This is a game-changer.
Warning: Spoiler alert! Do not proceed if you have not watched Tuesday’s episode of This Is Us. If you have, read what Susan Kelechi Watson had to say, then come on back...
Someone’s having a baby!
In the final moments of Tuesday’s episode of This Is Us, titled “Still There,” it’s revealed that a member of the Pearson family -- more specifically, one of the modern-day Big Three -- has a bun in the oven. So, who is welcoming a new bundle of joy into the world: Kevin, Kate or Randall?
Kate. And she’s six weeks along.
The shocking pregnancy revelation comes as a surprise for Kate, who spends the bulk of the episode avoiding Toby and nervously preparing for her upcoming singing gig at a bar mitzvah. At first, it seems her two-week fitness binge, which includes yoga classes, weight-group meetings and daily at-home workout routines, and the sudden switch to organic are Kate’s go-to solutions to ensure she’d fit into the dress she’s planning to wear for her big performance. It becomes clear, as the episode goes on, that the shift in healthy living is also due in part to her pregnancy.
After Kate tells Toby she won’t be able to stay home and take care of Kevin, who has just undergone arthroscopic knee surgery to repair the tear in his bad leg (the same one he injured 20 years ago), she stops by the drug store -- not to buy a healthy mid-day snack on her way to yoga, but to purchase (we’d find out later) prenatal vitamins recommended by her OB-GYN.
Later, before she heads off to rehearsal, Kate -- looking divine in a fitted emerald green and black-laced gown -- is anything but celebratory when Toby congratulates her on setting a goal and accomplishing it. Instead of showing any intimacy toward her future husband, Kate coldly asks her fiance -- who is deeply unaware that she’s expecting their first child -- to zip up the back of her dress.
All the puzzle pieces come together in the end, when we see Kate at the doctor’s office. “So, is it still there?” Kate asks, her doc responding in the affirmative: “It’s still there. Your poppyseed is now the size of a lentil. Congratulations, you’re officially six weeks along.”
When did Kate first learn she was pregnant? Why didn’t she share the news with Toby? Which family member will she reveal her pregnancy to first? What will she be like as a mother? How will impending motherhood affect her professional aspirations to be a singer?
Meanwhile, more details were uncovered regarding Kevin’s leg injury, which he re-aggravated while filming an intense battle scene for the Ron Howard war movie. In a rare moment of vulnerability, Kevin opens up to Toby about his problematic knee, which he first injured when he was 17 (a short time before Jack’s death), that has become a symbol of dreams crushed and detours made.
“I’m not going to let this stupid knee screw up the rest of my life. Not again,” Kevin says. Turns out, Kevin was a star football player in high school (his love of throwing the pigskin began early, at 3 years old), impressively making the varsity team as a sophomore. His future was looking bright: College scouts and recruiters were coming just to see him and Jack, the proud father he was, filmed every big moment of his son’s young football career.
“I had this whole future planned… And then, the knee goes out and then bam, just like that, it’s over in one second. Gone,” Kevin reflects, suggesting that he suffered the original injury, which had plagued the rest of his life, during a football game. “So what do you do? I started acting. At first I started doing it to pass the time, rather than just sit there and feel sorry for myself. But then, after awhile, I started to get the same thrill from it that I did from football.”
“And here we are, 20 years later,” he continues on, taking offense to the thought of his acting dream getting derailed because of his injury. “I’ve been working my a** off and I’m finally on the brink of something special and real and fulfilling, and I’ll be damned if I let this stupid knee destroy another one of my dreams. … I’m not blowing it this time. I’m going to do whatever it takes.” Sure enough, Kevin soldiers on -- possibly to the detriment of his long-term health and career -- and somehow "recuperates" in time to keep production on the Ron Howard movie on track. Will he pay for it in the end?
What did you think of Tuesday's episode? Did you see Kate's pregnancy coming? Tell us your thoughts by tweeting Philiana Ng at @insidethetube or via @etnow!
This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.
