Warning! The following contains spoilers for This Is Us Season 3 episode, "A Philadelphia Story." Read at your own risk!
This Is Us' latest episode was rife with drama and just when things finally looked to be settling down towards the end, Kevin opened his mouth and ruined it all. Granted, he didn't mean to make waves when he recapped the drama of the day to brother Randall and offhandedly mentioned that Kate wanted to have a baby so someone in the family could carry on their father's legacy. Executive producer Isaac Aptaker explained why the statement hit Randall so hard, and how it set the stage for a major conflict between The Big Three:
As someone who feels an incredibly intense connection to his adopted father, he feels like he very much carries on a piece of Jack with him in the way he leads his life. So the implication that because he doesn't have the biological connection means he doesn't carry that, he's finding pretty offensive.
As Isaac Aptaker points out, Randall was wounded and seething at the implication that only Kate or Kevin could carry on the legacy of Jack. Kate's poor choice of words made it sound as though Randall can't live or pass on Jack's legacy to his children simply because he's not blood-related. Is this really how Kate feels, or did she simply forget about Randall while arguing with Kevin and Rebecca earlier in the day?
Obviously, there's going to be some fallout on This Is Us for the statement, and executive producer Elizabeth Berger assured viewers in the chat with Variety that they won't have to wait long to see Randall call out his sister for what she said:
If you know Randall you know he's not going to sit on a feeling he has for very long! So we're going to see the two of them deal with this pretty immediately and hash it out.
Randall does have a track record of making incredibly uncomfortable family moments with confrontations, so it's unsurprising he's wasting no time in calling out Kate for the statement. We're pretty sure Kate doesn't actually think Randall is an illegitimate Pearson or incapable of carrying on Jack's legacy, and if Randall really sat and thought about it, he'd probably realize his sister more than likely misspoke. Unfortunately, the adopted Pearson is in a weird place right now and in a mindset where he's feeling like an outsider wherever he goes, so we doubt his cooler head will prevail before starting a classic This Is Us sibling throwdown.
As tense as the moment was, it doesn't seem guaranteed this fight will be a huge part of This Is Us' next episode. Randall will probably understand fairly quickly his sister didn't mean what she said, and Kevin will probably get some blame from Kate for telling Randall about the argument out of context. The upcoming sibling showdown didn't even make the preview for the next episode, so its more likely this argument is just a vehicle for Randall's ongoing Season 3 story of finding his purpose and honoring both of his father's legacies. Still, we'll have to wait and see.
This Is Us airs on NBC Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m. ET. Keep up with all the new things coming to television in the coming weeks by visiting and bookmarking our fall premiere guide.
