That Was Us - Kevin & Randall's Big Fight | "Strangers: Part Two" (418)
Episode Date: January 27, 2026On today’s episode of That Was Us, we’re diving into Season 4, Episode 18: Strangers: Part Two. In the season four finale, Randall and Kevin’s relationship reaches its breaking point, Madison sh...ares news that changes everything, and Kate and Toby make a decision that redefines their family. Plus, Mandy, Chris, and Sterling talk about times in life when they've had a personal argument with family members, the impact Kevin and Randall's fight had on them individually, and the beauty of life: the good, the bad, and the joyful. That Was Us is produced by Rabbit Grin Productions. Music by Taylor Goldsmith and Griffin Goldsmith. ------------------------- Support Our Sponsors: - To get 6 bottles of wine for $39.99, head to https://NakedWines.com/TWU and use code TWU for both the code AND PASSWORD. - Buy four cartons and get the fifth free, at https://davidprotein.com/thatwasus. David has officially launched nationwide at Walmart. Humans aren’t perfect, but David is. - Refresh your wardrobe with Quince. Go to https://Quince.com/twu for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too. ------------------------- 🍋 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. ------------------------- 00:00:00 Intro 00:00:32 Discussion 00:58:30 Fan Segment 01:10:48 Outro Executive Producers: Natalie Holysz and Rob Holysz Creative Producer: Sam Skelton Production Coordinator: Andrew Rowley Video Editor: Todd Hughlett Mix & Master: Jason Richards Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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On today's episode of That Was Us, we are diving into season four, episode 18,
Strangers Part 2.
In the series four finale, Randall and Kevin's relationship reaches its breaking point.
Madison shares news that changes everything, and Kate and Toby make a decision that redefines their family.
Okay, gang.
We're here.
Oh, boy.
We're here at the end of four.
This is how it goes down.
So wait.
Just because it's Strangers Part 2.
Did we start the season?
Strangers Part 1.
Strangers is 401?
Yeah.
Look at this dude, bookend.
Yeah.
With Cassidy and Nicky and money.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Now we get new strangers.
So he prines you, right?
Because we go through all of this Pearson drama and this episode opens.
Well, we know Lucy and Jack, right?
We know Jack Damon and his wife.
And she's laying there pregnant, right?
and she has a request for a song.
And the song, there's a lyric in the song.
You guys help me out.
It's like, would a stranger, could a stranger ever wind up being you?
Is that something what it is?
Yeah.
And you go and we meet a couple of other people, right?
You see a man kind of with a bucking horse?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then there's this woman in this art gallery, smoke show.
By the way, I don't know if I can say that.
Yeah, she was beautiful.
Smoke show.
Gorgeous.
Is that right?
Is that okay?
Yeah.
Yeah, there was a smoke show in an art gallery.
Smoke show.
Totally cool.
And so you left wondering like, okay, Fogelman has set us up.
We know somehow.
These people are connected to here since.
These people are going to be connected to people,
but we have no idea what that connection is per se.
Right.
Should we stick with these first few and kind of walk through them?
Or do you want to...
You take the lead.
It's tough because it's like we have, you know, the present day storyline.
I think we should go with the present-day storylines before we get to the strangers.
Okay, let's do it.
Because the strangers are sort of a reveal.
Got it.
Right, right, right, right.
Yeah, yeah, they reveal the sort of the ending of the episode.
Okay.
You want to start with the past?
You want to start with Jack and Rebecca?
Jack and Rebecca.
Go for it.
It's his birthday.
Yes.
His birthday, the kid's birthday.
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Everyone's birthday.
Everybody's birthday.
You don't know what that date is, by the way?
August 31st or something?
August 29th.
See, the 30th or 31st.
Yeah, yeah, it's like the end of August.
Yeah, yeah.
And what?
Do you know your husband and children's birthday?
Yes.
I mean, what's the difference?
Yeah.
It's when I tell them it is.
And so there is, you were talking about in the last episode.
It's like every once in a while, Mandy Moore puts on a dress.
And you're like, what's that old woman's head doing on Mandy Moore's body?
And they said, this time it's like, we're a year out of childbirth.
We're going to throw a row.
We just try to cover it up.
He's like waiting for it.
for his birthday, you know, strip tis or whatever.
And she's like, oh, you think that I'm going to take this robe off after I've had triplets a year ago.
Like, you got another thing coming, sir.
But here's a question than you, man, anymore.
Like, you ever feel uncomfortable?
Post baby in front of the top?
Yes.
Really?
Still.
You get the snap back, though, pretty quick.
That's not true.
Listen, friend, it is a lot different underneath the clothes.
I'll put it there.
Okay.
Yes.
But, I mean, I also did not birth three babies at one time.
Just, you know, we just have gotten to know each other.
Yeah, we know each other very well.
It's like we're at a point where we are, you know, it's so.
How's that body under there?
Let's see it.
Hey, how's that body doing after them babies?
We're good?
I don't, you guys are my brothers.
I don't trip.
Yeah, I don't trip.
But also, I can't pretend.
tend to know what it's like to have birth three babies and be a busy mom with no support.
I spread them out a little bit. I spread them out a tiny bit. Are they all two years apart?
Less than two years. Let's come on, Maddie.
20 months and 23 months. I know. Three and three and a half years. It's stupid. It's called efficiency.
It's called chaos.
Mama had to get it done. Get it done. But Rebecca basically is like, yeah, right. I'm not going to do that.
And we sort of see this montage of the birthday,
birthday cake, which kind of coincides with the present day.
Like this triple layer strawberry chocolate vanilla cake
that Rebecca makes on the birthdays.
I was going to say, I was like,
these colors could have been anything.
And there's one layer.
That's classic Neapolitan.
There's one layer for a little white boy.
There's one layer for little girl.
Little girl's just cute and chint chirovic.
One layer for little chocolate boy.
What?
Bring it in.
Classic neapolitan.
Not okay.
So this is like the birthday cake that she makes on the kids' birthdays every year.
And so we see it intercut with the triplets or the big three, I should say, at one and kind of like present day.
Hey, Jack, it's okay if I make one layer of chocolate, right?
I could do one layer of chocolate.
That's not wrong.
In the midst of like everybody gathered together eating their cake or whatnot, like Rebecca, sort of just has a moment.
of just not, something is triggered.
A triggering moment and excuses herself, right?
Her husband comes to check in on her and is what's going on.
You're like, I'm sorry, man.
And it's just like, you know, I thought I was okay.
But like, as we're celebrating a year of life, like, we never even talk about the baby that we lost.
Yeah.
Right?
We don't even say his name.
Yeah, we don't say his name.
And I can't help but think of like all the first.
all the milestones that we've watched our kids hit this year.
