How did This Is Us Season 5 end?
Like many other shows that aired in 2020 and 2021, This Is Us incorporated the COVID-19 pandemic into its fifth season storytelling, with characters wearing masks, meeting outside when possible, embracing Zoom, and social distancing. However, despite those precautions, Season 5 was still able to work in plenty of interpersonal drama. In the flash-forwards, which seem to be set around 12 years in the future from the present-day scenes, Rebecca (Mandy Moore) appears to be on her deathbed, and is being visited by her children and grandchildren in her final days. The family is gathering at a cabin Kevin (Justin Hartley) built based off of deceased Pearson patriarch Jack’s (Milo Ventimiglia) plans, and included Kevin, his brother Randall (Sterling K. Brown), Randall’s wife Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson), Kevin’s teenage twin children, Kate’s (Chrissy Metz) husband, Toby (Chris Sullivan), Jack’s brother Nicky (Griffin Dunne), and Randal and Bethl’s adult daughters Tess (Iantha Richardson), Annie (Iyana Halley) and Déjà (La Trice Harper). While most of the flash-forward scenes have centered around Rebecca, we’ve also learned that Tess grows up to become a social worker, and Déjà works at a hospital (and is pregnant!). Additionally, although not present at the cabin (yet), Kate and Toby’s son, Jack (Blake Stadnik) grows up to become a successful singer and marry a woman named Lucy (Auden Thornton). They have a daughter named Hope, making Rebecca a great-grandmother. Kate and Toby’s daughter, Hailey (Adelaide Kane), who they adopted in Season 5, grows up to work in an art gallery, and is among the first to visit her brother after Hope is born. Notably wearing wedding rings in the flash forwards were Kevin and Nicky—both unmarried in the present—and notably missing a wedding ring was Toby, begging the question of whether he and Kate wind up divorcing. Lending fuel to that theory was a five-year flash-forward at the end of Season 5, showing what appears to be Kate’s second wedding day, this time to Phillip (Chris Geere), her coworker at the school for the blind where she teaches music. In the present day, the end of Season 5 sees Kevin’s fiance (and Kate’s best friend) Madison (Caitlin Thompson) calling off their wedding, after realizing that Kevin is marrying her more for their children than for her. However, the two still seem to be on good terms in the flash-forward to Kate’s wedding. Speaking of that wedding, Kate and Toby had a rough go of it in Season 5 as Toby struggled with depression after being laid off from his job and struggling to find work. But things seemed to be looking up for the couple by the season’s end, despite Toby taking a job in another city. Reluctant to leave a job she loved or relocate their family away from the already ailing Rebecca, Kate decided to stay put while Toby traveled for work, but the two vowed to make the long-distance relationship work. Meanwhile, Randall and Kevin had a major fight earlier in the season, with Kevin telling his brother that his adoption was the worst thing that had ever happened to him. However, the two reconciled by the end of the season. Randall continued working to find his footing as a city councilman in Philadelphia, and also had a house in New Orleans left to him by his birth mother, who he learned didn’t die of an overdose shortly after his birth like he’d previously thought, but actually lived until 2015. In addition to calling off his wedding at the last minute, Kevin also continued to blow up his acting career, walking off a movie set at a crucial time in order to be present for the birth of his twins. He eventually reconciled with the director, but unfortunately that wasn’t enough to salvage the film, which got horrible reviews.
Flashback scenes in “The Challenger” revolve around a familiar tragedy
Shortly before the premiere of Season 6, This Is Us series creator Dan Fogelman gave an interview to Entertainment Weeklyteasing that the season would involve a “parenting dilemma involving a tragedy." As one can probably tell from the title of the first episode, that tragedy turns out to be the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986. “It’s one we’ve been planning for quite a while to start our sixth season," Fogelman said. “When people see it, they’ll feel that it was baked into the fabric of the show a little bit. It’s a pretty simple parenting story, which is where we often lived at our best and most simplest with Jack and Rebecca—just two parents navigating new experiences with young children. It’s something that hopefully will be relatable, particularly to people who grew up in that era, or parents who were parenting back at that time. Thematically, they’re going to start dealing with kids exploring heavy subject matter for the first time in their lives.” “The Challenger” opens with Jack and Rebecca bonding over the music of REO Speedwagon—a band Jack claims should be “bigger than the Beatles” (bold claim, Jack)—on the morning of the Challenger launch, January 28, 1986. We are introduced to the 5-year-old versions of the Big Three as they excitedly head to school, where they plan to watch the launch with their class. Of course, that experience turns tragic, with the shuttle exploding on live television. The Big Three and their classmates seem confused as their teacher turns off the TV, visibly upset. Later that day, Jack returns home from work and asks Rebecca how the Big Three are doing. Rebecca tells him that they’ve been quiet since returning from school, and is beating herself up over starting their day with Tang, a powdered drink mix that used to be closely associated with the U.S. space program. Jack decides that the best way to help the kids process their feelings is by likening the Challenger explosion to the deaths of the family’s goldfish. Despite Rebecca being severely opposed to this tactic (“A spaceship filled with heroes exploded on national television. I don’t think the Splishy and Splashy model is going to work here.” Fair, Rebecca!), Jack’s goldfish tactic does in fact help the kids open up. Little Kate reports all the teachers at school were crying, but says it’s good that the explosion happened so far up, because the astronauts were “closer to heaven.” That evening, Rebecca finds young Randall sadly putting away his model space shuttle. When she asks him how he’s feeling, Randall admits that he’s upset that “the astronaut teacher” has kids, and wonders if anyone is making them dinner. He asks Rebecca if she could send them macaroni and cheese (the Big Three’s comfort food of choice), “just in case.” Around the same time, Jack finds Kevin on the couch, and asks him if he wants to talk. Kevin shrugs it off, saying “it was just a story on TV; it wasn’t real.” Obviously the three Pearson kids are hard-wired to each respond in their own distinctive ways to difficult feelings, a theme we will see play out in the present-day storyline.
