Elsewhere in the episode, Kevin (Justin Hartley) continues to grapple with his true feelings for Madison (Caitlin Thompson), while Rebecca (Mandy Moore) and Miguel (Jon Huertas) prepare to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary come hell or high water (or in this case, a bit of both). Here’s what we learned in This Is Us Season 6 Episode 11, “Saturday in the Park.”
How did Jack get his scar on This Is Us?
Back in Season 6’s third episode, when we first learned that Kate and Toby’s marriage would fall apart on the day Toby breaks out the Big Green Egg smoker, it came with the reveal that whatever happened would lead to a head injury for Jack, giving him a scar he’d carry for the rest of his life. So when we realized Toby would be firing up the Big Green Egg in “Saturday in the Park,” we braced ourselves for something traumatic involving little Jack. The episode opens in little Jack’s perspective as he listens to Kate and Toby fighting from his crib. But his parents set their differences aside as the three of them walk together to the park. Kate sings the walking directions to the tune of “Saturday in the Park,” in order to help Jack, who is blind, gain confidence so that one day, he’ll be able to navigate on his own. Although Kate and Toby try to seem happy for the sake of their son, it’s evident that there is tension between them, although it goes over the head of their toddler. However, once they reach the park, they all seem to genuinely have fun. Later, though, back at the house as the family prepares for Rebecca and Miguel’s anniversary party, all of that tension comes rushing back, with Kate venting her frustrations with her husband to both of her brothers – which only makes matters worse when Toby overhears part of her conversation with Kevin. Yet their ongoing fight gets put on hold when the kitchen ceiling starts leaking, instead prompting a new one: Kate is upset that Toby didn’t call the plumber, whereas Toby reminds her that they couldn’t afford it at the time, but that they can now thanks to his high-paying job that she resents. As Kate tries to figure out what to do, she asks Toby to take Jack outside, and Rebecca takes him to his room to put on his shoes. In Jack’s room, he explains his system for keeping track of his shoes – including that his red boots are “for muddy puddles” when he walks to the park. He then admits to his grandmother that “Jacky is sad” because “Mommy and Daddy are mad a lot.” After doing her best to reassure Jack that things will be okay, Rebeca deposits Jack with Toby, who warms up the smoker. But no sooner has he picked up Jack and asked what the smoke smells like – “apples and pants,” apparently – than Toby is frantically called back inside. Despite turning off the water to the house, the plumbing issue has worsened and the ceiling is literally caving in. Since Beth is busy trying to put Hailey to sleep, Toby drops Jack in his room, but in the chaos, he forgets to make sure the baby gate latches. The plumber soon arrives, and in her haste to show him the problem, Kate doesn’t deadbolt the door after letting him in. No sooner has she ushered the plumber inside than Jack walks out the door in his red boots, eager to head to the park all by himself. Jack’s park song serves him well, even getting him safely across the busy street (“feel the curb, listen for the cars to pass by”). As he makes his way to his favorite place, his family anxiously searches every corner of Kate and Toby’s house looking for him, until Rebecca realizes he changed into his red boots. She remembers he told her those boots are for trips to the park, and sets off running. At the park, she finds Jack, who has tripped and fallen on the sidewalk, giving him a big cut on his head, which explains the scar he’ll have as an adult.
Why do Kate and Toby get divorced on This Is Us?
