Kate and Toby's Bachelor & Bachelorette Parties | "Vegas, Baby" (S2E16)
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On today's episode of That Was Us, we will be discussing Season 2, Episode 16, Vegas, baby. Jack and Rebecca celebrate their anniversary in a different way than years past. Randall and Beth struggle to balance a weekend in Vegas with their growing concerns for Deja. Meanwhile, Kate and Toby navigate the awkwardness of their bachelor and bachelorette parties, while Kevin fights to stay sober.

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Hello, friends. What's going on, gang? Vegas. Vegas, baby. This was one episode I was very bummed. I wasn't invited to tag along. We don't often travel for this show. We shoot here in Los... We shot here, I should say, here in Los Angeles, but this was an exception. One of the few times that the entire apparatus of the show traveled to Vegas. This is true.

I heard wild stories about Magic Mike, you, Susan. Things happened. Yeah.

It didn't stay in Vegas, 'cause we will be revealing all. - Some things came back from Vegas that probably could have stayed in Vegas, but no, we'll share, we'll share with you. We had a good time. We had some interesting things happen too. - Ooh. - Oh, and I'm gonna tell you when we get to the walk. - Oh, with you and Kevin and okay, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. So this episode starts out with Jack and Rebecca bowling. - That's right. - And we come to find out it's their anniversary, it's their one year anniversary. - One year anniversary.

And, you know, I believe this is the start of Jack's big gestures. Sure. His grand gestures. Yeah. Because Rebecca...

Gives him a book, a beautiful leather-bound book with all his sketches in it that he's always leaving around the house. Very sweet. And she's clearly very proud of this idea that she's had. And he's like, oh, this is sweet. Thank you. His reaction every time is like, oh, thanks, man. Cue the lights. Yeah, cue the lights. Cue the music. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And of course, this song comes on, spotlights on them. It's their first anniversary. Bam, bam, bam.

-Like everybody sort of stops at exactly-- -And they're dancing in the middle of the bowling alley. Which would be very slippery by the way.

You ever step over the alley? It was slippery. Was it really? Oh, yeah. They put down a mat for us. Yeah. Because it was... Because you were wife, the blank out on a vote. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. They were living in a world before companies cared about insurance. Not that this matters, but I remember watching this and I was like, oh, I remember this episode. Any time we got to go back to the early days of Jack and Rebecca...

I've never seen Michael and Zoe, our hair and makeup like department heads, so intimate.

They were like kids in a candy store. They loved the beard. They loved Rebecca's long extensions and cool eyeshadow. It was like, and Hala, our costume designer. It's like everybody got to live out their fantasies of like dressing Milo and I like we were their personal little Barbie dolls. You got to sleep in for a couple extra hours. I got to sleep in. They made me look young. It was great. I loved it. Can I just say this is a quick tangent. I'm doing something right now where I have to put on prosthetics.

Mandy Moore. God bless your soul. I've had only three of them. And this is not a lot because I'm always waking to Mandy Moore. Three 4 a.m. pickups.

I'm a dude with this much hair. I'm not used to a 4:00 AM pickup, bro. Takes me about 20 minutes to get through the works. Takes about three and a half hours to do the stuff that I have to do on this film. Mandy Moore, I salute you. - Oh gosh, please. No, no, no, no, no. - 'Cause how many times did we do it? A hundred and... - It's somewhere close to 150. Yeah. - Yeah. - Bless you. - Oh, you're very kind. And side note, hot take.

The project Sterling's working on, he sent Chris and I pictures. It is the... I showed Taylor. Everybody's like, what? That's... It's so cool. It's cool. Because you can... I can still see you in there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's very... I feel like sometimes with like crazy prosthetics and Chris, you're well aware. I want to see the full airbrush. I want to... We've seen the pieces, but you guys send us some more. Yeah, please. I got you. Yeah. So it's cool. Anyway. That was a side tangent. So then we sort of jump into Deja...

wait, wait, wait. You don't understand because there's a four year anniversary. Oh, you got to kind of echo this because it's great because Rebecca comes and she's like, I got you a hammer because you're always saying that taking your hammer and everything. He's like, oh, thanks. He walks around the corner and there's a brand new piano sitting at the top. Yeah, man.

And then we finally get to another one. You guys don't name this anniversary. We don't say what year it is, but it's like, all right, you promise no more big gestures or anything like that because I didn't get you anything and I don't want to feel bad about these. No, promise. No things. We're just going to keep it easy. Put the kids to bed, go to bed, and we're going to enjoy a good old-fashioned evening of me, you, and the commish. Yeah. What show was that?

The commission was on ABC. It was Chiklis before. Michael Chiklis. Before The Shield. Before The Shield. Okay. Well, that was Rebecca's jam. Yeah, it was another cop show. She just wanted to cozy up. It is the procedural that hugs and just takes care of you. That's right. You can hop in. You can hop out. The commission is going to be right there, Jeff. That's right. I love that. Commission. There you go. Yeah. There you go. So they make that agreement and whatnot.

And then in that same timeline, there is the kids, like once you come down, oh, he comes downstairs, they're making breakfast or something. He's like, aren't you going to do a grand, Kevin says to dad, aren't you going to do a grand gesture for mom? He's like, no, I didn't want anything this year. And he's like, well, what if we, is it Kevin's idea? It's Kevin's idea. Yeah, it is. He's like, why don't we do something for you guys? And he's like, well, I guess I'm not violating the rule if you guys do it.

