WARNING: The following contains spoilers for This Is Us Season 5, Episode 9, "The Ride," which aired Tuesday on NBC.

This week's episode of This Is Us, "The Ride," focuses on the family car -- specifically how it's a place that allows the Pearson families to bond -- though the episode doesn't start there. Instead it opens on a maternity ward at a hospital where one of the young doctors opts out of a lesson during a rotation there after commenting that babies aren't that hard.

The episode then flashes back to Jack and Rebecca at the hospital soon after their children were born. After assuring a scared Rebecca that everything will be okay, Jack leaves her with the babies to go install their car seats in the backseat of the car, a task he insists he doesn't need a manual to accomplish. However, he ends up struggling to secure the three seats, and only feels more overwhelmed when a security guard balks when Jack says he has three babies.

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In the present, Kevin similarly struggles to install the car seats for his newborn twins. As he struggles, a random fan takes a photo of him, causing Kevin to snap from exhaustion and frustration before apologizing and posing for the fan. When he returns to Madison's hospital room, she tells him they are cleared to return home, but Kevin seems nervous about losing the security blanket of the hospital.

The episode then jumps to a flashback of Randall and Beth bringing a newborn Annie home from the hospital. It's their second baby and Annie is very calm, so they're feeling confident about being new parents again. Before they leave, Beth reminds Randall they need to stop at Dairy Queen for a snickers blizzard on the way home. But the real emotional moment of the scene comes when the nurse observes Annie has Randall's eyes and he is truly moved.

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In the present, Toby waits outside the hospital for Kate and their newborn, Hailey, with a homemade sign greeting their family's newest member. As he holds his daughter for the first time, Kate tells him they need to be sensitive to Hailey's birth mother, Ellie due to the difficulty of the separation process. Ellie joins them after signing the papers for the baby, and while she cracks a joke in the moment, she's obviously tense. The episode then goes into a montage of the various Pearsons loading their new babies into their cars. It starts with Jack and Rebecca, is followed by Madison and Kevin and then shows Randall and Beth.

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In the past, Jack and Rebecca drive home, and despite Jack's insistence that Rebecca was a warrior through the past couple days, Rebecca is worried about the babies' safety in the back seat. Both parents are anxious, and just after Jack tells Rebecca everything is fine, all three babies wake up screaming. Jack grips the steering wheel hard with stress.

The show cuts to Randall and Beth driving home. Randall is incredibly prepared, and the couple are operating like a parenting dream team. However, things start to get rocky between them when Randall suggests they get a new car, a family car, in case they have a third kid. Beth isn't ready to talk about having yet another kid -- after all, she just gave birth.

In the present, Madison is doing really well with the twins on their way home, but Kevin is exhausted. Madison offers to drive, but that's when Kevin notices they are being followed. He thinks the paparazzi are tailing them and it only puts him in a worse mood. At the same time in a different car, Kate tries to engage with a withdrawn Ellie by talking about Ellie's daughter, Willow. When Kate brings up visits and play dates for Hailey and Ellie, Ellie admits she doesn't think she wants an open adoption after all and doesn't think she will be able to maintain a relationship with Hailey.

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In the past, Jack tries to calm his three crying babies and anxious wife when they are cut off by a reckless driver. Both cars pull over at a gas station and an enraged Jack goes to confront the driver, forcing Rebecca to intervene and call him away before the situation escalates. Jack tries to refocus his attention on refueling their car, but it's clear he is only getting further overwhelmed by the events of the day.

In the present, Kevin complains about the paparazzi and starts driving erratically in an attempt to lose the car tailing them. In response, Madison makes him pull over, but the other car pulls over too, validating Kevin's suspicions. Just like Jack, Kevin confronts the other driver. Madison steps in, sends Kevin back to their car and, in exchange for the man leaving them alone now, she promises to call him with a future tip for when he can get a photo a shirtless Kevin jogging. Madison then drives them home, insisting Kevin gets some rest.