And like the idea that, yeah, we never say his name.
And, you know, Jack kind of agrees and is like, I,
they both just don't know how to handle it.
He says as much.
He's like, you know, when I think about it,
it makes me feel sad.
And he's, I think the words are,
and I don't know what to do with it.
Yeah.
Right?
Yeah.
So just, you know, then he has an idea.
He's like, yeah, you want to go for a car ride?
And you look at him like, okay.
This is, I love Jack Pearson.
I'm not going to tell you.
Like, just trust me on this one.
And she always does.
And you're like, okay, next thing you see, they're going to the hospital and they're
walking inside of Dr. Kowalski's office, affectionately known as Dr. K, Mr. Gerald McCraney,
doing what he does best.
He just acting his face off.
Yep.
Is he, though, he just seems to exist.
That's what's acting is.
He's just been waiting on the set since the last scene.
Exactly.
And someone's like, it's your time, sir.
And he's like, got it.
Got it.
Because it's just there seems to be no act.
He just is this man who has the infinite wisdom and knows why they're coming.
Sure.
So he kind of calls it out.
Like you came to me because you lost, you're thinking about the baby you lost a year ago.
And did I try the lemon thing?
I told you the lemon thing.
She's like, yep, no, that's become like a big mantra essentially in our family.
It was in it, left a big mark on us.
And he starts to talk about this story of, you know, he too, he and his, he and his
wife lost their first baby. And he would often sing Blue Skies, Blue Sky, da da da, da, da, day. Sing that to her
pregnant belly when she was pregnant. And they ended up losing that baby. And they would get home
and put on that record and like just sit in their sadness. They would listen to the song over and
over and over again. And he said, eventually my wife got pregnant again. And the craziest thing was,
I found myself singing that same song to her pregnant belly. And then 25 years later,
my daughter and I danced to that song that was her first dance at her wedding.
And just this idea of, as we've said so many times about the show, the happy and the sad,
the tragedy and the joy, not being set apart, that coexisting, because that is life.
Cozying up next to each other is.
Not that this is remotely similar, but the night of our, before our wedding, Taylor and I,
we came home from our rehearsal dinner, sorry for the sadness, guys, and found one of our cats
under our bed, like, paralyzed, like from her back legs. She couldn't use her back legs, and we were
terrified. We had just come back from celebrating wine. We were, you know, getting married the next day.
And we had to rush her to the emergency bed. And essentially, the vet told us there's nothing
we can do, your cat actually had an aneurysm, and it kind of went down her spine and it's paralyzed
her legs. There's nothing that we can do. The kind thing is you have to put your cat down.
So we're reeling. Like, of all times, I mean, never ideal for something like this to happen,
but so we're-before you nuptials, yeah. Right before we got married. So we're in the vet. This happens.
We're there with her, and it's as peaceful as can be, but, you know, I'm up all night just.
weeping, right? And I wake up the next morning and my eyes are swollen. And I just remember
with my friends who were sort of like helping me get ready for the wedding, kind of just explaining
like it's a horrible, it's horrible timing, but sort of like this is such a picture, perfect
example of life. Like you have this joyful occasion of getting married. You're with Taylor.
We got married at our house. It was everything I wanted it to be. And yet we had just had this like
immense loss that we had experienced 12 hours before. And having to hold both of those things at the
same time was just an example of like, okay, this is not the first and not the last time we're
going to have to do this together. Right. Right. Yeah. And again, not that it is remotely similar
to what the Pearson's experience, but. It is though. In our own tiny small way, right? And I just love
that like he was able to highlight that for them. Like, this is, this will never go away. And
you will experience this in different ways and it'll be modulated in different ways just to sort
of expect that. Like that is the beauty of life. These two things sort of like taking up the same
space at the same time. Yeah. Yeah. Because life works out to be more beautiful than tragic.
It does. It does. Inherently. I agree. And not even more happy than sad or happy than tragic,
but beautiful because there's beauty and all of it. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. So should we jump to
Rebecca present day? Because that's sort of the end of that story. I should say Rebecca present
day. I only say that because we sort of start to see her making the cake at Toby and Kate's
house celebrating Jack's first birthday. So she's carrying on this tradition for baby Jack. The mention
of Randall and his family, Rebecca, is kind of dismissive. Yeah. It's like, okay. Kind of.
I was like, that's not a telltale sign to anybody that she's, she's...
Like, when is random?
The kids get here?
I don't know.
And then Kate just sort of like chimes in like, oh, I think they're coming tonight,
but we won't see them until the birthday celebration tomorrow.
No one else sort of clocks this, except Kate and Toby keep making mention of this secret thing
they're going to do.
Yeah.
And I was like, what is the secret thing?
I forgot about the secret thing until we learned later in the episode.
They're trying to make a thing out of it and nobody else cares.
No one's picking up on it.
No one's picking up what you're putting down.
Does anybody care about a secret thing?
No, I don't think they do.
And so this montage of Jack's birthday celebration is sort of kind of in conjunction with the montage we saw from the big three in the past.
But I just, I do remember, do you guys remember, we did so many of these over six seasons, but I remember this one, I don't know why, maybe because it was like the last episode of the season.
but I loved how flustered Ken would get at these, like, big montage pieces, right?
Of just, like, nothing was necessarily scripted.
Too many people.
Too many people, kids, a dog.
Like, there's just, you know, so many things to contend with.
And you could just see, like, his head and his hands somewhere on set being like,
Yasu.
Like, you know what I mean?
Yeah.
So it's like, I think about that when I watched these.
Did you guys ever see?
Like, he'd come up with this shot list or, like,
and he did just treat stick figures.
It was the most adorable thing.
Yasu?
No, Ken.
On like a pad and try and show it to Yasu.
So here's a little stick figure here.
He's going to walk through the door.
And I was like, don't nobody know what you right?
Yeah.
And Yasu would just walk away.
Yeah, Yasu's like, I'm not, I'm doing what I want anyway.
Yeah.
But yeah, I just remember these particular montages of Ken being like,
I don't know what to do.
You know, it was just always so harried about having to do this.
Yeah, I love that.
It was Ken's relationship with Yasu that freed me from doing any kind of shot list for Yasu when I directed.
I was like, oh, so really don't worry about it?
Yeah.
Oh, really, Yasu is just going to do what he wants.
You can make suggestions.
Yeah, we could just make a couple of ideas.
Yeah.
Totally.
And he'll be like, but then don't you want to do this?
And then don't you want to do that?
And then I think we're going to do that.
And it's like, oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, of course.
It's totally make it do what to do.
Yeah, let's make it do it.
So then everybody, wait, okay.
Yeah, we're all there.
Like, I come in.
I should tell the dovetel this with, with Randall a little bit because he starts off in New York.
