Glamour: What an extraordinary episode. What were some of the challenges involved in bringing it to life, and what excited you about telling these two monumental moments in Nicky’s and Deja’s lives? 

Kevin Falls: We knew that we wanted this season to go find Sally, but we didn’t want to put a bow on it. Sometimes in a show like this, you expect there to be a happy ending; this happy ending takes a different form. The chance of you going back, cold-calling the person you loved in high school 50 years later…it could be a long shot. So we wanted to lean into the fact that we knew right away Sally wasn’t going to be available. At least I did. That was something I expressed to Jessica Radloff Dan [Fogelman]. Dan was thinking along the same lines, and so was the writing staff.

But what was really cool about it—and a nod to Dan for this: The person who goes through the rigors of that dinner is Rebecca. Her saying out loud that she has Alzheimer’s—and the fear that you start to fade away in other people’s eyes—especially for women, I think that’s hard because there’s so much more put on them with looking a certain way and having to deal with that. I thought that was the interesting part of the journey. And then not to mention what’s going on with Malik and Deja and that road trip too. Nicky’s probably the one who said, “All right, nothing there, but at least I had closure.” But the people that are really having the jumping-off point to me are Deja and Rebecca.

Kay Oyegun: One of the things we love so much is, when we first met Nicky, he was this broken shell of a person. And when we first met Deja, she literally was a homeless child who could not be touched by someone. So in this episode, you’re seeing two people who have really blossomed. You’re literally watching an older man regain a sense of himself. And you’re watching a young Black girl find herself an agency in a way that she never had before. It was a blast telling a story with two leads that are very different from one another, but very similar.

Griffin Dunne’s delivery as Nicky was perfection. The lines you wrote for him, whether it was the way he said, “Jack’s dead,” or when Sally says she can’t bring herself to watch the Woodstock documentary where she’s naked, and Nicky says, “I could,” was just brilliant.

Kevin: Kay did a masterful job with these actors and holding the attention. And then you have the host—Sally—who says, “For a minute I thought I had early onset Alzheimer’s.” That’s suddenly like this brick that drops right on the table. You think, Oh, they’re just going to go over it. But Rebecca admits to it, which suddenly opens up a portal into the marriage of Sally with her husband. And these people have come out of nowhere. Sally and Eric started their day with her thinking she was going to make dinner, and he was going to watch TV in another room. And these people (Nicky, Rebecca, Miguel) go out of their way to throw this Molotov cocktail into their marriage and make them face their issues. That’s the kind of fun about that dinner is all these other things happened.

And then the actual kernel of young love, which we’re seeing from Malik and Deja’s story, still burns within people like me. As you get older, there’s still that pilot light that you may have had for an old flame that you don’t maybe necessarily think of, or turn the flame up unless you see them or are reminded of them in some way. It’s still within us, that young love in old love. A lot of writers had a lot of hand in shaping this particular episode. Hats off to them. And Kay directing it, beautiful job.

The Emmy nominee will also direct for the first time in season six, and it just so happens to be the Kate-centric episode. “It’s all her and Toby. It’s such an incredibly written episode, and I’m so grateful that Dan [Fogelman] is letting me do it.”

Kate Pearson

There’s still a lot that we don’t know about what’s to come for Kate, especially since we haven’t seen her at Rebecca’s bedside some 15 years in the future. While Chrissy Metz says we’ll have to wait until the latter half of the season to get those answers, we’re going to learn much sooner what causes the breakdown of Kate and Toby’s marriage. “The episode that I got to [cowrite is] is a real turning point in Kate and Toby’s relationship,” Metz teases. “It’s going to be beautiful and wonderful and sad and heartbreaking and all the things.”

Or, as Sterling K. Brown tells me with enthusiasm, “I’m really blown away by [the] Kate and Toby [episode]. The shit is sick! Sick!” 

Whatever happens, at least we know Kate is eventually happy with Phillip, and Metz thinks viewers will root for the surprise pairing. “Chris Geere is very charming and very talented, [but] it’s hard because it feels weird,” Metz says of having a new love interest. Still, “we’re going to discover who Phillip really is. He’s starting to warm up. And she’s not all the things that he thinks she is. He comes to really like and respect her, so we’ll uncover all that.”

Toby Damon

Meanwhile, Chris Sullivan tells Glamour that “Toby’s getting serious about what he wants from his life, what he wants from his relationship, and what he needs from his partner to be the fullest version of himself” this season. He also concedes that every relationship isn’t meant to last forever. “There are seasons in life, and there’s nothing wrong with moving on from a relationship if you are able to do it in a  compassionate and loving way,” he says. “You don’t have to blow up your life to end a relationship. Took me a while to learn that in my life. There’s lots of lessons to be learned. This is us, you guys.”

