Spoiler Alert: The following reveals storylines for the Season 5 finale titled The Adirondacks.
This Is Us boss Dan Fogelman revealed that the jaw-dropping season-ender will help in setting up the storylines for the series’ final Season 6.
Fans of This Is Us inherently knew something would be amiss during Kevin (Justin Hartley) and Madison’s (Caitlyn Thompson) wedding day. It appeared the couple would have some issues getting to the altar before they were pronounced man and wife.
That couldn’t be more true.
Throughout the hour, Madison reflected on her life, filled with one disappointment after the other, before sitting Kevin down and asking him if he loved her or loved being with her and the family they created. When he couldn’t say he loved her, the nuptials were off.
But it appears the duo have a relationship moving forward if the stunning time jump seen in the last minutes of the episode is any indication. The twosome regroups for another wedding, his sister Kate’s (Chrissy Metz) second, stunning fans with the news that in five years’ time, she and her current husband Toby (Chris Sullivan) would no longer be married. Instead, she will tie the knot with her current boss Phillip (Chris Geere).
“Despite two reveals of marriages not quite working out, when you cut to that period in the future, everyone feels good,” Fogelman told The Hollywood Reporter of the twist.
Teasers for the final season
The show’s head writer revealed that when This Is Us returns for its final batch of episodes, the series will focus on the future. “The show has always been challenging with the place and time and we always knew that season six would be ambitious in terms of the way it jumps time, and even more ambitious than other seasons,” said Fogelman.
He explained the final season would “live heavily” in the time period of Kate’s second wedding. This would put the ages of Kevin, Kate, and Randall (Sterling K. Brown) at 45, and in a period 10 to 15 years down the line, when the family gathers by a dying Rebecca’s bedside.
When the family gathers to spend their final moments with Rebecca, she is living in the cabin designed by her late husband Jack prior to his death, which she asked her son Kevin to build on their property during the Season finale.
Fogelman shared that the reveal of Kate’s second wedding was “a plot point we’ve known was coming for quite some time. We’ve hinted many times in the deeper future that something was amiss between [Kate] and [Toby]; it’s been part of our plan all along,” he said.
How will the show end?
The show’s creator claimed that all of the series’ hanging questions will be answered throughout the final season.
These include a look into the farthest future where fans will get answers to plot points such as how Toby and Kate’s adult son Jack came to be a music superstar and who Uncle Nicky is married to.
“All of those timelines are going to be brought to completion and explained. There will be no looming questions when we get through the end of next season. Everything will be resolved,” he shared.
This Is Us is currently on hiatus. The series will return this Fall.