Spoiler Alert: This story contains information regarding the Season 5 finale of This Is Us titled The Adirondacks.
This Is Us star Caitlin Thompson said to fans who were stunned by the outcome of the Season 5 finale, “there’s always hope” when it comes to the future of Kevin (Justin Hartley) and Madison.
After a year of Kevin and Madison coming together after she learned she was pregnant with their twins Frannie and Nicky, the couple grew in their feelings for one another. Kevin asked Madison to marry him, but throughout the process, it appeared both were troubled by their decision to tie the knot.
Kevin finally made peace with his choice to marry Madison and wanted to create the wedding of her dreams, but his overcompensation of the event weighed hard on her heart as she felt he did not really love her but rather loved the idea of their family together.
In the hours prior to the wedding, Madison reflected on her past and realized that she never had one person who told her they loved her. Abandoned by her mother and father, she yearned for a love that would be accepting and without conditions.
She went to see Kevin and asked him if he loved her. In response, he said he loved their family and their life but never addressed his feelings for her. It was then that Madison called off the wedding.
Caitlin said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that Madison’s choice was essential for the character’s growth moving into the final season of the NBC series.
Her thoughts on Kevin and Madison’s future
The actress shared that Kevin and Madison’s pairing will continue to experience real growth and development in the series’ final season, which will be set five years ahead of its current timespan and in the future.
“There’s always that hope. Honestly, I don’t know. I think they both realize that it can’t be the way that it is currently. It needs to grow or it needs to evolve in some way, so if that happens in the future, I think they’d both be open to it. But if not, they’d make an amazing team as co-parents,” Caitlin said of Kevin and Madison’s future.
“They’re going to be in each other’s lives every day or day-to-day. They’re going to have to figure out that arrangement, what that looks like. He’s currently living with her in her house because of COVID, so I don’t know if that will still fly. They’re going to have to figure it out,” she elaborated.
Her reaction to Madison leaving Kevin at the altar
Caitlin said that although her character gave Kevin many chances to let him know her true feelings and revealed her love for him in the finale, their breakup likely would not have the same dramatic effect for viewers if it wasn’t done on their actual wedding day.
She joked that her speech was likely more dramatic when she was “in the wedding dress.”
The actress dove deep into Madison’s decision and the writer’s ability to tell her story in flashbacks.
“What they did with the flashbacks — these earrings with the mom — I feel like it was bringing up all these old emotions and making her realize where she’s come from and why she is the way she is and where the eating issues come from. It’s been an awakening for her, and it almost takes a big event to realize something like a habitual characteristic in somebody,” she said of the character’s lifelong search for love and acceptance.
This Is Us is currently on hiatus.