MelGoLightly

Call me impressed with that notice! Where did I get Trenton, I wonder. Edited b/c I'm sure the wiki is posted in this thread somewhere and I am a good citizen.

Oooo how do we know this? Nice. That's a notably upscale area, so that makes a lot of sense. I based my assumption on Deja being from Trenton, but that's relatively close to North Jersey so I'm sure they could travel to her for pick up/drop off, etc.

Did anyone else during the what-could-have-been sequence where we first see Jack as an older man and realize they're renewing vows think "GEORGE and you f'ing CROCK POT, you ruin EVERYTHING. Asking for a friend.

Noticed that Kate's car in the last episode had PA plates. There was a point in the episode showing specifically that Randall's car had Jersey plates. We know they live in Trenton/Central Jersey area based on older episodes. We know that Rebecca and Miguel live nearby enough for drop in visits - which in the NE corridor could be anywhere from like DC to NYC burbs. We also know that the cabin is in the Poconos. Bottom Line: Was Kate's SUV a rental from PA or are she and Toby living on the east coast?

I definitely had the distinct feeling that the first time we saw Old Randall it was 20 years in the future. But the impression I got from the speech overlay on the same scene with Tess the same age and Randall looking the same that it was 10 years later. So, for the Kevin/Zoe timeline, Randall says "not even a year from now" while they show them on a flight landing in Saigon. Then, Kate & Toby regarding his meds. He says "if you choose right, your people will stay the same." as Deja smashes his window. Then he says "whether that's tonight, or a year from now, or ten years from now" just as you see the Old Randall and Grown Up Tess say "it's time to go see her". I have to think that the Randall/Tess scenes are 10 years from now. And side note: I have a lot of friends who started in their social services careers at astonishingly young ages because of the exhaustion the field causes and the low interest in being in the field. I find it totally plausible that a 22 year old, fresh out of college Tess would be in a social services/adoption placement job, which would fall in line with Tess being about 12 at the time of the wedding.

I swear in Randall's speech he says "or ten years from now..." just as they are showing him talking to Grown Up Tess. When we first saw Old Randall I assumed he was in his 60s and she was in her late 20s/early 30s, but that line made me reconsider. I need to go back and rewatch that scene.

I loved the episode. I feel very cheated by the Deja roller coaster. I went from irritated by her to feeling sorry for her to finding her an awful person to excited she was in the family. They really couldn't do one episode where everything is a-okay, could they? We have a wedding going on while Deja is bashing Randall's car window. Whew. I'm pretty sure Future Toby is in a depression in that scene. Please let that be true - Kate can't go through more. I love the idea of Kevin & Beth's Cousin being in a year long relationship! My guess is that he digs deeper into Jack's family history since he's no longer boozing and craves doing something productive and as a photographer, the sister/cousin is going along to document the adventure. Whatever it is, I love it. And writers, you better not take away a positive Kevin storyline, or I swear. I mentioned earlier, but I am concerned with how old Randall looks in those flash forwards. I bet Deja is a lot more impact than they ever could have imagined when they were fostering her. Which makes me despise her birth mother even more. Ugh. Finally, what is it with the March finale? What happened to May finales? This season feels super short! We had a two week break during the holidays and another during the Olympics. Where did these 17 episodes go???

Rebecca was my second guess after thinking Deja-in-prison was too obvious. I was going more with seeing grammy on her death bed. On the other hand, I noticed that Randall's old man make up was really extreme for just ten years forward - aged 47. He looks exhausted in that scene compared to Jack in the fantasy scenes, which would have put him at an older age than Randall in 10 years. If that makes any sense. Bottom line: Randall is supposed to be 48 in those future scenes if I'm taking the "in ten years" correctly, and he looks way too old for that. OR I took the "ten years" over his old man face too literally and those scenes are from when he's much older, like 20 years from now, aged 57. Anyway, that scene makes me suspect that Deja went down a perilous path after she was adopted by the Pearsons and it took major toll on the family.

There was mention of his heart attack & the idea of having another when Randall & Kevin were doing "worst case scenario" in the car, which I am taking as a red herring. But the relatively random and otherwise pointless scene with Toby's parents hating on Kate, which was seemingly resolved by the reception, had to have greater meaning. What strikes me is that his mother noted she found him under a blanket like a child when he was in depression. In the flash forward, he's definitely in the fetal in a flowery blanket up to his chin, like a child. And that Kate mentions his doctor wants to adjust his meds? I'm betting on a reoccurrence of depression. My guess is that Toby has an underlying issue with depression with or without a trigger and his mother thinks it flares up with women problems. Kate will find herself taking care of him in a future break, I think. I bet they have ongoing fertility issues that break him down.

So honored you accepted my invite - lol. I was actually here to respond to your first question and saw the 2nd comment. Haha. Regarding Kate's audition tape - no way! Back then, I was still ordering cd's on Columbia house records for 1 cent and never ever paying the full price! No way were we home recording cds. I took guitar lessons in 1997 when I was 17 and I was provided cd's of my lessons and the songs I wrote and recorded, but that was not something I would have done at home. This was also a time when you hand wrote your college applications - it's so hard to believe how analog life was just 20 years ago! But I'm part of that generation that grew up for 20 years analog and the rest fully online.

See, I don't think this is an unpopular opinion at all. We've all known and have had time to come to terms with Jack being dead from the start. We even saw him have a moment with William before he died. The jig is up. We also know that death does not mean absence in this show. I think that the majority of viewers are looking forward to getting past the how's and what's and moving into what the rest of the series might bring b/c they have clearly lined us up for a wealth of stuff in the future. It's kind of turning drama on its head - come out with the big "reveal" in season 2 and move deep into character development and stories afterward.

May I direct you to the "Nitipicks" thread? It's a deluge of over thinking and nitpickery. Join us. Salvation awaits! This Is Our Minutiae Thread: For Those Pesky Job/Housing/Money/Geography Details

I was an August 1980 baby (which makes this show even more interesting, given we are the exact same age) and there are countless (and real) parallels in these kids and my teenage hood. I went to Titanic like 6 times with my boyfriend in 1997. And wore so much flannel. (but I got back around to that again in my 30s...) And was so angsty. It all rings so true to me. They have done a pretty great job of depicting teens of this exact age at that exact time.

I'm finding it extremely palpable how similar the mannerisms of the teens and adults are. There has to have been a concerted effort on the part of the director to have the teen versions study the adults. But for it to be so seamless across three different teen actors and three different and corresponding adult actors - that can't be a coincidence. Must say, this show continues to impress me in the depth of the story and characters. I'm impressed.

My brain can't actually compute a loss OR win + a major This is Us episode. DOES NOT COMPUTE. I'm not even going to try.