That Was Us - A Turn of Events | "Taboo" (607)

Episode Date: October 6, 2026

On today’s episode of That Was Us, we’re diving into Season 6, Episode 7: Taboo. As the Pearsons gather for Thanksgiving, Kate and Toby confront lingering tension and Rebecca makes an important decision about who will care for her as her illness progresses. In this episode, the hosts chat about: * Their competitive nature and love of board games, especially Taboo * Their own relationships with food growing up and how those relationships have changed as parents * The challenges of navigating food and body image within families * The complicated dynamics of spending Thanksgiving with family They also break down the episode, including: * Rebecca choosing Kate to be in charge of her care if anything happens to Miguel, and Randall’s reaction * Rebecca and Miguel’s hilarious and revealing game of Taboo * Kate and Toby’s conflict over parenting and food * The different Thanksgiving timelines, including Rebecca’s childhood experiences with food and body image * Miguel telling Rebecca he needs to move to Houston and admitting that she’s his favorite person * Rebecca realizing that her feelings for Miguel have changed And a friendly reminder, you can catch new episodes of *That Was Us* every Monday, a day early, exclusively on Hulu. Available on Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts on Tuesdays like usual! That Was Us is produced by Rabbit Grin Productions. Music by Taylor Goldsmith and Griffin Goldsmith. ------------------------- Support Our Sponsors: - Explore viral bestsellers and products of healthier hair of ALL types from Bask and Lather. Go to https://baskandlatherco.com. ------------------------- 🍋 About the Show: The stars of This Is Us, Mandy Moore, Sterling K. Brown, and Chris Sullivan, dive back into the world of the Pearsons, reliving each episode and all the life lessons that came with it. Together, they dig in and dig deep, have the tough conversations, bring in very special and familiar guests, share never-before-heard behind-the-scenes moments, and feature listeners in highly anticipated fan segments. Join your favorite family back in the living room to examine our past, cherish our present, and look to the future with new episodes of That Was Us every Tuesday. Executive Producers: Natalie Holysz and Rob Holysz Creative Producer: Sam Skelton Production Coordinator: Andrew Rowley Video Editor: Todd Hughlett Mix & Master: Jason Richards About Headgum: Headgum is an LA & NY-based podcast network creating premium podcasts with the funniest, most engaging voices in comedy to achieve one goal: Making our audience and ourselves laugh. Listen to our shows at https://www.headgum.com. » SUBSCRIBE to Headgum: https://www.youtube.com/c/HeadGum?sub_confirmation=1 » FOLLOW us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/headgum » FOLLOW us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/headgum/ » FOLLOW us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@headgum Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a headgum podcast. On today's episode of That Was Us, we're diving into season six, episode seven, taboo. As the Pearson's gather for Thanksgiving, Kate and Toby confront lingering tension, and Rebecca makes an important decision about who will care for her as her illness progressives. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. How's the morning? Good morning.

We haven't seen each other in so long. Good morning. Good morning to you. It's been a minute. I was telling these guys off camera that I just flew back from Washington, D.C., and finished shooting Paradise, like, for good, for good. Thank you very much. It was very, very sort of emotional because it's been a wonderful journey over these past three years. And, like, 10 years, too, because there's people that I may be saying goodbye to that I may not see, again, like, Corey was there, John Joyce, who was a cameraman.

Did he work with you guys on the land at all? Maybe, yes. Uh, Stillman, Glenn Stillman, who was one of our premier first ADs all throughout the, and the director of this episode, right? Yes. Which I was like, let's go, Stilman. Um, Fogelman was there being his regular charming self. And it was really like to be in the nation's capital, which is sort of the backdrop for the show. Yeah.

Um, to be able to finish there. It's beautiful. Have I spent quality time in D.C.? I love D.C. Yes, I actually have. I love D.C. Yeah. Absolutely gorgeous.

A great culinary scene as well. Yes, yes. But just like looking at like the people who designed this city, right? There is a majesty to it, you know? As there should be. Get there soon if you want to see it. If you want to see it before it's all being torn down. Get there, quick.

I'm gilded. Sorry. I mean, it's true. You're quick, get to those museums. Get to those museums. Whatever, I don't know. There is. Not an arc.

I could go further, but I'm not going to go too much further. On my ride home, I got a chance to watch, man. The breadwinner. The breadwinner. I got to watch the breadwinner. The charming performance of Mandy Moore always elevates any and everything that she is in. Lesson of the movie. A mother's work is often underappreciated.

Yes. Correct. Undermestimated. Underestimated until somebody has to step into those shoes and you realize, oh, she makes her whole life. That's right. Go. Makes it look easy. You know what I'm saying?

It makes it look easy. I also watched it recently. I texted you both from my hotel room in Vancouver. I'm like, all three of our movies are literally side by side in a hotel room. Is God is? So sweet. The breadwinner and mercy. I didn't watch Mercy again.

It's a hell of true. I watched watching Is God is. And then the breadwinner, back to back, litter, I don't think two movies could be further on the spectrum. Yeah, from each other. Got it. As we have left, this is us.

We've sort of going off in our own individual journey. Yeah. Sometimes they overlap. Mercy. Chris Sullivan, great job. Thank you. Right? Thank you.

Very interesting movie. Yes. Now that I know how it ends. I do want to watch it now. You should watch for Christopher because I had an inkling of like what his role was in the movie as I was watching it. And I was like, I see Christopher.

Yeah. You know, you give little shades of things and stuff like that. It's pretty cool. I enjoyed it. I'm also very tired. I can't even imagine.

How could you not be? But the last decade's been a lot. You've been doing a lot for the last ten years. It's been busy. I'm about to go. You're shooting right now. Yes. You have a break from shooting right now.

But Fogelman is showing me clips of the land. There's like a new trailer. I can't wait. You get to bring the pain in this, John. Yeah. Bring the pain? Yeah. What do you mean?

I feel like you kind of function as the female heavy in this show. I'm getting that sense from the trailer. I think that it's, it's, there's a lot of testosterone. There's a lot of testosterone. Is it fair to say? Somebody looking Mandy's arms real quick. Give us a little. There's a lot of testes.

Listen, I'm trying to get strong. I got to stand with you guys. Let go. There's a lot of testosterone in our show. It is very much an unsophiles. the way this is us was. Yeah. I think this season is leaving room for there to be a little bit more.

Like, the way the season ends is setting my character up for some juicy stuff next season. Is it fair to say that people who tune into the land will see Mandy Moore in a light that they have never seen her before? Correct. Yes. That's what I'm talking about. She's not a nice person. That's right. She's icy.

I can't wait. She is, like, steadfast in what she wants. She doesn't have kids. She doesn't have a partner. She's married to her job. Her world revolves around this team and, and ownership and all of it. It's really fun. There's snippets of conversation in the preview between you and Maloney, and it's just like, you want to come for me?

Yeah. I'm going to come for you. The very first shot of the first, I was like, God, I hate this. I have to, like, walk in and chew Christopher Maloney out. about nothing, you know what I mean? Just like F, F, F, F, F, F. I'm like, okay, yeah, not Rebecca Pearson. I got you.

A lot of fun. Yeah. We didn't get that many Fs. How many Fs do we get an episode? That's why I said F. Yeah. Todd said we get two. Oh, really?

Is that right? In case you want to... Before we start beeping them? I didn't know that. I didn't know. We don't really curse a lot. Not a time. Every once in a while.

It comes out. I probably do it the most. And it's interesting, I'm not a big cursor. But I get excited. We get emotional. We do get excited. Yeah, we get excited. Okay.

So here's the thing. This episode I enjoy very much. I had to watch it a while ago because then I did Ryan and I come on after this episode and we review 608 together. Yes, that's right. But I wanted to talk on a macro thing before we even get into like the depths of it. Because I feel like this is a big part of the episode. not taboo, which is what the name of the episode is, and my favorite group board game.

I agree. You love it? I love taboo. Taboo is that game. Some people will go with like new stuff like Trader and like, you know, mafia. Catchphrase pretty much pretty close. Yeah. It is close.

You can also do what celebrity, where you sort of like put them in the hat or whatever have you. My wife and I have to be on the same team in Taboo. Oh my God, I can only imagine. If we do Battle of the Sex, and she does not win. She does not talk to Brown for the rest of the night. Okay.

And that's not how you want things to go. No, no, no, no. I love my wife. No, but you also want to win. I'm going to win. Oh, I don't lose. Oh, you got that air is in now. I do not lose.

Me and Andy, boy, I'm saying, too. I feel it. I feel it. We're going to go nuts. Rachel doesn't even play games with me anymore. That's really not? But you're the least competitive of the three of us. Yeah, but I'm the most capable. What?

Yes, no! That is godlit throne. Let's go, Chris! I'm maybe the least competitive of us. Mandy Moore. I thought he got a little fire with me, but I get, I get, I'm, you are, you, you me, same. You fire. Yeah, yeah.

Mandy, let's put this way, Mandy is the most, uh, what's the, faux non-competitive. Okay, okay, okay, okay, I can see that. Me guys. Me, competitive? Let's go. So I wanted to acknowledge this, that one, because directorially, Stillman, before we'll get to it in this thing, I think it's the best game of taboo captured on camera. Yeah.

The way that that game goes down. It's so awkward. And the reactions of everybody around it. When we get there, remind me to tell you my catchphrase story, too. Okay. Oh, please. I have an incredible. Before we got to the taboo.

We should also say that Glenn Steelman was one of our first ADs on the show, right? We had rotating first ADs. We had rotating because our show was a lot. Yeah. We had 18 episodes. And so while one episode was shooting the other team of 80s were prepping. Right. Correct.

So, Steelman was with us pretty much from the very beginning. Yeah. Yeah. And so he was someone that knew the show like the back of his hand. And the fact that he was asked to direct in this last season, but also an episode that I feel is so ambitious. Yes. There is a lot. There is many Thanksgivings in many timelines, which is historically like some of the biggest episodes of the seasons throughout the show for us.

