Grab your tissues This Is Us fans. The Emmy-nominated series returned for its fourth season in fall 2019. The This Is Us season finale aired in March, and while it answered some questions brought up throughout the season, it left us with brand new ones As usual.
As the NBC series pointed out about this season, “If you think you know what’s coming next, you don’t know us.” If history has taught us anything, it’s that This Is Us can be unpredictable. But here’s everything we know about season four, like cast additions, how to stream it, episode recaps and all the tearjerking moments in store.
What happened in the This Is Us Season 4 finale?
Circling back to the season 4 premiere, the This Is Us season finale introduced us to some strangers who will changes the Pearsons’ lives: an art gallery employee and a horse wrangler. We soon learn these are Toby (Chris Sullivan) and Kate’s (Chrissy Metz) grown daughter (she’s adopted) and Madison’s (Caitlin Thompson) OB-GYN.
The horse wrangler rushes to the hospital room of grown Jack Damon (Blake Stadnik) and his wife, who have just welcomed a baby girl, the gallery employee’s niece. Keeping up so far?
Speaking of baby’s Madison’s doctor is taking her through her pregnancy. Yes, pregnancy: Her one-night stand with Kevin (Justin Hartley) resulted in a pregnancy with twins! Her doctor convinces her to tell Kevin.
But it’s bad timing, as Madison shows up in the middle of a fight between Kevin and Randall (Sterling K. Brown).
Randall is pissed at his brother for manipulating Rebecca (Mandy Moore) into a clinical trial to treat her Alzheimer’s. But Madison still tells Kevin about the pregnancy (not the twins, though), doesn’t help things. This is the falling-out the leads to the estrangement we’ve seen in the flash-forwards.
Back to the future, Kevin and Nicky (Griffin Dunne) are both wearing wedding rings at Rebecca’s deathbed. Kevin’s twins could be about 11 years old. Good news: Kevin and Randall seem to have made up. Phew! Oh but we don’t know who Kevin’s married to and we won’t find out in this episode.
The end!
Related: Mandy Moore Says This Is Us Is ‘the Best Job Any of Us Will Ever Have’
Who is in This is Us‘ cast for the 4th season?
Like we mentioned before, we met a slew of fresh new faces, including West Wing actor Tim Matheson, who landed a recurring role playing young Rebecca’s father. Once Upon a Time’s Jennifer Morrison was also tapped. When They See Us stars Asante Blackk and Marsha Stephanie Blake, in addition to Omar Epps, Bahara Golestani, Timothy Omundson, director M. Night Shyamalan, Julian Silva, Auden Thornton and Nick Wechsler joined the cast this season, too.
Some guest stars that we’ve gotten to know returned to the show. Like Griffin Dunne (Nick “Nicky” Pearson), Tim Jo (Randall’s campaign manager Jae-won Yoo), Ron Cephas Jones (William), Elizabeth Perkins (Janet), Phylicia Rashad (Beth’s mother Carol) and Caitlin Thompson (Kate’s friend Madison).
What happened in This is Us season 4?
Episode 1
We start in the past, at the end of Jack and Rebecca’s road trip. “So, great third date,” Rebecca says as they sit in the car in front of her house. While they both promise not to call the other first, the next thing we know, Jack is giving in, calling Rebecca at her house. When he asks to see her the next day, she invites him to dinner with her parents at the country club. He says yes, even though that means he has to go buy a sport coat, which he can’t afford right now. But, while shopping for said sport coat, he meets his future bestie, current salesman Miguel, who in the moment, agrees to let Jack “borrow” the jacket from the store and return it after the dinner, after Jack explains that he just got back from ‘Nam and can’t afford it.
At dinner, Rebecca’s parents proceed to pummel Jack with questions about the war, even though Rebecca has asked them not to. After an uncomfortable meal, Jack makes it clear to Rebecca’s seemingly disapproving parents that they’ll get to know him better, because “I’m not going anywhere,” he says. Rebecca is beaming, understandably so. It seems Jack has won, until they leave the table, and Rebecca’s dad gets Jack alone to say that while he can tell he’s a good man, “I can also see a man that is carrying things with him, and I can see a man that is far more haunted than he wants to let on.” He continues, “I want more for her than you can offer. I will do everything I can to stop this,” her dad promises. Ouch. But we have a good feeling Jack will prevail.
