Did the bell on that smoker in the backyard just ring? Because, stick a fork in: KaToby are basically done.
At the beginning of Tuesday’s This Is Us, Kate hands Toby an olive branch as they exit the cabin after their pugnacious Thanksgiving dinner: She’ll be coming to San Francisco for the weekend, and they can start thinking about whether it’s a good idea to move to the town where Toby works. Great idea right? He certainly thinks so. But by the end of the hour it’s all downhill and uphill when it becomes clear that Toby is the ass he’s occasionally implied to be.
Oh yeah, I’m going on old Tobes from here on out. who is with me Read on for the highlights of The Hill.
TREAD WATER | Let’s go through the flashbacks first. Because this episode is the middle part of a three-part set, it covers much of the same physical area as last week; The way back segments take place during a visit from the Pearson family at the local public pool, and the young adult Big 3 segments take place while the kids sneak into the same pool, albeit after it has been emptied, locked in and closed forever .
This week’s lesson revolves around Kate, so we’re watching in the past as both Rebecca and Jack try to persuade their daughter to dip her face in water. Jack has a little more success, but Kate can’t stop clinging to her father long enough to even consider trying to swim. Elsewhere, Kevin, as we know, is stubborn about jumping off the board despite being essentially human rock, and Randall is somewhere self-supporting.
As we jump to the night where the older Kate and Randall find Kevin drunk and sad in the empty pool, they begin to leave, only to find that they accidentally removed the brick that Kev used to push open the gate around the property has – so they are included.
As they search for a way out, Kate compares their predicament to being stuck in Pittsburgh with no life and no real plans for the future. “The only thing I get excited about is eating ice cream at the end of the day, but we can all see where that got me,” she says, although her brothers do their best to help her talk about her true life thinking about meaning in life.
Eventually, the teenagers realize they have to get out. Randall goes first, then Kevin positions himself at the top of the wire fence and tries to help Kate up. But when she slips on the first try, she steadfastly refuses to try again.
OLD TOBY > NEW TOBY | In the present, Kate prepares for her weekend getaway. We see her showing little Jack (who really is the cutest – even grumpy neighbor Gregory is delighted!) how to navigate his way from his house to the park, and then she hangs out watching Fight Club with Madison . “Sometimes I fantasize about hanging out with Old Toby,” says Kate, admitting that she longs for the version of her husband that existed before he lost weight and became more confident. Madison assures her that Old Toby is “still in there. Go and find him.”
But before Kate even leaves her house, New calls Toby to tell her that a business appointment will get in the way of his airport pick-up. She says it’s fine, but after she hangs up, she sees Old Toby in the mirror. (Yep, fatsuit and flashy shirt and all.) “You would have picked me up,” she says. (“TWO TOBYS IS TWO MUCH,” I say.)
Once she’s arrived, things seem to be going well: Toby admits he’s a little nervous about putting her to bed since it’s been so long, but all is well… until he gets up to take a work call. Old Toby shows up, cracks a few bad jokes, pokes fun at New Toby’s slimmer body, and is halfway into Chris Farley’s Tommy Boy play “Fat Guy in a Little Coat” before getting upset and stopping him. “Fine,” he says, “but you’re going to miss me.”
“KATOBY’S DAY ON THE BAY | That seems to be the case, especially when New Toby takes her for a walk the next day to show her a house that’s for sale. He’s apparently met with the broker a few times and even got him a pre-approval on a loan, and I’m surprised at how little he realizes that she’s nowhere near going along with the plan. Can’t he see her face? Instead, he ignores everything and gives her the hard sell: “Kate, we can do this. We can build a life out here together.” But the fact that he wants to make her an offer in a few days doesn’t suit her at all.
Eventually, Toby realizes what’s going on and apologizes to her while they wait for a Lyft to a cocktail party at his boss’s house. When the driver cancels before picking her up, Kate suggests they walk. Didn’t Toby say his boss lives nearby? But, San Francisco style, the trail is all uphill. And while Tobes doesn’t say it in that many words, he doesn’t think she can hack Ascension. You call another car.
All of Toby’s co-workers are nice, and Kate is amused when one of them accidentally drops a bombshell: Toby got a job offer from a Los Angeles-based company, but he turned it down. This is news for Kate, who coolly tells Toby they are leaving. “You lied to me and made a fool of me in there,” she says, close to tears. He replies that it’s an old job he’s applied for, the offer just came in and it’s ridiculously low. Still, she’s angry.
GO YOURSELF SF | At home he tells her that he will do anything for her family. She replies that uprooting Jack, who is now comfortable in her home and neighborhood, is not a big step for her family. Toby counters that Jack’s schooling and adaptive technology will cost a lot of money, but becomes evasive when she pressures him about how much more money he makes in San Francisco than he would have working in Los Angeles. “It’s not just about the money, is it?” She recognizes, adding that he’s “just about the happiest you’ve ever been, isn’t he?” He admits he is, then yells, “You do don’t you do that for me?!”
The fight gets even uglier. Kate says she doesn’t know who Toby is anymore and that she misses “the goofy guy from our first date.” She lets it slip that she imagined Old Toby, and New Toby is a big idiot to her about it. Old Toby, New Toby says, “was a mess. He was unhappy and insecure and hated himself…Kate, you fell in love with a coping mechanism.” He then says that she’s changed too, and that she’s happier being a super mom and living with her brother than she ever was , when he was in Los Angeles. She admits that she feels healthy, connected, and purposeful, “except for the one thing that makes me really, really sad.”
The next morning, after they’ve calmed down, Toby admits he should have discussed LA’s offer with her “even if it wasn’t a good one.” And he’s happy that he feels valued at work, and she feels valued in Los Angeles. However, he decrees that they must move to San Francisco, and that’s it. “I need you to come on board,” he says. “Moving here is the only way we can remain a family. It’s the only option.” Kate has some big feelings about the whole thing, but all she says is that she’s going outside to get some air.
She stands at the bottom of the hill near Toby’s apartment, staring off into the distance he thought she couldn’t climb the night before. She blows the whole thing up. Once at the top, she triumphantly calls Phillip and asks to be considered for a recently vacated teaching position at the school. Doesn’t sound like someone ready to move, does it?
Now it is your turn. What do you think of the episode? Mute the comments!