So I think it really said a lot that like he was given this task as a, you know, first time director on our show to do this particular episode. and he was wonderful. He is a wonderful human being. Yes. Being, I think, a great first AD on set may be the most important job that there is. Without question.

It is the stage manager of, if you know, theater, that's essentially functioning in a very similar fashion. You got to crack the whip, but you have to crack the whip in such a way that's not duchery. You know what I'm saying? They keep morale up. Yes.

They keep things on schedule. They keep people happy. And when I mean people, I mean every department. Every department. The entire crew and cast. They're responsible for communicating to each department to let them know what their timetables are. We need this actor at this time.

Can you be finished at this? They keep things on budget. They run everything. If the show is successful, it is in part because they have an excellent first day. When things are crumbling and we've all been on those shows. May not be the best. May not be the best. And it is a tall order.

It's a really unbelievably difficult job. Yeah. And it's not for everybody. No. It is a certain kind of person like you said that can crack. We've seen good ones. We've seen good ones. We've seen not so good.

Yeah. That crack the whip. But also it's like you can do that in a way that like doesn't depress morale. Correct. That makes people feel important. Yes. That makes people excited to show up for work. Like being a just a deeply good person who like is confident in.

their ability to keep the train running. I don't know. Steelman was that, like, Times a Mill. He's that dude. I love him. Natural flowers. So he was with us on Paradise. I just saw him for the last time in D.C.

Like, we took a picture together. Like, he did a toast. He got Misty. Oh, well. I got Misty. Like, he's a beautiful, beautiful man. I'm so happy for him and the work that he did on this episode, right? Thank you, Mandy, Carl now.

The other thing that I wanted to talk about. The other thing that I wanted to talk about before we get into the episode, because I think it's such a big one, is food. Yep. Right? Yeah. And relationships to food, family's relationships to food. And so I wanted to ask you guys, and then you can, I'll turn it around on myself, what was your relationship to food in the house that you grew up in? And how has it colored how you deal with food as parents of young people now?

Dully? food was pretty basic in the house I grew up in a good rotation of like 10 recipes that were pretty straightforward did we all grow up with like 4-4-3-2 do you guys remember that food pyramid like those are the yeah yeah that was definitely that was definitely there there was a lot of looking back there's a lot of sugar lots of sugar lots of sugar I think we grew up in the day and age of like oh yeah yeah yeah soda. Port-it-right-old? Yeah. Sugary cereal, I mean, the whole deal. Which ended up being a problem for me. So now there's not a lot of sugar.

Okay. There's no soda in our house. Yeah. Oh, God. Olly-pop. Olly-pop. Come on, Ollie-pop. But you know what I mean. Or poppy. Yeah. Love them both.

There you go. Those sodas that have 40, 50 grams of sugar. Isn't it amazing? When I thought about this, as much Kool-Aid as I did, drink. And then I looked at it. I was like, there's more sugar in this two-liter bottle. Yeah. Like, I didn't realize. Yeah. It's a lot. Yeah, it's a lot. So, so yeah, we, I mean, there's still treats and things with sugar in them, but not things that are sugar forward. So then is it a situation for you then that the, the sort of biggest change for you is what you allow into the house and not necessarily how you police the eating habits of your children?

Yeah. We tried, I try, we try to have. stuff in the house that if you want to go eat as much of whatever it is, it's there. Gotcha. Especially for the kids. Gotcha. The little drawer of like snacks that they can get into themselves. Go ahead. Yeah.

And there's no added conversation from mom or dad about should you be like, do you need to do this? Do you need to do that? It's just like you have in the house which you want them to consume. Yeah. Dig it. And they're still so little. Dig it, dig it. I feel very similarly.

Yeah. really basic food was not a big issue in our house. We did have lots of sugar as well. I just think it was a different day and age of like a lack of awareness, a lack of conversation. And, you know, parents that didn't, that had fairly healthy relationships with food and with their weight and their, you know, physicality in the world.

You know what I mean? So it's like food was never like, like there wasn't like a diet culture. in our house or anything. So nothing was really off limits and like, you know, we'd go to Sam's Club and buy like, you know, big boxes of sugary cereals or pop tarts or toaster strudels or something. And so I think pop darts. I think back to that now that like we just have so much more information and education on food. And there's been so much innovation.

Yeah. I think with like what's available. for kids to eat and for us to cook and make. So we try to be more mindful and healthy and give them healthy options. Like our kids are not like, my kids don't like mac and cheese. I'm like, what?

That's like kind of the best food. Craft was a staple. Yes, absolutely. But like, I mean, not craft, not homemade mac and cheese. These guys are red sauce, pasta, dudes and lady. More, that was us after this short break. My mom used to put a scoop of butter on the plate. Oh.

And the mac and cheese on top of it. Oh, whoa. I thought you meant like in the pasta. Oh, damn. Also in the pasta. That's true. Yeah. But just mac and cheese sitting in a lake of melted butter.

You got. But here's the other thing. We were also hyperactive. Yeah. We were outside a lot. I mean. Writing your bike. I never had a weight issue.

Right. I ended up when I got older and I became less active. Sure. My awareness of how much sugar I took in became more evident. But like growing up, I almost- It's like you burned through that. Yeah, hands down because it was like schools, one thing. And then three to four hours of whatever the activity,

whether it was to athletics or run around or boys or whatever outside. So I never felt unhealthy. We were unhealthy kids. Same. But it definitely down the road led to. Led to. What about you? So this is interesting because I think, and I talked about this, Ryan and I talked about this on our podcast, oh, so long ago.

I don't think I had the best relationship to food. Or do I think my family, if you ask me and my first cousin's brother and sister, I think they would all agree. So I think my family had a very sort of Henry's. the eighth sort of relationship to food. And I'll give you a humorous sort of anecdote about that. If I came home from college, my grandmother, who was, you know, born and raised during the Depression from Arkansas, and if she thought that I had lost weight, she thought I was a little bit slimmer than when I left before, she's like, ooh, cab, you stay in pole, right?

Staying poor. I've said this to you guys before. And if I came home or not, I looked a little bit fuller, a little bit more, you know. A little bit more meat on the bone. He said, you're looking mighty prosperous there, Jack, right? And like, it sounds funny. But it's also sort of like there is a luxury to have weight. Sure.

You know what I'm saying? Because it meant that you were able to feed your family, that you guys were nourished, right? And that the relationship wasn't towards what made you healthy. The relationship is what makes you full. Right? Interesting. Okay. And so there was a.

this thing, they would call me hollow leg because I would eat my food and then if people didn't finish their food, I'd be like, yo, you're going to kill that? And I would go around and hit like three or four other people's plates. And how's it? Like, we'd go to McDonald's on like family vacations or whatnot. And I would get like, you know, two or three bacon, egg and cheese biscuits. Same. Right? Where I dropped like the grape jelly on them or whatnot. And then somebody would get like the hot cakes and somebody would get something else. And I'd be like, you don't kill that? You don't kill that?

You kill that? And it would just go away because I would burn it, right? My order was two double quarter pounders with cheese. Holy cow, you guys. Just a lot of food. It's a lot of food. It's a lot of food. And so I have had to reteach myself because the value was in like, how much food can I get for my money?

Not what's the healthiest option that's available to me? So I also want to point out that the three of us are a very privileged position to have resources to have healthy options. Absolutely. You know what I'm saying? We don't have to sacrifice volume for health or whatnot. Because sometimes that's a real conversation. How much can I get versus what's the healthiest thing I can get? Yep.

And so I found myself having a real moment with Tobias Damon in this episode being like, he's not wrong. He's not wrong. Yeah. The, the, I, looking back on this episode was like, this is when the show became really not fun for me. To sit at the Pearson Thanksgiving table and have the entire family look at me. Yeah. Even though I know they're acting. Yeah.

I mean, we'll get there. We'll get there. But yeah. But I feel this way about Kate and Toby and the. the, you know, slow demise of their relationship, they're both not wrong. Sure. Right. Right.

Sure. And that's often. The case. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're not, you're not wrong, Walter. You're just an asshole. People, people, they're both right and they don't agree. Yeah.

And so what else are you going to do? Yeah, you're at a crossroads. You're at a crossroads. I'll let you guys start the episode. This episode opens with a flashback. Yeah. Speaking of food. on, you know, baby Rebecca.

The one episode where Mandy doesn't play. Yeah. Rebecca. 10-year-old version of my stuff. There's a couple. There's one with the pigtails. Yeah. And she's in the kitchen with her mom, and they are making the family recipe for sugar.

A sugar pie. Oh, you and me both. Which, when I saw it in the script, I was like, what is this atrocity? Yeah. It's probably delicious. Oh, I tasted it. Did you?

It's the best thing I've ever heard. Yeah, it's just sugar and butter. Because it is literally sugar and butter. Yeah. It's delicious. It's like a dump kick. You ever heard of it? Yeah.

You just dumped. Yeah. It's dumped. Yeah. But I too had never heard of sugar pie. I'm like, what the fuck is sugar pie? And then our wonderful food. Stylist and pepper.

Yeah. Made it. My man would be killing it. And I was like, oh my God. Heaven. Heaven. Incredible. Incredible.

But anyways, young Rebecca is in the kitchen with her mom. They're getting ready for a Thanksgiving. And this is the first time that we see a mother indicate to her daughter that we need to be careful with what we eat. Yeah. Because right off the bat, there's the quote where she says, we have to watch ourselves. Yep.

She lets her lick the spatula. You know what I'm saying? Like they have fun making it together. Then when she brings her to pie, she brings her like the sloth. she brings her like the slimmest sliver possible, and then she doesn't have any for herself. It's like, what's the lesson here? What are we doing?

We spend all this time making this thing with drinking. We're not even going to enjoy the fruits of our labor. That's right. K-paso. K-paso. And we kind of jump straight into a flashback of now, how old are you in this when you and Jack are married? Like late 20s.

Something like that, yeah, late 20s. Well, because he's 36. No. Yeah. That's right. He's 36. So you're about 30. Yeah.

Something like that. Yeah. Okay. She's like, late. Late 20s. A lady never tells. And we now have a late 20s, Rebecca, preparing Thanksgiving for Jack and her parents.

