Kevin, Kate, and Randall console one another in a scene from This Is Us

Kate and Toby’s marriage on This Is Us is sinking faster than the Titanic. Not good, folks!

This Is Us Season 6 Episode 11 Recap: “Saturday in the Park”

The Barbeque From Hell

The entire family flocks to Kate’s house for a barbeque to celebrate Rebecca and Miguel’s tenth anniversary. Kate and Toby are already on edge after the San Francisco trip, and their constant arguing starts to affect Jack. Despite a happy day at the park with the family, Kate and Toby cannot stop bickering, and it bleeds over to the party. When Randall and Beth arrive, Kate breaks down and cries on her brother’s shoulder. Kate remains hopeful that their marriage will turn around, but I’m not sure if she believes the words coming out of her mouth.

Things go from bad to worse when the ceiling starts leaking water from a plumbing issue. While yelling at each other, both Toby and Kate make careless mistakes. Toby does not lock the gate to Jack’s room and Kate fails to lock the door after letting the plumber in. Jack, who earlier tells Rebecca about his parents’ fighting, takes advantage of the situation, leaves the house, and walks to the park.

Upon realizing their blind son is missing, Kate, Toby, and the rest of the party begin to yell Jack’s name throughout every square inch of the house. Because of his missing rain boots, Rebecca realizes Jack went to the park, and sprints to catch up with him. However, the damage is done when Rebecca finds Jack on the ground with a cut on his head that requires stitches.

Tangent: Does anyone for a second believe that Jack could have made it to the park without being stopped by ONE person? There is no chance in hell that the kid makes it 20-feet down the sidewalk alone.

After returning from the hospital, Kate and Toby have their worst argument to date on the front lawn. It’s ugly, to say the least. Kate accuses Toby of only seeing Jack for his limitations while Toby counters by saying Kate is irresponsible for not admitting his deficiencies. Kate believes she’s the only parent in the family, and Toby says that’s the way Kate wants it to be.

As Toby starts to raise his voice, both Kevin and Randall intervene as they form the “Flying-V,” ready to take on their brother-in-law. An upset Toby laughs and infers that Kate has always put the Big Three over her marriage. This is a callback to a flashback in the episode when the Big Three defend each other from a babysitter who they feel was mean to Kate. Back to the fight, is Toby wrong? For Kate, it’s always been Kevin, Randall, and Toby in that order so he has grounds to be upset. The San Franciso debacle is Toby’s fault, but how would you feel if your significant other always sided with siblings instead of you? I, for one, would be quite upset!

At the end of the episode, Kevin and Randall console Kate after the argument with Toby. However, this blowup feels like the climax, not an early entry, to a rocky relationship. Even Kate doesn’t think the marriage will work. Unfortunately, her instincts will be proven correct.

Kevin Accepts The Truth

Meanwhile, Kevin heads to Madison’s house to visit the twins to escape the craziness at Kate’s house. While walking into her bedroom, Kevin catches Elijah with a ring sizer, meaning a proposal is on the horizon. This rocks Kevin to his core, who still holds out hope that he can rekindle his relationship with Madison.

Later that night, Kevin tells Madison that he’s removing her as an emergency contact aka he knows about the proposal and needs a way to break the ice. Funny enough, Madison admits she’s excited about her impending engagement to Elijah. Seeing her reaction is the “a-ha” moment that Kevin needs to finally move on and accept his co-parenting relationship with Madison.

I’m expecting Kevin to call Sophie in a future episode.

Next week marks the end of Katoby. Wear black and bring the tissues.

What are your thoughts on this episode of This Is Us? Tweet me, at @danny_giro.

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