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This Is Us star Chrissy Metz warns Toby-Kate divorce is 'uncharted territory'

"This is a color and a shade and a level that people are going to be on the edge of their seats watching," the actress says of the couple's impending breakup.

By

Dan Snierson

Published on April 5, 2022 11:00AM EDT

You are cordially invited this Tuesday to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Miguel and Rebecca's marriage. And to witness the continued dissolution of Kate and Toby's.

On March 22, the second of the trilogy episodes featured Kate (Chrissy Metz) on a weekend visit to San Francisco to reconnect with Toby (Chris Sullivan), only to learn that he had hidden an L.A. job offer from her. After their raw fight about this and much more, Toby informed his wife that she'd have to move to San Francisco if they wanted to "remain a family." Taken aback, Kate exited the chat and threw her hat in the ring for a job back in L.A. It was another series of blows to their already bruised marriage, and a harrowing harbinger of things to come (apart).

Last week's Randall-focused episode of This Is Us ended with Kate telling Toby that she couldn't move to San Francisco at the moment, given their state of affairs. The focus over the next two episodes will shift back to the couple in jeopardy and apparently gives viewers the event that they've been dreading/looking forward to since the season 5 finale (some of it from Jack Jr.'s perspective): How I Left Your Father.

Yes, divorce is a certainty, given the flash-forward to Kate's wedding to her music-school boss, Philip (Chris Geere). But viewers are wondering: How devastating are things going to get between Kate and Toby at the anniversary party for Miguel (Jon Huertas) and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) and beyond? "We've never seen this on the show," Metz tells EW. "We've never seen this between Kate or Toby. This is a color and a shade and a level that people are going to be on the edge of their seats watching. And because this incident happens, there is cause for and justification for her feelings and for what she says. It's intense. Kate's not completely wrong. Toby's not completely wrong in what happens. But if Toby didn't do something, it might not have happened. So I don't want to say I like to blame Toby, but it's hard to accept responsibility for our actions, especially when we see the repercussions of what could have really happened. So yeah, it's uncharted territory for real."

The "incident" to which she's referring begins at their house, where they are hosting the party and where resides the big green egg — that being the smoker that Toby purchased the family as a bonding activity. In a far-future flash-forward from earlier this season, it was revealed that Jack Jr. (Blake Stadnik) suffered some sort of forehead trauma at this fateful event, and he refers to it as the day that his parents' marriage "blew up." Of course, these two things might lend one to worry that there will be another flaming Crock-Pot tragedy. But don't worry, one! A pair of the show's writers have thrown water on that theory, and Metz confirms that denial. "No, it's not like that, but it's definitely a traumatic incident in little Jack's life," she says. "There's another turning point for everybody."

Metz and Sullivan told EW that they plunged into denial about this divorce plot that has loomed all season, mostly because it was too sad to talk about. So, what was it like to film the split for the couple that has been together since season 1? "Yeah, I was physically ill on set," shares Metz. "My stomach was in knots. He knows what's coming, but I'm still like, 'Uggggghh, I don't want to do this.' And you have to sort of sit in that space. Afterward, it is a sense of relief, but it's also such a sense of sadness."

There's guilt and denial here, too, as she has a new scene partner and onscreen husband. "I feel like I'm cheating on [Sullivan] because Chris Geere's here," she says. "And even though I adore him, I'm like, 'You know, Sully's my OG. Forever and only.' So now what I do, I deflect and I project. What I say is, 'What the hell? You think you have a new girlfriend?' He's like, 'You're remarried!' I'm like, 'I don't care!' So yeah, that's how we're getting through it — to make fun."

Now it's your turn. Bring your favorite coping mechanism.

This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on NBC.

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This Is Us star Chrissy Metz warns Toby-Kate divorce is 'uncharted territory'

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