Happy birthday, Big Three.
From its opening montages, “The Challenger” makes it clear that we’re in the home stretch of the series by calling back to the show’s pilot numerous times. We start by revisiting Rebecca’s birthday dance for Jack, shortly before she goes into labor with the couple’s triplets back in 1980. The show then jumps to the present-day Rebecca making a 41st birthday cake for the Big Three at her house in Los Angeles. We then see Kate examining the inside of her fridge in the pilot episode, the contents of which are littered with post-it notes dissuading her from snacking. Contrast that to Kate’s current-day fridge, which is still full of notes, but this time the messages are all about her kids. We flash back to Randall in his former office, reading the original email about finding William before his co-workers bring him a birthday cake (remember, the pilot took place on the siblings’ 36th birthday), then we see Randall in bed on his 41st birthday, reading an email from the Philadelphia PD saying they found the person who broke into his house back in Season 4. His daughters and Beth then enter the room singing “Happy Birthday To You” and delivering him breakfast in bed, a marked contrast to his office birthday party five years before. Perhaps the biggest change from the pilot is Kevin, whom we are reminded that we originally met dancing shirtless with two random women in his bedroom (decorated with posters of himself as The Manny). He says it “all went wrong” for him with the Challenger explosion in 1986, to which one of the women replies, “with Sandra Bullock?” (Sidebar: She’s probably thinking of Gravity, which came out in 2013. Also, Sandra Bullock’s first acting credit was in 1987). Fast forward five years to a still-shirtless Kevin now dancing with his infant twins in his new bedroom, which turns out to be in Madison’s garage.
Jilted at the book club
Former couple and present co-parents Kevin and Madison seem to be on very friendly terms as Kevin drops off the kids with their mom and the two talk about their upcoming day. Madison will be watching the kids while Kevin goes to a meeting, and then Kevin will take them to his family birthday party after Madison hosts her fantasy book club. There is obvious tension between them, but ignoring the elephant in the room is nothing new for these two. “We are one finely tuned co-parenting instrument,” Kevin brags, once again proving his go-to coping mechanism is denial. “We are pretty much the Porsche of slightly awkward co-parents,” Madison agrees. To really drive home the “slightly awkward” part, Kevin finally returns the air popper that he borrowed from Madison a while ago, only to have her gift him the exact same model of air popper as his birthday present. Kevin then goes to visit The Manny showrunner, who is still extremely pissed about Kevin’s on-set meltdown five years ago. To really drive salt into the wound, he says that 90 minutes into Kevin’s most recent movie, when he realized it was only half over, he started to lick the movie theater seats, trying to give himself COVID. (As an aside, This Is Us seems to have decided COVID is over. While we can all probably agree that it’s a bit of relief to not have to deal with the pandemic in our escapist entertainment, it’s a little jarring to hear it referenced as a thing of the past in the midst of our current omicron reality). However, they’re rebooting The Manny and the producers want him to play the dad (of twins!) on the new show. If Kevin turns him down, the showrunner says he’ll be stuck shooting “Treat Williams indies where you have to do your own hair,” begging the question of what the heck Treat Williams ever did to Dan Fogelman. Kevin turns him down. “Over my dead body,” he declares. “Thank god,” the showrunner answers. That afternoon, Kevin comes home to pick up the kids and is thrown to find “Elijah from book club” still in Madison’s house. He calls her “Maddie” and she calls him “Eli,” and both nicknames clearly get under Kevin’s skin. Elijah claims he’s just helping her clean up, but Kevin (and the audience) can easily pick up on the fact that there’s a little more between them than mere politeness. Elijah—who doesn’t mention Kevin’s newest flop, but is a huge fan of his previous film Hill 400—tries to bond with him over the book club’s “The Queen of the Tearling” humor, but Kevin quickly informs him that he hasn’t read it. “The last thing I read was Parasite,” Kevin responds for some bizarre reason, arguing that subtitles count as reading. Come on, Kevin, we know you’re not exactly bookish, but