Just not the one you were expecting.
Welcome to… KaPhilip?
Or is it Phate?
Justin Hartley, Chrissy Metz, Mandy Moore, and Sterling K. Brown on ‘This Is Us’.Ron Batzdorff/NBC
Either way, a janitor has been paged to sweep all the jaws off the floor.
Rebecca asked Kate to build that modern house next to the family cabin as seen in the flash-forward.
Oh, and five years from now, Randall is a rising star getting national magazine attention.
Plus, Nicky (Griffin Dunne) is married.
What were those discussions like in the writers' room when you talked about breaking up Kate and Toby?
because that was just what happens to them.
It was more about: “How exactly will we execute this?”
And I knew it would be the ending of the season.
And we have really good writers and we just kind of figured it out.
It’s meant to be a shock, and then you’re meant to process it.
And we don’t expect people who love the couple to necessarily love it right away.
And it’s something that happens very commonly more commonly than not in the human experience.
It was something we always knew we were going to attack it in our final season.
Why was this a story you wanted to tell for Kate heading into the final season?
She has taken such charge of her life, healed old wounds, and is professionally filled.
Is this a peek at a fully realized Kate, Kate 2.0?
And I think with no character more than Kate.
Chrissy saidthat she cried when you told her and she jokingly tried to talk you out of it.
Between Chris Sullivan, Chrissy, and Chris Geere, who had the best reaction?
We had to go through intensive testing protocols, and it was a whole deal.
He was like, “Oh, s—!
I’m walking into it right now.”
And you know, Sully and Chrissy Metz have always been like the rest of the cast.
They never complain or make a run at force me out of a story point.
Even though it’s hard when you’re always reading stuff on the internet.
It just got a little salty.
You’ve got to give them a little salt with the sugar…
But we’re trying to capture some stuff and take a stab at attack some stuff.
Obviously you’ll fill in that story next season.
Well, that’s going to be a big journey for us in season 6.
I think we wanted somebody who had a very different energy than Toby.
We’ve been big fans of the actor.
Were you agonizing over a bunch of different options, studying a board with all the possible names?
Or did you come up with the person pretty quickly?
That developed in the course of the season a little bit.
We knew there would be somebody who came in and seemed adversarial.
So that’s a journey I’m excited to write next season.
But are you also leaving the door open for them beyond co-parenting?
I mean, nothing has been said about where Kevin lines up romantically on the show.
Certainly the end gives you no reason to think Madison and Kevin are in a terrible place.
It could give you reason to think that they figured out how to coexist happily.
It can give you reason to believe they’re together in that future.
It can give you reason to think that maybe they wind up together after that.
And we’ve purposely not answered that part of it yet.
And you could’t really have one without the other.
you’re able to’t have something that’s too syrupy or too sad.
So hopefully we can find that balance as we wrap up.
Sophie [Alexandra Breckenridge]said it was a long story about why she changed her number.
Is that story long enough for us to say that Sophie is officially in play?
I mean, I think it’s fair to say.
If I’m a viewer of the show, I think she’s officially in play.
Certainly it doesn’t feel their story line has resolved.
I can’t say much more than that.
Rebecca asks Kevin to build her Jack’s dream house.
Is it a true family business, and is Kevin running it?
Did he find purpose in that and become an architect, and those are the trophies in his house?
The trophies in the house is a very deep reference.
Who it’s with, I can’t really guide you to.
We saw Nicky take another key step with the simple act of googling his lost love, Sally.
Here we find out he’s married four years into the future.
Fair to say that we’re unspooling a rewarding redemption story for this once deeply troubled man?
Everyone’s loving working with Griffin.
He’s become such a huge comedic force for us.
And he’s become so quickly such a beloved character in the show that had these wonderful characters.
We see a story about Randall in theNew Yorkerwith the headline “Rising Star.”
Also, how many Pearsons are famous in the future?
Well, he’s not becoming an architect.
And I think you’re going to get to see a fully realized Randall.
Sometimes when you find internal peace, it allows your star to shine even a little bit brighter.
It feels like you’re able to check that box now.
Having lost a parent who I didn’t have any lingering things with, there was nothing left unsaid.
If Rebecca didn’t push for it, it probably never would’ve happened.
We had a lot of debate about this in our writers' room.
Will you find a way to sneak in a few other future eras?
We have a plan.
We’re definitely all going to take a long nap after this last season.
But I think definitely those two periods are periods we’re going to spend more time in.
NBC would love it to go on.
Is there any chance of a spin-off, some Pearson family extension?
I mean, I haven’t really talked to anybody about it, honestly.
I know people think they’re some secret plan.
We haven’t even had conversations about it yet.
How about a cryptic clue for season 6?
My clues for season 6 are a little bit more romantic.
I’ve always been partially stepped back from that on occasion, the show would catch me.
And I’m not a crier.
