This Is Us' Dan Fogelman Breaks Down Kate's Big Season 5 Finale Wedding Surprise

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for the Season 5 finale of This Is Us. Read at your own risk!]

Even after five years, This Is Us can still be relied on to be the show that leaves you guessing. The This Is Us Season 5 finale had us gasping once again as its final moments overwhelmed us with burning questions. The episode-ending flash-forward jumped only four years in the future but took us to Kate's (Chrissy Metz) second wedding, confirming that whatever compromise she and Toby (Chris Sullivan) attempted to make as he took a new job in San Francisco did not work when it came to saving their marriage. Instead, Kate is going to end up with Phillip (Chris Geere) -- her really condescending boss who seems to have in recent weeks at least come to appreciate Kate's work in the classroom. But how will these two go from civil work colleagues to walking down the aisle? 

According to series creator Dan Fogelman, splitting Kate and Toby up, and then having Kate marry someone else was always part of the plan. He has those flash-forwards from all the way back in Season 2 to confirm it. 

"This was obviously a plot point that we've known was coming for quite some time, Kate's second wedding. We knew it would be coming and revealed at the end of the season," Fogelman told reporters, including TV Guide, on a conference call. "We actually had Chris [Geere] come down and meet with Chrissy much earlier in the season under severe testing protocols and everything so we can kind of put them together and fill them out because it's been such an unusual season of shooting... [Kate's second wedding] has been part of our plan all along. Obviously, we've hinted at it many times in the deeper future that something was amiss between [Kate and Toby]. And here we are." 

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Kate and Toby weren't the only ones to have their relationship thrown off the tracks in the finale. The big wedding of the episode was supposed to belong to Kevin (Justin Hartley), but Madison (Caitlin Thompson) called it off at the last minute when Kevin confirmed that he wasn't in love with his bride-to-be. In Kate's wedding flash-forward, the two still seem to be on excellent terms though, so their actual relationship status is still a mystery as we head into the future. Fogelman wasn't keen to get into specifics, but said that Kevin's romantic journey will continue to be a big thread in the final season.

"A big thing driving us for next year is who will Kevin end up with? Will he wind up with anybody we know? Does he wind up with anybody at all?" the producer teased. "I think one way or another that question will be answered." 

Fogelman went on to say that after starting the show with a life-changing romance like Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebecca (Mandy Moore), he wanted to show what happened when marriages did not work out. 

"Marriages don't always survive. People don't live forever... I was thinking recently about some of the losses I've experienced in life and some of the heartbreak I've experienced in life, and how at that moment, you would be hard-pressed, or I would have been hard-pressed, to imagine any future joy or optimism. Then, there you are five years later, 10 years later, and life is in a different place," Fogelman explained. "This show has always been about taking snapshots of a family's existence at one period of time, and then looking backwards or looking forwards and seeing how you get from Point A to Point B, or sometimes Point B to Point C, or sometimes Point C to Point D. Ultimately, it's an optimistic show." 

Despite the two breakups within the finale, the season did end on an optimistic note with the Pearson family in a happy place. But the latest flash-forward introduced yet another timeline for the show to address in its final season. Fogelman promised that the storyline would be fleshed out more in Season 6, along with more Jack and Rebecca stories in the past and the "current timeline." However, the show will be living largely in the deep-future storyline with everyone gathered at the new cabin where Rebecca is in the final stages of Alzheimer's. Fogelman teed up that next season will be a bit of a "showcase" for Moore as the disease progresses. 

"Mandy's going to have a tremendously ambitious season next year as an actress. Obviously, as you're traversing this timeline, these timelines, into the future and have a character battling Alzheimer's, it's going to be quite a ride and I think quite a showcase for a young woman who I've been beating the drum for, for a while, but who I think is doing something extraordinary on television," he said before elaborating where the rest of the characters will be going next season. "Randall and Beth both have kind of careers to build, so that's going to be a big part of our storyline. Obviously, Kate and Toby's marriage, along with where that all goes, where does Toby go? Our characters and our actors have some really juicy stuff to dig into for the sixth season." 

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That is a lot of ground to cover, but Fogelman assured that he and his creative team have a plan. The priority for the final season of the show will be to tie up loose ends and deliver a "satisfying" ending for the audience that has followed this family for over half a decade.

"The show has always been challenging as it plays in time, and we always knew that Season 6 would be ambitious, in terms of the way it jumps time, and even more ambitious than other seasons. Because our audience has been so devoted, and I think because hopefully we smartly set up the contained areas where these future timelines live, I think you're gonna have a real sense of resolution and completion for this family," he said. "We have been working tirelessly to kind of set up this rewarding final season to make all the pieces fit together. We know what we owe. We know what our plan is and that's been part of the great benefit of, from the very beginning, the early success of the show allowing us to know our endgame, has allowed us to build for what we hope will be a very rewarding final season." 

This Is Us returns for its sixth and final season in 2022.