at least name a script or something. Later, after his family birthday party (including a Zoomed-in Randall) Kevin brings the twins back to Madison, looking forward to vegging out on the couch for the evening, but finds Elijah still there watching the next episode of the show Kevin had been watching with Madison. Kevin gets really hung up on Madison watching ahead in a show they had been watching together, which is obviously code for him being jealous. “I don’t like that he calls you Maddie,” he confesses after Elijah leaves, before admitting that living in Madison’s garage is probably not the healthiest arrangement for either of them. As a point of order, Madison acts like he’s being unreasonable by suggesting they set some clear boundaries on which shows they’re watching independently and which ones they’re watching together, but from where we sit, that’s the most reasonable thing Kevin has done in the whole episode. You can’t just watch half a show with someone and then continue ahead without them. Everyone knows that’s against the rules. Kevin shows up on Kate’s doorstep, luggage in hand, and crashes in her guest room while he figures out his next move. Part of the next phase of his life, he tells Kate, is that he has decided to take The Manny reboot after all, in order to stay in L.A. and provide some stability for his kids. “It’s TV, none of that stuff is real,” he says, meaning that he’s decided it doesn’t matter which acting jobs he takes, because his family is his true priority. And that brings us to the feelings that Kevin has been repressing for multiple seasons now: Kevin is really worried about Rebecca (more on her in a minute), and is angry that the rest of the world gets to just live their lives while this is all happening to their family. But Kate reminds him that they’ve been through hard times before, and will get through them again. “If the world stopped for the bad stuff, then everything would be dark,” she says. “But the world keeps going so we can find that crack of light on the other side of the door.” (Add that one to the This Is Us hall of fame, stat.)
Grand birthday gestures
Kate’s 41st birthday kicks off with a FaceTime from Toby, who has got a pretty cushy office in San Francisco, but that is no substitute for being home with his wife and kids. Since he can’t be there in person, Toby has arranged for Rebecca, Miguel (Jon Huertas), and Nicky to take the kids for the day while Kate gets a massage. Despite Toby doing his best to make Kate’s birthday special, she admits to her masseuse that she’s feeling a little off that Toby outsourced her birthday, rather than doing one of the in-person grand gestures that she’s come to expect from him. Immediately after making this confession, Kate gets a text from Phillip asking her to come into work due to an emergency. She arrives to find him mid-breakup with his girlfriend, Jessica. “You bore me,” he says after Jessica accuses him of using his traumatic past to get out of their relationship. (What traumatic past? Sounds like more flashbacks are on the horizon.) He then tells her that being with her is like watching paint dry. Yikes, Phillip. Your breakup skills could really use some work. “That was not the emergency,” Phillip says after Jessica leaves and Kate walks in, although it does seem worth pointing out that Kate deciding not to accompany Toby to San Francisco was also Phillip’s idea, after he refused to accept her resignation. First he talks her out of moving away with her husband, and then he just so happens to break up with his girlfriend right in front of her? Seems a bit suspicious, if you ask me. Phillip then tells Kate the real reason for his message: her students have prepared a birthday surprise for her, which he says he had nothing to do with. The kids all sing “Time After Time,” which is a weird song to sing to your teacher for her birthday, but is significant to This Is Us fans as the song Kate sang back in Season 1 during her first public performance (which just so happened to be arranged by Toby). Kate cries, Phillip looks on fondly, and we all collectively brace for what is sure to become a pretty messy love triangle. At home later, Kate scrolls through the pictures of the kids singing to her, but is interrupted by Toby texting asking if she’s still up. When she says that she is, he surprises her by showing up in person! Grand gesture, check. “Happy birthday,” Toby says. “It is now,” Kate answers, which feels bittersweet knowing that, if the flash-forwards are to be trusted, these two won’t ultimately make their marriage work.
