The final episode in the big three-part special focused on Kate (Chrissy Metz). Though the other triplets’ episodes were exciting, Kate’s is the most anticipated because of the secrets revolving around her abusive relationship with Marc (Austin Abrams) as a teenager.
Last week’s episode was Kevin’s (Justin Hartley) episode and ended with Kevin, Randall (Sterling K. Brown) and Kate deciding to take a mini vacation to their family cabin.
This week’s episode focuses on Kate as she heads to her retreat with her son. After fighting with Toby (Chris Sullivan), he decides to stay home from the retreat, and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) takes his place.
Kate tells Rebecca about her relationship struggles with Toby, and Rebecca and Kate share a great bonding moment, swimming together and accepting their body types and ages. Rebecca decides to open up to Kate about her early mental diagnosis, and though it’s hard for Kate to take in, the two agree to focus on the good.
Meanwhile, teenaged Kate (Hannah Zeile) is dealing with Marc’s abusive nature as he constantly assigns her blame and is verbally awful.
The two decide to go to the family cabin together, and on the way, he gets mad at her for not quitting her job after he decided to also quit. After speeding the car down the road at a dangerous pace, he stops the car and makes Kate get out and walk.
She makes it to a gas station and calls her mom, sounding clearly upset. Marc shows up and tries to apologize, taking her to the cabin, but Rebecca is too worried to do nothing. She gets teenaged Kevin (Logan Shroyer) and Randall (Niles Fitch) and decides to go get Kate.
Back in her adult years, Kate returns home from the retreat. After receiving a pep talk from Rebecca, Kate confronts Toby about his awful behavior as a husband and father.
“Toby, I don’t need you to just want to be a good father to Jack. I need you to just do it,” Kate said.
The episode goes back to the end of last week’s episode, with Kate, Kevin and Randall deciding to go to the family cabin for a break from everything. Toby decides to step up and take care of Jack for the weekend while the triplets go to the family cabin.
The entire episode is framed with Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) telling baby Kate a story about a princess and a prince, who are the two of them, and the princess is on a quest to find something. It ends up being her mother that she’s trying to find, and the framework of the episode is incredibly beautiful, thanks to Hartley who guest directed it.
Here’s how audiences reacted on Twitter:
This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on NBC.