Well, at least the hope of seeing him onscreen.

Sometimes for Kevin Pearson, these two things are at odds with each other.

And in Tuesday’s episode, “There,” Kevin seemed to choose his path.

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He just, you know, had to make a heroic pit stop along the way.

from a car that ran off the road.

After dropping the man off at the hospital, he arrived just in time for his flight.

There was one problem: He had no ID.

(He’d dropped his wallet while helping this stranger.)

Yeah we’re going “There.”

What appealed you to about telling as Kay Oyegun put it an “action-adventure” for him?

How did that casting come about?

One of our writers, Kevin Falls, was onSports Nightwith Josh way back when.

When we were brainstorming the perfect car crash victim for Kevin to rescue, Kevin Falls pitched him.

We knew he was good at walk-and-talks, we wanted to see how he’d do at a drive-and-bleed.

And then in our pilot, of course, he walked offThe Mannybecause he’s had it.

He’s going to become known as the guy who storms off his own projects…

He’s going to be uninsurable if he’s not careful.

What are the distinctions?

You’re asking the exact right questions.

What of it is paternal love?

What of it is responsibility and wanting to be a good person?

After his dramatic departure from the set, one wonders: Is hereallygone from the movie?

And more important, how mad is De Niro?

So in that sense, the odds are stacked in Kevin’s favor.

So it’s not great for Kevin.

We don’t actually get to see De Niro.

Oh, I would love nothing more!

So Kevin rescues this man and shows up at the airport without his ID.

Obviously, he has a good sob story.

But is there a bit of celebrity privilege baked into his interaction with the TSA agent at the airport?

We’ve seen a pregnancy scare already with Madison.

How rocky will this delivery be?

Any delivery is always fraught.

Madison lives an insular life, feeling like she only has Kevin and Kate to lean on.

Yeah, it definitely is.

And we’re going to get into Madison’s origin story deeper into the season.

She’s trying to create something that she never necessarily had for herself and give that to her children.

But he doesn’t tell Kevin.

Short of his Uncle Nicky omission, he’s honest with his children.

Can you walk us through the decision to have Jack not tell Kevin what he did?

But Kevin knows, right?

Especially when he makes that “I like it a little bloody” comment…

Yep.

Jack’s decision not to tell Kevin what happened there is actually a very cool move.

And it speaks a little bit to the fact that Kevin is growing up.

I talked to your coach!"

speaks to that more mature dynamic that we’re seeing develop between them.

You feel the absence of him.

And this is one of my favorite stories for him we’ve done all season.

So we’re always looking for those.

When we walked away from that, things were really pretty rough between him and Rebecca’s parents.

And we know that that obviously they wind up getting married and having a family together.

Ellie [Annie Funke] is also getting ready to give birth.

Will there be dual birth stories to tell in the next episode?

Yeah, it’s a really exciting one.

It’s a lot of giving birth.

[Laughs] It’s asking all the questions: Is Kevin going to get there?

What’s going to go on with Kate and Ellie?

Many new Pearsons will enter into our world next week.