They're going to go see mom.
You know, he has quote unquote convinced her to do the clinical trial.
And his wife is, yeah.
She's like, brough.
You know, he's like, every time I mention my mom, why do you make that sound?
She's like, I'm just, you know, making my sound.
And she's like, do you not agree?
with the clinical trial, she said, look, man, your tactics are questionable.
Yeah.
Like, I know your heart is in the right place or whatnot, but...
Nasty-assie-ass rand.
The way that you did it wasn't always...
And, like, you haven't told your brother or sister about this,
and I don't think that's going to go the way that you want it to go.
She said, I can't wait to see how that's going to go.
And the sound design of it all, as you pointed out, Chris, right?
She sets the alarm, but they're still doing the conversation.
Yeah.
And then they continue the conversation, and there's, like, a countdown.
Yeah, like a bomb was about to go off.
And then literally as the door like clicks shut, alarm set.
Alarm set. Yeah. So we get to the house.
Also, you forgot to say my favorite line when she says black don't pack.
Yeah.
It's like, is that a thing?
I love that.
I love that.
Is it a thing?
It's not a thing.
It's not a thing.
So funny though.
Just some of these quips by Sue.
She's wonderful.
She's wonderful.
I love her.
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The interesting thing about the montage
is also that, like, Randall is not joining in the merriment.
Yeah, he's.
He's not participating in quite the same way.
He's not even trying.
Not really.
Like he knows that something's coming and then he has to ultimately deal.
And so there's a sort of impending-
And that something is mom making this announcement to everybody.
Right.
Right.
He says that at the beginning of that.
I think she wants to tell everybody at the party, right?
So the hug even when they first see each other, it is as perfunctory as it can be between
mom and son.
And it's all happening, it's all going down.
He's looking at Kev at a certain point after the montage ends.
and Kev's like, excuse me, miss, but your husband has been oogling me.
He's like, ogling or ogling?
I was like, ogling.
He's like, you sure?
I'm like, no, I don't know.
Yeah, the whole exchange was great.
And then he sits down, does Kev on the couch?
And Beth's like, oh, you know, maybe I need to go do something.
I can't even remember what she.
She keeps finding convenient ways to get herself out of her.
Blank up out of that spot, right?
Kev says, like, look, man, I know you're upset about the clinical trial, but mom is happy.
I think this is what she wants or that.
And then he says, I think this is sort of bothering me, like, it's what's best for it.
He gives you your props by acknowledging the amount of research you must have done.
Yeah.
Then he kind of twists the knife.
Like, but this is what's best for.
This is what's best for, right?
And Randall doesn't take debate at that particular time.
It actually just says, congratulations.
Congratulations.
Yeah.
Yeah, which I thought was nice.
A year of sobriety, right?
So there is a moment of silence.
and a look between Randall and his mom,
and she's like, oh, guys, I have something to tell you.
Miguel and I have done a lot of thinking about or whatnot,
and ultimately we have decided to do the clinical trial in St. Louis.
Yeah.
Right?
And Randall, and I think Kev's like, you sure am I like this?
Yeah, you were pretty, like, seemed pretty resolute in New York, yeah.
Yeah, and you're like, no, yeah, I'm sure.
And Kevin Smellell.
Something.
Right.
And Randall's like, yeah, you know, whatever we can do to support you, Mom, like, we got
you.
Right guys.
Right, right guys?
Right guys?
Right, guys?
Right, guys?
Right, guys?
Right, guys?
Right.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
But then the digging begins.
Yeah, the big three, we see them outside talking about mom's choice.
Do we see that?
Or do we see Kev talk to you first?
I'm trying to remember, like, at the thing it's the big three?
That's after, which is when I use the same line.
So that's what sets him off.
So the big three is outside.
And I sort of saw this thing, like the composition of it is Randall on one side of the screen with Kevin and Kate on the other side of the screen.
And just cats would have been like, I wonder what made mom change your mind, right?
And Randall doesn't really give eye contact a whole lot.
And he's like, you know, I guess she just sees it as an investment in her future, right?
And they're like investment in her future?
Like, do you just keep getting weirder as you get older?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Who are you?
I think Steve Buschemy got thrown under the bus.
I just want to say that.
He always does.
He's a good dude.
He was a wonderful actor.
He was a wonderful actor.
He was a great on the studio.
And I just want to say to the writers.
Who wrote this?
It was Dan fulgerman.
You guys stopped coming after Buschemy like that.
Leave Buscemi alone.
I have no idea.
No, say it again.
Buscemi.
Might be.
Brescetta?
I said Buschetti.
Berschetta?
I think it's Bushemi, but I.
We don't know.
Who knows?
Our point is I just want to shout out to Boardwalk Empire.
That's my guy.
And so there's merriment.
They sort of reach a place of like being silly or whatnot, even though there's frustration
on Kev's part, possibly on Kate's part too, because the idea of just like being away from
your mom after she's made the point to move out to L.A. or whatnot, you know, yeah, I just kind
of wanted to, got used to having a close by.
We have Tobias, who's sort of functioning as audience to a certain extent is like what you hear,
My dear boy is the merriment of laughter of the big three,
one of the most joyous sounds in the world, et cetera.
But then you also have to get your wife because, Don, I think it's time for us to go.
Special Secret thing.
Right.
And she's like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, we got to go do special secret thing.
And the brothers are paying, no attention at all whatsoever.
And do Kevin Randall say anything else to each other before this scene?
No, that's it.
So then the next thing we see is Kev talking to mom in la Cuisina.
Just saying like, Mom, I'm just...
That's the kitchen.
Caught me a little bit off surprise.
Like, you know, you seem like you were really happy to be here.
Yeah, it's a big change of heart.
Big change of heart.
And then Rebecca says, I just, I guess I see it as an investment in my future.
Uh-oh.
And, oh, I mean, you talk about Mickey Spillane just stopping in his tracks being like, what you said?
Are you saying...
Say that again into the microphone.
You're saying weird shit like my black brother?
Because the only person that talk like that is my black brother.
My black brother just said that.
My black brother just said that just minutes ago.
Outside.
Immediately, Beth is like, Rebecca, because we were going to go
onto the Hollywood Walk of Fame, right?
That's right.
You go into the Wall of Fame?
See the Handprint.
See the Handprint.
See Mandy Moore Star.
Yeah, Mandy Moore Star.
Yeah.
I was there for that.
And Beth is just so funny.
She's like, Rebecca, we should go.
And she's like, no, no, we're going.
Like, we're going now.
Yeah.
Because she knew.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Knew.
It was about to go down.
Yeah.
And Kev comes outside and he's like, you just couldn't let it go.
Right?
Huh.
You guys take it over because I...
No, no, no.
You know it way better.
