Warning! Spoilers ahead for This Is Us season 6 premiere.
NBC's This Is Us just secretly revealed why Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Toby (Chris Sullivan) will split up. The popular family drama returned for its sixth and final season with season 6 premiere "The Challenger." Much like its past premieres, This Is Us season 6 kicked off with the birthday celebration for the Big Three, but while Kevin (Justin Hartley) and Randall (Sterling K. Brown) were able to spend it with their respective families, Kate had to go through with it without her husband — at least for most of the day.
Audiences had to wait a little while longer for This Is Us season 6. Instead of its usual fall premiere date, NBC opted for a midseason return for the family drama. Sticking to its original six-year story plan, there's still so much narrative to cover in the show's final year. Aside from Rebecca's (Mandy Moore) worsening Alzheimer's, viewers are also particularly intrigued by the trajectory of Kate's arc. This Is Us season 5 ended with another glimpse into the future of the Pearsons, this time with the shocking revelation that Kate will re-marry. This effectively confirmed that she and Toby will eventually part ways.
This came as a massive surprise for long-time viewers of This Is Us. There have been previous hints about their potential separation, but Kate and Toby have been making strides toward building their family with the birth of baby Jack and the adoption of Hailey in This is Us season 5. With only 17 episodes to go before the series officially wraps up, the show needs to efficiently set up their break up to justify the end and NBC subtly did just that in This Is Us' season 6 premiere. In it, Kate had to spend her birthday away from Toby, who's now working out of town. To make up for his absence, he arranged for the kids to be taken care of and booked his wife a massage session. Despite these kind gestures, Kate was still unsatisfied, much preferring Toby's penchant for grand gestures rather than what she got.
When her work boss, Phillip (Chris Geere), whom she eventually gets married to as revealed in the This Is Us season 5 finale flashforward, ushered her to a surprise birthday serenade from her students, Kate was touched. And even though Phillip had nothing to do with staging the performance (or so he claimed), she associated the act with him. Fortunately, Toby was able to pull off one of his signature big gestures by coming home last minute to spend the night with Kate. That being said, considering how demanding his work appears to be, he won't be able to do this all the time, which means that Kate is in for a lot of disappointment in the near future, not to mention the fact that Toby increasing absence will likely give Kate more time to ponder whether or not she's truly happy with him. Meanwhile, as she becomes more invested in her work, Kate would have to inevitably spend more time with Phillip, making it easier for them to develop feelings for each other.
Sadly, this isn't Toby's fault; the circumstances forced them to live separately, and logistically, it's just difficult to love This Is Us' Kate the way she needs to be loved. While Kate appears to be genuinely happy about marrying Phillip, it was revealed through This Is Us' flashforwards that Toby will have a more difficult time coming to terms with their divorce. It seems unfair that he should be left alone, considering how much positive impact he has brought into Kate's life. But it's clear Kate has been missing something in her relationship with Toby for a while. This Is Us is beloved because it's so real, and it's a reality that sometimes, two people just aren't the right fit for one another in the end. Hopefully, Toby will himself find another love that suits him better in the future.
This Is Us season 6 airs every Tuesday on NBC.