A quick internet search seems to indicate that it was Beth’s father who had been revealed in the past to have died from cancer. Maybe when I remembered that scene it scared me that Beth would get cancer. I love her so much!
Regardless, the scene with Tess and Randall is several years in the future - not next year.
Wow, I didn’t go down this road but if you look up “This is Us Beth…” you get ALL kinds of dialogue pop up re: theories!!!
Why would Tess not be ready to see her mother if Beth is dying of cancer?
I heard Tess’s answer more as “I am not ready to forgive”.
I think it may be Deja as they ended with her destroying the car window.
However, it is most likely not as that is probably a bait and switch.
Perhaps it is a character who has not been suggested yet such as her little sister.
The show creators have figured out a way to move on from finding out how jack died, have us speculate on the other characters!
I really, really, hate to comment on someone’s weight but like @abasket, when I see Kate, I find her weight to be a distraction. A big distraction where I’m only thinking about the weight, honestly and not her great acting.
The wedding toast, USA Today had a re cap where they said, as usual the wedding toasts were about Kevin and Randall and not about Kate. I’m paraphrasing.
I too thought the wedding toasts were too much about Jack and not about Kate and Toby. Agree you never get over a loss like that but this was Kate and Toby’s day.
I was ready to agree with those who thought Kevin’s toast was not appropriate and was too focused on Jack. But thinking about it now, it was Kate that was so focused on it in the hours before the wedding - the shirt and then the urn with his ashes. So perhaps it was appropriate for Kevin to tell her (and all of them) that is was time to exhale and move on.
Looking forward to next season. Wish this one had lasted longer.
I agree that the toasts were odd for a wedding. Kevin appeared to have one written out that he was going to give (may well have been more wedding appropriate) but he put the note cards in his back pocket and went off the cuff. I agree that having seen how obsessed Kate was with Jack on that day, Kevin likely said I need to go with something else. Toby probably didn’t disagree with that because internally, I suspect he had been thinking pretty much what Kevin was saying for a long time. And in part, Kevin’s toast was meant for viewers as well: season two was so much about Jack’s death and now its time to move on (Jack no doubt will be involved in the show going forward but lets move on from his death itself).
Kate’s idea of the banana pudding ice cream would have been a nice way to remember Jack. But all good things must come to an end. They did a good job in just a few short moments illustrating that no one knows what the future holds, both good and bad, like Jack’s sudden death from an unanticipated fire and the shakeup it has on a family. More to come…
Well, yes, maybe that was more the point. Here she is on her WEDDING DAY and she is STILL spending most of the day obsessing about her father? Who died 20 years ago?
Of course a bride will certainly feel a void and miss her dad on her wedding day, but carting around his urn and being obsessed with whether or not his old shirt is available is really odd. (I know it’s a TV show 
) Plus, if the shirt was that important, why did she leave it for Toby to pack.
One final thought - these people must really rack up the frequent flyer miles huh? :))
They have ALL been way too focused on Jack for far too long. It’s gotten so that it’s ridiculous. After 20 years, it’s long past time to move on.
^^^It’s tough. My mom lost her Dad when she was 13. He left behind a family of 7 children. I know at every happy occasion he was talked about and missed as he too was larger than life and so loving.
I have three close friends and a son-in-law who all lost a parent when they were in high school. Of course it’s sad and it will have some effect and the parent will be missed but after 20 years to still be so focused on the deceased parent in such a constant way, as is portrayed on this show, is just not healthy, nor is it realistic.
I agree that in real life such an intense focus on a dead father 20 years on would indicate a fairly severe disturbance. But that’s the case with lots of fictional characters. The writers make them do all kinds of things real people in their situations wouldn’t do.
Meanwhile, my mother’s father died when she was 13. And while I doubt she obsessed about him on her wedding day to the same extent as Kate, I can attest that there was probably not a day in the ~68 years between his death and hers that she didn’t spend some time thinking about him. She talked about him a lot; he was a strong presence in her life.
Agree-I know my mom who passed at 81, when she would get together with her siblings they still talked about “Mama & Daddy” They were normal and they truly loved and missed their parents. Apparently he had been pretty successful in business and used to do things on a grand scale like rent out a whole carnival when it was one of their birthdays. Not sure its only fictional characters that reminisce and dwell on parents who died before their time.
I have a friend whose father died in Vietnam shortly after she was born. She never met him, but he is a huge presence in her life. She has been to the wall several times, she went to Vietnam, she belongs to a group (maybe children of the wall or something like that), she posts a lot of pictures on FB of her dad, his gravesite, taking her grandchild to the gravesite, her trip to Vietnam to see exactly where he died, etc… So I guess it isn’t all that unrealistic.
I honestly assumed that the actress who plays Kate probably was going to have bariatric surgery in real life. So, yes, I have been surprised at no weight loss.
When my mom was 11, she lost her 16-year-old sister to kidney disease (I’m prone to UTIs and kidney infections, and I often wonder if she had the same issue). That was in 1949, and Mom has never gotten over it. She never got counseling and it affected her entire life.
That’s a main plot of the entire show - the Jack story - it is his story, his influence that drives the show. Like a book. If the plot is build around a main character dying, by the end of the book they are probably still referencing him - not dropping any word of him mid-book.
I really like the show, but the finale left me feeling flat. Nothing special to look forward to. And what on earth was that “toast” the brothers tried to give? If anyone gave a toast like that at a wedding I attended I’d wonder what was going on.
Oh well, I do look forward to next season.
We were in our mid 30’s when we had our kids. That means if they have a normal lifespan, they will be living that long on this earth about that long without us. I hope they don’t obsess over losing us, but it sure sounds nice that they would have good memories and discuss “Mom and Dad”, and the life we all had together, when we are gone. It’s early in the morning and writing that made me very sad, need to go get some coffee.
I don’t have lots of good memories of my own Dad, just some, he was so complicated. When I think of him, it turns more to anger.
I’m happy see as much of Jack as I can. I loved how Kevin called Kate Katiegirl limevhervDad would have.
Look forward to more of the story being woven. Kevin seemingly going to explore what happened to Jack in Vietnam, what if anything in particular puts Toby into an unhealthy state, what happens with Deja - does she stay? What happens to Randall’s family - who is Tess unsure about visiting…why do we not see Annie in any future flashes??
I’m buckled in and staying for the long haul. I sort of appreciate that the focus was not on a drama filled ending but a glance - that peek into the future that we often wish we could have…but are a bit afraid to see because it might not all be good.