This Is Us Finally Revealed What Happens to Kate in the Future

That was why the episode was so heartbreaking—to see someone else with your children, and what could have been and what wasn’t. But it also makes you feel so good that they found a way to coexist together.

When you’re at the beginning of a horrible, excruciating divorce or separation process, it seems unbelievable that you could ever get to that space. People shared stories in our room of what it was like to go on that journey and get from your lowest low to a sense of peace, joy, and happiness, and a feeling that the right decision was made for everybody. It was really interesting and exciting to capture that journey and start them from that very, very broken, sad place and get them to some place we think is really beautiful.

Are we going to see how Toby winds up with his wife in the future? We saw he was wearing a wedding ring, and there was a woman next to him when they were watching Jack in the future. 

We’re not going to see too much more of them other than what we saw in the little coffee shop, where we saw their meet-cute.

Wait, was that the same woman he ended up with?

Yes, that’s the woman he ends up with. [Editor’s note: The character’s name is Laura, and the actor who plays her in both scenes is Alexis Krause.] We’re not going to be able to delve too deeply, but you will see little hints of the two of them enjoying a very beautiful and joyful relationship of their own. 

It was interesting to see Rebecca at Kate and Phillip’s engagement party, because we haven’t seen her much past the present time until we get to the deep future. How much will we get to live in that space with Rebecca, at that time period of Kate and Phillip’s engagement party, which is, what, five years after Toby and Kate’s divorce?

Yes, roughly. We are definitely going to live a little bit more with her in that space. It’s interesting. We talked about whether it was worth it to have that moment there because, obviously, the episode is so jam-packed. But it was important to us to give everyone little hints of what’s to come and what we’re going to see. Mandy, as always, did such a brilliant job at conveying the way things have progressed in a very subtle, understated manner. You can feel that there has been that progression, and that she’s not quite functioning at the same level she was previously. 

Was there ever any discussion, by the way, of having her hug Phillip? You get the sense that maybe she doesn’t know who he is at first, and then she says his name. 

We had not thought about that. I think it was most important for us to show that there has been this change in her condition, but that she is still able to recognize him and know who he is and share in this day. We really did want to show that she can still do that at this point in life. But that seems sort of like the right level to show, that she does still have this recognition.