Toby

Hey. He's 16. Hey!

Please just keep your voice down.

What?

Whatever you say, boss.

Okay, fine. Just don't yell.

Yes, that's me. We're here to see Dr. Oliver. I'm here with Toby Rogers. Yes, we're out this way.

What is your full name? Toby Aaron Rodgers. When is your birthday? April 28.

Bob, my dad had my sister. I heard about your sister, dear. I'm really sorry.

Toby?

Toby, are you listening?

Do it! Do it! Do it!

Kill him! He wasn't there! He wasn't there! Kill him! Kill him!

It's the very first time, right? Yes, it's Randall and Beth playing Worst Case Scenario the first time, and it is genius. And it comes back in this episode with Randall and Kevin.

But it's great, because you guys basically, I'm like, this is an incredible, it reminded me, I'm like, this is something to employ in my own relationship.

I think it's just like voicing your, like the biggest, deepest fear that you may have about a certain situation. Just like calling it out. And it's quite funny because the two of them are just like go real dark, real quick.

Banana cream.

No.

I mean, I love a little Jenny's and Salt and Straw. Yeah, okay. You guys can fill her in some. I like a unique flavor.

Well, I will try the blue cheese. Like blue cheese and pear or something. That sounds good.

What kind of blood?

No, they don't.

Sam, Google it.

Blood orange ice cream.

Chris and I just had some coffee after lunch and man, we are buzzing.

Salt and Straw's Dracula blood pudding ice cream is made with real blood and oh my God.

Played by the wonderful... Wendy Malick and Dan Loria.

But I love that Toby sort of calls them out like, my whole life I've wanted you guys to like agree on something. And this is that thing. You've both come together to like, on my wedding day, tell me that you don't like the choice that I'm making.

Exactly.

They're like, here's a gray tree.

I mean, I know that she basically talks to her dad about how she's been holding on. I can't find it, but how she's been holding on to him and not giving space for Toby. And she's about to, he's a wonderful guy. And basically she's got to make room for him.

And she wants to apologize like kind of in advance and let her dad know that it's not because she doesn't love him, but like she's found this guy and

it sort of flashes back to Kate asking Jack if he'll marry her when she was a little girl and him basically saying like, I can't do that, but I know that you're going to find a man who's ultimately deserving of you and your mom and I will be there and I'll walk you down the aisle. And so it's, it's a really, and this is us fashion, just beautiful juxtaposition.

Yes, we can clarify. We had a small ceremony at our house with a few people. And then we opened up and had a larger reception with more people. And you guys were lovely enough to come to the reception. And that's really felt like the wedding.

Or they change. Well, my favorite thing is Gus and Ozzy have this like really bizarre thing where Gus will say like, hey, Ozzy, say wife. And you hear Ozzy's like, wife? Like they don't know what it means. And so Taylor asked him, he was like, well, do you understand what a wife is or who a wife is? And he was like, yeah.

Yeah. And Gus was like, yeah, I do. And he said, Louis is my wife and that's his best friend. And I was like, okay, yeah. I was like, Louis could be your wife. But I was like, I'm, you know, dad and I are married. Like we tried to explain it to him, but I was like, but yeah.

Like just watching them start to form these, like you just, you don't think about how these concepts start to like be shaped in their little minds. It's very sweet.

It made you appreciate your dog more. Was it more with being able to communicate with your dog?

I think we were kind of of one mind going into it. We knew we wanted to get married at home and keep it small, but then we also like had a lot of people that we love that we wanted to celebrate with. So I feel like we found a good middle ground. I got you. What about you?

So just narrating for your dog.

Sully and I were like, we got to know what the dog's story is.

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. If you have been rewatching This Is Us with us, you know it can bring up a lot. Family dynamics, personal growth, grief, love. It's emotional. And honestly, it can hit close to home.

I've recently reconnected with therapy and it's just, it's so beneficial. To me, I feel like the sessions that are most beneficial are the ones where you come in with nothing specific to talk about. They end up being like just the most revelatory in my experience. I love it.

Whether you're dealing with stress, anxiety, or you just want a little extra support, therapy can help you show up as your best self.

Thank you.

Yeah, it quickly became very introspective and almost like a therapy session.

It got real, real quick.

Zoe.

Cousin Zoe. Beth's cousin.

And you quickly learn she's a photographer. She's there to be the wedding photographer. And they're more like sisters. Yeah. It's really sweet to see their relationship immediately and how happy they are to see each other.

Oh, yeah. Lybert.

Melanie Lybert. Melanie Lybert. We love Melanie. A Brit with an incredible accent. I was like, oh yeah, I totally forgot she's British.

Oh, got it. That's probably why. She's actually Australian. But we quickly realize when Beth confides that they're having some trouble with Deja, she's like, let me talk to her.

And we see a situation later in the episode where Zoe sort of finds some time to like saddle up to Deja and basically say like, I know how you're feeling. And Deja calls her out.

Your lyric impression is spot on.

So good.

So clearly the conversation made an impact. I love, I wrote this down that she said when it, everything sort of shifted for her, for Zoe, when she stopped, when it stopped making sense to hate the people that loved me. I was like, oh, that's a really, that concept, like clearly something in what she relayed to Deja made sense. And like, you know, it was a light bulb moment.

Also, I'm always happy for someone to experience the aging process, the 4 a.m. call time right alongside of me.

I love him.

He just, he was a little puffy from too much sodium. Yeah, it was. Too much.

I mean, I also, I feel like we jumped over Rebecca, in the present day, like her feeling like she wants to be there for Kate, but she also doesn't want to get in the way. And she has reservations because she just knows that it's hard for Kate to be celebrating her wedding without her father there.

