It’s no surprise that This Is Us will be time-jumping back and forth when the show picks up for its third season. But ahead of the long-awaited new episodes, fans are getting a first look at the storylines set to play out when the NBC drama returns next month—and that includes an explanation of some of the cliffhangers that viewers were left with at the end of Season 2.
With just one month until the third season of This Is Us premieres, NBC posted a first look video which shows where the series left off and where it’s headed.
The second season of This Is Us ended with Kate’s (Chrissy Metz) wedding to Toby (Chris Sullivan), but flashes to the future showed some less-happy days are on the way for the Pearson clan. Snippets to future scenes showed Toby in the throes of depression and future Randall (Sterling K. Brown) admitting not being ready to go see a mystery “her” when talking to his adult daughter Tess (Iantha Richardson).
In addition, a now cuffed Kevin (Justin Hartley) was seen on a plane headed to Vietnam with new girlfriend Zoey (Melanie Liburd) where he will likely unearth some unpleasant secrets about his dearly departed dad (played by Milo Ventimiglia). Kevin will also have trouble getting approval on his new relationship from his sister-in-law, Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson).
“It’s Beth’s cousin that he meets at the wedding, and they just sort of hit it off, and we’ll just see where this goes,” Hartley said of his character’s new girlfriend. “There’s also a question of how Beth’s going to handle that.”
Watson predicts that her character will not be cool with Kevin’s romance with her cousin.
“She probably thinks it’s not a good idea,” Watson said. “To Beth, worst case scenario is they get together.”
First scene up, Season 3 baby!!! #ThisIsUs pic.twitter.com/1HW00ZKSub
— Dan Fogelman (@Dan_Fogelman) July 10, 2018
This Is Us star Sterling K. Brown also teased that Randall and Beth will have to “manage” the aftermath of foster daughter Deja’s (Lyric Ross) violent outburst. The teen character was last seen wielding a baseball bat to Randall’s prized Mercedes AMG S63 sedan.
As for that freaky Future Randall scene, Brown promised This Is Us fans won’t be left hanging over the mystery “her” storyline for very long.
“At some point in time in the season, I can tell you that the ‘her’ that is addressed in the future will be illuminated,” Brown said of his character’s story.
Mandy Moore, who plays matriarch Rebecca Pearson on the show, said viewers will see much more of her character and future love Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) before they married and became parents to the Big Three.
“The very beginning of their courtship,” Moore said. “Picking up from the night they first met and where they spent the rest of that evening.”
But flashing back before that, Jack Pearson’s Vietnam era will be explored, where This Is Us fans will finally meet his brother Nicky (played by Michael Angarano).
You can see the This Is Us Season 3 first look below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbic1adSwEI
This Is Us returns Tuesday, Sept. 25 at 9/8c on NBC.