Yes. For the first time. Before they get married. Yeah. Nurse, one to get it right. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? She had a chance to do it.

Yeah, stressed out to host. Yeah, stressed out to host my parents. Exactly. wants to impress her mom. And then when her mom and dad do show up, you know, mom immediately starts in with like the nitpicking of like, I don't think you did that right. This is kind of lumpy. And did you add the secret ingredient to the pie?

And just like immediately jumps in and you can tell that Rebecca is a uncomfortable, be annoyed and see like. No, mom, I didn't have the secret ingredient because you never told me. Yeah, like trying her best to keep the lid on the pot of like, I'm not going to boil over yet. Yeah. I know that this is what she does. This is the effect she has on me. But, like, really wanting to make it right.

Even just the circumferencing you or what? I was about to say. In the kitchen. Hey, man. The kitchen is wrong. Get the got out. Out of the kitchen. You know what I'm saying?

If you ain't here to help. This is literally, I'm in the kitchen. I'm in the kitchen a lot. Yeah. Whether it's cleaning, cooking, whatever it is. I like it in there. Sure. People are always, like, wandering in.

What can I do? What you can do is leave. Yeah. What you can do. is get out of the kitchen. Okay. I'm like noted. I am not going there.

You can post up in the corner and talk to me. Yeah, yeah. Go over there. But if you're like walking through, like, I got to move. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. She was like on her tail. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This kitchen is open concept for a reason.

Yeah. Go over in the open part of it. Yeah. The question for me is always, do you stay in that timeline? Because it goes, it montages through. We'll stay in this timeline because I feel like it's easy. because I feel like it's easiest. Go for it.

So she talks about the wedding and then makes a comment of like, like, how are you sort of preparing for it? And she's like, you know, we have to starve herself early to sort of make up for the bad choices. We make a little closer to the date. A little insurance.

You're just like, I cannot believe she said this. Not even quiet part out loud. It was like the fact that that's what she thinks is bonkers. Listen, bonkers, yes. Also, everybody loves to do. If you get a love scene where you have to remove

clothing, you want it early in the day. Before you eat. Before you eat. I've heard you say that yet, yeah, yeah. Do you disagree? Like, wait. I haven't had to do a ton of that, so. Oh, Mandy Moore. Me neither. I haven't had to do a ton of that. Not the only just whoring myself?

Yes. For the full ass on display. Yes. For public Consumption. Yes. Episode three. We remember. Brown just putting himself out there. Yes.

I'm going to tell you something. I had to do something this year. Doing stuff. And Fogelman like pulls the cover off of me so he could see more. Yeah, yeah. No, let's face it.

The show is great, but there's some weird stuff going on with Dan Fogleman. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, the shower scene was awesome, but it was a long walk to get there. It was a long. And it was all out of it.

All out of Dan Fogelman's mind, Dan, talking to you, Dan. You always remember, someone wrote this. Somebody wrote it. These two didn't just decide to shower. I have an idea. This is my choice. And that person was a little apple dumpling-cheeked, Jewish man, who just spends extra time thinking about much of Sterling doing this episode.

How much clothing should Sterling take off? Like even still, like, it's a similar dynamic. It's like you want to show yourself off the best way or what have you. Like you eat, you will get some sort of bloat. I know that my body weight change is probably about five to six pounds from the top of the day to the end of the day. And it goes, you know, it's just like with food and then releasing and food. It just is like it's such an unnecessary thing for a mother to say to a daughter. Yeah.

It's like, do you know what I mean? Yeah, I do. It's already been planted in her. brain, obviously from a young age, that like our value is tied directly to how we look and how thin we are and what our body looks like. And so it's like, I could just tell Rebecca's like, this is not the conversation I want to be having ever, but especially around the holidays while I'm making this food. Like, mom, it's not a problem. Like there's a lot of, so through this whole timeline in this episode, it's kind of like we're learning one big thing, right, about Rebecca. And it's

interesting because we've, I don't know, has our episode with our significant others come out yet? Oh, cool. So it's already been out, right? Yes. And, and what we're, what we're watching in this timeline is what happens to every person who decides to unite with another individual, right? Yeah. You unite with this person, you love this personality. There is this operating system that they arrive with. then as you get to know them and you meet their family, you meet the people who installed this operating system. Sure, good. And you go, okay.

And we watch Jack kind of witness it, right? Yeah, like, we watch him, hey, should I go in there? And his dad says, no, you do not go in there, son. Yeah. You do not go in there because of relationship between a mother and a daughter. So Jack is observing all of this, right? He's seeing what the dad is giving. He's seeing what the mom is giving.

He's seeing how all of that makes Rebecca behave. Yeah. And he wants to get up and interrupt it and like intercepts the weird energy. Should he, can he, will he? Yeah. You know, and it's the beginning of a marriage. Yeah. Right.

And an educate a learning of your partner where you're like, oh, okay. So this is, so this type of interaction is how you got to have this opinion. Yeah. Or you react to food this way or whatever the thing is. Sure. It's all illuminating. And what we end up seeing as the whole thing unfolds is that Jack figures out a way that he can help. Yeah.

Yeah. Because the nagging continues to the point where Rebecca boils over. And essentially lets out, you know, late 20, a high 20 years of information on her mother that ends. And essentially, like, what would you even know about any of this? You haven't had a slice of this pie in 20 years. 20 years. Yeah. And there's all things.

about getting married at the country club. Well, we're not going to get married at the country club. It's all stuffy with people that you don't even really like, et cetera, et cetera, yeah. All stuff that Rachel and I went through. Like, very similar stuff. We had two weddings. Because there was a whole extra 150 people who, not extra, just a lot more.

Not extra, not second choice. Not extra. Not the second tier. No. but who were like, we went to Rachel's hometown and had a whole separate reception for a whole new group of people because we didn't want to have 300 people at our wedding in Chicago. That's a big wedding. But planning a wedding is a microcosm of your entire relationship together. It involves, it involves planning, it involves both families, which, let's face it, maybe the first and last time that those people will,

ever be in the presence of each other, ever again. Yeah. Yeah. Unless they meet at your house. My parents and Rachel's parents had not seen each other since the wedding. Really? Interesting. Yeah, and not, but mostly because of proximity.

It's like they live and they, you know, and when we go to visit them, we're not bringing my parents and vice versa. But you haven't had a situation yet where you've coasted and both families come to you? No. No. No. The family, her family's too big. and my family's close by and all these things

but it's there's compromise there's finances there's literally a microcosm of a marriage yeah like press down to this diamond of what's going to be the most special day

in the history of days totally and it could be a lot of pressure yeah and it boils over for Rebecca these talks yeah and then Jack goes to talk to your mom first Janet. To be...

It took me a minute to remember her name. To be like, hey, listen. She wanted this to be perfect for you. Yeah. She really tried. Family recipes. It matters to her. And all of a sudden, the conversation gets flowing and Jack

gets some information. Yes, he does. From mom. They're moving. And that's why everything is a little stressful. Oh, interesting. Okay. Let me go...

Give me 10 minutes. Give me 10 minutes. I'm going to talk, and he goes to talk to Rebecca. And it's really, kind of. He's trying to mediate. And it's brilliant. Yeah.

Because he knows what he's doing. And he says, I've talked to your mom and listen. I just, I think that between this and this and the move, that there's just been a lot. And she's like, what? The move. What move? They're moving? And essentially, what Jack has realized in this compressed little Thanksgiving dinner

is the way that he can reunite Rebecca and her mom. Common enemy, bro. Is to give them a common enemy, which is him. Which is, I can't believe you told her that we were moving. I didn't want you to find out that way. She told you that in pride. Yeah. And Jack just being like, t-hee.

Yeah, like, I'm okay in this role. I knew what I was doing. Oh, dumb me, sorry. I got shout out to Matheson, too, who really played this role well. He's like, my name is Bennett and I ain't in it. You know what I'm saying? Like, that was the ones the dudes did. He's like, the relationship between mothers and daughters is very complicated, Jack,

and the more you stay out of it, the easier to do. And Jack's like, all right, that's your way? And I don't want to be involved anyway. Yeah. This is here with my friend, Tom Collins, and we'll figure it out together. Yeah. But Jack's like, I'm going to find my own way in. And kudos to him because, like, I've actually tried this.

what Jack has done. Not as well. Not as well. It wasn't written by the writers of this is like. It is a tight rope walk. Well, just because there is a history that has absolutely nothing to do with you. You know what I'm saying?

And like, you know, things may be coming out and it may feel like it's directed to you, but it's like not. It's, there's, for me, 18 years of a relationship that exists before I came into the picture. That's right. And like, every once in a while, I try to say, like,

I don't know if you ever get a chance to hear what this person says about you that maybe they can't say to you directly. Sure. For better and for worse, but mostly for better. I'm not trying to point, but that there's real love and affection and, like, maybe if you heard it, then maybe it would sort of help you sort of open yourself up to it in another way.

But my wife and mother-in-law, it's tough. But for my entire life, I was a PC family. We were a PC family. PC? Oh, not enough. Yeah, I'm getting back to metaphors. Got it. And then Rachel came into my life and somebody handed me a MacBook.

Copy that. And I was like, I don't, what is this operating system? I don't know how to work this. Yeah. Where do I, where's Microsoft Word? I just want to write a document. Oh, and so I'm just saying it's a learning process. Yes.

When you are decoding all of these years of relationship and experience. and trauma and triggers and yeah. There was, you were talking about the marriage thing, and then we'll move on to another, where we got married and my wife was really insistent that I paid for the rehearsal dinner, because it's the grooms, and it's like, totally fine, right? Now, my mom has been retired for an extended period of time.

My father passed away when I was fairly young, but I was working. I was on a TV show called Army Wives at the time, and she's like, well, your mom should pay you. I was like, well, listen, how about I just pay for it myself? And she was like, no. Oh. Your mom's supposed to pay for it.

