Get ready for the beginning of the end of one of your favorite couples on This Is Us.
Last week on This Is Us, the audience got to see Kevin (Justin Hartley) after the heartbreaking conversation with his mother, where she left care up to Kate (Chrissy Metz).
Though the focus was on Kevin last week, this week the focus falls on Kate and Toby (Chris Sullivan). The audience knows from the end of last season that Kate and Toby somehow don’t end up together, as Kate ends up getting married to someone else. However, we are forced through the excruciating act of watching the downfall of the relationship that fans absolutely loved.
Kate and Toby have been struggling with the distance in their relationship lately, so Kate decides to go by herself to visit Toby in San Francisco for the whole weekend. Though they both expect it to be a weekend of romance and reconnection, it turns out to be a weekend of truth bombs and strained conversations.
Namely, the episode focused on Kate missing the “old Toby” who wore goofy clothes, had bad hair and hadn’t yet lost weight. She believes the new Toby is self-serving, doesn’t care about their family or their lives together, but just is looking out for himself.
This is especially exacerbated by two things. First, old Toby makes an appearance by hanging out with Kate in her imagination while she’s trying to reconnect to her husband. Second, after Kate compromises and says she’ll see the house he’s been looking at and go to the office party and meet his coworkers, she finds out from one of Toby’s friends that he was offered a job in Los Angeles and turned it down in favor of the San Francisco job – without talking to Kate at all.
This prompts a big discussion between Kate and Toby about what they’re going to do moving forward since Kate is up for a big job at her school and loves being near her family. Toby is finally feeling his own worth and value within his job, so neither he nor Kate are willing to compromise.
“Moving here is the only way that we are going to stay a family,” Toby said. “It’s the only option.”
The episode ends on a slight cliffhanger, with Kate telling her boss that she wants to officially be considered for the big job at her school, but it’s definitely more metaphorical than that.
The entire episode is centered around Kate trying to combat hurdles, and either chickening out or not giving herself the strength to try. As Toby spends time talking about them finding their own worth and value, Kate is realizing that she hasn’t done as much as she could to find her own like Toby is.
As a child, she won’t put her head underwater at the pool. As a teenager, she can’t climb over the fence to escape being locked at the pool. But, as an adult, fed up with the treatment and disrespect from Toby, she tackles the uphill climb – literally – that Toby didn’t believe she could handle. By the end of this, Kate is finally feeling accomplished and proud of herself for tackling this physical hurdle that became more of a mental block than anything else.
This was definitely a strong episode for Kate, but the problem here comes from the way they’re trying to completely change Toby’s character to being this work-obsessed, self-serving man. However, the writing is brilliant because the progression seems natural and realistic. The pandemic really changed people and their attitudes, and for Toby, it made him feel like he could only see his value through work, whereas Kate was still happy seeing her worth through her family.
Though we’re sad to see Toby and Kate growing further apart, knowing the way the show works, we’ll be falling in love with Kate’s new love interest anytime now. But, we’ll see how it plays out.
This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on NBC.
