Thanks to Season 5 flash-forwards that showed Toby without a wedding ring—and didn’t show Kate at all—viewers were already concerned about the couple, but their split was confirmed at the end of Season 5, when we learn that Kate gets remarried several years down the road to her current coworker, Philip (Chris Geere). Since then, viewers have watched as tension mounts between Kate and Toby in Season 6, stemming primarily from the nature of their long-distance relationship as Toby works in San Francisco while Kate and their children live in L.A. In the third episode of Season 6, in a flash-forward that treated us to a glimpse of a grown-up Jack Damon (Blake Stadnik), we learned that the final threads holding their marriage together will snap at an upcoming barbecue where Toby will use his new Big Green Egg smoker. Now, in the promo for Episode 11, titled “Saturday in the Park,” that barbecue seems to finally be upon us, as the Pearson family gathers to celebrate Rebecca (Mandy Moore) and Miguel‘s (Jon Huertas) anniversary. What is the final straw in KaToby’s marriage? Here’s everything we learned from the promo for This Is Us Season 6 episode 11, “Saturday in the Park."
Is there a promo preview for This Is Us Season 6 Episode 11?
The promo for “Saturday in the Park” opens with Rebecca speaking to little Jack, repeating what he’s just told her: “Mommy and Daddy are mad a lot.” “Mommies and daddies fight sometimes,” Rebecca tells her grandson. “But it’s going to be okay.” We then see Rebecca looking into the backyard, where Kevin (Justin Hartley) and Randall (Sterling K. Brown) are sitting on either side of their sister, each holding one of her hands. It seems like getting to “okay” will involve some pretty painful steps. “Every day I wake up and I think, today’s the day Toby and I aren’t going to fight,” a tearful Kate tells Randall in the next shot, as we see Toby preparing to use the Big Green Egg while holding Jack. “You guys are going to make it through this,” Randall reassures her, although he’d probably not be so confident if he knew what we know. We then see Toby frantically searching in their house while calling Jack’s name, as Kate comes around down a hallway to report that they can’t find their son. “He’s not anywhere,” she says to Rebecca, obviously distraught. “Where are you?” Kate calls, as the final image of the promo shows Jack navigating with his cane down a neighborhood sidewalk, all alone. Meanwhile, text interspersed throughout the promo promise that the episode will show “the day, the moment, this family breaks.”
What happened on This Is Us Season 6 Episode 10?
Episode 10 of the show’s sixth season finished up the Big Three trilogy of episodes, concluding with a Randall-centric hour that took him and Rebecca on a road trip to Boston to retrieve Déjà (Lyric Ross) from Malik’s (Asante Blackk) apartment. On the way, Rebecca convinced Randall to take their time, and the two filled the space reconnecting with one another and reveling in the unique mother-son bond they’ve always shared. Eventually, Rebecca admitted to Randall that the reason she didn’t choose him as her executor should anything ever happen to Miguel, was because Randall has always been the one to take care of her, and she thought he deserved a break. This was evidenced through flashbacks showing how Randall has always been the one to help smooth over tensions in the family and look out for everyone’s best interests—especially Rebecca’s—ever since he was a small child. In turn, Randall revealed that he’s being courted by the senior senator from Pennsylvania, who is getting ready to retire and wants Randall to take his seat. Randall isn’t certain what he wants to do, in large part because he knows that if he runs, he’ll win, and isn’t sure whether he is ready to walk down that path. But after a heart-to-heart with Rebecca and a successful Boston trip—concluding with Déjà apologizing for her harsh words to him earlier, and affirming that he is in fact her dad—Randall decides to pursue the opportunity, and schedules a meeting with the senator. The episode concluded by returning to Kate and Toby in San Francisco, where Kate informs him that she’s not ready to move to San Francisco, and he informs her that the Big Green Egg smoker will be delivered in time for Rebecca and Miguel’s anniversary party, setting the stage for next week’s dramatic showdown.
Are there any spoilers for This Is Us Season 6 Episode 11?
Speaking to Us Weeklyfollowing the Kate-centric episode “The Hill,” Chrissy Metz teased that the inevitable implosion of Kate and Toby’s relationship is “gonna get good. It’s gonna get heated.” Of course, “good” in this case probably means we’re in for some riveting television, but not necessarily happy characters, since we imagine that Kate and Toby’s breakup is going to go down in This Is Us tearjerker history. As for “heated,” she could be referring to the rising tension and increasingly hostile arguments between them… or she could be making a pun about the smoker (or both). Earlier in the season, talking to PEOPLE, Metz said that when we finally get to Kate and Toby’s split, “It’s going to be a doozy. It’s going to be really difficult to watch.” Susan Kelechi Watson, who plays Randall’s wife Beth, agreed with Metz, saying in a February 2022 panel that she was “gutted” by the couple’s decision to part ways. So if you’re a KaToby fan, you should probably brace yourself for Episode 11, because it sounds like the relationship is about to go off the rails – and it’s really going to hurt.
How to watch This Is Us
The final season of This Is Us will air new episodes every Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. The next episode of Season 6, “Saturday in the Park,” premieres Tuesday, March 29. Next, if watching Kate and Toby’s fractured relationship hits a little too close to home for you, take a look at our Step-By-Step Guide for How to Break Up With Someone (Nicely)!
