This Is Usjust aired its last first episode.
As all previous seasons have started with a birthday, the season 6 premiere, titled “The Challenger,” kicked off with the Big Three’s 41st year on Aug. 31 as Kevin (Justin Hartley) and Kate (Chrissy Metz) celebrated together in Los Angeles and Randall (Sterling K. Brown) was in Philadelphia with wife Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) and their daughters.
Season 6 also took it back to Jan. 28, 1986, when the Pearson kids were 6 years old and at school watching theSpace Shuttle Challenger launch— and then break apart mid-flight, killing all seven crew members aboard (including the first civilian crew member, teacher Christa McAuliffe). As longtime fans will recall, the tragedy was a significant memory for Kevin, who in the season 1 premiere said: “Maybe that’s when I realized trying to change the world just leads to being blown up into little pieces all over Florida. Maybe that’s how I wound up asThe Manny.”
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Fast forward to the present day, Kevin begrudgingly agrees to be inThe Mannyreboot, this time playing the dad instead, due to his career struggles following his last film, which was a flop. Also, Kevin has been living in ex-fiancée Madison’s (Caitlin Thompson) garage to work on co-parenting their twins Nicky and Fran after the couple called off their wedding and ended their relationship. While Kevin seems to be in a rut, Madison appears to be moving on with Elijah from book club.
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Joe Pugliese/NBC
PEOPLE: Rebecca’s health is top of mind for the family. Unfortunately, she tells the Big Three on their birthday that there are plaques building in her brain. After, Kate tells Kevin that nice speech about how they’ll find the light again during this dark time. He feels better but she looks like she’s about to cry. How hard will Rebecca’s declining health and memory loss be on Kate specifically?
CHRISSY METZ: Yeah, of course, just as they are getting really great in their relationship, she starts to mentally decline which is always hard. I know for me personally, to think like, “Oh, someone’s in a healthy body, but mentally there’s stuff going on that you can’t see.” And you’re like, “Wait, how can this be true?” That’s really the beauty of the way Dan [Fogelman] and all the writers create the show. It’s such a bittersweet… anytime anything is brought up, it’s always so bittersweet. I definitely know that it will affect Kate in a different way because she’s always had a different relationship with her mom. And there’s always this thought of like, “Oh my gosh, did I waste time?” And everything is different in hindsight and you think should’ve, could’ve, would’ve. Like, “Why, why couldn’t I’ve been more patient? Why couldn’t I have been more understanding?” That’s the point of our evolution as humans is to take a lesson and learn from it. Sometimes we feel like it’s a little too late, but it’s never too late if we can learn from it, no matter what the time.
How hard will Rebecca’s diagnosis and memory loss be on the siblings and the rest of the Pearson family?
It’s hard for everybody in a family, but I think it’s different for each sibling and of course, for Miguel. But yeah, it’s just a really hard one for me only because my mom had her own health issues. So it’s really, really emotional and obviously, Mandy plays it so beautifully. It’s going to affect everybody differently, but also very deeply.
Ron Batzdorff/NBC
I think that they have been brushing some stuff under the rug. There’s been a bit of a slow leak. When you don’t communicate effectively, or you’re not honest about your feelings, or you brush them under the rugs, you’re like, “Oh not right now. It’s not a good time.” Things tend to open up and eventually implode. You can only push it down so much.
Meanwhile, Phillip broke up with his girlfriend in his office at the music school and Kate saw it all happen. He’s now single. Knowing what fans know about their future marriage, can you tease anything about how soon audiences will get to learn more about Kate’s future husband?
They’re learning about each other and getting to know each other. He’s still titled as “Mean jerk” in her phone. So he’s not the nicest guy, but what she’s coming to find out is he has his own stuff and his own history. And of course, that informs who we are in the present moment. I think that people will start warming up to him, it’s just going to take a while. He’s still very guarded and he uses that British humor to cover up some pain. As we all do, we’re all walking around with stuff that we don’t always want to share. It’s going to be a bit of a time before we see anything going on between Kate and Phillip. But obviously, weknow.
When Phillip told his girlfriend that she bores him, no partner wants to be told that.
People would rather say like, “I’m not attracted to you.” I would rather hear I’m not attracted to you than you are boring. Also, who says that? I guess she wasn’t getting the hint. But rude! I mean, I appreciate the honesty but gosh.
This Is Usairs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.
source: people.com