And it's like this guilt that she's carried around of like, Kate would rather have anyone but me there. She would especially love to have her father in place of me here. And just feeling like there's nothing I can do to change that.

did people know that they didn't make the first wedding? Of course. Oh, yeah.

Their relationship is just always so precarious. It's just they can never quite find their footing with one another.

And you defend your wife to be.

And you just, let's go.

Of course he did. Yeah. Yeah. You know Taylor.

I walked out of my bedroom.

And like walked outside. We have this mid-century house. It's like, I just like opened a sliding door and I walked around and like turned the corner and my brother-in-law was singing. Yeah. And it was beautiful. And yeah, and he was just like standing at the end of like where our pool usually is. And it was covered with all of our friends sitting in chairs. And yeah, it was beautiful.

surreal, you know, because you think about this moment your whole life, even if I wasn't someone that ever like imagined what my wedding would be, you still think about like, well, one day I'll hopefully get to take that walk and there will be someone at the waiting for me at the end that I'm elated to, you know, be on this adventure with. And that was definitely the case.

And it was very emotional and beautiful. Yeah. Yeah.

Lots of intricate beading.

Yeah, she was like walking with a weighted vest on.

What?

Wow, you would have had no idea.

You got married.

Because really it's about the toasts at the reception.

It was between writers?

Also, can I say, I love that he asks the family, and everybody, but I think it's really intended for his family, to release the breath that they've been holding. Because he references that Kate told him... that he's never really grieved the death of their father. And it's like he took a breath in and has been holding it ever since.

And so he instructs everybody there to sort of release their breath. And there's like a quick shot in succession of everyone in the immediate family just exhaling. And I don't know, I just, I loved that. That's great. Yeah, it was beautiful. It was a really emotional moment in that toast.

And basically, like, you never know what the future is going to hold. You never know where you're going to be a year from now. And that's when the flash forward sort of begins. And you see Kevin and Zoe on a plane.

And the plane, the pilot announces, will be landing soon.

In where? Somewhere in Vietnam. Like we'll be, you know, our flight is landing and, you know, momentarily or whatever. And you're like, oh, wow. So they're on their way to Vietnam. He's looking at this picture of his dad during the war.

Yeah, she said she just got off the phone with the doctor, right?

And people are like, is he wearing a wedding ring? Is he, you know, there was a lot of debate.

The two of them, yeah.

And I feel like Dan's answer to that was sort of like, it definitely helps. But I also think like what's different from like, you know, I think television now versus like what we were doing, it's like we were on network TV and it's like, so people had to wait now for... Six months? Six months before that question was answered.

It's obviously, I guess, similar in the sense that most shows on the street, like your show, for instance, it's like, sure, they still have to wait time in between watching one season to the next, but it's like you got to keep them hooked somehow.

Exactly.

And the episode ends too with Deja leaving the reception.

What precipitated it, yeah.

For you as well? Yeah, yeah.

Same, same.

Well, this has been such a blast. I love it. I can't wait to dive into season three.

I was going to say that.

Pretty much.

Okay, we are back with one of our favorite segments, the emotional support hotline.

Yeah.

It was so lovely, so kind. We all talk amongst ourselves about how much we love the music and the score from the show and how I think it's like... sort of this almost unacknowledged character of the show sometimes. And that episode with Sid of the podcast, we were lucky enough to have him in the studio here and he played his acoustic version of Evergreen Cassette, a song that we all love so much.

I'm glad to hear that that episode resonated with you and you love that song as much as we do.

Elisa, how did you find the show and originally connect with it?

Oh, all the way back.

Now it's birth six years.

Exactly.

What a gift you're giving all your future family members and your son. Thank you.

Well, to piggyback on that, my friend told me to do the same thing when my children were born. So for each kid, they have an email address and I send them little emails every now and then. Are you serious? You just did the craziest thing today. You said this or you did this and it made us laugh.

I need to do it more as well. I need to do it. At some point they have access to those emails and those messages and notes of like, I try every birthday to write like an email to them. Yeah, I need to get better.

Yeah, we're so happy to have you on this ride. It means a lot to hear from folks that are actually listening in real time with us. We're not just speaking into the void.

That's what she said. Breaking news. That's what she said. Breaking news. Hot take.

If you want to call into the emotional support hotline, we'd love to hear from you. That number is 412-501-3028.

Anything. We'll take it all.

Chris is okay. Not getting that invite.

Only time, probably.

It's a big pivot, but that sounds so fun.

Of like a vow renewal for her parents. And I believe it's the, is it the, their 40th? 40th. Yeah, it's their 40th anniversary. And they're doing a vow renewal. And then we quickly sort of jump, as you were saying, into present day. It's sort of day before the wedding. Toby just wants Kate to, like, reassure him that she's not going to pull, like, a runway bride on him. Yeah.

Right now. Go find it.

Do you ever think about the different places that have shaped your life? The homes you've lived in, the places you've stayed, the moments you've shared in spaces that weren't even yours? Maybe it was a childhood home or a place you only stayed in for a short while, but somehow it still became a part of your story.

And including... Kevin comes in.

Yeah, about the gift bags.

The de facto wedding planners.

It's a very different color for Deja. It's like you have this like very thoughtful, quiet, reserved, but polite girl normally. And to see her so like outwardly angry and rude, it's just like, oh, I can imagine as a parent, it's like, What did I do?

Yeah, we're a third of the way through.

But can I also interject this one thing that I feel like is part of the distinct fabric of our show? This is the invention of worst case scenario.