‘This Is Us’: Why Toby’s Parents Hate Kate

During the season finale of This Is Us, the only people who had a problem with Toby marrying Kate turned out to be his parents.

In “The Wedding,” which aired on Tuesday, Toby Damon (Chris Sullivan) thought he would have the support of his parents, played by Wendie Malick and Dan Lauria. The two are divorced, and they always argue whenever they are in a room together. His dad wants his mom to marry her new boyfriend, just so he can stop paying alimony.

His mom and dad do not like Kate Pearson (Chrissy Metz) because they think she is “unstable.” They don’t want Toby to marry a woman who could spiral out of control whenever something reminds her of her deceased father, Jack (Milo Ventimiglia). They remind Toby about his disastrous first marriage, which ended in divorce, and how they needed to help him recover from that devastating break-up, including a suicide attempt. Toby apparently became depressed after Josie left him. They do not want it to happen again.

Toby was stunned by this sudden confrontation, just hours before he was set to say “I do” at the Pearson family cabin in Pennsylvania. He defends his bride-to-be, insisting that Kate is different from Josie. He is sure this marriage will last.

At the end of the episode, we did see Toby and Kate together in the future, but it looked like Kate was the one taking care of her husband. In the first season, Toby had a heart attack.

Filming the wedding between Kate and Toby turned out to be a difficult process for Chris Sullivan. He told Jimmy Fallon this week that he had food poisoning during production!

“At my real wedding, I wore traditional Celtic garb — a kilt. At Kate and Toby’s wedding I had bad food poisoning,” Sullivan said told Fallon.

During the original broadcast of “The Wedding,” fans at home admitted they agreed with Toby’s parents. After all, Kate disappeared on the day of the wedding, although Toby was not aware of that.

This Is Us will be back for a third season in fall 2018 on NBC.

Photo credit: NBC