And I was like, yeah, you know what? Let's not go like tow the line so hard. We're older people, you know, I'm in my 30s. I can pay for it. But then, like, there's a whole conversation between moms, between my mom and her mom. Oh, yeah. It was tough.

The big conversation was the big fight that Rachel and I had during our wedding planning was a wedding registry. I didn't want one. Didn't want one? No. And she did. Because we both were adults.

Sure. With two households full of stuff, we were going to have to throw away half of it anyways. Yeah. And I'm like, what do we need? That's interesting. What do we have bed sheet? We have dishes.

We have all these things. I already got quince. And it was in a weird time. Thank you, I got quince. Yeah. I got quince. got everything I need. No, but it was in a weird, so, so in 2010 would have been an interesting kind of middle

window between like proper wedding registries. Yeah. And now people don't have, they have like honeymoon. Like you literally just, you literally just give cash. Yeah, you just do like a Venmo. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's like, help us fund our honeymoon or whatever it is. That was, that wasn't a thing.

Right. Or maybe it was. It wasn't. No, maybe it wasn't. It wasn't. Rachel didn't want to like just be asking for cash. Sure. And yeah, so that was like...

What'd you do? We had a registry. We had a registry. We had a register. We had a giant, hold on. Not only we have a giant full-blown registry. We got all of the gifts. And then I found out I got the Broadway show.

We moved to New York five days after getting married. And all of our wedding gifts went into storage. And we didn't see them again. until we moved to Los Angeles. Stop it like six years later. In 2016 for This Is Us. When I had that shipping container that sat in a warehouse. What?

That sat in a warehouse for six years accruing how, who knows how much money for that thing. And then had it shipped from Illinois to Los Angeles when we opened up like an Indiana Jones' arc of the covenant. And it was like, a KitchenAid mixer, just what I've always wanted. But it's six years old. It's an old model. This is amazing.

Unopened. I know. I mean, unopened wedding gifts. Just like, what did you do? Did you use most of the stuff? Yeah. Okay, good. Yeah.

Don't get me wrong. We still have. We still have our Fiestaware dishes. Yeah, you do. That is so. Feasterware is good. It's no plastic. It is.

That's right. No lead. That's good. That is hilarious. Okay. Yeah. Shall we move on to Rebecca and Miguel and Marguerite and Matt? Oh, this is a good one.

It's so good. It's so good. Because we got an alcoholic 20-year-old. We got our old he is. Why am I laughing at that? Yeah. We got. Well, we are.

checking all the boxes in this time line. Totally. Yeah. We have, we have Kate, who is, who has fully entered her, her food addiction. Sure. We have, uh, Randall and Beth who are just, Randall's trying to fix everything. And Beth is just here for it. Yeah.

She's like, I just love it. Which, by the way, she also is in the present day type of. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. These you are crazy. Yeah.

Um, also kind of my position when we traveled to Rachel's family, like Rachel's family. I'm not like, like, There's nothing insane going on, but I'm like, I'm here to, oh, wow. I'm still learning the operating system. Absolutely. Still getting, I'm taking no, oh, okay. Yeah, that's my favorite. That tracks.

Okay, good. I do a lot of dishes at Rachel's parents' house. It's good listening. Good listening. It's good listening. It's helpful. Yeah, you're like being useful. I do actually enjoy it.

Yeah. Yeah. We've got, we've got Miguel and Marguerite who show up for Thanksgiving, just like they said they would. Real quick. Is she French, for real? No. She was good accent. It was a really good accent. It was. Okay, good. We've got

shoot, Matt. Matt, who shows up. He seems like he He seems like how he looks. Don't you just want him to win? You do! I was like, oh, Matt. You just want Matt to win. Matt is on the land, too. That's right. Is it really? I don't get out of here. Matt is like the anti-mark with the C.

Yes, that's right. He's our special team coach. He's Mark with the K. He's so lovely. He's Mark with the K. He's Mark with the K. There you go. Okay.

And Matt walks in the door right as he hears Rebecca saying, he's sweet. He's nice. See, you're going to like him. He's like, oh, that's nice, dude. You're supposed to hear that. Everyone arrives. Matt arrives. Beth and Randall walk in.

And Kevin goes, me and Sophie. Me and Sophia broke up. We broke up. Not got a divorce, not like, we're still born for the girl. Yeah, we broke up. You want a beer? And Rand's like, uh, it's not quite noon yet, so I'm okay. And then Kate literally, like, it's just, they're stacking them up.

Kate runs in and, and she has gotten, she has gotten heavier. Yeah. And there is a look of recognition on Randall's. Hey, hi. Hi. Um, and so the traffic jam of issues is just piling up very, very, very quickly. I will say that the old girl who plays Marguerite,

when she says, when she says Houston, we have a problem. Houston, we have a problem. It's not just that. It's the look of Rebecca's face every time she says it. And it's either the second or third time, Rebecca's like, well, she really likes that one. So that's a problem of the routine, I guess. Yeah, all right.

Okay. Yeah. And the awkwardness of like, so Miguel, I think Miguel's legitimately trying. He has a moment with Matt when he's like, oh, man, I just want this to go well. I'm trying to stick around for as long as possible. He's like, right on, man. I wish you well. It's like I brought a bottle of Pino Noir.

I think it's Rebecca's favorite. And he's like, right? Like Miguel's like, that's not her favorite. But like, okay, you said? He opens the book. Oh, my God. It's so great. This is so John.

John's. John's, yeah. And he like smells a little bit? And it was perfect. Yeah. And Matt goes, oh, no, is it okay? And he goes, sure. Not reassuring at all.

No. Sure. Sure. It's okay. Yeah. It's just okay. Yeah. We're just throwing shade is so good.

When they get together and, you know, she's like, you get a chance to talk to Matt. Like, yeah, yeah, nice guy. You know what I'm saying? Like, he's sweet. Like, not too sweet. He's just like the right. The right amount, not too sweet, not too sour. You know what I'm saying?

Just like right down the middle. Right down the middle. He explains it. Yeah. And then Rebecca's like, you know, Marguerite is very beautiful. You know, to be French, I thought she'd be. I can't remember. More worldly.

Worldly. Worldly. In my mind, I thought it was going to be culture, but world. But she's actually really normal. Really normal. Yeah. The shade. You guys, it was like, it was like, yeah, jouston.

Yeah. Like emotional jousting. Yeah. Or just like poking each other with... Like he's down the middle and she's normal. Yeah. Who would have thought? I thought she was going to be.

Yeah. Yeah, being French and all. So we... The kids are able to clock upon first meeting. It's like, hey, this is kind of tense. This is going to be weird. There's something going on here, right? We get to that...

I'm used one of them right now. We get to that fucking game of taboo. So good. So good. You guys. You got. Like, it goes from like, you know, like, I think Randall and Beth have a cute little hookup. It's like my sixth favorite thing about you.

Yeah. My dimples. It always bothers me that this kid's voice is deeper than my. Yeah, my dimples. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But then, so Rebecca's up. It's like, come on, old people. We got to get it together, right?

Yeah. She's throwing stuff out. And then she just was like, you know what? Hey, man. Like, it was a tortoise thing. and it's like it's kind of like a tortoise and people are like, what are you talking about? And you had a couple of these

and like, oh, lizards, right? And then it's just like five or six in a row. Yeah, right? Yeah. Where she just is playing to Miguel. It's like they're in their own world. Nobody else is there. It's like they have a rhythm.

Yes. They found the rhythm and she's sticking with it. It's like they've totally, because I think when the game first started, it was like Marguerite didn't really know the answer and it was just like, oh, okay, not you. Miguel. Totally.

just like focus in because you and I know each other. And I'm going to just give you all these clues. And it's such a sweet thing because you start to recognize like, oh, they know so much about each other. And they have a real history. It was like that one time at Froggy's with Jack when he blah, blah, blah, blah. Like all of these examples. Yeah.

Are like all encompassing of their life. But there's another thing too if you go another level. There's a couple of like, you used to call me Mary Tyler Moore because I would wear berets. And there's like a Billy Joel's favorite song, right? She's always a woman, right? But not a different word. But not a woman. A different word for that. And then there's like, oh, you used to always watch Susan Day and say she's such a beautiful. And so like I kind of love because you kind of do fit into this Mandy Moore, like this sort of Susan Day, Mary Tyler Moore, like classic beauty sort of thing. And we make these references too. And I'd don't think they're just, if you go a little bit deeper, like, it's like, everybody else can see it. Yes.

And you guys are acting like you can't. Yes. Or you don't, actually. Like, what do you think? What's your take? I'm curious. My take was no. In that moment.

Is no. No. No, no. It's just like, not to what? Not to the porch. The porch. The porch. Yeah.

I think it's, it's just like, it, he is so easy and constantly. comfortable and familiar. Yeah. That I truly believe that, like, it was all in... This is what I think. Good fun. I'm going to tell you this. And you can...

And I want you to disagree with me. You've already gone so far as to say you're pretty much like my best friend, right? We've had that said on camera, right? And I think the unspoken part, which is, like, the thing that I think allows the audience to sort of root for you ultimately is that there is a recognition on both people that this was my husband's best friend and this was my best friend's wife

and that never escapes like that is always present and center. I think for you guys, if that thing was not present and center, you would have been together. Do you know, like, I think like the fit made so much sense. I don't think that Rebecca was

in the place for that to even be a possibility until it was. Okay. And until that possibility was taken off the table. You don't know what you got to let's go on. For sure. I think Matt was the first nice guys that crossed her path. And it was like, oh, I could do this.

This feels easy. And I don't have to put a lot of thought behind it. And he clearly really likes me. I think the Miguel possibility was like, and maybe she was lying to herself. But the way I always thought of it and always played it was like, this was not on her brain until it was.

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Only on Disney Plus. I agree with that. I agree with that because of how you came into each other's lives. And I think so they have this awkward game, right? Yeah. And you could have like dropped, it was the real. They were dead quiet. Dead quiet. Like the fun and games sort of came to a halt as everybody was recognizing like, oh, these two people are.

soulmates or like they are like this is wild and uncomfortable how much they know about each other and how in sync they are with one another so that scene ends and because you're in sync with them like even more so than Beth and Randall like more so than the couple yeah that is there yes you know what I mean and looks are exchanged whatever the next time we see them Miguel's outside taking the trash out right and Kevin's out there and he basically essentially is like dude Like, what was that? Let's even go back, because, like, shout out to Logan. When he first meets Matt, he shacks his hand.

