Melanie Liburd says fans will learn more about Zoe in Beth-centered episode

This Is Us Melanie Liburd reveals that upcoming Beth-centric episode features a lot about Zoe and her life with the Clarkes.

This Is Us fans have been waiting a long time to learn more about the fabulous and fierce Beth Pearson (Susan Kelechi Watson) and now have to wait even longer because of programming conflicts. But once the episode, entitled “Bethany Clarke”, finally does premiere, not only will we learn a lot about Beth’s past and family relationships, we’ll learn a lot more about newcomer Zoe (Melanie Liburd). We already know that Beth and Zoe are cousins and that Zoe started to live with Beth’s family after it was discovered that Zoe’s father had been molesting her. There’s obviously a lot of dark history surrounding Zoe and it will be incredible to see some of that come to light.

Of course, family dynamics being what they are, it will be facsinating to see how Zoe fits into the Clarke household and interacts with Beth and her mother Carol (Phylicia Rashad). “What’s so fun about this episode is just the relationship that they have growing up and the relationships that Zoe has with Beth’s mom and how Beth behaves with her mom, which is fascinating,” she says. “There’s some funny moments.” I wonder how close Beth and her mom are and whether Zoe coming into the equation upsets that dynamic a little bit. Maybe Zoe comes in and really becomes like a second daughter to Carol, or maybe the close mother-daughter relationship she never had with Beth. Beth and Zoe are very close in present day, though, so there doesn’t seem to be too much resentment between them in that sense.

Liburd also very much enjoys the complexities of playing a survivor of sexual assault and takes the storyline very seriously. She did huge amounts of research and even personally interviewed survivors of childhood sexual assault in order to accurately portray and understand her character. “I’ve had fans say, well thank you so much for telling that story, that happened to me and you just think, oh my goodness,” Liburd says. “So if I can help in any way, any comments that can help me, that’s great too.”

“Bethany Clarke” is set to premiere Tuesday, February 19 on NBC at 9pm ET.

Source: E!Online