But I think he just was sort of like, like, what did you say to mom to get her to change
her mind, essentially, right?
I did whatever it took.
That's what he said.
He's like, I did whatever it took.
You know what I'm saying?
He didn't go in the details or whatnot, but it's like, I got what I needed to get done.
Like, that's it, point blank, period.
And so you couldn't stand the idea of, like, her siding with me, of her.
So, and, and, hold on, there's a lot in this.
This is why I don't want to miss you.
I mean, it's one dig after another.
Are they inside and then they go outside?
We start outside, we cut through the house, right?
Yeah, we cut through the house.
Because he then opens the door eventually for Madison.
So, and then the fight continues after that.
This is true.
So I think we're going to have to dovetail a little bit.
So a lot of the things that wind up getting said,
in this confrontation.
Kev says,
hold on,
if I get to this,
the fight goes into the house or whatnot,
and Randall just winds up walking away.
I can't remember exactly why I walked away,
but the brothers have a moment of space between each other,
and then Madison comes in.
Now, this is,
we talked about this a couple of episodes ago,
because I guess we,
because we've paid attention,
so we have an expectation here.
But the young, the guy with the horse in the beginning,
who's got this unruly horse and he's trying to figure out how exactly-
and his daughter's trying to tame the horse.
His daughter comes in, sweet red-headed girl or whatnot, like,
and he's telling the dad, like, listen, this horse has been cooped up
with all these other horses all this time.
Give him a chance.
Let him run around.
Like, you gotta give him a chance to be himself, right?
And the guy's like, look, you've been here before.
Like, you're trying to teach your dad something, right?
Turns out that this guy is actually a doctor.
And he happens to be mad.
Madison's OBGYN.
Because Madison is pregnant, right?
And Madison hasn't told anybody.
She's not close to her family.
She only has one friend.
We know who that is.
This is Kate, and I don't know if I can share it with her.
He's like, well, what's up with the father?
He's like, the father comes from like a long live line of wonderful love stories or something.
This is the last thing that he would want to be a part of.
And then doctor says to him, her, maybe you just got to give him a chance to be himself.
Right?
Or something like, right?
Yeah, like, don't discount him.
Right.
What his daughter said to him with the horse is like what he's saying to her about the house.
So she goes to the house to tell Kevin that she's pregnant.
Yeah.
This is in the middle of the fight.
Randall's gone away.
He's like, look, I'm not asking for anything, right?
I don't need you financially to do anything.
I don't need you to support.
I need to tell you because I think you deserve to know.
But like for me.
And my medical history, like this is miraculous that it happened.
And almost a near impossibility.
And so I am going to keep the child.
He's like, and so he's like, okay.
And he goes, can I, can I just get a minute?
Right.
He's in the middle of this fight.
He's like, I'm not walking away from this conversation.
He handles it very deftly.
He's like, I'm not walking away from this conversation.
I just need a second.
Yeah.
So he walks outside to the front yard.
To get some air.
To get some air and relax.
And here comes Randall.
Like, I'm not done, actually.
And another thing.
And another thing, right?
Like, guys, read some of the stuff that they say to each other.
I don't want to say it because I said it one done.
You said it.
And another thing.
You want to be Kevin or Randall.
I'll be Randall.
All right.
Kevin says to Randall, oh, you did a good job taking care of dad, didn't you?
And then he tells, he tells him, I would have walked through literal fire.
Randall then says.
To save our dead.
Dad died ashamed of you.
I think that's the part that really gets you.
Isn't it?
The shame that he felt for you and the pride that he felt for me?
You're not even chasing Dad's shadow, Kevin.
You're chasing mine.
But you will never be him and you will never be me.
And then he talks about how he caps it off by saying that Kevin can only ever pretend to be interested in anyone or anything that isn't himself by saying,
it'll just be a performance, a tired, stale performance like all of your performances.
Yeah.
And Kevin says, you know, I used to think the worst thing that ever happened to me was the day dad died.
Hand to God, Randall.
The worst thing that ever happened to me was the day they brought you home.
Yeah, I mean, these are things that you just can't ever take back.
Once that cat is out of the bag, it's like there's no, the toothpaste is out of the thing.
Once that cat is wrong, you can't unring that cat.
Yeah.
I think that's the right analogy.
Is that how it goes?
Yeah, that's how that goes.
That old adage.
Once that toothpaste is out of that bag,
you cannot put it back in the bag.
You can't put it back in the bag.
I only have bags of toothpaste.
So let me, so the recollection from the day.
And Justin, we talked about this when he came on the podcast.
Yeah.
It was difficult because there's things that you had to say that were just nasty things to say.
But it was, you felt safe because you knew you were doing this with somebody that you loved deeply.
Right.
And that when it was done, we were going to hug it out and it was going to be all right.
You know, I'm curious for you guys.
And I feel like I've done different things at different points in time of my life.
Like when you have like these days of deep confrontation, discord, that you have to play or whatnot,
like what is for you the process?
Like do you sort of separate yourself from someone so that you're not sort of like, you know, buddy buddy or so.
Like you hear about people on movie sets.
Like, well, we don't know each other.
I'm not going to talk to you to my character meets you.
And for me, it never quite works that way.
But on that day, if I know that there's a scene or something, I may tell you.
You hang back.
I may tell you, like, you're not going to get a lot for me today.
And then I'll dismiss myself.
Or you keep to yourself, I often do that.
Like, just pop some headphones in and listen to music
and just, like, stay in my own little world until that scene is done.
And then you can kind of take a breath.
What's it like for you, Big Dog?
Yeah, I mean, it depends.
It depends.
I will generally go with what the other person's vibe is.
Okay.
Because I can do either.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
as far as my process goes.
But I'll generally kind of see where the other person is at.
Yeah.
Also it's like there's so much for us with this show that was on the page, like that didn't
almost feel like work.
Yeah.
We were 80 episodes in or whatever, you know, at this point, like 70 something episodes in.
We knew each other so well.
We knew these characters so well that like you get a script like this and you see this dialogue.
I'm sure you were just like, oh, this is going to be fun to like go toe to toe with Justin.
Yeah.
But it doesn't feel like super daunting because you're like, no, this is important.
We've all, like, I've carried this history with me.
And it feels like this is the logical conclusion to reach this point with these two guys.
Like, they have to hash it out.
And this is the darkness we are looking at as a show.
Yeah.
Right?
And the, like we talked about in the last couple episodes, the shadow that we are exploring.
Yeah.
And it is a service to our audience.
we say we will go into this cave.
We will show you what it looks like to go here.
Yeah.
And if it is of any service to you,
then great.
Yeah.
But here we go.
Yeah.
Dude, it was, it was, it was, jump right in.
