This Is Us Boss Teases a 'Really Intense, Very Unusual' Spring Premiere

This Is Usreturns from hiatus this week, and fans need to buckle up for a wild ride in the second half of the season. Star Sterling K. Brown and series creator Dan Fogelman teased Tuesday's midseason premiere at the Television Critics Association winter press tour on Saturday, and it's going to be intense, especially for Randall.

"Our writers came up with a storyline that I think is quite compelling and allows us to sort of delve into further into Randall's mental health and how he takes care of himself -- what's right and what's wrong about how one takes care of yourself and how you could possibly do a better job of that," Brown told reporters. "This moment happens, like this is about to go a little sideways. I can't really say too much about that."

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While Brown didn't elaborate on the panel, he did tell TV Guide afterward that Randall's relationship with Rebecca and the stress of her health issues will be a huge part of the midseason premiere.

"I think [Randall] has been [Rebecca]'s point of contact within the family. From the beginning, when he wasn't feeling most comfortable with his brother -- because there was friction with them throughout the years -- his mom always made him feel like he belonged when he doubted ... himself," Brown explained. "So to see her not herself, to see her sort of ... transitioning into a different phase of life where she's not recalling everything as readily as she wants to, it's devastating. ... You'll see a little bit of how it impacts his life in the [midseason] premiere on the 14th. It's a it's a big part of the storyline."

For his part, Fogelman did little to alleviate our anxiety about what's coming for the Pearsons. "[The premiere is] this really intense, very unusual, specialized episode of our show that's about one thing, but it's also really strange," he said, going on to note that the episode kicks off "one of our trilogy sets of episodes" focusing on each of the Big Three.

In other words, it's going to be unusual, intense, and we are probably going to get emotional. Sounds about right for a big This Is Us episode.

This Is Us returns Tuesday, Jan. 14 at 9/8c on NBC.

(Disclosure: TV Guide is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of ViacomCBS)