If the last four years of This Is Us have taught me anything, it's that the past is never truly gone. And even though the emotional "Birth Mother" episode brought Randall's quest for his biological mother to an end, This Is Us producer Kay Oyegun teased that Laurel's past will continue to affect Randall as Season 5 continues.

If the last four years of This Is Us have taught me anything, it's that the past is never truly gone. (Well, that and everyone is probably either related or married, or married to your relative, or related to your spouse.) So, even though "Birth Mother" ended with Randall letting go of his grief at losing his mother, it only seems right that Laurel's story will continue to reverberate throughout the season. "Now that you have an understanding of who you are or where you're from, which is something a lot of adoptees don't have, what do you do with that information?" Oyegun said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. "How do you move forward when so much of your life was searching? What's next?"

For Randall, what's next was calling Kevin and reconnecting with his brother. This, as we saw, did not go as planned. But aside from helping him take a step towards healing his relationship with his brother, Oyegun teased that Laurel's story, specifically her incarceration, might actually affect his career and steer him towards activism. "As far as what it does for Randall — activating him going forward — I'm very excited for people to see what he does with his information," she teased, adding, "It's definitely something that is going to have a lingering effect."