This Is Us promo analysis: season 3 episode 14 “Graduates”

Although we went another empty week without This Is Us, the latest promo promises drama and challenges galore for the Pearsons. What do we know about next week’s episode?

The This Is Us “Graduates” promo begins with a grieving Rebecca watching old home movies of her and Jack. She laughs, she cries, she’s clearly still in a phase where he’s still a husband to her and she’s still a wife. This mindset must make being asked out by the hardware store clerk very surprising. He asks her if she’d like to grab coffee sometime and her face just drops, like she almost can’t process the question. What will she say? Does she like him? And how would the Big Three react to her dating someone new? Something about her energy suggests that she’s still very much in grieving, that it hasn’t really been all that long since Jack’s death. Supposedly, the episode takes place during the Big Three’s high school graduation, so it can only have been a few months. The voiceover talks about a chance of new love, but how likely is that so soon after that loss?

Kevin is hiding “a life altering secret” as he awakes, dazed and confused, from what appears to be a drunken night as he continues his relapse from Songbird Road. Kate and Kevin are at some kind of event together – maybe Kate’s baby shower? He’s distracted by a bartender and Kate asks him if he’s okay. He’s obviously not, but here’s hoping he can hold it together now that he has so much going for him.

But “everything can change in an instant.” Kate is wheeled into the ER, wearing the same clothes she was at the theoretrical baby shower. Kevin is with her, and Toby is already waiting at the hospital for her? I feel like this might not be as much of an emergency as the promo makes it out to be. Why is Toby already there? There’s a dude behind him just chilling and reading a magazine in the waiting room, is this even a big deal? Everyone looks concerned, but that’s kind of normal in even a normal birthing situation. Randall is elsewhere, on the phone and looking concerned, but that could be related to the mysterious news he gets about Deja.

According to the “Graduates” logline, “Kevin keeps a secret from Zoe. Randall gets unexpected news about Deja. In the past, the Big Three graduate from High School.” No mention of Kate, but I suppose that’s meant to be the big event. “It’s going to be a really cool, interesting journey. It’s going to be difficult.” shared Metz about the upcoming episode and Kate’s future. “I’m hoping we continue to see her grow and I’m hoping to see her be a mom.” Obviously she knows what happens next week, whether Kate becomes a mom or not, but that’s for her to know and us to find out.

This Is Us returns on Tuesday, March 5 at 9pm ET on NBC.