A Crazy Uncle Lives and The Future Looks Weird - S:3 Ep. 9 "The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning"

Here are this week’s Really Moments:

Let’s start with the title. This episode is called “The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning.” What endless circle of Hell is this? If the beginning is the end is the beginning then the end is the beginning is the end is the beginning is the end... of sanity. You have to stop somewhere, there has to be an end. Please, let there be an end.

Beth wears the pants in the house. Beth and Randall have a “fight”, although being super-in-love, there is no shouting. It is more an “attitude” with a little throwing of shade, then Beth makes Randall sleep on the couch. But this is actually pretty cold, since I am pretty sure their giant house has a guest room, a finished basement, and maybe a pool house.

Uncle Nicky is not dead; he’s in Pennsylvania. We learn that Nicky did not die in Vietnam, but now lives in a trailer Pennsylvania (which is a lot like death). Sporting a Unabomber look and lots of mystery, we are left wondering if he’s writing a manifesto; is Pennsylvania better or worse than Vietnam; and is the family going to reconnect with him? I mean, who wouldn't want to get to know the long-lost uncle who’s been living alone for decades?

Beth apparently becomes a space-age ballet teacher. Future Beth is seen in a weird round studio choreographing ballerinas, which is weird enough, but Beth doesn't even dance. Is this alternative universe Beth? Does she make a career change in her 30s? Becoming a dancer when you are middle aged is like starting a football team at the retirement home - no one has the knees for it.

Rebecca may live to be 100. Future Beth looks at least 20 years older, maybe 30, and says that they are going to visit Randall’s mother. Does Rebecca live to 100? Is there a Dorian Gray-like portrait of her somewhere? Is she a vampire? What is happening?

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 4. I mean between finding out the Pearsons have a crazy Unabomber Uncle, and that in the future, Beth is a weird ballet teacher, and Rebecca is 100, this episode is pretty out there. The episode should have been called, “What The What?” or “Come Again?”