He's like, you own your own home? Yeah. For a handshake. Yeah. You on your own? Yeah. And so then he curves up to McGowan. He's like, hey, the whole time, I've been checking out the wrong guy.

Yeah, but the cut away in the background, you hear Matt say, well, it's a townhouse. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, in that, in that, see. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's an HOA. Yeah. But yeah, I own him.

But he gives Miguel a dressing dad, he's like, I don't know what you're thinking, man, but, you know. It comes hard. He comes. Yeah. Do you have it written? Do you have any specific? Well, just like, I can hear my dad's disappointment. You were his best friend.

And essentially, like, if you ever act on anything and you feel the earth rumbling under your feet, that is my dad rolling over in his grave. I mean. talk about coming hard and coming dramatic and only the way early 20s can come. Early 20s. And inebriated.

Alcohol abuse. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I love that Miguel's like, I think you need some water, man. Yeah. Like, you need to chill out. Yeah. Like he wasn't, his feathers weren't ruffled,

but clearly it did help him realize like, I got to have this conversation. I also think dramaturgically, Kevin, that moment, represents a lot of our audience. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, like, he's saying that thing out loud that a lot of people were like, damn, really let them know. Absolutely.

So the next time we see them is on the porch, right? Like, what are they doing about that? They're cleaning up. Yeah, they're still cleaning up. Everybody, okay, okay. Everyone's gone. And Rebecca essentially, you know, they both kind of admit, like, all right my my

my jab at at marguide and your jab at matt like maybe they weren't so like incidental maybe they're a little more pointed and he I think says you know I've been hanging around

because I you know felt like I needed to but at this point now I think you're okay without me you're back on your feet and I'm moving I'm I got a job offer in Houston

it's closer to my kids. It's why she was making that dumb joke all night about Houston. We have a problem. Yeah. So don't blame her for that. That was my dumb joke. And then what does he tell her? I mean, he says it's time for me to go.

And he goes, that's really hard because... I don't know what else to do. You're my favorite person. Yeah. When he said that, I want to cry now. When he said that to me in that moment, Yeah. It was like, yeah, it was everything she needed to hear that she didn't realize she needed to hear after all of this loss, her world being flipped upside down.

Also way better than I'm in love with you. Yeah, you're my favorite person. Like, that is. It's just this is us quality writing. Yeah. And it's also like that is longevity. That is the ball game. That is everything.

That is the foundation for everything. Not you're my best friend. No, you're my favorite person. You're my favorite person. It's so romantic. And she's, you know, crying in bed afterwards. I think she's just really overcome with, I can't believe he's leaving us. I think there's a part of her that's like, this is my last connection besides my children to my husband.

Yeah. And if he goes, a piece of Jack goes. and also like I you don't know what you got till it's gone like imagining my life then I don't have you know I've Randall I don't have Kevin Kate is here but like there's been so much like dispersion there's been so much change in transition and now this is one more thing she wasn't expecting I think she assumed like Miguel and I are just going to be like those best friends that watch who wants to be a millionaire and go have like you know wine nights together and go see movies and like he's just going to be like my my best friend and that's your thought

on the porch i think before the porch i think realizing this is the turning point this the porch is the turning point the porch is the turning point of like how hard that hits her i don't think she was expecting to be a that he was ever going to leave sure but that she would be so devastated yeah by that loss. So this is interesting because I agree. Because I think his move also in part is that he realizes that he has feelings. Yes. Right. And like you ever been caught in that journey? You're like, I'm in the friend zone and being in the friend zone is actually growing uncomfortable. Yeah. And I need to remove myself from the situation. Yeah, that's exactly what he did. Yeah. But I think Rebecca was content to stay in the friend zone. Maybe lying to herself, maybe

blissfully unaware. So I think Miguel did the only responsible thing to do for his own well-being to be like, I got to take myself out of the equation here. But the comfort that Kate, teen Kate, provides Rebecca in that moment of just like getting behind her and holding her really echoes perfectly why in the future we see the choice that Rebecca I had to make that has to do with Kate that we'll get into. It's really beautiful.

It is beautiful. Yeah. It's beautiful. And I ask, I'm not asked the audience and the folks who watched this, like, who watched the show before, who were following with us now. Like, I'm just, I want to hear your comments

and thoughts about Miguel and his choice. And, like, I was, because, like, he got a lot of ire for a long time. Yeah. I'm wondering, like, who made the turn? Yeah. And who didn't? Right.

I'm just curious. Right. If you have any thoughts on Miguel and Rebecca, let me know. I don't think anybody didn't make the turn. When you get to this. I think by the time you get 615, if you haven't made the turn, then you have stone. Even at this point, it's like seeing their connection, it's like, oh, it's, it's, it wasn't what you thought it was. Right.

And he was always a gentleman. Yeah. He was always a stand-up guy. Miguel was always a woman to me. Always. Shall we go to the. Kevin, no. Oh, my God.

Well, real quick, just the button on that scene. Secret ingredient? Randall tries to fix mom. Can't. She's still crying. Yeah. Kevin says, I'm going to the pool, right? Because it's setting up the next episode.

Setting up eight, nine, ten. I'm going to the pool. I heard it's closing down. We should go back for a old time. Yeah. Before that, before it's gone forever. Yep. And then the last thing in this timeline we see is Kate.

crawling into bed with her mom. Yeah. Which is something that will tie into the, to the next storyline. That's correct. That's correct. It's Thanksgiving at the cabin. Present Day Thanksgiving at the cabin. Yep.

Kate and Toby are tense. Kevin is trying to learn Anna Begins. Yeah. One of the more obscure tracks from August and Everything After by the Counting Crows. One of my favorite albums of all time. And there are tons of hits on that record, and he's trying to learn Anna Begins. I do like that choice. I do too.

Yeah, it was like, it's not a hit. He doesn't get a single chord right. Nope. We should have taught him one. No, I'm not to say, like, what kind of training went into it? Oh, you know, Justin was probably like, I got it, I got it, I got it. None. None, watch this.

Yeah. Beth and Randall show up, of course. Beth is ready for all the drama. And Randall is is filming everything. He is documenting everything. There it is. You know, as time is becoming shorter, his mom used to live right, you know, around the corner. Now she's across the country.

He just wants to make sure that his daughters remember his mom. Yeah, I love that he insists that they be off their phones while he is just like glued to his. Yeah. But camera. With purpose. With purpose. Yeah, yeah. specifically.

Rebecca is in the kitchen making the sugar pie. Yep. Don't tell Kate the secret ingredient. Don't tell Kate the secret ingredient. Meanwhile, Kate is offering Jack. The spatula, the spoon. The spoon to lick. And this is the first time we see Toby be like,

maybe he's had enough sugar. So we don't need to. He's already had a very sugar cereal. Yeah. He's already had sugar cereal. We don't need to, blah, and we realize that this is the tension. Yeah. Yeah, they are at odds.

By the way, my two go-tos, I think we've talked about this before. Frosted flakes? Yeah. Captain Crunch. Would tear the roof on my mouth. Yeah, yeah, too much. Yeah. I mean, it'd just be raw.

I'd eat the whole box. Delicious. I was Reese's peanut butter puffs. That was like a later invention. That was a later. That was in high school. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I guess coming up, the sugar cereal was, yeah, more frosted flakes.

Yeah. Which is just a race. As soon as the milk touches them. Basically. I mean, so quickly. They'll do that. Yeah.

They start like this? Yeah. And they get all. Life cereal. Life? That sounds like a healthy. Regular life. That sounds like house.

It was sweetened. Was it? Yeah. I mean, it wasn't like sugary, sugary, but it's sweetened. It's a real challenge of a name for something. Yeah. What are you having?

A bowl of life. All right. Quaker. Yeah. I guess I'll have two. Yeah. I don't. Later on in life, I found something called cracklin oat brand.

Oh, cracklin oat bran is... I like a honeybunches of oats. Great. Crackling oat brand also kept you regular. Well, sure. Yeah, sure. Anyway, I'm off track. Let's go back.

Kevin. Kevin can't play guitar and is annoying everyone. Kevin's annoying everybody with the guitar. Randall comes in, Black Pearson's... Yes, Rebecca, knows she wants to have a little talk with everyone, just the four of the... them and Miguel. Correct.

God, I hate nothing more than when someone does that. Let's face it, it's Rachel. When Rachel wants to do that, hey, can I talk to you later about something? And that it's just weighing on you? God, no. Like, no, just talk to me now. No, just I need a log line. Yeah, I need just what's it about?

Give me a heads up here. What's it about? No, no, I'll talk to you later. Well, then I'm moving out. Yeah. I'm leaving you with the children. Yeah. Because I can't sit in anticipation.

of like, give me an idea. This doesn't work with my operating system, my anxiety levels. Yeah. Even if it's bad, tell me what it is. I'm wondering how I feel about it. Like, Ryan wants to talk.

I'll talk about it, whatever it is. I don't know. It doesn't, the talks, because, well, here's the thing. Ryan is actually a little bit more tight-lipped than Sterling.

Like, information doesn't flow easily. So if she ever, like, volunteers to talk, I'm like, yo, let's do it. You're ready. I'm ready for it. What if she's like, hey, what if it's, what if you just arrived on set? This is hypothetical situation.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not. It's never happens. It's 9 a.m. Yes. And you get a text that says, hey, when you get home, I just want to talk to you about something. Absolutely not. What?

Okay. I got you. That is diabolical. That's diabolical. So, okay. 12 hours for now? You need a cab ad or something. No big deal.

Or just don't text me that and talk to me later. Yes. Yes. I agree. Why? You're going to be this now. I'm not mad at that. Needless to say, we're still learning each other's operating systems.

