Depending on how you feel about Kevin/Sophie, you either loved or hated their reconciliation.

This Is Us Season 6 Episode 14 came so close to letting Kevin move on, only for him and Sophie to decide that the only thing holding them back from renewing their relationship was fear.

There were good reasons for those fears, but I guess this fits the bill for a second third chance romance.

The implication throughout the hour was that Kevin's true love had always been Sophie and that the time was now right for them to be together. It was supposed to be this romantic, beautiful third try at their relationship where Kevin finally gets his happy ending.

It all seems a bit too fairy-tale-like for This Is Us, which is generally far more reality-oriented than that.

Kevin: Your hair smells the same.
Sophie: It's not the same. It's a different shampoo.
Kevin: Okay.
[Sophie gets up] Sophie: I should leave.
Kevin: Why?
Sophie: Because you should want to be with me because of how my hair smells now, not because of your memory of how it used to smell.

• Permalink: Because you should want to be with me because of how my hair smells now, not because of your...

Sophie was right when she rejected Kevin the night before the wedding. The two of them have a TON of baggage. This is not little Kevin's sweet, cute crush on little Sophie.

They aren't children playing at love anymore. They're adults, and they've tried and failed to be together twice before. Kevin should be grateful that Sophie wants to be in his life at all, not trying a third time to make this relationship work.

Even without the adultery and addiction issues in their past, these two would be in for a rough ride in the present.

Sophie often travels to Europe for work, while Kevin settled in Los Angeles a long time ago so that he could spend as much time as possible with the twins. Being on opposite coasts was part of what killed their first try at marriage, so what makes them think that this arrangement would work now?

Kevin is tied to LA not just because of his kids but also because of Rebecca's illness. Rebecca has spent this whole wedding living in the past. She thinks Kevin is Jack and that Sophie is her 20-year-old self who married Kevin way before they were ready for something like that.

Is Sophie ready to be one of Rebecca's caretakers? That comes with the territory of being Kevin's girlfriend at this stage of their lives, and that's a difficult thing to ask of anyone.

It's not that they can't work out these present issues, but they are things that Kevin and Sophie need to talk about, and communication has never been their strong point.

Kevin has always been a hopeless romantic who enjoys the idea of love but doesn't put the work in when the honeymoon ends, and there are issues in the relationship.

That's part of what killed his relationship with Sophie twice before, and if he's going to go all-in, he needs to understand what that means and not just be thrilled that he got his happily-ever-after.

It's disappointing that This Is Us went in this direction when other options would have provided a more satisfying resolution to Kevin's eternal quest for love.

For example, Kevin could have stuck to his decision not to hook up with anyone, then after the wedding, flash forward to him meeting someone. Or, he could have decided to stay friends with all three of the women featured in this story and later developed a relationship with Ariel, the wedding singer.

Either of those options would have been more satisfying than repeating history. That wasn't romantic.

It felt like the same old pattern disguised as something else, and their decision to be together didn't seem to be based on much of anything.

Rebecca made a speech while she was confused that resonated with Sophie, while Randall made a rambling analogy about the Buffalo Bills losing the Super Bowl but selling merchandise in other countries that made me feel like he was drunk and saying things that didn't make sense.

None of that was a reason to try again, at least not right that second. If they'd slowed down, stayed friends, and developed something in a flash-forward that would be easier to swallow than this.

Randall: We both know you've been staring at that door all night willing Sophie to walk through it.
Kevin: I was not doing any of those things.
Randall: How often have you seen her?
Kevin: Twice. Once at her mother's funeral and once at Kate and Philip's engagement party.
Randall: Kevin. She's a married woman. Don't cause any drama at our sister's wedding.

• Permalink: Kevin. She's a married woman. Don't cause any drama at our sister's wedding.

Sophie's divorce was far too convenient, too. I'd have liked for her and Kate to have bonded over their divorces since it sounded like the exact thing that happened to KaToby happened to Sophie and Grant: they grew apart and stayed in the relationship long after it was over.

That would have made this feel less like a plot point and more like reality.

Kevin's strange night made for compelling television despite the disappointing ending. For a while, it seemed like it was going to turn out that Kevin ended up alone, and that would have been fine with me. He doesn't need to keep bouncing from one relationship to another.

The best of these scenes was Cassidy telling him again that they are not meant to be more than friends.

This is the second time Cassidy told Kevin that she knew she wasn't who he wanted. I love that she has enough self-respect to refuse to jump into bed with Kevin when she knows it would be a fling.

The last time she turned down his attempt to make them into something they're not, Kevin was pining after Madison. It's five years later, so he's not flighty to be pining after Sophie now.

Still, I'd rather Kevin had fallen for the wedding singer, or else she'd introduced him to one of her friends, and they'd hit it off.

The wedding singer would have been someone new, and it would be far more believable for Kevin to establish an adult relationship with someone he hadn't tried and failed to be with twice before.

Over to you, This Is Us fanatics. How do you feel about Kevin and Sophie's reconciliation and the strange night Kevin spent trying and failing to be with her?

Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know! If you'd like to refresh your memory first, you can watch This Is Us online right here on TV Fanatic.

This Is Us airs on Tuesdays at 9 PM EST / PST.

Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on X.