‘This Is Us’ Producers Dish on Toby Not Wearing His Wedding Ring in Flash-Forward

This Is Us producers are dishing on Toby not wearing his wedding ring in a recent flash-forward scene that aired on the show.

In the scene, Toby (Chris Sullivan) gets a call from Randall (Sterling K. Brown) who asks, “You coming down?”

“I don’t know if I should,” Toby replies, now seen to been sporting an scruffy beard and seeming to be very glum.

“She wants you to be there,” Randall then asserts, to which Toby eventually concedes and begins to get begrudgingly motivated.

The scene had a huge impact on fans, who began to speculate that Kate (Chrissy Metz) may have passed away. Many also noticed that Toby was not wearing his wedding ring, which producers of the show have finally commented on.

“Well, you could read that he’s no longer married,” This Is Us executive producer Isaac Aptaker told Entertainment Weekly. “You could also read that it’s uncomfortable to sleep in a ring.”

“We know our fans, and that they watch really carefully, and we make our decisions really carefully, so people are noticing the right things to notice,” said executive producer Elizabeth Berger.

Series creator Dan Fogelman added, “We don’t do anything unintentionally.”

The man at the middle of the conspiracy, Sullivan, is remaining quiet, saying only, “I can’t say anything, one way or the other. It’s a well-constructed storyline.”

While no one is revealing any details about the scene, the producers say that it is smart of fans to pay close attention to the flash-forward scenes.

“We break these stories very thoroughly and far in advance, so there are things happening that fall back upon themselves or are little pieces attached to something else that you may not even realize,” Fogelman stated.

“Nothing is done haphazardly,” he continued. “People may not love every single decision that is made but the decisions are made carefully. I don’t think people read into things too much — I think they’re reading into things the proper amount.”

Fans won’t have to wait forever for the reveal though, as producers say the mystery will be unveiled later on in the current season.

“We are really, really conscious of trying to walk that tightrope and toe the line between being exciting and having a bit of mystery to our show, and dragging things out too long and frustrating people,” Aptaker explained. “We’re trying to be really, really carefully calibrated about when we reveal things in a way that’s going to be really satisfying and not tedious.”

This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.