Yeah, yeah. All these are you in. I get it. I get it. Oh, Lord, have mercy. Okay, so then Kevin is walking everyone around. He's showing. them the property, the outline of the property where everyone's requisite, like, wings are

going to be, your family wings here, your family wing is here, and then this will be sort of the primary suite for mom. And Miguel, very kindly just goes, like, in the midst of all of this, like, incredibly generous building and plans you're going to be building. What about a guest house? And Kevin immediately poohs that, like, what, you one of your fishing buddies? Like, Sorry, dude, like, I'm thinking about my immediate family. It's a family thing. It's a family. I wasn't planning on having, like, extra space for, like, your buddies to come in or have you.

Yeah. Before that, there's, Randall's asking, what do you think mom wants to talk about? I don't have any buddies. When have you seen a friend? He's like, whatever dude. When have any of us had friends? He's like, if you just let me get a word in edgewise. Randall's like, what do you think mom wants to talk about, you know, she, I can't

remember what he said. Something about her. She got to lose her driver's license, da-da-da-blah. Yeah. Kev's like, I don't know either. And then Kate's like, I think we should just wait, let mom tell us what it is that she wants to tell us. And like, the brothers are like, all right, if you say so, whatever. That doesn't sound very proactive.

That sounds adult and mature. Yes, sure, you do you. Then Tobias comes through, say, Kate, I'm having a meltdown over here. I'm trying to get my man to do something. But take him for a walk. And she's like, have you tried narrating? Like, tell him about the birds and I think. Yeah, I'm trying to.

But when he's crashing out, he's. because he's had too much sugar, it's kind of hard to have a conversation with them. Quick little passive-rogressive jab. It's hard to narrate a David Attenborough documentary when he's had too much other. You bad, mother! And she's like, are you serious, man?

And so she comes and helps. Oh, no, sorry. Katz says, you know what, when... Hold on. Hold on. This happened yesterday to me and Rachel, this type of interaction, where Bear listens to this little Yodo radio,

Love. Love them. They have these little cards, and I got him this set of fantasy dragon stories that he loves. Maybe he loves them too much. Okay. Maybe there's some language that's a little old for a six-year-old in there, like calling someone a squid brain or, you know what I mean? Okay. I feel like in a scheme of things.

Listen, I may be patting my side of the story. Okay. But it's kind of the point where it's kind of the point where. it's like it's all he wants to do is listen to these stories and he's listened to them a lot and no we don't want to listen to him anymore it's a rachel rachel turns to me we're at the pool the other day and goes and she's telling some friends of ours about him and she looks at me and goes can we just throw them away and i was like yeah yeah of course we can and she go do it and she goes well you bought them for for him and i was like oh i didn't realize i was being blamed for this

and obviously it wasn't actual tension but it was like that type of interaction where it's like you buy it yeah Jack is losing his mind over here maybe you could help me well yeah try doing this this no yeah that didn't work because he said to my sugar

but the next step of it is the brother-in-law Titchen because Kevin is like you know what when he's when he's doing that like I just like try to sing him a song and you're like oh really my son likes music this is my favorite line This is my favorite line. I don't know if you could tell that I enjoyed delivering it.

What was the line? I was like, oh, does Jack like music? Interesting. And I just move on. And it was because that one was a little earned. Yes, it was. Buddy. Pipe down.

Oh, does he? Does he like music? Great, thanks. Well, because there's an escalation, which the payoff of this one, like even in watching it, I was like, okay, so anyway, we get down to the Thanksgiving table. And don't let me miss anything. Kobe's in the Pilgrim Rick Hat.

He's in the Pilgrim Rick Hat and he's explaining the lore of the Pilgrim Rick Hat how it's become sort of this thing about the creepy and innkeeper that they sort of gets mythologized, you know, for what have you. And so, listen, this is the full

circle. When you start to feed him and in my mind you don't make a big show. Of skipping the marshmallow. He just, skips, you know, skims the marshmallows off the top so he can feed the kid the sweet potatoes. He didn't say he was doing it. He didn't make a big show.

But Kate clocks it? And Kate's like, really tobs? And something becomes public that wasn't meant to be public. And I just want to acknowledge, I think every once in a while somebody got to step up for Damon, because we see how things are going in this season. And we know how to end. He was not being ostentatious. I agree. No, I agree.

No. But it was escalated. It was escalated. And so she's like, what do you think's going on here, man? She's like, are you like back policing my choices and everything like that? And he's like, listen, I feel like I get a chance to have some sort of a say and what happens inside of our house. Yeah. Right.

And how we're feeding our children. How we're feeding a kid. You're treating me like I'm some absentee father who's off doing God knows what with who knows what. That's not the case. Yeah. Like, I've done this before. And it would be silly for us not to acknowledge our biology. Our shared genetics.

Yeah. Right. And at that point, I believe Kevin Pearson from the opposite end of the table, when it's totally quiet, says, take off the hat, Toby. Yeah, I was like, whoa. Hold on. There's even more of an escalation because he pops off. He goes, Toby, can we just?

Oh, yes, that's right. He just gives him like a little calm down. If I want to listen to the man child that is sleeping on my couch. I would ask for it, man. I provide for my family. That's right. Yeah. And then he pops off at Kevin and then comes right back and says, and you are correct in the sort.

It goes, and I think we would be wise to acknowledge our genetics. Yeah. And crickets. And I'm telling you. remember viscerally this day at this table where I'm like sitting down essentially at the kids table. Yeah, you're on the other end from everybody. There's two babies on either side of me and I'm feeding both of them. And the black Pearson girls are giving me side eye.

That's probably what made me feel the worst is when young people are like, this idiot. When black women give you side eye, it hits a different way, yeah. Yeah, it's the polar opposite of when they call. call you baby or sugar. Like, that's all I want is for, like, a 50-something-year-old black woman to call me sugar. Oh, baby. Yeah. Yeah.

But that side eye and Kevin just looks at him and goes, take off the hat. It's so cold. It's so cold. I was about to use the second one, but I already used one. It's not fair for me to use both of them. Yeah. Ice freaking cold. Yeah.

And Toby goes, what? bro. Screw sex. Take off that. And this is the turning point for this relationship. Yeah. This is the real like, oh, this is done. Yeah.

You will always have your sister's side no matter what. Yeah. You think that was, that's not the turning point in that relationship. No, but this is the, this is the crossroad. For Toby and, for Toby. And the Pearson's? Yes. Or Toby and the.

Toby and the Pearson's. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, like, like, I'm dramaturgically, is what I mean. Toby and Kevin, yes. Randall doesn't say anything. No.

You know what I'm saying? So I think Randall is Switzerland and that, but between those two brothers. Yeah. Well, because they have close proximity. Yeah. And you can only really get annoyed with the person that's right next to you.

That's right. You know what I'm saying? I love the end. And Beth's like, every year with this. Yeah. But she kind of likes it. Just like the interjection of humor for sure. Yeah, of course.

She gets still watch. people freak out for no reason. Wonderful. There's something about holiday meals in general are rife for this. There's so much build up. Pressure. So much pressure and expectation. It's a special meal.

And it's not. It's not. Can I just say that? Can my hot take be Thanksgiving? Yeah. Here's my hot take. Like Thanksgiving food specifically. Here's my hot take.

Really? If I never saw another turkey. 1,000% Get out of here. Got out of here. Got chicken. I have ordered ordered some of the food

for dinner because I don't trust myself to cook a turkey and I've ordered salmon. Great. Really? Yes. I like that. Yeah.

Actually, probably more present at any of the original quote unquote, even though they're all pretty made up Thanksgiving dinners. Correct. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, my hot take is like

Thanksgiving is, I love it. In theory. Sure. In practice, a lot of holidays are always a little like, oh. Yeah, you want to make it special? Give me a Thanksgiving tomahawk. Just a big ass steak. Yes.

But I mean just the general, like, celebration. Maybe I've, like, never had the proper. I will say, I will say growing up, our thanksgivings were perfect. Yeah. My mother is very good at holidays. Christmas, picturesque. Oh, wow. Yeah, see, I didn't have that.

And Thanksgiving, perfect. But I cannot achieve that. No. And I don't desire to continue it. My wife does, she does well. And she cooks. Yeah. And she cooks most everything.

Wow. And I'm so impressive. Yeah. And there's certain things that she only allows herself at Thanksgiving and Christmas. She does not eat macaroni and cheese the whole year. Okay. Thanksgiving and Christmas she goes in. She will have sweet potatoes, but she doesn't like,

candy the yams the same way that she does them for Thanksgiving and for Christmas, right? My biggest thing with the holidays is the lack of green food. Now, we have greens, which are a big thing. Do you guys do greens? Yes, yeah. We have spinach. I don't like cream spinach, but we do spinach, regular spinach, green beans. What kind of greens do you do green beans? But do you do greens greens, like collards or mustard or turnips or anything like that? That's a major staple. in the black house, right? And they're delicious.

But, like, that's usually the only green thing that's there. Yeah. And sometimes there's some pork in the greens. So my wife will flavor hers with jalapeno. Ooh. Which is a nice that gives it a little bit of a bite? Which green gets the jalapeno? So it's usually, she'll usually do like a slick leaf mustard and a turnip together.

Yeah. Right? And it's with jalapenos. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, shit. I give you an idea? I'm coming over.

Okay. Yeah. Am invited? Can I come over? You can come over? Okay. Okay. The other thing that, like, I find most delightful,

what I call dressing, do you call... Stuffing. God, thank you. I appreciate it. Pressing. I shut him up. Now, but here's the difference. Yes.

Do you cram it in the bird or not? Then it's dressing. Yeah. But if you... But if you put it in, then it's stuff. It's stuffing. Yeah. You just to be real careful, like, in terms of, like,

yeah. Some of, you know, whatever. There is at the end of this one, you and your wife have a conversation. Yep. You want to talk about that conversation? I mean, it was just essentially her talking about her operating system and how her sensitivities of food and this, that, and the other thing. And she tries to relate it to a 1900s film called...