The feedback that I remember getting after the season was over,
it was like, they would say things like, man, you think that that, you know, that argument
that you always got like really weird about between Jack and Rebecca or whatnot?
Yeah.
They were like, this was worse.
This shit was worse.
Oh, yeah.
And I don't, you know, there's also recency bias.
So I'm not sure, but like, what was so painful about it was like sort of like the level of relative calm that each of them had when saying what they said.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
Like you couldn't blame it on like they blew their top and just sort of like.
They were activated.
I wasn't thinking.
paying attention to what they were saying.
It was very intentional.
Everything.
It was said in a way, I have been wanting to say this.
Yeah.
Like, thank you for the opportunity to finally tell you this.
Totally.
I'm gonna tell you about yourself to your face.
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying for both of them.
It was extraordinary.
You and Justin were extraordinary.
It was so fun to watch and so cutting, so hard to watch.
Thank you.
It was, he's my brother and I love him.
It's always fun to play with him.
It was not, I don't think it was fun to watch, though.
I was like, in watching it, I'm sort of reminded of like,
this is going to sound weird, of what I am capable of.
Right.
You understand what I'm saying?
The darkness.
Yes.
It's like, if I can pretend to do this.
Right.
And listen, and I'm going to be perfectly honest with you.
I could do this.
There are times, there are conversations that may not be exactly like this,
that have gone down between my brother and myself
regarding my mother's care
that aren't far off.
Yeah.
And so, like, it's like, whoa,
there's so much happening in my life at this time
for this show.
Yeah.
The same way that you were talking about season one
in terms of just, like,
holding a mirror up to yourself.
Yeah.
Ooh.
Like, earlier in the conversation, he talks to,
he's saying, Kev's like, what,
Kev, because once you were right,
like, you think you got it all,
because you took it a one doctor's appointment.
You know what I'm saying?
Like you- Yeah, yeah.
Come on, bro.
You, like for Randall, like, your leg to stand on is minimal.
Like, I've been doing all this shit.
Yeah.
Right? And this is the thing.
Like, on one way you could see him as being selfless.
But every time you throw it in somebody else's face,
it's sort of like self, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
You know? And it's like,
but this is one of those instances too where it's like,
You don't agree with what either one is saying, but you understand both sides of it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like, you can't negate him for still loving his mom and wanting what's best for her,
even if he doesn't show up in the way that you do or the way you think he should.
Right, right, right, right.
And same.
It's like, but it's interesting because I feel like he's, he at least acknowledges to you before the fight happens.
Like, I know you've done a ton of research.
Right.
You know, like, he is able to at least give Randall a little bit of that credit of like,
you do a lot of work and I see it and I'll give that to you.
And Randall, for the most part, minimizes any contribution to Kevin makes.
Yeah.
I would say, you and your little red carpet stuff, I don't care about this.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I would say that.
Yeah.
So that was an interesting watch.
I won't even say fun.
It was, yeah.
Yeah, it's not fun to watch.
Ooh, boy.
Yeah.
I had a blast.
I'm so happy.
But this sort of, we're left, I mean, in this time, I guess, present day.
Yeah.
With this fight that just happened.
Madison revealing.
He goes back into the house.
Yeah.
He goes back and, oh, because part of what Randall says is like, dude, you're not responsible for anything.
I think that it's part of the fight that is triggering.
It puts him into the mindset of like, you don't take responsibility for anything.
Yeah.
And he goes, I've just been given an opportunity to you.
responsible for something.
Yeah.
And so he comes into the house and he says,
Madison, I'm all in.
Like, whatever you need, whatever you want.
Like, I'm here for it.
Right?
I'm going to give this baby everything that they need.
And she says, babies.
And you're like,
babies?
We jump to the future.
We see Cav.
We see the little blonde boy that we've seen for a couple of the play.
That totally looks like you could be Justin's dead.
Hey, dad.
And then we see a little girl come up to him and say hey as well.
Now, now we know.
Here's the other thing that we know, because there's a sort of cool greeting between him and his brother.
Because you don't know if there's been any repair.
Right.
And you could easily imagine, can you have repair?
Yeah, yeah.
Can you have repair from that?
Yeah.
And this is what?
How much further in the future is this?
Those kids look like they're about 12.
Maybe, maybe a little less.
You think a little less?
Yeah.
Okay, so maximum 12, 10.
Yeah, I would say between 10 and 12.
Something like that.
That's how I always.
Got you.
And note how Randall has let himself go.
In 10 years.
In just a decade.
It's been.
Rebecca turned 90.
In 10 years.
Well, let's see.
What are you in the present?
70 something?
70.
So she's 80-something.
I'm in my mid-80s.
She's 80-something.
So not far from that, by the way.
So far.
So it's not too far.
I just want to, like, again, any time that I get to show the writers and Dan, like, how
wonderful Kevin kept himself up as opposed to bust down.
But can we also make a point that we saw them sort of like really zero in on Nikki?
Nikki was there wearing a wedding ring.
Did you notice that?
Yes, yes.
I was like, are they, were they mentioned?
to like fake us out thinking that like Rebecca and Nikki got married or something. Is this an all my son
sort of thing? Did Nikki marry Madison? No, I didn't go there. Is Nikki raising Kevin's twins?
What? That's not where anybody was. He is at your bedside. So there's an interesting thing.
And if you'll remember, someone said, where's Nikki? And they said he's in there with her. Yeah.
So the fact that like it seems like he spends time with her. I think that was an interesting.
intentional misdirect, but yeah, we noticed the wedding ring.
Right.
Could you imagine the fallout?
People would just be like, I'm done, I'm done.
They're like, all right, they had revealed.
You left the best friend to get with the brother?
I can't.
I can't.
She said, I thought I had the closest thing to Jack.
They cut, no, no, he got a brother.
They cut.
Yeah, totally.
They cut the best friend.
Give me the brother.
They cut to Miguel just standing in the driveway crying.
Yeah.
Looking at the family through the window.
It's raining outside.
All the family's inside.
He has no protection.
He's just like wet, like soaking wet from the rain.
He's crying.
He's 90.
Yeah, like, listen, once an outsider, always an outside.
Did you guys see, though, that the last thing was Big Kev putting his hand on Randall's show?
Yes.
So then I think that even I had a slight ex-hand.
of being like, okay, eventually.
Maybe this is all right.
They still touch each other.
They still touch each other.
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Kevin is too.
Kevin is too.
Kevin is also wearing a wedding ring.
Which doesn't seem so crazy considering that we know.
But what's important is they do have a moment of where we flip to Sophie looking at Kevin's ad, Cologne ad.
And laughing.
Laughing.
We have a moment of seeing a younger Nikki and Cassidy.
Cassidy.
Present day, Nikki.
They're essentially taking this moment of you can't commit to anything.