As for that Toby and Kate–centric episode that Sterling K. Brown teased, Sullivan reveals, “It’s going to be the biggest challenge yet for Chrissy and I, but I’m really excited about it. There’s a bit of a magical quality to the episode that will be hard to explain until you see it. I’m really excited about it.”

The beginning of January can be tough. It’s cold, there’s no more holiday cheer, and tax season is looming. But there’s always a silver lining, and right now that lining is on the small screen. A few things are premiering on TV this week that will surely cure your post-holiday blues, like This Is Us and The Bachelor. Here are the highlights to snuggle up with on the couch: 

Sunday, January 2 

Next Level Chef: Per Fox, Next Level Chef is “the next evolution in cooking competitions, as Gordon Ramsay has designed a one-of-a-kind culinary gauntlet, set on an iconic stage like you’ve never seen.” 8 p.m. E.T. on Fox

Content

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Monday, January 3 

The Bachelor: Here’s everything we know about Clayton Echard’s season. 8 p.m. E.T. on ABC 

Content

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Tuesday, January 4 

This Is Us: Here’s everything we know about season six (the last season!) of this beloved series. I’m already sobbing. 9 p.m. E.T. on NBC

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 Thursday, January 6 

Women of the Movement: Per ABC, this is “a limited series event based on the true story of Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley.” 8 p.m. E.T. on ABC

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Friday, January 7

The Tender Bar: Ben Affleck stars in this movie directed by George Clooney. Read an official description, below. Streaming on Amazon Prime Video

“The Tender Bar tells the story of J.R. (Tye Sheridan), a fatherless boy growing up in the glow of a bar where the bartender, his Uncle Charlie (Ben Affleck), is the sharpest and most colorful of an assortment of quirky and demonstrative father figures. As the boy’s determined mother (Lily Rabe) struggles to provide her son with opportunities denied to her—and leave the dilapidated home of her outrageous if begrudgingly supportive father (Christopher Lloyd)—J.R. begins to gamely, if not always gracefully, pursue his romantic and professional dreams—with one foot persistently placed in Uncle Charlie’s bar.”

Content

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Speaking of which, Kevin and Madison seemed quite flirty in the flash forward, so what was Fogelman hoping to reveal in that moment? “The main takeaway should be, yes, despite the heartbreak of that beautiful scene between them and the unusual breakup between them, clearly something is very right with them in that future timeline at the end of the episode. To go beyond that, I can’t say. You’re not wrong for reading into the genuine affection, but outside of that is for next season to reveal.”

Next season’s episode count is still being discussed

Each season of This Is Us is 18 episodes, but because of the pandemic, season five was shortened to 16 episodes. So does that mean the final season will be 20 episodes, to make up for the two they couldn’t do this season? Or will it still be 18? “We haven’t gotten into that in great detail yet,” Fogelman admits. “It will ultimately come down to what the network wants from us. The 16 episodes this season were simply the nature of scheduling and room and our ability to get them out quickly enough. We were able to know that early enough so it didn’t really affect our storytelling.” 

Fogelman does reveal that they had planned on doing a “specialized” episode in season five, which will now get pushed to next season, “but not at the expense of anything else,” he says. So, in other words, stay tuned!

The final season will answer all your questions

“We always knew season six would be ambitious in terms of the way the show jumps time, and even more ambitious than other seasons,” Fogelman says. “But I think you’re going to have a real sense of resolution and completion for this family. We have been working tirelessly to set up this rewarding final season to make all the pieces fit together.” Fogelman says they know they owe the viewers a lot of answers, but that’s always the been the game plan.  

“There will be no looming questions when we get to the end of next season,” he says. “The audience won’t always like 100% of the decisions you make for your characters, but I don’t think anything will be left on the table. All those future timelines will get resolutions.”

Rebecca and Miguel’s courtship will finally be explored

For some time, fans have wanted to know how Miguel and Rebecca got together. We know that 10 years or so after Jack died, they reconnected over Facebook, but what drove them apart in the first place? And how long after they met up did things turn romantic? Fogelman says the show will be diving into those questions in season six. “That’s a big storyline. Mandy is going to have a tremendously ambitious season next year as an actress,” he says, referring to the character’s battle with a worsening disease. “It’s going to be a quite a ride and quite a showcase. There’s really some really juicy stuff for our actors to dig into.”

Randall for President?

“I can’t say much, but when you get a profile like that written,” Fogelman says of the magazine article sitting next to Kevin’s bed, “something is happening with his career and his profile growing. I think we’ll find a very centered Randall as we enter our final season.”

Malik and Deja’s new life

Viewers know Deja is pregnant some 10-15 years in the future, but don’t know who the father is, or if he’s involved. In the present day, Malik has been accepted to Harvard, which will obviously present some complications for their relationship. “It’s another area that I’m very excited about,” Fogelman says. “I have an episode I have been wanting to do for some time about adolescent first love and what becomes of that and how it forms you, so that’s one we plan on telling next season.”