“A romantic full circle kind of thing”
Over at Randall’s house, Beth tries to bond with Déjà and Tess over Malik’s (Asante Blackk) romantic texts, but the teenagers are not interested in her contributions. Randall then throws a wrench in Beth’s birthday plans by telling her he wants to go to the arraignment that afternoon for the man who broke into their house. Beth tries to persuade him to stay home with her, giving him the option of a romantic Door #1 with her, or a depressing and anxiety-inducing Door #2 at the courthouse. Randall, who has never once been able to let a single thing go, chooses Door #2. At the arraignment, “Mr. Watkins” is charged with burglary while in possession of an offensive weapon, and criminal trespass, with the preliminary hearing scheduled for 4 weeks from that day. Afterward, Randall decides to confront Watkins, catching a break with the officer escorting him, since he voted for him. “Do you know who I am?” Randall asks. “You’re the guy from my picture,” Watkins answers. Say what? It turns out that Watkins, who seems to have some form of unspecified mental illness, doesn’t remember breaking into Randall’s house or fighting with him. He says he has “holes in [his] memory,” and despite Randall trying his best to spark some recollection in Watkins with his harrowing tale of what the break-in felt like for him and his family, Watkins seems confused and detached, asking Randall repeatedly if he knows what happened to his dog. He admits he didn’t remember where he got Randall’s wedding picture from, but that Randall looked happy in it, so he hoped it had come from a good part of his life. That seems to be the moment where Randall’s attitude toward Watkins changes. After returning home, Beth is stunned to learn that Randall wound up bailing out Watkins, who is supposed to then meet him at a shelter later that evening. “Felt like a romantic full circle kind of thing,” Randall says, trying to justify his actions. Beth is extremely unimpressed, but Randall says after reading Watkins’ file, he realized that he “could’ve been William,” referring to his deceased biological father. “I see Kev, I see my father, I see Laurel, I see a young Shauna,” Randall says, referring to all of the people in his life who have struggled with addiction, including his biological mother and Déjà’s biological mother. After hearing Randall speak about how he wants to make things better for his constituents struggling with addiction, Beth decides to let Randall choose “Door #1” after all, calling his compulsion to help people a “vice,” but saying that it’s one that proves what a good man Randall is. Finally, Randall chooses Door Number Beth. Of course, Watkins never shows up at the shelter, predictably disappointing Randall. But when he returns home, Beth is waiting for him with a pair of birthday cufflinks—replacing the pair that Watkins stole—and holds his hand when he says that he needs to do more for the people of Philadelphia. “I know,” Beth responds.
The little red whatchamacallit
Babysitting for Kate, Miguel and Rebecca take Jack and Hailey to the zoo, accompanied by Nicky, who tells them for what sounds like the hundredth time about Facebook stalking Sally, the girl who got away. Neither Rebecca nor Miguel seem to have much patience for Nicky’s story, and Rebecca changes the subject to reminisce with the kids about riding on trains with her dad when she was a kid. Her story stalls out, though, when she can’t remember what a “caboose” is called. She goes back through her memories of riding the train with her dad, and reading the book “The Little Red Caboose” to her kids, but every time the memory hits a spot where the word “caboose” would be, everything goes blank. She spends all day hung up on trying to find the word, until she eventually winds up yelling “the red one dammit” in the middle of the Big Three’s birthday dinner. After her family reacts with concern, Rebecca admits to them that her latest scans were positive for plaques in her brain, which can be an indication of Alzheimer’s Disease. After dinner, Nicky accompanies Rebecca and Miguel back to their house still complaining about Facebook (read the room, Nicky!), until Rebecca has had it. She yells at him that if he wants to see Sally, he should just go see Sally, and justifies her outburst to Miguel by saying “life is too short, and the man is giving me a friggin’ headache.” That evening, Rebecca stares at her brain scan, still obsessing over trying to remember what the last train car is called. Finally she remembers the cover of “The Little Red Caboose,” and says “caboose” out loud to Miguel.
Parenting in 1986
Once the kids are in bed for the night, Jack and Rebecca try to figure out if they handled the Challenger stuff well. Rebecca is worried about Kevin, who seems to be in denial. Jack says he gets it, but that his brain is just protecting itself. “He’s not going to grow into some 40-year-old man who can’t stop talking about the Challenger explosion,” argues Jack. He’s technically right; Kevin brought up the Challenger explosion on his 36th birthday. Still, that hardly seems to indicate that Rebecca’s concerns were unfounded. Rebecca also worries that Randall is “too good.” She draws a parallel between Randall and Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye– which seems like a stretch, but we’ll go with it—saying Holden is depressed and has to accept that he can’t save all the hurting children in the world. She’s afraid that Randall “might spend his whole life trying to save everyone and he won’t be able to. I worry that his life will be this beautiful but perpetually disappointing ride.” In the episode’s final flashback scene Little Kevin goes into Little Kate’s room to sleep, holding a model spaceship. After climbing into her bed, he says “Mom and Dad are going to die one day,” showing that Kevin has always admitted to Kate the big, scary feelings he was afraid to speak about with anyone else. Did you love Kate’s quote from “The Challenger?” Here are 50 more beautiful This Is Us quotes that will have you reaching for the tissues.
