'This Is Us' addresses Kate's unexpected big pregnancy secret
No stranger to throwing curveballs at its audience, “This Is Us” tossed a big one on Tuesday night’s episode when it revealed that Kate may have been pregnant as a teenager.
The episode featured Kate and Toby, in the present day, continuing the adoption process with the pregnant Ellie. Kate accompanied her to a doctor’s appointment for an ultrasound and blurted out the name Chloe, which she and Toby had contemplated for the baby. That freaked out Ellie, who told Kate she knew a mean girl in high school named Chloe. Ellie also said she had contemplated having an abortion.
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When Kate got home, she told Toby talking to Ellie brought up some issues from her past that she doesn’t discuss with her family.
“My talk with Ellie today brought up some stuff for me, some stuff that I never wanted to tell anyone. Not my mom, not my brothers and not you,” she said.
She told him about her bad relationship with the abusive Marc when she was 18 and how she was left home alone when a flashback showed she took a pregnancy test that had a positive result.
It remains to be seen what happened, but the development prompts a lot of questions. Did Kate have an abortion? Was the test wrong? How did the incident shape her as an adult? The preview at the end of the episode hints at the return of Marc.
“I really did miss you,” he says before leaning in to kiss teenage Kate.
Viewers won’t have to wait long to get to the bottom of this mystery.
“That story is going to be told very quickly, very soon,” executive producer (and director of last night’s episode) Ken Olin told Deadline. “We’re not holding off these things.”
Olin, however, didn't get into any specifics about the pregnancy storyline.
“I don't want to give away what the story is, but we certainly address the fallout,” he told Entertainment Weekly.
Chrissy Metz, who plays adult Kate, had hinted back in May that an interesting plot was on the horizon.
"There is a story, a through line, coming down the pike about some experiences that shaped Kate as a woman, as an adult, that we haven't seen yet," she told People.
Metz said series creator Dan Fogelman approached her about the idea.
"I remember Dan giving me a call and he's like, 'How do you feel about this? Are you going to be able to tackle this? How are you going to feel about it?' I'm like, 'No let's do it, I think it's super important,'" she said. "While I won't give away what it is exactly, it's something that we haven't seen and we had no idea that Kate went through."
While the show will spill the details, it may take some time before fans get answers, since "This Is Us" won't return with new episodes until Jan. 5.