She's all that. She's all that. Evan Rachel Wood, Smoke Show. Oh, oh, Rachel. No, no, not Evan Rachel. What's your name? It's not Evan Rachel Wood. No.

But one of the funniest edits, one of the funniest edits in This Is Us history happens when she's telling. Rachel Lee Cook. Three names. Kate is telling this story about the movie and the song Kiss Me comes on. And one of the funniest edits in the history of our show is they cut back to Toby. And he says, I don't think that that movie is the piece of cinematic history that you think of us. And it is a hard cut out of that song. it goes quiet

which I was like that's funny that's a good choice it's really funny it's good but we do see her in the past too you clocking there's these moments when like

mom gives her the spoon or when she's sitting down at the table and she starts to sing the song in her head and we essentially this is the conversation of like this isn't working like we disagree yeah fundamentally

fundamentally on this is that where we leave it is that? I mean that's essentially It's not so harsh, but it is like what we were talking about earlier. I'm going to let my children not have the same shame around food that I had growing up. And I'm going to do everything I can to make sure they watch what they eat. Well, to avoid the pain that I felt as a chubby kid growing up.

And so they were just sort of like, that's my argument, that's my argument. And there was no resolution essentially. That sounds right. And it's interrupted by Rebecca saying like, okay, it's time to start this family meeting. Yeah. We're going to have this family meeting. We're going to have a meeting.

And you give one of the best monologues of the show. Guys, let me say. I've already expressed my enthusiasm once. I won't stand up again. But this is, this shit was. And it was one of those moments where I also looked at her and I'm like, this is not a 70-year-old woman. Yeah.

I'm like, and I forget. Eight years younger than me. Yeah. And I forget. And I'm like, that's my mom. That's very kind of you guys. I think there was so much leading up to this. Yeah.

And, you know, I felt like very weirdly, like, calm about it. Yeah. But also, like, I wanted to just do it in the same way that I'm sure Rebecca felt that same anticipation. Like, I need to just get this out. Yeah. I think it was less about, you know, the sort of, like, totality of it. and more specifically about, I know that choosing Kate, should anything happen to Miguel, is going to devastate my relationship with Randall.

And I feel like we just sort of got on years and years and years of pain and betrayal. We've sort of found ourselves back in good standing with one another. And that wasn't lost on her, that that was really going to be a huge blow for him. I don't know if you saw in my face. Like, it was interesting for me to say, like the palpable. I couldn't look at you. Like, just, like, I was at a state of disbelief. Yes.

I was like, you didn't pick? These writers. In my, inside of my whole body, I was like, I was ready. I was like, I'm going to step up. I got you. Whatever it is that you need. And when I heard cake, I was like, I mean, like, it's a weird thing when you fool yourself. Like, I read it.

I knew what was going to happen. I was like, no, she's going to change it and say, Randall. Yeah. Yeah. So we get two things. We get Kate will be in charge of my affairs, should anything happen to Miguel. And she also says to them, I don't want any argument about that. Yeah. And I don't want what's happening to me.

To affect you guys. To affect you. You will not make your lives small because of me. Right. Yeah. And the only response to this is a yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am.

Yeah. And it's just one of the great monologues of the show. Yeah. Delivered flawlessly. Thank you. I think it's like I'm so proud that we were able to show this moment as evidenced by our caregiving episode. There's so much feedback we've gotten about this scene in particular of how one can move forward. And truly one of the more responsible and caring things.

someone in this situation could do for themselves and their family unit is to have a meeting like this, where they make their wishes known very concretely, very specifically, so that when things do progress and they're not able to communicate it with such clarity, that things are already set in stone. And people know what their roles are, know what to expect. And she says that more or less, like, I don't know how fast or slow this is going to be. None of us know where this ride is going to take us, but what I do know and what I am in control of and the choices I can make now, this is for everyone's benefit. And it's to be able to show that, to model that, like, this is a way forward as well, I think is a really beautiful gift that our show gave families that are in this position. It's an important conversation to have.

Yeah. And I, you know, when I take myself out of being Randall, like it does make sense. because later on Kate comes up to you and she asks like, you know, like, why, why me? And you're like, it was always you. I loved that. And we see that through time, it was Kate. Kate was always there. You were my best friend and my daughter.

She's there in the bed with you when Miguel says he's leaving. Yeah. And there's like, I think if you go with Randall or Kev, then you actually have to deal with them sort of like, you know, side eyeing each other. And they are also sort of with Randall. I won't speak for Kev, but like there's, Randall has already proven that he's going to do what he kind of wants, not necessarily what mom wants.

But also there is evidence from the past of him totally railroading his life. Like, sideline whatever ambitions he had. I see what you're saying. To take care of her. Yeah. And that is exactly what she didn't want. And she knew well enough to know that he was going to do that again. Right.

And Kevin has a lot on his plate with his family, his sobriety, his guitar lessons. Yeah. There was just too much. It was like, it was the best option. Yeah. You know, she was going to take it very seriously, but also not let it, like, take over her life in the way that Randall would. Sure. I think what I learned from this episode, too, about Kevin is, like, he's learned a lot, but he's still going to be Kevin.

Has a lot to learn. Yeah. He's still going to be Kevin. This was a good episode. Yes. And it's leading us into this last, like, chapter of the show. In terms of Kevin, just that last part, too, in your speech, so I was like, Miguel was asking about the guest house because if indeed you want to build this house for me, at some point, I'm going to need care.

And those people are going to need somewhere to stay. And it's at that point, Kev's like, oh, maybe I shouldn't just jump to the worst conclusion. Kevin does take the plans to Miguel and say, hey, tomorrow, let's go. You can tell me everything I missed. And we'll take another look at these plans. Very sweet. And it really means a lot to Miguel. He calls him El Capitan.

Yeah. Which is that new? I think that's new. I think so too. Well, because she says that Miguel is the captain of the ship. That's right. Whatever's happening with us, it's right. It's Miguel.

That's right. No one's, yeah. This is a full episode. Can question that. Yeah, it was very cool. And it was an episode that doesn't, for me, and maybe it was different for you, many because of what Rebecca went. Like, it wasn't like a tearful episode for me, but it was like, really good.

There's so much happened. I think that game of taboo, too, was just so like, oh, my gosh. And it actually makes me excited. I'm remembering when, like, you guys get on Facebook and you start to find each other again, which has got to be within the next six or seven, you know, episodes. Like, I felt nostalgic. and sort of appreciative for like, this man honored this family. He honored his friend.

He honored his female friend, and the bugger, find female. He even tried to walk away. You know what I'm saying? By trying to step away. And then they found each other again. And I think that just made me root for them that much more. You know what I mean? We should get this guest in here, this next guest or else, is he here?

Yeah, he's here because if we make him wait too long, he'll leave. It's not a guest. he's not on this episode. I know. I'm saying for the next episode. Oh, well, we have finished this episode. Yeah, that's what I mean. Okay.

Listen, the next episode, there's somebody in, this is a, what we call a cliffhanger. There's somebody in our lobby that if we don't let him in here soon, he'll just get back in his car and leave. Basically. So we got to go. Thanks for watching. We have to go ahead.

Yeah. That was us. Welcome back to our favorite segment, our fan segment. Yes. And we are coming back to a this. us taboo game. Let's go. We're going to play with a fan.

We're going to split into two teams, and each team will decide who the clue giver will be and who the guesser will be. And our team... Yeah. Yeah. Me and Mandy. Yeah. On team two.

And you're going to be the giver. I'm going to be the giver. Yes. Okay. And Sterling? Yeah. I'm going to be the guesser and our guest, right? Our fan will be the giver who will meet in just a second.

We'll have 60 seconds to get your teammate together. as many words as possible without saying any of the five taboo words on the card. Mm-hmm. Two teams, one minute and one goal. Prove who knows this is us best. Let's play. Let's go. Let's meet our guess.

The seconds doesn't seem like... Hello there. Hi. Hi. What's going on? How are you? I'm well, thank you. It's Kat.

Kat, correct? Yes. That's correct. I'm Sterling. I'm Mandy. That's Christopher right there. Thanks for playing with us. Yeah, thanks for having me.

I'm so excited to be on. Where are you zooming us from? Yeah. North Carolina. What city? Raleigh. Oh, my parents lived outside of Raleigh Dorm for like 20 years. I got married in Raleigh.

Oh, no way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm trying to remember the name of the place outside of it, but it was very cool. And then I have a very good friend of mine who lives in Fayetteville, which is a ways away, but in North Carolina, nonetheless. Yeah. Absolutely. Air Force. He was an Air Force guy at Air Force Base.

Fort Pope is there. So, yeah. So obviously, we're playing a little game today to figure out who knows this is us the best. And Sterling has already claimed you. So you're paired up with Sterling. You're me, Kat. All right. Now, you're going to be guessing or should she be guessing?

I'm going to be guessing because I think our producer already gave her the clues. Kat, you have the clues with the taboo words on them and everything, right? Yes, I do. Okay, got it. And you're team won. So I think that means you go first. Oh, okay. What I also, she sent me your list too.

So you're going to follow along. I'm going to be your taboo buzzer. Okay. That's fine. If any taboo words. So if you say a word on accident, skip to the next one, and we just keep it moving. Okay. Okay.

Who's starting your time? Yes. Stirling is not competitive. The feeling is really excited to win this. Listen, Kat, listen, I think we may be at a disadvantage because these two people know each other very well. And they were also on the show together. I don't care. I think she's a fan of the show.

She's a fan of the show. She's going to give great crews. She's going to kill it. Hopefully I can tune in and not just be like wiggity, wiggity whack. I'm excited. Let's do it. Let's make it happen, Cam. Here we go.

Your time starts now. Okay. Great butt on the show. Great who? Great butt. Oh, oh, Milo, Ventiminiac, Jack. Jack Pearson. First and last name.

Yes. Okay. After Halloween before Christmas. Thanksgiving. Yes. Part of the big three, but not Kate and not Kevin. Randall. Pearson.

Yes. The place that Kate cuts her hand on the window. Oh, the cabin. The cabin window? That counts. That counts. That counts. He said it counts.