Cut to Cassidy, who’s played by Morrison. She’s calling her husband and son from a military base abroad. “Even when we’re not talking, I think about you both all the time. Every minute, every day,” she says. But then she’s called into action, and has to hang up.
Cassidy seems to be stationed in the Middle East. We see her communicating with a hesitant female informant, who has a baby and wants to flee to the U.S. for protection. Later, the informant’s village is destroyed by a drone strike, but she and her baby are OK. This clearly has a traumatizing effect on Cassidy.
We next see her discharged, at home, suffering from PTSD. She doesn’t have a job. She’s drinking too much, driving drunk and fighting with her husband. And when a discussion over a broken hot water heater causes her to flash back to her informant, she accidentally hits her son in the face. Her husband then kicks her out of the house. The next time we see her she’s sharing her story at the Veterans’ Affairs office within a group. “I can’t feel anything. I can’t feel sadness. I certainly can’t feel joy,” she says. She’s still talking when all of a sudden there’s a loud crash behind her: Someone outside has thrown a chair through the window. And it was Nicky. Once arrested, Kevin gets a call requesting bail money for his uncle.
Then we meet an unnamed, attractive young blind man. We follow him to a diner, where he flirts with the waitress, Lucy, and explains that he’s a struggling singer/songwriter. She is clearly charmed. In a few short scenes, we’re taken through his relationship with Lucy, including a marriage proposal and her telling him she’s pregnant.
Later on, in California, Rebecca, Miguel and Kevin wait for Kate, Toby and baby Jack–Yay! People we know! The new family is at the doctor’s office. Unfortunately, they are learning that baby Jack not responding to visual clues, which means his eyesight isn’t going to return. Meanwhile, let’s not forget, we still don’t know the singer/songwriter’s name…Or do we? As they return home, we return to the flash-forward that shows Lucy and her husband walking down a long, dark hallway. The hallway they’re in leads to the stage of a giant arena, which he has apparently sold out. “Ladies and gentlemen, Jack Damon!” an announcer booms as our new friend takes the stage. Then he sings, the crowd loves it.
Yep. That’s Kate and Toby’s son. And he’s doing just fine.
But we skipped over Randall and Beth, who are in Philadelphia now. Also in Philly is Malik, played by Blackk. He’s a sweet high schooler who lives with his mom (Blake) and dad (Epps), and his infant daughter, for whom he is worried about providing. He works in his dad’s auto-shop but it’s not enough–he even considers selling drugs to help. Luckily, the drug dealer he approaches knows better and turns him down. His dad catches on. “Don’t even think about it, alright?” he says later in the car.
Malik quietly says yes, and then his dad volunteers to babysit his granddaughter so Malik can attend a friend’s barbecue that night. While Malik is working the grill at the party, his friend Skye comes over and introduces him to Deja. They are cute with each other, and Malik gets a little tongue-tied as he promises to “give it everything I got” to make Deja the best burger ever. Back at home, Randall and Beth can’t believe how doe-eyed their oldest daughter is, though she won’t say why. Then the family pauses unpacking their new place in order to celebrate Randall’s 39th birthday.
Whoa, that was a lot to unpack.
Episode 2
On Oct. 1, we saw the Pearsons return to the pool. And we’ve learned by now that nothing good ever happens to the Pearsons at the pool–remember Kate’s run-in with the mean girls? In The Pool: Part Two, Beth and Randall adjust to life in Philadelphia while Jack and Rebecca take the Big Three to the pool. “You embarrassed me in front of my friends, you’re supposed to be my brother,” young Randall gut-wrenchingly tells Kevin after a rap-battle-gone-wrong. This makes Kevin wonder whether he is a good person; Jack reassures him that only a good person would care. Two popular girls convince Kate a popular boy will kiss her. When instead an unpopular boy who actually likes Kate arrives, she kisses him.
Jump back to the future, Tess gets a bold new haircut and Deja shows interest in Malik while riding the bus. A consultant comes to teach Toby and Kate about caring for a blind baby. The new parents are clearly overwhelmed but Kate commits to Jack living a life without limits. Toby secretly works out at the gym while he worries about Kate’s overeating. Kevin tries to bond with baby Jack, explaining to the infant that he’s been sober for the same about of time Jack’s been alive. When Jack responds by crying, Kate teaches Kevin how to bond with a blind baby, and then convinces him to take a role that would mean relocating to Chicago. Instead, he visits Nicky and gives him the ficus he has cared for in recovery.