Kate and Toby’s fights throughout “Saturday in the Park” are the same ones they’ve been having all season, with a few recent additions. Kate doesn’t want to move to San Francisco. Toby feels as though their marriage isn’t a priority for her. Kate doesn’t think Toby has accepted the fact that their son is blind. Toby thinks Kate is being naive for refusing to accept Jack’s limitations. Their fighting is the constant soundtrack to the preparations for Rebecca and Miguel’s 10th anniversary party, despite everyone else’s best efforts to pretend everything is fine. Outside at the Big Green Egg, Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) tries to cheer Toby up, reminding him that she and Randall (Sterling K. Brown) also did the long-distance thing for a while, but Toby reminds her that the big difference is that Beth was willing to move for Randall, to which Beth has no response. When Jack goes missing, the couple is able to (mostly) stop bickering long enough to find him and comfort him through the scary process of getting stitches in the hospital, but once he is safely asleep in his own bed that night, the two of them head outside to air their grievances. Each of them hurls accusations at the other for the circumstances that led to Jack being able to leave the house to walk to the park by himself. Kevin and Randall—who had left for the day in an attempt to keep Kevin from pushing all of Toby’s buttons—arrive in the middle of the screaming match, and Kevin jumps to Kate’s defense while Randall tries to diffuse the situation. But all Toby sees is the Big Three standing in solidarity against him, which he says is “the way it’s always been.” And it’s true—in flashbacks throughout the episode, we see what happened during Rebecca and Jack’s (Milo Ventimiglia) sixth wedding anniversary, when they attempted to have a romantic night out, only to be called home early after their kids locked their babysitter in the closet. They admit it once their parents come home, saying that Kevin was trying to protect Kate after the babysitter was mean, and Randall was trying to help them both. Jack is understandably disgruntled that their kids derailed their evening, but Rebecca (who is, admittedly, quite drunk by this point in the flashback) thinks that the detour was a wonderful anniversary gift, proving that in their absence, their kids will band together to protect one another. In the backyard, sitting among the remnants of the anniversary party that never happened, Kate sits with her brothers and says that when the doctor asked why Jack went to the park, he said “because that’s where Mommy and Daddy are happy.” Finally, she admits, “I don’t know if Toby and I are going to make it.” And sadly, we know that they won’t.
Will Kevin end up with Madison on This Is Us?
While things at Kate’s house are reaching a fever pitch, Randall drives Kevin to Madison’s house in an effort to keep Kevin from making an already stressful situation even worse. But he’s a couple hours early to pick up his twins, and Madison is headed out. Before Kevin and Randall leave, though, Kevin is determined to say hello to Madison’s boyfriend Elijah (Adam Korson), which definitely comes across as an effort to prove he’s okay with Elijah and Madison’s relationship (although it really seems like he’s not.) But when Kevin walks into Madison’s bedroom, he finds Elijah going through Madison’s jewelry. After an initially tense confrontation, Elijah admits that he’s looking at Madison’s jewelry because he’s trying to figure out Madison’s ring size. Kevin, who was feeling pretty zen just minutes before, starts freaking out in the car over the idea of her marrying Elijah. But when Randall asks him if he feels differently from their wedding day—when Kevin couldn’t bring himself to say that he loved Madison, and their wedding was subsequently called off—he still doesn’t know the answer. Later that evening, Kevin heads to Madison’s to check on his kids, after being shaken by what happened to Jack. He admits to Madison that while he was in the emergency room with Jack, he realized that day that she’s still his emergency contact, and that he will change it to someone else. She then tells Kevin that she thinks Elijah will propose, and that she’s excited, because she really loves him. But she also says that as the mother of Kevin’s children, she is happy to remain his emergency contact. Things definitely feel like they’re pointing to Madison riding off into the sunset with Elijah, but we can’t shake the feeling that her love story with Kevin may not be entirely over yet. Maybe it’s the way Kevin keeps trying way too hard to convince everyone he knows that he’s fine with Madison moving on, or the way he looked like someone just kicked his puppy when he realized Elijah was preparing to propose, or the way Madison found it necessary to chase him out of the house to tell him that a proposal seems imminent. Or maybe it’s just the fact that we know Kevin will marry someone, there aren’t many episodes left, and most of his eggs still seem to be in the Madison basket. Guess we’ll find out soon enough.
What happens next on This Is Us?
Now that we’re past the anniversary incident, which we know will ultimately serve as the breaking point for Kate and Toby’s marriage, there’s nowhere left to go but down. And if the title and summary of the next episode are any indication, it’s going to be a fast plummet to the bottom. Airing April 12, the 12th episode of Season 6—and the 100th episode of This Is Us overall—will be titled “Katoby,” the portmanteau of their first names that once brought the couple so much joy, but we suspect is about to be pulled back into its two separate pieces. The synopsis of the episode reads, “Kate and Toby’s relationship evolves over a few years.” Does that mean that we may also get to experience her courtship with Phillip (Chris Geere), which will ultimately lead to her wedding day? Will we finally see Kate show up at the future cabin to appear at her mother’s bedside? There are still so many questions revolving around Kate and Toby, and it sounds like we’re about to get a flood of answers. Next, Will we see the Pearsons on the big screen after Season 6 ends? What We Know About a Possible This IsUs Movie