Nothing.
And saying, we have three blonde white women.
Who does he, you think, you know what's happening.
Who does he commit to?
He's committed.
Right.
There are children.
Yeah.
He has married.
Yes.
Well, but who is it to?
But Ken Sabre.
Yeah, we don't know who he's married to.
We know that he had children with Madison.
That's for sure.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But like who ends up married to?
Because we haven't seen any of those three women in the future.
That's right.
Yes.
Right.
Okay.
There's just a quick little bit with,
With Kevin Nicky.
Yes.
Do it.
So he calls Uncle Nicky.
Kevin is walking into an AA meeting.
He calls Uncle Nicky.
Uncle Nicky's just like, what?
Griffin.
Hey, how about, nice to hear from me.
Hi, nephew.
And he responds with.
What?
What?
I mean, Kevin basically just calls to tell him that he got the little
Stan Smith shoes that Nikki sent for Jack's first birthday,
which was very thoughtful.
And yeah, he was just sort of like disparaging.
And, you know, Kevin's like, do you want to say congratulations for anything?
And he's like, why?
And he's like, well, it's my one year, tomorrow is my one year's sobriety birthday.
And he's like, well, I'll call you tomorrow.
I'll say happy birthday tomorrow.
Yeah.
It's just pretty cut and dry.
It's a real sobriety move.
The mentioning of, I'm seeing your face all over the place, it looks like an advertisement for your nipple.
It really did too.
I remember seeing that at Paramount.
Those ads everywhere was great.
So much fun.
Because when we flipped to the end again,
Sophie winds up seeing the ad coming out of the subway.
Reaction is just to laugh at him.
She just cracks up.
Which is great.
And we see the three, Cassidy and Nikki.
And then, yeah, that's it.
That's all in that one, right?
Yeah.
Let's talk about this.
The secret that Katowie have been doing,
it turns out they're going to the NICU.
The NICU.
It's so funny, this episode, there was really,
these scenes surprised me, like even the scenes I was in.
I was like, oh, right, right.
Because I remember what's coming up in season five,
but I was like, how do we get there?
How do we get to that point?
I don't even remember how, I'm now having flashes of scenes.
is how what is that even connected to?
And he takes her to the NICU and they are looking at this,
this, this bulletin board of all that the babies who have come through the,
the intensive care unit and, uh,
um,
anger, the anger.
Oh, gosh.
And they're essentially, you know, kind of, they are blissfully unaware of what's going on
back at the house or what's about to go on back at the house and so toby is is reveling in the
family unit yeah of the piercens and and um essentially is is reminiscing with her about what they
talked about right after uh the c-section right and that regardless of how of how tricky the
delivery was that jack is here yeah and
And he is kind of paralleling that for her that he is also here.
And although it has been difficult over the last year, that he is.
I'm still here.
Yeah.
And he's looking at these babies and he says, what do you think about stealing one of these?
I'm just kidding.
Not exactly.
Not exactly.
Don't steal babies.
It's connected.
Right.
But that the family has.
This is a PSA.
Yeah.
Don't steal.
Listen.
While we have you, don't steal babies.
You say your thing.
He says that Pearson's have a good history of adoption.
Yeah.
And then he thinks Jack deserves to have a sibling.
Yeah.
To lean on the way that she has her brothers.
Yeah.
And so that is now a question that is in the air.
Yeah. And it's interesting too, because we go to the future
where Jack Damon and his,
baby mama slash wife are about to have the little girl because they don't know if they're going to
have a little girl at first and then the nurse comes in and like, are you ready to meet her?
And they get very excited.
And so then they cut to the smoke show who was at the art gallery or whatnot.
She's like, I got to go.
Right?
And she comes running.
Well, there's a misdirected there too, which is not like super important.
But there's clearly some guy that works at the gallery that's like gooo-go-gaga for her.
Yes, he's very funny.
And he's funny.
And he's just sort of like, she kind of is a little dismissive of him.
And he's like, oh, because you have that movie star boyfriend.
Yeah.
And she's like, yeah, kind of like he has a movie star.
And so we're like, what is she with Kevin?
Like, do you know what I mean?
You're just sort of like, a movie star?
Okay.
That's interesting.
How is this woman woven into this world?
Because for me, smokeshow wasn't blonde.
I'm always looking for long.
Totally.
But she is.
She is Caucasian.
But I feel like the movie star thing had to be a nod to that.
Like had to be some sort of way of throwing us off.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, I mean, my children are bright blonde.
Fair, right, fair.
Copy.
Fine.
All of that to say, for now.
It may dark enough.
For now.
Well, they'll definitely dark enough, but that's my thing.
But they, she gets this, like, text or something on her watch and she's like, I got to go.
She leaves.
I think it was a watch because of the technology aspect of things, right, in the future.
Sure.
And we end up seeing her running through this, I don't know, I guess we're meant to think
I don't know where it is.
It ends up being a hospital.
Yeah.
And she breaks into the room with Jack and Lucy.
And she's like, is it a boy or girl?
Is it a boy or girl?
Yeah.
And say, meet your niece.
Yeah.
And we realize, oh my gosh, Toby and Kate.
They had another daughter.
Adopted a little girl.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And this, yeah, that's his sister.
And they just had this little baby girl and they named her Hope.
Yes.
And yeah, so it's like just what Dr. K's,
It's like this episode leaves us with the highest of highs, the lowest of lows,
like all of this melody is sort of mashed together, coexisting at once.
And it's like, yeah, it's a very weirdly complicated feeling.
You don't feel settled at all, right?
I think like there's a settling that interestingly, like for Cotobie,
we haven't felt necessarily most of the season.
Yeah.
And so it's like, all right, there's a few.
And, exactly.
There is a future.
Right.
Yeah.
And then, like, people that you thought were going to be in a better place wind up not in a great place.
It's just another incredible example of Dan Fogelman in our writer's room taking such good care of our audience.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
To escort them into the darkness.
Yeah.
Lovingly.
Lovingly.
Yeah.
But you got to look at this.
You got to come in here and look at this.
It's important.
Hey, get in here.
Look at this.
Shine a light on it.
But giving.
them just enough hope, just enough literal hope in the future.
Yeah, it's, it was, it's, it's a great episode of television and like not like, what's the
word that I'm looking for?
It's not, it doesn't leave me feeling great.
No.
It doesn't leave me feeling.
But it's not hopeless.
It's not hopeless.
It's like.
There's a hand on the shoulder.
Yeah.
I think, I think sometimes like, because we're saying like, I got to.
similar feeling at the end of season one.
This is interesting because I think discord
least people wanting to figure out
how repair happens.
Right.
If there's no...
I mean, it's the whole point.
Yeah.
The whole point is trying to get better at repair.