Episode 3
To us, this episode was all about establishing a support system, and being loyal to that support system. We see young Randall experience his first panic attack in his new private school, and we see why he always turns to Kevin when he’s panicking. In the scene, he calls the house hoping to talk to his mom, but Kevin picks up. Instead of being the bully he can sometimes be to his brother, upon hearing about Randall’s brush with delinquency (he got in trouble for wearing Jordans, even though the school has a uniform, a seemingly minor school crime but to Randall, getting in trouble is major no matter what the offense), he bikes over to the school to give him a pep talk. Adult Randall’s current support system is Jae-Won, and when another staffer suggests Randall fire Jae-Won to succeed as a councilman, he turns around and fires the critic–even though she made some good points–because loyalty is priority, and right behind that is serving the community. Both of which this woman didn’t seem to be on board with.
Kate doesn’t have as easy an episode, having to address her size in an awkward restaurant booth encounter when out to dinner with Toby and some of his clients. She also sees Toby’s jacked new bod for the first time, and discovers he’s been hiding a newfound love of Crossfit from her. But she does bond with her neighbor, who comes off as really mean at first. Turns out, he’s recovering from a massive stroke, and he’s just trying to walk normally again. The episode ends with them enjoying a walk together, because, Kate points out, she’s slow, too.
Kevin’s support system comes in the form of an AA meeting, where he bonds with Nicky and…Cassidy, who he met in an earlier scene as the VA center. He’s trying to get Nicky back on track and encourage him to stay sober, like he is. But Nicky’s putting up a wall. In the meeting, as Kevin opens up in a way that for some reason, sends Nicky and Cassidy into a fit of laughter, we can see it coming down just slightly. Kevin has a new crew.
We also see a really sweet moment between Miguel and Jack, back in the day, when Jack gets fired but Miguel has his back. Jack calls Miguel later to tell him he’s his best friend. And we cried.
Episode 4
Toby and Kate take Jack to a music class for his first outing. It’s a failure, and the couple fight in the car, with Kate bringing up the fact that Toby is spending all his time at the gym. But they make it through the rough car ride and take Jack to the beach, where he seems to enjoy the sounds of the ocean.
When an AA class is delayed, Kevin, Nicky and Cassidy go on an adventure (RV shopping) to distract themselves from the drama in their lives–Kevin just found out The Manny has been canceled, and even though he hasn’t been on it in years, it’s affecting him. And Cassidy’s husband wants to move forward with the divorce. But when they finally stop talking about their own drama, they leave some room for Nicky to reveal a bit about himself: The one that got away–the woman he bought his RV for. And what life was like for him when he got back from the war. Kevin clearly feels closer to his uncle, because he then moves closer to his uncle–he buys his own RV and parks it right next to Nicky’s.
In flashbacks to Randall and Beth in college, he still hasn’t won her over. But their moms bond over the loss of their husbands. And Beth’s mom (Phylicia Rashad) inspires Rebecca to start a new chapter in her life. She goes home to tell Kate, who’s still living with her, what that new chapter is: Moving out of the apartment they settled in after Jack died.
Meanwhile, college-aged Kate gets a job–and a new crush–at a record store.
Back to the present, Beth is supposed to open her dance studio but a dead possum in the wall complicates things. When her mom (Rashad), who is in town for the occasion, suggests moving the date, Randall puts his foot down, explaining that this is what his wife wants, so he is going to make it happen. Which he does–this is Randall after all.
Oh and Deja and Malik are spending more time together, so Beth and Randall insist on meeting him. Then they find out he has a child. That was interesting…
The episode sort of centered around a family dinner gone wrong, from Jack and Rebecca’s first dinner in their new house when Rebecca was pregnant, to a family dinner Rebecca hosted after finding out Kevin and Sophie got married. Clearly the latter was super awkward–Randall and his new girlfriend, young Beth, were there, and Kate, who’s still living at home, was there, as well as Miguel, who’s always around these days. Then Kate’s new boyfriend, the record store guy, shows up. There’s tension over the fact that Kevin got married without any of them there. Then the boys give Kate a hard time about her new boyfriend. But Rebecca shuts all this down at the end of the episode, and they all enjoy a wonderful night together.
At the same time Randall’s mental health is brought up again, this time because his daughter Tess has her first panic attack. Beth is worried about both of them and finds therapists for both of them. Randall is very much on board with Tess seeing a therapist, but insists he doesn’t need one. Beth doesn’t buy it.
