Well, it’s truly the beginning of the end for Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Toby (Chris Sullivan), as one of the most teased and anticipated episodes finally reveals the straw that broke the camel’s back of their marriage.
Last week on This Is Us, Randall (Sterling K. Brown) and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) took a road trip to get Deja (Lyric Ross) back after she ran away.
This week, now that the siblings’ stories are back together, the Pearson's are celebrating Miguel (Jon Huertas) and Rebecca’s anniversary. Which, according to future Jack (Blake Stadnik) and his significant other, is the day Toby and Kate’s marriage blew up.
The main focus of the episode is baby Jack leaving the house to go to the park by himself without anyone knowing, the fault going in part to Toby for forgetting to lock the gate to Jack’s room during the flooding crisis in their house, and also partially to Kate for forgetting to lock the front door after the plumber comes in.
Rebecca, throughout all this chaos and beforehand, feels helpless, as her Alzheimer’s keeps her from helping out around the house. However, she’s the one who realizes Jack had gone to the park, instead of having been kidnapped. It’s a powerful moment for her, and it creates a lot of emotion from the audience.
The end of the episode marks the big fight between Kate and Toby, where Randall and Kevin (Justin Hartley) have to step in to defend Kate because of how aggressive Toby’s words are. The scene is beautifully shot, having the Big Three across from Toby in a physical representation of the emotions they’re all feeling.
After this fight and in juxtaposition with their lives as kids, the Pearson triplets sit down to support Kate. This is the moment that Kate realizes that her relationship with Toby isn’t going to work.
After this, Kate says, “The doctor asked him why he went to the park, and he said, ‘Because that’s where mommy and daddy are happy."
The audience gets to see some beautiful family moments from Toby, Kate and Jack at the park before all the chaos of the episode begins, but it still doesn’t soften the blow that one of our favorite couples is definitely reaching the end.
However, what’s most interesting about this episode is that some of the scenes are shown from Jack’s perspective. As a blind child, Jack can only faintly see light and some extremely blurry shapes. So, to add on to the stress, the audience gets to be in Jack’s shoes, unsure of where he was and very confused.
All in all, this was one of the best episodes of the season. Between seeing Jack’s perspective, watching Kate and Toby fall apart and seeing the Pearson siblings being there for each other, this episode definitely makes us wonder what’s going to happen next.
This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on NBC.