Yeah.
But it's also, I'm saying, like,
when you know you're about to go off the air,
you're like, I don't know, how are they going to get out of this shit?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Turn back in after this quick pandemic.
And that's what happened.
Because we normally finish shooting.
We finish April, April, and we would go back in, no, not that.
No, we would finish in like February, March.
February and March.
And go back in July.
Yeah, it'd be like five, four months off.
Four to five, four and a half months or so.
And this was the biggest break.
Yeah, obviously.
Yeah, we got done in February.
Yeah.
Pandemic started in March.
We got done in February or like, yeah, very end of February.
Yeah.
And then we ended up going back in September.
September.
So we were one of the very first.
We were.
We ran late that season because I was this season because I was late to our vacation after
the season ran.
Really?
Yeah.
Before the pandemic.
There was, there was, Rachel had to go.
Rachel went on vacation without me.
And you met her.
And I had shooting to do.
Oh, really?
Yeah, yeah.
And I met like three days later.
Interesting.
And then at the end of that vacation.
vacation. We left that vacation early because of lockdown.
Dude, a lot of stuff happens.
I know, a lot of stuff.
Like, it's funny, a lot of stuff happens on the show.
A lot of stuff happens in life.
And then we wind up trying to find a way to tie it all into each other.
But we'll talk about it in season five.
Like, I know people, I can remember this.
And not that I cared, so to say, and let me put a fine line on this.
I think it was probably the most upset the audience has been with Randall.
in the show, right?
And I think as an actor,
you sort of relish these opportunities
like, all right, you're in a hole right now.
Yeah.
How do I dig myself out?
Can you dig yourself out of this mother's?
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
But, like, I felt that whole.
And during, like, COVID happened.
But, like, people would come up to me and be like,
yo, bro.
Fix that with your brother.
What the hell?
You know what I'm saying?
And they would do that in season three with Beth and I, too,
because there's, you know, discord there.
But like this one struck a chord with people in a way that was,
because I think historically they'd seen Kevin sort of giving Randall the business.
For you to give it back?
Even Randall, like, yeah, I mean, listen.
You were making people look at things they didn't want to look at either.
As an actor, to talk about another's actor's abilities, even in character.
You know that shit cuts to the core.
Right? If somebody rolled up to me and be like, yeah, yeah, I saw your little show.
How.
How?
And that's what he just sort of like, yeah, it was ice cold.
Can Olin direct this episode, as you pointed out, Mandy Moore?
Dan Fogerman wrote this son of a gun.
And if ever you talk about being in good hands, man.
To do with those two.
You're in good hands with them and you feel like, all right, we got another one under our belts.
And another one that felt good from beginning to end.
Yeah.
That's a great feeling to have been on a show where you're like,
each time you go through this thing and you're like, yeah, we're still,
they still care about what we're putting out into the world.
So I better show to blank up.
Yeah.
And care the same level that they do.
Oh, yeah.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So.
Should we do a quick fan segment?
Let's do a fan segment.
Closeout season four.
Let's do it.
We'll be right back after this.
All right, it's that time again, our favorite part of the show when we hear from you guys.
We got three great questions about some of the biggest moments from the season four finale.
So let's dive in and hear what you have to say about the season four finale episode of this is us.
Hi, this is Katie from Philadelphia.
I want to know what did Justin and Sterling do to prepare for the scene?
and was the fight scripted to not include yelling,
or was this a conscious decision made by the actors?
Thanks so much.
Good question.
All right.
Katie.
All right.
First of all, I appreciate your hair game a great deal.
So we did that a few different times, and we did it a few different ways.
And I think Ken Olin, who directed the episode,
who really understands that sometimes you have to go through this thing,
and you get a few times in order to find the right modulation.
So there are times in which we did it with like extreme bombast, like just like yelling from the rooftops at each other or whatnot.
I think one of the most important things.
Chris just spilled his ice coffee all over him.
Chris just spilled like all over his left nipple.
He's got like a whole thing.
Oh, but she is.
You poor guy.
Oh, how embarrassing for you.
Stop it.
He'd be okay.
But ultimately what he sort of emphasized and he does this each time,
And I think you probably remember this too, Mandy, because he did the moon shadows with you and Milo.
And I think he did me and Beth also in season three.
He's like, you guys have to listen to each other.
Mm-hmm.
Right?
So, like, if the argument is getting to a place where you're not actually taking each other in, it's what's penetrating that's making you say the next thing.
Sure.
You know what I'm saying?
So ultimately, I think what we decided on what sort of settled in is something that felt like if there was bomb-bass to it, you could ultimately excuse it because people weren't
necessarily saying things in their right mind.
Right.
What made it...
What made it more painful was like, oh, no, this is a thoughtful,
yeah.
Deliberate consideration of what I'm going to say.
And that shit, oh, yeah.
It's hard for Brown to watch.
Yeah, it's really hard to watch.
So I guess there was a deliberate decision, ultimately, to take a lot of that out of it
because I think it wound up penetrating more in a different way.
Oh, yeah.
It was so pointed.
Yeah, yeah.
Great question, Kate.
Thank you.
Next one.
Hey, guys, it's Dennis.
And last time I was on, the trivia fan segment, my camera wasn't working.
Hey!
Today it is.
And I have a question for you.
So in episode 418, Jack and Rebecca go to Dr. Kay for Words of Wisdom.
And I'm wondering if you can tell us of a time when you went to like a coach or a teacher or someone like that to get words of wisdom and what they say.
said to you. Okay, love you guys. Thanks.
Oh.
Love you back, Dennis. That's my guy right there.
Dennis is our guy. He was the champion. He's our number one. He's a beast.
I can't think of anything top of mind. I feel like you have a story. You always have a good story.
Chris, you got one ready to go?
I don't.
With your nipple covered in iced coffee.
I'm going to put my jacket on before it comes to.
Let's see. I have a few different people who I consider to be worthy mentors, but here's a good one.
I got an opportunity to do an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine
and work with one of my heroes before he passed away,
Mr. Andre Brower.
And I didn't even, we didn't know.
I had no idea that he was going to,
so I really prized this opportunity that I had with him.
And I remember him talking about my ambition.
And he's talking about like,
you're clearly very ambitious.
Like you're doing everything.
You're doing movies.
You're doing TV.
You're doing everything.
And so he shot that Brooklyn Nine-N-N-N-N-N-Ratford, CBS Radford.
But his family lived in New Jersey.
So every weekend, regardless of he was like the last shot on Friday or first up on Monday, he flew home.
Right? To be with his family.
And this is actually plays a part of like everybody's directing on the show.
Chris directed, Mandy directed, Milo directed, Justin directed, etc., etc.
Chrissy and Beth both wrote on the show.