Kevin definitely oversteps with Cassidy’s husband, but in doing so, finds out the man still has a lot of love for his estranged wife. So that’s good news.
The episode ends on a weird cliffhanger. Kate get an incredible delivery–a gift from Kevin and Randall: Their old family piano. And in the piano bench she finds polaroids from the dinner mentioned above–the night they celebrated Kevin’s marriage. Her face falls when she sees one photo, of her and her then boyfriend Marc. She shows her mom who expresses she should have paid closer attention to what was happening. We don’t know what was happening, but it’s definitely something bad because Kate looks like she saw a ghost…and not Casper the Friendly Ghost.
Episode 6
Episode 6 revolved around the game of golf. The show used golf as a vehicle to depict Jack and Randall’s struggle to be accepted. Jack, with Beth’s evil father–who even after Jack suffers through a game with him and his friends at the country club, still says Jack will never be good enough for his daughter. And Randall, with his new councilman colleagues. While those two storylines take place at opposite ends of the spectrum, they meet in the middle, where Randall wants to learn how to play golf after his teacher gets him excited about Tiger Woods, and Jack learns he has competition as a father figure for his son. Young Randall puts Jack in his place for not seeing his race. But Jack does impart an important lesson on young Randall about the power of a game of golf. We see Randall become an expert at the game, but also win over the acceptance and support of his councilman peers by purposely playing poorly.
Kevin oversteps again, but this time with Cassidy herself. And it’s in the bedroom. Yes, they sleep together. And while they were both into it at the start, they are looking a little worried after.
Kate and Toby get away in the hopes of rekindling the flame between them that has been out since before she got pregnant with baby Jack. But Toby can’t perform, and Kate worries it’s because he is no longer attracted to her and her post-baby body. But Toby reassures her it’s because he’s actually insecure about what she thinks of his post-weight-loss body. Well, more that he’s worried she doesn’t believe he can keep the weight off. Which she expresses she does. And the flame is rekindled.
Rebecca and Jack
Ventimiglia revealed to EW that his character is “going to have some obstacles” this season. Following the war in Vietnam, we’ll see Jack in “new, young love” with Rebecca, though he’ll be dealing with a lot of internal stuff as a result of the war.
As mentioned, the season starts with a meet the parents scene. “Rebecca is a bit of a daddy’s girl,” Moore told EW. “There are certain things that they don’t align on. But I think at the end of the day she really loves her father for who he is. He’s quite protective of her.” Where does Jack fit into this relationship? “Wouldn’t you expect Jack to win anyone over?” Moore asked. “I would. But her parents can be a bit…tricky. They’re a little protective. We’ve gotten some clues over the course of the show too that [she’s] not especially close with her parents later in life. I feel like they don’t necessarily understand [her] ambition as a musician. So this is all new territory bringing a boy like this home.” Yikes.
Rebecca has a big season ahead of her, “We’re in the final throes of her life, the last couple of weeks, I would say,” Moore told EW. “You get that sense of urgency of the family gathering, for one reason or another, and in my mind, it’s to sort of say farewell.” But this storyline won’t advance until later in the season, she said. “We’re really shifting to the matriarch side of everything and understanding Rebecca’s journey and what her impact on the family has been. I’m so excited for Mandy,” Ventimiglia said.
Kate and Toby
Season 4 takes place five months after season three ended; Metz told TVLine that her baby will be five months old at the start of the new season. “We’ve seen a lot at the surface with stuff, and things start to get a little more serious and they realize that it’s not all fun and games. We can’t protect ourselves with humor and sarcasm. We have to really get to the bones of what’s going on with them as individuals and then, of course, as a couple,” Metz told Good Housekeeping of Kate and Toby.
The thing is…we’re not even sure Kate is alive in the future. “I think it’s wide open at this point what has become of Kate,” This Is Us showrunner Elizabeth Berger has said. But co-showrunner Isaac Aptaker told Glamour we might not learn her fate this season.
Beth and Randall
“The move to Philadelphia is inspiring, in that it gives Randall access and opportunity to be of direct service to the African-American community in a way that he hasn’t had to [up to] this point in his life,” Brown told EW of what’s to come for his character. “The nerves of it are, it’s such a central part of his identity—Am I enough?—that he’s going to be very critical of himself and the impact that he wants to have. Whether he falls shorts of what he wants to accomplish could send him in a couple of different directions.” He told the outlet there will be something “disruptive” for the family from the very beginning of the season. We wouldn’t expect anything less.