Little Island girl. Oh, Beth Pearson. Yep. Yes. Yes. Overseas, grenades. Vietnam. Yes.

Yeah. The siblings are called. The big three. Yes. Yes. Time. Oh, God. All right.

Well done, Kat. Seven in a row. No wrong answers. Okay. Pure face. You're so locked in. It's so important. Oh, my God.

We might even have, should we give them an extra point just for Zoom delay? Yes, yeah, eight. We say eight? You got eight. High five. Yeah. For Zoom delay. All right.

So you got the thing for them right now. Yep. Because I kind of want to follow along. Do you want to follow? Yeah, you want to buzz? Yeah, you want to buzz me. You killed that. You killed it.

You killed it. Great clues. Great, great, great, great. Team two. Okay. On your mark. Get set. Go. Your character. Rebecca Pearson. Beyonce album about her cheating husband. Lemonade.

Not Kate, not Randlebutt. Kevin. This is an article of shiny something that your character wore around her neck. Nope. That's part of the word. Okay. Yep. The adopted daughter. Dacia.

Mm-hmm. The big event, sporting event. The Super Bowl. And the day it happens. Super Bowl Sunday. Mm-hmm. Your second. Miguel Rebus, Pearson.

Not Pearson, sorry. A television program that your white son starred in. The manny. Evergreen cassette. Time. Oh, good one! Well done, guys. How many do you think it?

There is a tie. There is a tie. No, seven, because I said neck. Because you said neck. Oh, we lost! We lost. Congratulations, Kat and Sterling. You guys killed it.

What is a consolation gift? I don't know. This is not like, like, name that tune or something. Would you like 200 Big Three Homes hats? We have lots of Big Three Homes hats that we can pass along to you. God bless you for joining us today and for coming in and killing it. Did you watch the show from The Giddy Up or what? Oh, yeah.

I've watched the whole show twice, actually. Oh, thank you. Question for you. What is it? So the first time is assuming it was on the air. When you went through the show the second time, because that's basically what we're doing right now, like what was the experience? the second time around versus the first time.

Oh, man. I think the first time it was so like you're in the present of it because you don't know what's happening. And I remember I think I cried almost every episode. It's just so much emotion. Yeah. And at the time, obviously, you know, I was going through a divorce, separating, becoming a single mom. The second time around, I rewatched it when it came on Netflix. And so at that point in time, I was remarried, pregnant with my now-thensual.

third son. I have three. Wow. So watching it the second time was just such a different place in my life. And I feel like I was able to watch it with a different kind of appreciation because there's so much in the show. I just feel like it's one of those shows where it doesn't matter where you came from, what you've done in your life. There's just something so relatable. Like, for example, I was adopted and I was raised by a white family. I'm Asian. I was adopted from Korea. my now husband is black. So we have mixed racial children. You're getting Randall on a lot of different sides. My dad was in the Marines.

He did two tours in Vietnam. So it just there's so much of it where I can look back and it just gives me an appreciation for not just my parents or just people around me. But it just is so eye-opening. And I guess the biggest thing that it really did was it makes so many of the ups and downs in life for the things that seem so bad in the moment.

It makes it just feel so relatable, that kind of whatever is happening, that there's, if you're still here and you're breathing and you're alive, that there's always, you can always get through it. And I just, to me, it was just the most relatable thing that I had found where it was just from being a mother,

being a child, being adopted. It's just all of it just put so much into perspective. And I was just so appreciative of it. Just in any point in time in my life, I was at that it just made things just seem like it would be okay if that makes sense. That's awesome. That's such a beautiful distillation of what the show is and what it means to you. That means so much to us to hear.

Hell yes. Wow. Thank you so much. Congratulations. Listen, you went through a lot between the first viewing. And the second viewing. And the second viewing. Holy cow.

Yeah, sure. That is, I'm curious for you. Like, would you say where you were in life informed your viewing of the show? as well? Oh, 100%. I mean, the first time I watched it, I felt like I was so emotional because of the emotion that I was going through in my own life. The second time I watched it, I was still, I mean, every episode makes you cry in one way or another, but I feel like I was watching it from the outside this time. Like, I was watching it as if I had been through some of those things or it was like knowing and seeing where they were at that the, like you could tell or just know that no matter what,

it would be okay because I had experienced some of those things in my own life. You've gotten through it. You know, it just, I was just so grateful for the show. It's so funny. I tell my husband all the time, you know, that I can't wait to, my nine-year-old is in the car with me a lot. He's my oldest. And I listen to the podcast every week because I'm in real estate.

So I'm always driving or I'm always taking the kids to sports or something. And so he'll say, oh, are you listening to that podcast again, Mom? And so he really wants to watch the show with me. And I just think that maybe we need like a couple more years for him to really understand it. And so I'm really excited for that too. And this morning I was walking him to the bus and I said, Augustus, guess what? I said, I'm going to be on the podcast.

That was us. And he said, what? No way, Mom. He said, that is so cool. I mean, it was probably the most excited he'd been about anything I told him in a long time. Hi, Augustus. Hi, Augustus. What's up, dude?

So, yes, he was very excited. But yeah, it just, I really think that, man, I think it's just one of those shows that I could watch over and over again no matter what. And it's like you just always see the episode a little bit different depending on, you know, if you have kids or if they're getting older or as they're growing, you know, it's like as my nine-year-old is getting ready to turn 10. You know, you see the episodes with little Kate Kevin and Randall as they're kind of getting a little bit older and how their behaviors change and how the. dynamic between the parents and the kids change. And so it's just all so relatable in one way or another. Kat, thank you. That is, uh, thank you for sharing. That's, that's friggin awesome that we've been able to be with you through two very crucial parts of your life, that you were able to derive something from it each time. It sounds like you have a beautiful family. Shout out to your parents

who brought you in. Shout out to your black husband, because I'm all about black husbands. They represent hard. And thank you for killing it in the game because as these guys know, I hate to lose. And I'm really happy that we won. You just made the rest of our days. You made the rest of our day really easy now.

Yes, I do too. And also, just on a side note, Sterling, I have been watching you since the Army Wives days. So that was one of my favorite shows. And I've watched every episode of that as well. So when this show came out, seeing that you were on the show, I was just really excited.

But yes, I'm a huge, huge fan and always will be. Thank you, sister. Thank you very. The perfect pairing, then. How about it? How have you meant to be? You have a wonderful rest of the day.

Yeah. Thank you for the win. Thank you, Pat. Thank you so much, everyone. Nice to meet you. And have a good one. You too. Bye.

Winner, winner. Gosh. Yeah, congratulations. I will say she probably had her questions for a few minutes. So she knew exactly what not to say and what to say. That's fine, but good win. But good win. I don't want to take it away from you.

I don't want to take it away from you. I mean, look, technically you guys tied because you gave them a zoom delay point. So I mean, just saying, it's a talk. The Zoom delay is real. The Zoom delay was real because there would be times when you were. You would have had another one. You would have had another one. Are there technically more questions left if you guys wanted to duke it out?

I mean, yeah. I mean. I don't have a, we don't have a partner. And I've seen them now. I get you because you sent me the thing. All right. Well, here's what it is. I will.

How about how about we do this? I will give you the clues, and you guys are going to have to race the answer. Okay. Ready? That's fine. Okay. This is how we listened to our tunes in the 80s. Records?

Record. Cossette player? Yeah. Oh, God, I know what it is. It's the thing. It's not the thing. It's not the running woman. The running man?

It's the Walkman, Discman. Oh. Walkman. Walkman. What does that have to do? I know, but what is that? How we listen to our tunes in the 80s?

What does that have to do with anything? A discman. Oh, what this is us, you mean? Somebody used this one. Kate had one. Yeah. Kate had a Walkman. Okay.

Oh, geez. Oh, geez. Shade going in every direction. I mean, is that really a big part of the show? I've got more. Is that a big part of the show? I've got more. In the last episode.

that we just watched drunk Kevin says I'm going to To the pool In the pool Go ahead Um This older actor Was there for the family Through

Joe McCraney Jesus It's not it though Joe McCriny played Dr. Kay She got that one, sorry She got that one Sorry

It's two to one Hold on There's five more. There's five more. That was the exact same time. I'm sorry, Ty goes to the runner. At the motel. Pilgrim Rick.

Yeah, good one. Wow, there's a lot of words you can't say. Graceland. Oh, you could call me out. Thanksgiving song. Paul Simon. Very close. I understand why you would say that. Graceland is a place where someone lives.

Elvis. Mm-hmm. And Graceland is in. Memphis. There you go. Because you can't say William, Randall, Road Trip, Tennessee, or death. Or death? Good one.

Oh, Jesus. Good one. All right. So what, we're at two to two? No, I think she's up. She's up one. Oh. It's okay.

I don't mind. He's going to come back. Let's go. Oh, you have three? Three, two. There's three left. Because you gave her Yeah, Ty goes the runner.

That's right. We got in some hot water for feet. Hot pot. Slow cooker. There you go. Done. You win? There's two more.

Okay, okay. Go ahead. And if we have to have a tiebreaker, we will. Okay. Cheeks. Dan Fogleman. I looked right at you. That's my word thing.

That is your clue. That is your closer. I tried to give you that one. That's mine. All right. There we go. She got it on that one. Oh, man.

What's the first. rest of the day going to be like, no. No, it's okay. I can take it. I can take it. That was good. What a good episode. That was fun.

What a good episode. That was fun. Thank you for joining us. She killed it. It was absolutely wonderful. It was a good episode of television. It was. I'm happy with it.

I'm pleased to have been a part of the show. That was us. You can watch new episodes of That Was Us a day early on Hulu and our entire backcast. catalog is also on Hulu. And since This Is Us is also on Hulu, it's kind of the perfect setup. Guys, it makes it easy. Watch This Is Us.

Then watch That Was Us all on Hulu. That Was Us is filmed at Rabbit Grin Studios and produced by Rabbit Grin Productions. Music by Taylor Goldsmith and Griffin Goldsmith. That was us. That was a HeadGum podcast.