As Randall and Beth wait in line at Dairy Queen, Randall brings up the idea of a third kid again. His inability to table the conversation for later causes Beth to become upset and storm off on her own, leaving Randall alone with Annie. This leads into another flash forward involving the young doctor from the beginning of the episode. A friend picks her up from work and gifts her a French baby toy because the doctor is pregnant, something she hasn't yet told many people.

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In the past at the gas station, Jack picks up some nuts as well as a tiny bottle of whiskey and mints inside the station's store. He claims he's celebrating becoming a father, but really he's using the booze to calm his nerves. He asks Rebecca to drive the rest of the way home, but doesn't tell her it's because he had a drink.

In the present, Kate and Toby are back at home, and since Hailey is settled, Kate takes the opportunity to ask why Toby isn't more upset about what happened with Ellie. Toby says he feels bad, but admits he knew there was a possibility Ellie would decide she didn't want to be part of Hailey's life. Kate reveals her anxiety about the situation is the result of witnessing Randall's struggles with being adopted. Toby assures her that Hailey will always know the true story about her adoption and birth mother because they can give Hailey that, even if they can't give her a relationship with Ellie.

At the Dairy Queen, Randall talks to baby Annie. He confesses he was happy to hear his daughter has his eyes, something that has special significance to him because he didn't share any physical characteristics with his adoptive parents growing up. He tells his newborn daughter about a family tree project he did in school, and Beth returns with their ice cream in time to hear the story too. While Randall filled in the branches with his adoptive family, the project reminded him that he didn't really know what those branches were. So as an adult building his own family, his wife and daughters provide him with branches to create a new family tree that will continue to grow.

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In the past, Jack and Rebecca make it home and realize all three babies are finally asleep. Rebecca warns Jack you're never supposed to wake a sleeping baby, so they wait in the car in silence. In the present, Toby tells Kate why he thinks Ellie chose them to adopt her baby. He believes Ellie saw an unflappable parent in Kate, so while their adoption may not be going as planned, they will figure it out. Toby then reveals he was just laid off from his job. Instead of panicking, Kate is sympathetic. She also says the job stuff can wait until the next day as the current day is about family, proving Toby's observation that Kate is strong and calm in the face of setbacks.

Meanwhile, Kevin has a dream where he speaks to Jack, which gives him the opportunity to ask his dad how he managed to be such a good parent. Jack tells him the only thing he ever wanted was Rebecca and their kids and that perspective allowed him to be the way he was. Jack instructs Kevin to stop trying to live up to him, observing both he and Kevin spent too much time comparing themselves to their fathers with Jack trying not to be like his and Kevin wanting to emulate his. Jack tells Kevin to close his eyes, picture what he wants and go get it. He then comments that the twins are beautiful and leaves. Kevin wakes up in his and Madison's car where Madison left him after he passed out. When Kevin comes in the house, he tells Madison he wants to marry her and officially be a family. He promises her any ring she wants, but as a placeholder he gives her his hospital bracelet and proposes. She says yes.

In the Pearson's car in the past, Rebecca admits she feels like a different person than she was prior to giving birth. She reveals her mom lost a baby to miscarriage and was sad for a long time because of the loss. Due to that experience, Rebecca is scared she will be a bad mom because she will be too sad for too long after losing one of her babies in childbirth. Jack counters that he isn't worried about Rebecca being a good mom, he knows she will be. Jack admits he had a whiskey at the gas station because he was overwhelmed. He's afraid this means he's like his own father, whose drunken belligerence would suck the air out of a room. But Rebecca tells him he doesn't suck the air out of the room, he is the air in the room.

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The episode jumps to a montage of Jack and Rebecca and their kids in the car at various points in their lives, and then cuts to Randall and his family in their car in the present. The sequence returns to the young doctor from the beginning and middle of the episode. The doctor is an adult Deja who is driving with Annie to Rebecca's home. Randall is already there and happy to see his daughters. As the episode ends, he and Deja greet an unseen arrival pulling their car up to the house.

Created by Dan Fogelman, This Is Us stars Milo Ventimiglia, Mandy Moore, Justin Hartley, Chrissy Metz, Sterling K. Brown, Chris Sullivan and Susan Kelechi Watson. New episodes air Tuesdays at 9pm ET/PT on NBC.

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