We’re also going to learn a lot more about this couple’s origin story. And their daughter Tess. She’ll be “figuring out her sexuality and how to express herself and what is authentic to herself,” Brown said at an event for the show. “That’s going to be something different in Philadelphia than it was in Alpine.”
Kevin and Zoe
“I think he’s sort of learned from the past, that sobriety is difficult and it’s hard to do, and almost impossible to do on your own, so I think he’s in a better place to successfully embark on this journey of a lifetime of sobriety than he was before,” Justin Hartley has said of his character, according to Glamour. “I think he thought before, ‘Oh, I’ll figure it out and I just won’t drink, it’s no big deal.’ Now he realizes it’s much different than that, so we’ll see him struggle with that, but also take active measures to kind of make sure that’s what happens in his life to be a healthy person.”
Hartley told EW that “in his quest to find out all these questions about his dad and hoping that that would fill in the blanks for him and help him become a better man, he’s realizing that he’s a lot like his dad, but he’s also so much like himself.”
And even though they broke up, Zoe isn’t going anywhere. Don’t expect to see her week-to-week, but she’ll be there. Which is good news for Melanie Liburd, who plays Zoe, because she’s head over heels for the character. “Oh, goodness. I love everything about Zoe,” she told Parade earlier this year. She’s incredibly brave. She’s had a really troubled childhood, and I just think to come through that and not let her childhood define who she is as a human being and just work through the trust issues that she’s had while falling in love with Kevin and running away from intimacy—it’s just been brilliant to explore all of this as an actress.”
The Pearsons
When Ventimiglia thinks of season four, the first things that come to mind are “growth, family, the lessons learned,” he told EW. “The people we meet, the feeling that time goes on and time expands—even when it does contract, even when there’s one less member of a family. It doesn’t mean that something’s missing. It’s just an opportunity for things to grow deeper, bigger and wider. In that comes the myth, right? Still, four years in, I really wish that Jack was around for his adult kids. Not even for them. Just to be around. Just to be a presence in their life.” Us, too.
“It’s so strange, isn’t it? How just like that, a complete stranger can become such a big part of your story?” young Rebecca asks Jack in a teaser for the season. “It’s actually kind of terrifying, you know? How a single cross with one person you’ve never met can change everything”…which brings us to…
Related: Why This is Us star Milo Ventimiglia Is So Happy About Season 4: “I Love Everyone On the Show Like Crazy!”
When did This is Us season 4 take place?
Fogelman revealed in May 2019 that season wouldn’t immediately address the distant future. He explained to EW that “in order to start returning to that period, you first have to fill in some of the middle, and that’s what’s going to start happening in these next few years.” However, it wouldn’t be This Is Us without some time jumps. We went back to the past watching Jack meet Rebecca’s parents. Viewers saw what happens when the couple returned from their road trip and reality set in. We saw the 12-year-old kids explore stories about adolescence. Fogelman told The Hollywood Reporter that it would be a “very past-heavy season.” He revealed, “At a certain point our present becomes our past. That sounds really confusing, but it does in the show at some point.”
How did Jack die in This is Us season 2 and what happened in season 3?
Ummm, A LOT. To recap, in present day Beth and Randall are packing to move from New Jersey to Philly, where he’ll work as a city councilman and she’ll open up her own dance studio. Kate and Toby brought their baby, who is named after her father Jack—who died of cardiac arrest caused by smoke inhalation following a fire started by that dang crock-pot in season two—home from the NICU after he was born 12 weeks early. Rebecca and Miguel were preparing to move to Los Angeles to help Kate out with the baby, while Zoe and Kevin, who wants to be a dad, broke up because they couldn’t see eye to eye on having kids, so he moves to L.A. to be by his family. Fast-forward to the future…Kevin has a son; Toby is not wearing his wedding ring; and the Pearson’s matriarch, Rebecca, is sick. In the final moments, Randall walks into his mother’s room and introduces himself as “your son” prompting fans to speculate if Rebecca is suffering from Alzheimer’s in her old age. Perhaps one of the biggest surprises is Nicky (Griffin Dunne), Jack’s brother, sitting by ailing Rebecca’s bedside. Whewww that was a lot.
Where to watch and stream This is Us season 4 on TV and online?
You can tune in to This Is Us on NBC Sept. 24 at 9 pm. If you prefer to stream on the go, or from the comfort of your bed, you can also watch the show online on NBC.com, the NBC app or Hulu.
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