malik reaches for Deja’s hand. They are looking into each other’s eyes when Deja moves and apologizes when he is about to kiss her. She says she doesn’t want to be there anymore.

At home, Randall is very absent-minded, so Darnell tells him dinner is done; he offers to help out, rolling up his sleeves for Randall to see his tattoos. Randall says he spoke to the principal who is only giving the kids one-day detention but he had hoped for a bigger punishment. Darnell defends his son, saying he said he was sorry and Malik promises it will never happen again. Randall sees the teens sitting with the baby, both father’s admitting that the quick changes in life are terrifying.

Kelly questions how hard it is to raise someone else’s child; causing Beth to get defensive. She confronts her about all the baggage Deja has considering her mother is a drug addict and she was living in a car. Beth says its the same thing as raising her child’s child. Beth demands Randall to help her get the chips and dip, pulling him into the pantry and chugging some wine. She says Kelly is about to come out of her spirit as Randall says that Darnell is pretty cool. Beth feels Kelly is going to try and pin this all on their girl and that is not about to happen.

Randall talks to Mr. Lawrence as Kevin calls this the most boring dinner ever. Kevin tells his sister, Kate Pearson (Mackenzie Hancsicsak) says that his teacher is so much cooler than this as Kate says Kevin is obsessed with her; he says it is because of her big boobs. Rebecca asks Trish where she got her earrings, revealing it is a cultural festival as Jack learns the festival has been around for a few years and it is held once a month. Lonnie asks if he can go with them the next time, Rebecca protests but his teacher says it is no problem. Jack says they will go there as a family, making Rebecca frown but Mr Lawrence feels it would be good for their family to go.

Malik stops Deja from taking off on him, sorry but says he wasn’t trying to do anything. Deja confesses that she has never liked anyone before and he gives her butterflies. She never thought someone would look at her the way he does. She is concerned as she only known men to lie to women and only knows one man who hasn’t ever lied to her. She reminds him that he has a baby and she doesn’t know if she can trust him. She has real plans in her life and this is all too scary as she asks him to take her back to school.

Jack and Rebecca clear the table as she wants to know what is going on with him and he shouldn’t be competing with Cory because he will always be the winner. She doesn’t want him to make Randall choose because he could be missing out on something really special; something he needs.

At the Pearsons’, Kelly asks if they can say grace before the meal; Beth pipes up saying people hold different traditions. Kelly says the prayer, mocking the Pearsons as they are not regular churchgoers. Randall talks to Darnell about his repair shop and if there is anything he needs to be done as a friendly neighborhood councilman. Darnell says he doesn’t get involved in politics and didn’t vote for Randall; suddenly Janelle starts crying and Tess offers to help with the baby. Annie says that Deja is dating Malik, so that makes her technically the baby’s stepmom; something everyone pushes that thought away. Beth orders for all the girls to go upstairs. Once the kids are upstairs, Beth tells their guests it is time for some real talk!!

Beth says she doesn’t think that Malik and Deja should be dating, but Darnell defends them saying they are only kids and they skipped once. Beth announces the elephant in the room, that the problem is Malik has a baby. Kelly informs them that Deja went to the movies the previous week with Malik and his friends. Beth is furious that Deja has been sneaking around. When Kelly starts in on their parenting and blaming Deja, Beth approaches her and demands to know if she knows for sure they are not having sex; because she clearly didn’t know when he was sleeping with Janelle’s mother. Randall grabs Beth to get her to back off.

Randall tells them they brought Deja out of a tough situation and they worry that Malik is going to take her right back there. Darnell demands to know where Malik is going to drag her back to? The Hood?? Darnell takes off his shirt saying he earned each of his tattoos, but that life is behind him. He says they can either see him for the man he is or they can choose to see their son differently. A single father and a straight-A student, insisting they are not going to write Malik off. Deja returns to the kitchen, apologizing for lying and skipping school and disappointing them. She also apologizes to the Hodges for skipping school but she will not apologize for liking their son and the previous day was the best day of her life.

Malik reveals that Janelle’s mom was his first girlfriend, but he gets how she sees him as a lot of people see him like that. He remembers telling his parents that he got Jennifer pregnant; the look on his dad’s face said it all. He explains that his parents have been together for 22 years and his grandparents were together for 60, but at that moment he let them all down. He likes Deja and that is the truth; just like when he tells her she is beautiful. He understands that she wants to go back to school, but he did have one more place he wanted to show her; Deja takes his hand and asks him to show her.

Rebecca and Jack thank the Lawrences for coming to dinner, both nodding okay to each other. Jack asks Cory to speak to him for a moment. He knows they don’t have to tiptoe around each other, both admitting this wasn’t their finest moments. Jack bluntly tells him that ever since Randall could talk, he would ask Jack questions about why people stared at them. Jack always had an answer for him, not knowing how good they were but lately, Randall’s questions have gotten very complicated and Jack feels like he is letting him down. He admits that Randall is his whole world and he is out of his depth with this one.

Lawrence knew he would be the only black teacher in the school so when he met Randall, he thought he could help Randall at all. He hopes one day he will think back to his teacher and think vaguely how important he is to him. Jack says he cannot teach his son to be black, causing Cory to laugh. He pauses the conversation, getting him the poetry book, saying he was going to give it to Randall but his wife told him to leave it in the car. He informs Jack that Randall is really into this poet and Jack graciously accepts the book, agreeing to see each other at the parent-teacher meeting.

Malik and his parents leave, him only being able to wave bye to Deja who is upstairs in her room. Jack goes to Randall’s room, saying he understands why he likes his teacher and he is pretty cool. He hands Randall the book, saying he is planning to read it too. Randall mocks him, saying this is a book of poetry as Jack insists he likes poetry.

Beth and Randall inform Deja she is grounded for a week for lying to them and this cannot happen again. Randall and Beth talked and agreed that she can see Malik but only supervised. Randall says they didn’t really get to know Malik tonight but they would like to. Deja smiles as they sit down, asking her to share with them. She says he is confident, but not cocky. He’s the type of guy who walks into a room and everyone notices.

A very young Deja is looking at the Christmas lights on all the houses by the water. Deja explains that Malik that he makes her feel like herself and have a piece of home. Back at the spot Malik wanted to show her, she finally gives in and kisses him; it is the same spot with the water and Christmas lights.

A young Randall tells Jack he memorized his favorite poem, Jack asking him to recite it to him. It is a sad poem about a black man begin forced to eat in the kitchen but will not allow it to happen again. Randall asks if they can read the book together, Jack kisses him on the forehead and tells him he would like that very much.

THE END!