After more than a year of dancing around the topic, Monday night's episode of "This Is Us" was finally ready to answer the question that's been on everybody's mind: So what ever did happen to William's cat?

OK, so "Clooney" is a bit of a letdown after last week's stellar mid-season premiere that played more like an ACTUAL season premiere. It's not the kind of episode that has you constantly reaching for your "This Is Us"-branded Kleenex or that you'll talk about around the water cooler and use to convince somebody to start watching the show.

But it does low-key deliver on what the NBC hit family drama does well: bring together a bunch of solid, nice stories with excellent performers with just enough slight tilts and small twists to the expected trajectory to keep you on your toes. It's not the biggest or best episode, but it's good to see "This Is Us" can still get the job done even when there's not a big therapy scene or Very Special Episode hook.

So what ever did happen to William's cat? It left! But really, the main stray storyline in "Clooney" is Randall, now wandering aimlessly after both the death of his biological father and losing Deja to her biological mother. He's still Randall – so, incredibly charming and THE guy for putting together the girls' penguin diorama for school – but he couldn't care less about a big job interview on the schedule. It's not getting his juices flowing, which cues some gigantic eye rolls from an unamused Beth. 

What does get his juices flowing is returning to William's apartment complex to pick up his father's final box – and solving the mystery he finds inside: a love poem written to a mysterious woman sketched all over William's notebooks. A secret lover? A yearned-after ex? A thing to do instead of getting ready for that interview? Inspector Randall Poirot is on the case!

So here's a weird sentence: Randall's storyline was the weakest one this episode. That's not to say it was bad or that Sterling K. Brown wasn't his usual marvelous self, making hushing one of his kids a comedic highlight without needing a single line, but it seemed a little more like a forced detour as Randall knocked on all these strangers' doors and awkwardly asked them if they had a relationship with his father.

It wasn't quite potent enough to work as a drama, nor funny enough to be a truly comedic side plot, so it just ambled a bit – an oddity for Randall as a character, who's normally hyper-focused.

The storyline doesn't quite stick the landing either. The woman in the notebooks ends up being an old sign of Billie Holiday while Clooney finds a new home with a complete rando – not with Randall as you spend the entire episode expecting – were nice zags when you predicted a zig, but Randall's conclusion that they should buy the apartment complex was just a little too hard of a juke, playing a little ridiculous and tidy. But it certainly opens up a story path I didn't see coming – and anything that gives me more gossip from William's neighbor Lloyd is a welcome development. 

Speaking of welcome developments, Kevin is ready to leave rehab – which, sure, maybe seems fast considering we spent half a season chronicling his downfall only to nicely move forward after seeing only one big therapy session. But he's not quite done yet. Dr. Ellis Grey is concerned heading back to L.A. without a sense of structure or routine will just put Kevin back in trouble, so he's moving back in with his newly reconnected mom ... and Miguel, typically a tension mined for laughs but here actually given weight.

Predictably, it blows up – not in a huge or melodramatic way, but just in a simple but scathing exchange between the two as Miguel tags along on a grocery store trip with Rebecca and Kevin. Kevin asks Miguel why he felt the need to come along when he's attempting to repair his relationship with his mother. Miguel sharply notes that he has to protect her emotions from Kevin's recklessness, while Kevin basically retorts that he isn't her REAL husband. Ooof – though Kevin might've just been upset because Miguel grabbed apricot LaCroix and he's more of a pamplemousse fan. 

Later that night, however, in the middle of a Rebecca and Miguel "Tiny House Hunters" binge session, Kevin finally has a heart-to-heart with his mother's new husband. He asks the tough question – was he in love with Rebecca while Jack was still alive? – and Miguel has a perfect answer, noting that the idea was impossible because Rebecca and Jack were an inseparable one.

And while he'd never imagine replacing Jack, he's also not going anywhere (which sounds aggressive here but played out much sweeter on the show). And oddly, it's really nice; the storyline could've gone all weepy or melodramatic but instead it went smaller with bubbling tensions and low-key honesty. For the show's first REAL dig into Miguel's place in this family, it struck a little treasure. 

Plus, I'll always have a place in my heart for a subplot in which a character chooses Cookie Crisp over kale. 

Speaking of unhealthy eating, Kate's back with the weight group, talking about her fall back into bad habits after the miscarriage. She also brings up wedding dress shopping – the excitement and the horrors – which gives her peppily thin reoccurring foil Madison an idea: They should go dress shopping together! So she books the two of them a special wedding dress appointment at a swanky bridal shop – and while you're waiting for the seemingly inevitable dress freakout plot point, "This Is Us" instead pivots its attention to Madison, who disappears to the bathroom after indulging in some scrumptious macaroons. When Kate challenges her on what appears from the outside to be bulimia, Madison storms off – only to call Kate back after she faints returning home. 

It's nice Kate's plot didn't hit the story beat you predicted from half a season ago – but better yet, it's heartening to see the show really bring Madison, for most of her tenure on the show a one-note punchline, some warm humanity. Plus, the final beats – of Madison proclaiming Kate her best friend and asking if they should do a podcast to cement it – are so perfectly charming, sweet and funny.

Somehow, "This Is Us" took the most expected story direction and found something new and unexpected down the path – always the show's stealthily best attribute. Not the big twists or sob-inducing speeches, but the slight but smart subversions avoiding cliches right when you think the show's ready to lean into them. 

Kate's story, meanwhile, gets the most interplay with the past, where the Pearsons all head to the mall. She's hunting for a winter formal dress with Rebecca – and while she's lost an impressive amount of weight to get down to a size 7, she can't allow herself to be happy with her new self and shames herself out of any of the gowns. Meanwhile, Randall tries to impress a crush with a homemade Magic 8 ball (even in one of Randall's worst episodes, he's the best) while Kevin sweetly tries on suits with his dad – and learns about his former passion to run his own construction company, only to give it up after the kids arrived.

But while that conversation reminds Jack of his one-time dream in life – one he tells Rebecca he wants to pursue again, because his boss sucks and suits suck – it's what he forgets that steals the scene: batteries. For the house's smoke detector. Ooooh boy, we're finally inches away from answering the show's biggest, most annoyingly dangling question – and this time, I don't mean Clooney. 

This Is Sadness rankings

Minus the sweet resolution to Kate and Madison's story – and that there was just something about Jack guiding teen Kevin through suit etiquette that was perfectly lived-in for me to well up a bit – "Clooney" was a pretty dry episode for my tear ducts. But we did go to the mall, so I give this a Robin Sparkles Sings The Glories Of The Mall:

So, like a one out of 10.