Yes, yes, let's all say it in unison: Tuesday night's episode of "This Is Us" was overcrowded, with every storyline and character getting a part but nowhere near enough to make the impact it could. I've become as predictable as Randall crying about anything – including that girl selling that lemonade in the winter and all her lemonade froze. (Which, in fairness to Randall, sounds pretty sad!) 

I don't say this every week because I think "This Is Us" is a bad show or that I like to harangue it. (That's what I watch "The Bachelor" for.) I do it because I know "This Is Us" can be a great show, that it can have moments like last week's Vietnam episode that can be some of the most structurally inventive storytelling in television – and not just for cheap tears or gimmicks in the name of a gimmick, but to land some really powerful points and poignant moments.

But save for that solo episode, everything's been spread so thin this season – more so than in the show's past, as it's not only added more characters and timelines to hop around between (such as tonight's "Toby") but it's also no longer tying characters together on plot lines.

The result is a show with so many fascinating stories to tell but only so much time each week to tell them, meaning Toby gets only a tenth of the episode that's named after him. 

Indeed, Toby gets his own flashbacks this episode as he hits a brutal point in his withdrawal from depression medication. In the past, he was a happy little boy in an unhappy household, his parents (hi guest star Wendy Malick!) loudly yelling in the kitchen until his father has enough and moves out while his mother needs Toby's Rodney Dangerfield impressions to get by. As he grows up, it's obvious his retreats into bed aren't just to protect himself from his parents' fights, but because he has a condition that eventually he gets medicated but not before his first wife leaves due to his withdrawals from the world.

As for his current wife, Kate's counting down the viable eggs on their fridge – from eight to three to just one – with a tired but supportive Toby trying to be a rock but fading out into playing video games for hours and laying in bed again. Kate, meanwhile, makes money (and distracts herself) by serving as an "Adele-ogram," dressing up like the famed Brit singer, performing at parties and opening up WAY TOO MUCH to complete strangers about why she's not on "The Voice." (Mondays and Tuesdays at 7 p.m. on NBC! "This Is Us" is a company man!)

It's a bittersweet storyline, seeing the origins of Toby's desperate comedian act – wanting to make his mother smile during the worst of times – and trying to be the rock for others despite one's own crumbling foundation. But it feels a bit like the SparkNotes version of the storyline, hitting the important bulletpoints without a ton of depth or deeper feeling – even when we reach the end with Toby finally breaking down despite the good news, the weight of trying to carry himself and Kate emotionally to the finish finally snapping him. 

There's another rock feeling its foundation give out beneath her: Beth. While Randall makes his first campaign stop on the political trail at a neighborhood barbecue joint, Beth is off interviewing for new jobs – but she can't make it through to the end without breaking down that the company she put more than a decade into, one that she helped build, let her go. William warned her the time would come for Randall to be the bass and her to be the soloist, but right now she's still trying to provide the steady notes when she's feeling anything but.

And that's going to get worse if Randall's campaign keeps getting worse, as his barbecue speech ends with him interrupting their tasty meals and yelling at his constituents about being complacent. No political science expert here, but not a strong strategy! Even the man behind the grill hosting Randall's first dip into campaign gets fired up about his attempt to dethrone their current representative – a flawed man, sure, but one who was there when times were dire and one who is "one of them," another dagger in Randall's still-wounded identity. And in case you needed more evidence of that, here's a flashback to young Randall bailing on prom after his date's father ends up being a crappy racist. (Meanwhile in the flashbacks, Miguel is the best, fixing fridges and delivering pianos and taking care of wasted Kevins. As far as Not Jacks go, Miguel is the best Not Jack.)

Speaking of crappy racists, Zoe experiences some unpleasantness on the road with Kevin to visit the Vietnam survivor from two weeks ago – not as egregious as Allison's dad straight-up leaving the room because of his blackness, but an obvious microaggression of a gas station attendant giving her a look when she says she's with Kevin and being short with her. If that's not enough, Kevin's a good guy, but as she explains to the Vietnam vet's wife later on in the episode (a lot of characters opening up to randos this week!), he's going to need some training on black life – such as why Zoe needs a silk pillow case. (It's not because she's pretentious or fancy.) Thankfully, she decides that Kevin's worth the hassle, a cute little bumper to their storyline – one that, once again, felt like a sidenote this week, every cut over to them causing a "Oh, that's right; they're up to stuff too" reaction.

A shame because Kevin's visit seemed quite meaningful, learning that Jack, as we saw last week, wasn't a simple mechanic away from the action but a staff sergeant and squad leader, responsible for men's lives and even saving the one they're talking to all these decades later. There's more too, as at the very end of the episode, the vet offers Kevin a photo – and viewers a new mystery: a woman in a photograph who is wearing Kevin's prized necklace, clearly an important person from Jack's war experience. The vet warned earlier in the episode, however, that sometimes "the answers are so dark, you're better off not having them." So I'm quite positive we're not finding a light at the end of this tunnel. 

But hopefully we at least find some more tightly focused episodes in the future.