‘This Is Us’ Series Finale 2022: The Cast and Creator Answer All Your Remaining Questions

Says Chris Sullivan: “It was a nice, quiet way for us to end a nice, peaceful, calm scene. It was perfect. As we were [about to shoot], I said very quickly [to Chrissy], ‘I think this is our last scene.’ Chrissy was like, ‘No, no, no. Nope, no.’ She didn’t want to talk about it. She wasn’t going to be able to get through it.”

Was Toby always meant to be remarried in the future?

A few years ago, when viewers saw future Randall call Toby in the middle of the night to tell him he needed to get to the house, Toby wasn’t looking the best. Granted it was the middle of the night, but he looked a little worse for the wear, didn’t seem to be wearing a wedding ring, and the bed sheets next to him were untouched, leading viewers to believe that either he was divorced or a widow. As it turned out, he was divorced (from Kate) but also remarried to Laura and doing quite well. So was that a fake out for viewers? 

Not quite, Chris Sullivan says. “It was meant to be left open-ended,” he tells us. “For me and for the audience because [the producers] weren’t sure which way they wanted to go yet. There were options in terms of how the story ends for Toby. They had to get a couple of other pieces in place before they could figure out what happened to him. Toby’s number seven on the call sheet, so you’ve got six other stories that have to [be serviced] before you start letting Toby’s story dictate what happens. It was just basic writing logistics as far as keeping it open and not writing themselves into a corner.”

Did you catch the musical Easter egg in the final scene?

Dan Fogelman joked that this piece of trivia would be great at the next This Is Us game night: You know that sweeping score that played over the last few minutes of the show as Rebecca squeezed Jack’s hand, as Jack looked longingly at young Randall, and then adult Randall looked longingly at Deja? It was the same piece of music used (only once prior) in season one, episode five, “The Game Plan,” when Kevin shows young Tess and Annie his painting to illustrate the cyclical nature of life and death.