And I was thinking to myself like, oh, I really wouldn't mind doing those things.
but I really just want to spend more time with my family.
Yep.
And I was like, I'm okay.
I'm okay.
Like if I, if something happened and I said to myself, what would I regret more?
I'd be like, if I had time to spend with these kids that I wanted to spend with kids.
And this is not a judge.
This is just Brown's internal.
I totally understand.
That makes sense.
I was just like, and it took listening to somebody who I thought was incredibly ambitious.
We'd had like an amazing career saying they're like, no, you know what?
Sometimes I had to find the balance to find.
these things.
Sure.
So that was, that was a good moment.
That's a great question, Dennis.
That's a good.
Yeah.
Great question, Dennis.
Appreciate that.
Let's go to question number three.
Hi, Mandy, Kristen Sterling.
Thank you so much for taking my question today.
I really appreciate it.
So I was curious.
In regard to the clinical trial storyline for Rebecca that's introduced this season,
I was wondering what that might have looked like in season five had COVID not been an element
that ended up being included in the show.
I'm curious what it might have looked like
and how it would have impacted Kevin and Randall's relationship
maybe differently if COVID hadn't been included in the show.
So I was just curious on your guys' thoughts on that.
Thank you so much again, and I hope you all have a wonderful day.
Bye.
Thank you for that thoughtful question.
What is our queerest name?
Angela.
Great question, Angela.
I appreciate that.
It's a beautiful photo.
I was picturing the photo being animated the way Ken Olin used to do it.
Oh, she's just like the mouth moving?
He loves that.
Now we've moved on to AI with Ken, by the way, which is very troubling.
Oh, I don't get any of it.
Oh, boy, it's intense.
I'll show you.
You do go to the trial.
And ultimately in season, like, what do we hear something about, like, why you decide
only do afford a little bit of time?
Zero recollection.
I was just to say, I do not know what happens in season.
season five of this show.
So I'll tell you what I know.
She goes for a certain period of time, at least.
I know you move to St. Louis for some time.
And we'll find out at the beginning of next season.
But we don't ever, like, linger in that area.
Maybe it's only mentioned, and by the time we get back, you're back.
Yeah, you never see us there.
We never see you there.
I'm fairly certain.
I'm curious.
I think she's right that COVID sort of changed the trajectory.
of what ends up happening.
I mean, maybe for the clinical trial.
Like, truly, I feel like I've never watched the show.
I have zero idea what she's talking about.
But I just, my vague recollection is we did not ever go there or elude.
Like, maybe because COVID does happen on the show and in real life,
that prevents me from going and doing the clinical trial.
Maybe that's what happens.
I tell you one thing that I didn't realize,
is that season five, when I, like,
you know how it automatically rolls over to the next season?
I saw that season five, episode 501 was an hour and a half.
I was like, oh, yeah, that's right.
We did, they aired it as two.
They aired it as a double.
So even though we shot 16 episodes,
the first two.
I think Miguel gets you on like methylene blue
and starts having you take, like, uh.
I think you're right, Sterling,
because it says we did like, we did 15 episodes,
but I was like, we did 16.
Yeah, we did two less than we more,
do. But yeah, wow, gosh.
I feel like season five is going to be the season that we're all constantly like,
whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
But in answer to the answer's question, though, because Dan knew how the show was going to end,
right? Like, we knew that ultimately the family was getting together to see Rebecca.
But I don't know, maybe there would, like, I think also, I think the writer's side,
with Kevin and I think Sterling sides with Kevin in terms of like wanting to see this
woman enjoy the amount of time that she has left rather than maximizing time away from
the people that she wants to be with yeah so I think they were going to find a way to get
her back with her family yeah I'd like to think that she never went if this trial
never would have gone if this trial gained her nine months more of living right
she spent nine months of it away from her family yeah
Yeah.
Yeah.
So great question.
We'll never know.
We'll never, like, absolutely know for sure.
And we'll talk about it more at the beginning of season five,
because there's all kinds of conversations about,
do we include COVID?
Do we include Black Lives Matter?
Like, what are the, and the writers would get together,
like in a tent in the backyard of Dan's house.
That's right.
And have these massive conversations about what the show is supposed to be, right?
That was a great question and a great segment.
I think we should do more of these.
We can definitely do more of these,
Let's not forget, we just finished season four.
Yeah.
It seems like because we're already like jumping up until like season five.
But we just finished four seasons of podcast.
Yeah.
And four seasons of a wonderful show called This Is Us.
That's right.
And I got to tell you, like, there are different endings of different seasons that evoke different sorts of feelings.
Like this reminds me of the end of season one, this sort of like discordant tone.
Yeah.
Of like, where do we go?
I felt the same way.
I was like, this is a lot here, just a lot open-ended.
Yeah. This is more than a cliffhanger.
Yeah.
This has been great.
I love you guys.
We love you, too.
You're some of my most favorite people in the world and getting the chance to, like, go over this show.
It's so special.
It really is.
I thought about this the other day.
I was like, you know, having the experience of living at the first time with you guys is beyond, right?
Like, that's something I'll cherish forever.
But this, too.
Yeah.
Like being able to go back in such a granular way and dissect these episodes with two of my favorite people and learn so much about both of you in the process is like, this is time so well spent.
Like it's, I'm so grateful.
Grateful to both of you.
And grateful to everyone out there who has listened and followed along and is with us on this journey.
Tell them about subscribing, liking.
Tell them about...
Four seasons in, still doesn't know.
He's like, what's it called?
Sharing it with a friend.
What's it called?
Share with an enemy.
Share with a friend.
That was us.
We're not. It's our sponsors. It's. I can get us on email at that was uspod.com.
No, at gmail.com. But cool. Yep. I got you. Remember when I would do the number wrong all the time, the phone number? Like, literally it was three and a half seasons. I still couldn't remember it. To the point where they're like, maybe we shouldn't give them a phone number anymore.
That was us in Gmail.
Never memorized it.
What's the thing of a gym called?
Speakpipe.com slash that was us.
That was us, guys.
Reach out.
Send us a video, send us an audio message.
Send us nudes.
If there's anything that you, like in particular, I don't want that.
We don't need that.
Of course, Sam has to like look through the nudes.
We're people of a certain age where that's not necessarily our thing.
Yeah, we're good.
But let us know because season five is going to be.
A doozy.
It's going to be a doozy one.
And so if you have any thoughts or things that you want to lead into,
People checked out. Some people were like, okay.
We had a very strong reaction, both positive and negative.
And I think that 501 probably was one of our most divisive episodes ever.
Yeah.
Yeah. Can't wait to get into it.
Yeah. I love you guys.
Love you, too.
We'll see you guys. That was us.
You're welcome.
You're welcome.
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.
