'This Is Us' Showrunner Says Fans Should Be "Concerned" for Kate After Last Night
This Is Us aired episode 5, titled "Storybook Love," of season 4 Tuesday night on NBC.
The end of the new This Is Us episode left fans with questions about an unsettling mystery surrounding teen Kate and her old boyfriend, Mark.
Showrunners Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger commented on the last few minutes of Tuesday night's episode and said fans are right to have a "healthy amount of concern" for Kate right now.
If you watched Tuesday night's new This Is Us, you probably felt very uneasy at the end of the episode. Moments before the credits started rolling, fans saw present-day Kate giggling and looking through old Polaroids from her teen years. But when Kate lands on a picture of herself and her former boyfriend Mark (played by Euphoria's Austin Abrams), she stops and solemnly hands the photo over to Rebecca.
"I was trying so hard to hold it together the year after your father died," Rebecca explained. "I wanted to believe so badly that you kids were happy. I didn't see what was happening." The episode closes with Kate telling her mom that she didn't, either.
The ominous ending left fans with the heartbreaking impression that Mark, who Kate had met in a record store, did something terrible to her.
Hate to speculate, but guessing that Mark will have something to do with triggering Kate's weight gain. #ThisIsUs #CaptainObvious
— Don (@Mitroffjr) October 23, 2019
It hurts to think about whatever is going to unfold between Mark & Kate & how Jack wasn’t around to protect his Katie-Girl ?? #ThisIsUs
— Jess (@JessNeedsADrink) October 23, 2019
What did 23-year-old Mark do to teenage Kate? #thisisus
— Latonya C'Drell Bush (@LaCDBu) October 23, 2019
Speaking about last night's episode, co-showrunner and executive producer Isaac Aptaker told Entertainment Weekly that fans "should have a healthy amount of concern" for the Pearson sister at this point.
"I mean, there’s something ominous looming there, the way that Rebecca and Kate are speaking about that relationship in present day," he explained. "And although he seems like a sweet guy now, it certainly seems like that did not end well for Kate."
He continued: "I think Kate’s at an incredibly sensitive, potentially vulnerable time in her life, a little bit aimless, searching for meaning and searching for a plan in the wake of her father’s death."
What's more, fellow co-showrunner and executive producer Elizabeth Berger pointed out that Mark showing up to the Pearsons uninvited earlier in the episode is very "telling" about where they're going to take the character.
Storybook Love? #ThisIsUs pic.twitter.com/kCG4tl8Gpk
— Hannah Zeile (@hannahzeilexo) October 23, 2019
"That will definitely prove to be symbolic of Mark’s larger personality," she revealed. "He’s obviously somebody that goes for what he wants and feels entitled to show up to a place even when he’s not invited."
Earlier this year, Chrissy Metz told GoodHousekeeping.com that season 4 was going to be a tough one for Kate and her husband, Toby, as they both sort out their marital and personal struggles.
"We’ve seen a lot at the surface with stuff, and things start to get a little more serious and they realize that it’s not all fun and games," Chrissy explained. "We can’t protect ourselves with humor and sarcasm. We have to really get to the bones of what’s going on with them as individuals and then, of course, as a couple."
All we can hope for is that things start turning around for Kate really soon.
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