Parts of the finale have already been filmed

When you have kids of all ages on a show like This Is Us, it’s inevitable they’re going to grow up before your eyes. Without revealing too much, Fogelman says some finale moments have already been shot (our guess is that it involves the big three when they were around 12 years of age). “I’ve always loved knowing an end point. Since the very beginning I’ve had a strong feeling of where I want this to end…the moments, images, scenes. I’ve had a list of them I’ve wanted to tell in a pretty specific order, and it’s a real gift to be able to execute them the way I want.”

And in honor of the final season, NBC has released this video of the cast as they reminisce about the show that changed their lives and look ahead to an emotional and rewarding sixth season.

This Is Us will return in January 2022 for the final season.

Jessica Radloff is the Glamour West Coast editor. You can follow her on Instagram at @jessicaradloff14.

Sad news for fans of the Pearson family: It seems This Is Us’s sixth season will be its last. On Wednesday, May 12, The Hollywood Reporter quoted a source saying that NBC will announce the end of the hit series on Friday, May 14.

This is not exactly a surprise; when the show was renewed for three more seasons in 2019, THR reported the drama would “likely” end its run afterward. Because the series jumps around in time so much, it was unclear how long it could run. Eventually the characters would catch up to the futures the show laid out for them, and the story would have to end. “We never set out to make a television series that was going to last 18 seasons, so we have a very direct plan. I have script pages I have written. We have a plan for what we’re going to do, and I know what the plan is,” series creator Dan Fogelman told THR in April 2019.

Glamour reached out to NBC, and the network said, “We have no comment at this time.”

Season five of the hit show earned praise for an episode tackling racism, specifically exploring the fraught relationship between Kevin and his Black adopted brother, Randall. Over the course of its run, This Is Us has dealt with many important topics, including alcoholism, weight and body image, miscarriage, and depression. Many of the central actors were nominated for Emmys for their work on the show, and Sterling K. Brown (Randall) won in 2017.

In typical This Is Us fashion, the show has continued setting up mysteries in its most recent season. So there should be plenty to resolve in the final episodes if, in fact, the upcoming sixth season is the show’s last. 

We’ll keep you posted with updates as they come in.

Let’s talk about Kate and Toby bringing baby Hailey home from the hospital, and Ellie’s decision not to be part of their lives. It now makes sense why she wanted to hold her first at the hospital. 

This whole adoption storyline was something we took very seriously. We were told by the adoption experts that the TV trope where the mom changes her mind at the last minute and keeping the baby doesn’t often happen. In fact, sometimes it can be a deterrent to potential adoptive parents [if they see that on TV]. So it was really important for us to tell a different kind of story and not play the jeopardy of, “Is she going to keep the baby?”

Still, we did want to tell an emotional journey for Kate and Ellie as friends. We thought the interesting story would be the loss of the friendship Kate had with the birth mom. And, because this is our show, you never know when Ellie might come back and if she might be a part of Kate and Toby and Hailey and Jack’s life. We definitely wanted to give her that moment to say goodbye.

Toby getting laid off was a gut punch, as realistic as it was. How will that impact him as a father and husband, especially with his on-going struggle with depression?

Kate is a really natural, loving, hands-on mother and that doesn’t come quite as easy for Toby. He struggles with it at first. I think what we’re interested in exploring is, how does this family adapt when the structure of what their life looks like changes? We danced around for a while with Kate’s career and her own aspirations, and we’re really interested in looking at what is it when one parent has to step up and the other one has to take on the full-time parenting role in a way they might not expect. I think especially in the last year with the pandemic, that’s something a lot of parents can relate to—taking on those roles more than they might have anticipated.

I can’t get David Gates’s song, “Everything I Own,” out of my head now. What a beautiful way to close out the episode and show the Pearson kids at various ages. 

I know. Dan Fogelman has a few This Is Us songs in his head that he knows he wants to use, but is waiting for the perfect moment. As soon as Jon Huertas and I heard “Everything I Own,” we were like, that’s the one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LD-rY6Hxks

Speaking of Jon, it was his first episode directing. He did an amazing job.

He did so great. It’s really fun to work with actors when they have the chance to direct. They don’t want to mess up because this is their day job! These cast members are their co-workers, so they’re ultra prepared and there’s so much passion. We were joking that when Jon was directing Jack in the ghost sequence, Jon should just fill in and be like, “Actually, Miguel’s the ghost here!”

Meanwhile, we’re at the halfway point of the season, so what can you preview for what’s on the horizon?

When babies are born, family members often come to visit. I think we can expect our cast members from previous seasons to show their faces in fun and surprising ways. We have that to look forward to.

I hope it’s Dr. K, because we can always use more Gerald McRaney. We also haven’t seen the doctor with the daughter and her horse from earlier this season. I feel like they’re due to appear sometime soon.

We will see!

Jessica Radloff is the Glamour West Coast editor. You can follow her on Instagram at @jessicaradloff14.