Last week onThis Is Us, three new Pearsons were added to the family.
And this week onThis Is Us, well, baby, it was time to go home.
(He was definitely a three-child guy, while she was more of a shut-up-and-give-me-my-Snickers-blizzard woman.)
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Oh, and who just pulled up to the house in the white car?
Guess that (car) door will open in the next flash-forward.
Why did you decide to explore this loaded-yet-quotidian act?
They actually do that?"
But it’s a challenge, as Jon knows.
There’s a lot of driving, and we want to keep it exciting.
Jon, this is your first time directing episodic TV.
What were the challenges in bringing this chapter of the Pearsons' story to life?
A lot of greenscreen, for starters.
JON HUERTAS:There was a lot of greenscreen.
The thing that I thought was going to be the hardest was dealing with babies.
At one point I counted in the episode, there were eight or nine newborn babies.
I thought, “This is going to be so daunting.”
But with COVID-19, we weren’t even allowed to shoot our actors with live babies.
So now it added another challenge.
So that was the biggest challenge for me.
And just being in cars.
How do we keep momentum going?
You want to keep people along for the ride.
Kevin truly goes all in by re-proposing to Madison.
But there is still no ring.
BROWNELL:She will be getting a ring!
She will be getting a ring.
Should they start to accept that this one is going to stick?
Or would you say to them: Don’t stop believing?
BROWNELL:What do you think, Jon?
HUERTAS:Uh, I was going to ask if I could start singing that song.
[They laugh] I think that… never say never.
Especially in television and especially withThis Is Us.
So maybe we’re asking the same thing of the audience.
Like, why do you want Sophie so badly?
Look at how great Madison is!
[Laughs] She gave him two babies and helped save him from the paparazzi!
But wasn’t that… a little weird?
Maybe she could have paid him off rather than sell out her fiancee on a different day?
BROWNELL:Maybe she lost his number, right?
That is a question.
Did you talk about that in the room, whether she was actually going to deliver on that deal?
BROWNELL:Did you talk to her about it, Jon?
And I think that the new Madison knows what that really meant to Kevin.
BROWNELL:You should listen to nothing Jon is saying.
[Laughs] Just kidding.
No, I think she lost the number.
Also, Madison is new to all this celebrity stuff.
One thing that was really important to us is that she doesn’t really buy into it.
And Madison’s rejection of the glamor of his life is appealing to him.
HUERTAS:Is that because she’s the daughter of Hollywood royalty?
Because I don’t understand why Madison has such a nice house, why she has a nice car.
She is
BROWNELL:I will say, Jon, you might find out in a few episodes!
Moving on to that nice reunion between Kevin and Jack in the dream sequence
HUERTAS:Ohhh!
That’s my favorite scene.
Kevin had previously imagined an interaction with his dad when he went back to his high school while high.
This one had a lot more feel-good vibes.
What was it like to stage that scene?
HUERTAS:And therein lies the answer to that question, whether or not the Jack-and-Kevin scene was better!
It was my favorite scene.
You welled up, right?
HUERTAS:I welled up.
I had misty eyes because I have father issues myself and those are the moments that get me.
And just the way that Justin and Milo played that scene was sosweet.
And when Milo looked turned around that was the moment that just got me.
I think it’s one of the most beautifully shot scenes that I’ve seen onThis Is Us.
Our [director of photography], Yasu Tanida, is so amazing.
Because the visual of the parent in the window was so beautiful.
I know when I had my children, I never felt more connected to my parents.
I needed my parents more.
So I think to give that moment to Kevin, even in a dream, felt really special.
Fans love these moments when Jack can interact in the present day with the grown-up Big Three.
And the actors love it too.
That’s not fair!"
And I just feel lucky that this one seemed special enough that we got to put it in.
HUERTAS:That’s interesting.
BROWNELL:I think for sure.
Because nothing else seems to work for you.
Instead of reaching out for help a lot of times, you reach out for the bottle.
I think that’s probably a huge thing for Jack.
That is probably the way that it manifests for Jack.
So I’ve always tied it to PTSD in a way.
BROWNELL:Yeah, I think that’s right, Jon.
So that for us was a less detrimental but also really interesting thing to explore.
We thought that that could be really interesting to explore.
It’s intriguing and painful to watch Ellie struggling with this incredibly fraught situation.
Kate certainly is trying to set a path for that.
BROWNELL:That’s always possible.
That’s the beauty of a television show like this, is that you get to bring people back.
I thought Annie Funke was really wonderful, and really connected with the audience.
And this show is about a big extended family.
So I hope she comes back in some way.
Toby reveals to Kate that he was laid off.
Is this because he absolutely never, ever, ever went to work?
HUERTAS:You know, that’s funny.
In television land, a lot of times we really don’t know what people do for work.
They go to work, but we really never know what they do.
What does this pertain to?
So I thought that was very funny that Toby was laid off when weneversaw him at work.
We don’t really know what he does.
BROWNELL:Jon, do you want to tell EW what Toby does?
HUERTAS:No, I don’t know!
I think he does something with software or something.
So we thought that was a realistic thing to have happened.
He calls his wife the unflappable one, but how flapped will he be by these events?
And we know that he deals with depression.
We’ve kind of, in the past, alluded to what Toby struggles with.
HUERTAS:Remember we had a lot of conversation about that, Julia, when we were filming that?
They had a pretty big household.
And I think it shows in that scene.
Your life has already changed seismically when you have multiple children.
Let’s keep doing this!"
My life has now changed forever."
Beth and Randall spent a healthy amount of time talking about something not-so-healthy: Dairy Queen.
Was there a promotional tie-in?
BROWNELL:No, there wasn’t.
HUERTAS:In fact it was hard to get Dairy Queen to work with us.
The location [of the store] that we had was actually a different brand.
This what you’re going to have to do with this place."
So it’s definitely not promotional, but you know, people do like Dairy Queen.
BROWNELL:I’m from the East Coast.
[Laughs] And I was not willing to let go on that one.
I really hoped it would come through.
So I’m really happy that Dairy Queen agreed to do it.
Let’s flash-forward to the flash-forward.
And by the way, the actress who plays adult Deja could have been Lyric Ross in aged-up makeup.
BROWNELL:I know!
But yes, I agree.
She’s such a dead ringer.
HUERTAS:She got her voice down so perfectly.
All I could hear him saying was, “It is uncanny, guys.
She sounds exactly like Deja.
She looks Deja.”
I mean, thecrewwas impressed with this level of casting that we were able to accomplish.
And I feel like both her and adult Annie both captured exactly who our younger actresses are as well.
We are missing Miguel from this gathering.
HUERTAS:I know a piece of his future.
That’s all I’m going to say.
What can you tease about who might be stepping out of that car?
HUERTAS:Um, I mean, all I can say is that Miguel loves white cars.
White cars and gadgets.
No, I’m just kidding.
I’m going to let Julia answer that question.
And Ithinkit potentially might be more than one person.
And finally, can you drop a hint about the next episode?
BROWNELL:When babies are born, relatives tend to come to town to visit.
So you might be treated to some characters from previous season that you would like to see.
HUERTAS:You might see another era for Miguel and Jack.
