There was plenty of confrontation.
A little bit of temptation.
And one dangerous revelation.
Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC
(Before Jackwinds up in an urn, that is.)
Cue: The red flare of bombs that are surely to come.
It came at her suggestion, but with a side of regret.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The Randall/Kevin divide ran deep, and Kevin was pretty cruel to him growing up.
Shall we call this a step in the right direction, though?
And does Kevin need to crash another memorial service to further unblock himself?
DAN FOGELMAN:Yeah, I think it is a step in the right direction.
Randall says, No, you werent.
Weve seen Jack and Rebecca at a rocky point before.
Not to mention, that first forgotten kiss in 15 years.
Is this rough patch more concerning than the other one?
Ive been really interested to see how people are going to respond to this episode.
Its a nuanced look at a marriage that has been going for quite some time.
At their earlier rough patch, it was marked by Jacks drinking and a promise that he kept.
Im not going to be drinking anymore was enough to kind of trudge through the rough patch.
This is slightly different.
Theres a lot going on that goes on in a lot of marriages.
Theres no one particular thing thats broken or wrong.
There is a distance.
So, yeah, I think its a different kind of rough patch.
How much danger will these situations pose?
I think its all of those things.
Theyre purposely placed in this episode in the place where they come in this episode.
We dont know what the state of the marriage was when he died.
Thats something thats going to be played out and questioned and then eventually answered.
Its part of the journey for both of them.
[To read what Moore and Ventimiglia had to say about Jack and Rebeccas relationship,click here.]
This obviously puts Beth in a horrendous position.
Its a matter of time.
The clock is ticking very quickly.
So that question is going to be getting answered very quickly.
To have that relationship also be damaged seems extra poignant.
How that came to be and where that came from could be analyzed if were sending Randall into analysis.
But, yeah, its a big part.
Rebeccas secret and storyline is a big part of our next batch of episodes, obviously.
And thats very complicated for him.
Now we learn that he likes to binge.
How at fault is Toby here?
Then again, he does give a shot to decline the dessert menu at first in solidarity.
Or is just that these two lifestyles may be incompatible?
We take a positive view of people.
The show has an optimistic sensibility.
That being said, we dont set out to create perfect people.
These characters are very flawed.
They make really bad decisions at times.
That remains to be seen.
Toby is clearly a great guy, but theres a darkness underneath in certain places.
Thats not how people operate.
We make bad character decisions as people.
So I think thats the push and pull of them.
Next week, that obstacle for them really comes to a major head.
The Seth Meyers cameo was fun and came out of nowhere.
How did that happen?
Was he a big fan of the show?
We went to New York to shoot Randall and Kevin fighting on the New York streets.
We reached out to Seth to see if he would be willing to do it.
Sterling and Justin flew out to New York, and we shot it with Seth.
(Logan Shroyer plays Kevin, Niles Fitch plays Randall, and Hannah Zeile plays Kate.
)Why the switch?
There were a bunch of both technical and logistical reasons that we made the switch.
It winds up getting confusing, and we realized that would be problematic.
There was something more visceral about it.
So we made the switch.
Youve mentioned seeing more time periods.
Is there talk of seeing them at say, 19-year-olds?
just tell me were going to be seeing the new Manny in a scene with Kevin.
Weve got to make a deal with Morris Chestnut.