So the kids decide to do this whole thing. - For our anniversary, yep. - Right? Like he heard that mom likes Cornish game hymns. - Yeah. - So like you see Kev like following a recipe, like making Cornish game hymns, right? You see Randall and Kate go to the library. - Yeah. - This is one of my favorite shots of like Randall walking into the library and all these other kids are like, "Yo, what up, R-D-O-R." Like they're like dapping him up. Like he's the mother effing man.

man up in this public library. Yeah, he's in his world, his element. And Kate was like, my brother's cool, dude. If anybody needs help with that Dewey Decimal system, they know who to go to. I got you.

So they do this whole thing. Kev has the, he's making the hen. Dad agrees to put it in the oven and correct, if I'm, jump something, let me know. - No, no. - Puts it in the oven and everything. Everything's going according to plan until they realize that dad did not turn on the oven. - Yeah. - Right? - Yeah. - And Kev is sort of like really bummed and just starts crying. He like, "Whoa, Kev."

what's going on man it's not it's not that heavy he's like now you and mom are going to get divorced and this is one of those echoes that sort of reminds you to check in with your kids from time to time because if you don't teach them they're going to learn from somebody else what something means right yeah somebody in his class got it was sophie's parents right sophie's parents got divorced and he's like look i need this thing to go well because otherwise you guys are going to get divorced and that you guys are like

Nope. - Not happening. - Never, ever, ever. - Yeah. - Right? And he's like, "You sure?" And they're like, "Sure." He's like, "Okay, I'll see you later." - Yeah. - Right? So he's like, we can salvage-- - Quick recovery. - Salvage the rest of the plan. 'Cause by the time you guys come upstairs,

- Beautiful Christmas lights. The white lights, I prefer. I think the white lights are a classic look as opposed to the multicolored lights. You know what I'm saying? - I agree. - It's a classic clean look. - Yes. - Right? Lay it out for you guys. - Okay, hot take. - Uh-oh, here we go, hot take! - It is fucking Christmas time. You put up the multicolored lights. Those white lights are at the Grove year round. - I appreciate the white lights. - Okay.

All right. Wow. There's a dividing line on this couch. I guess we're going to have our first fight. Here it goes. We don't always agree. It's my podcast coming to our podcast. We have white lights up at our house year round. I love that. Christmas time, I go around bulb by bulb and change them out. No, you don't. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. It is Christmas time. You change bulb by bulb. I've got them up there year round. We have white lights.

They're orange? Orange lights. Christmas time. Multicolored Christmas lights. Christmas lights. Hot take. That is a real hot take. Wow. I didn't mean to cut. I didn't know I was going to get that hot today. Can I tell you something? I appreciate your passion. Passion? Yeah. It'll change from year to year for us.

There's some years in which the tree will go up with just the white lights, right? And then there's some years in which we'll do multi, because we have like, we have way too many. I'll tell you what, Christmas decorations.

- Finding storage, putting them in place, putting them back afterwards, monster pain in the butt, beautiful for about a month and a half. And then it's like, all right, now I gotta put all this shit up, right? But we'll go back and forth between both. So yes and. - Yes and. - Yes and. - And that's how you do that. - They're called Christmas lights for a reason. - That was us, right? - Where were we?

Vegas, baby. So they wait. They're about to go and... They go up on the roof. They go up on the roof. And Jack has his...

grand gesture, he can't help himself. No, it's actually the kids. - It's the kids. - And the kids allow for this moment for Jack and Rebecca to sort of be out on the roof. There's a meteor shower for them to witness that. - Yes. - It's very sweet. - His grand gesture is like, you know, somebody told me that like meteors, you know what Randall told me about meteors? I think it's not like, is that the meteors are always there. It's just, we can't see them. And he says like, I know, I see you, Rebecca. - Yeah. - I love it. - You're my daily meteor shower. - There you go.

- Yeah. - Which is a very sweet sentiment. - He's good with the words like that. Jack Pearson ain't bad, right? Okay, that's that whole time, right? - Correct. - That's that whole time. - Yes. - In the present, Randall and Beth are about to go to Vegas. Beth is hype. She is ready to get her thug thistle on up in Vegas.

Randall a bit more reticent. At the end of the previous episode. Oh, we didn't mention this, did we? At the end of the previous episode. Yeah. Sire. Brown tripped on one. Yeah. Yeah, brown tripped on one. You didn't talk enough. I didn't. See, that's the problem. You didn't talk enough. You got to speak up.

All right. At the end of 2015, we get a visit from Deja. And she tells us that the water or the heat. It's $87.49. Gas has been turned off. Gas has been turned off in the house. Like, I need cash because then I can tell her it was like cash that I saved up for my allowance. I don't want you to call my mom. We just need this little bit. We're going to be fine. Right? That happened at the end of 2015. Right.

So at the top of Vegas, I'm like, "Ah, what if Deja needs us again? Maybe we don't need to go." And they're like, "Yo, your brother-in-law's having you out for his bachelor party. Your sister wants to be in there." I was like, "We're pity invites, right? Nobody wants their brother-in-law tagging along on their bachelor party, et cetera. Why don't we just stay here focused?" And she's like, "Look, bro, this is going to be something that's going to be fun for everybody. You got to get it together. Do your rain, man.

Was it the Rain Man Vegas sort of the, she calls it Rain Man something, poker or blackjack. - Rain Man blackjack. - Rain Man blackjack, right? He's like, "I don't wanna do the Rain Man blackjack." And let me tell you something about Brown. I watched a lot of Rain Man in preparation for this one little scene, Jack, 'cause I don't like to fake the fuck, brother. - You nailed it. - But when I watched that, I was like, "That was pretty solid." - Yeah. - I felt good about it. - It was good. - Thank you. - Definitely a good, definitely good Rain Man, definitely.

- So you see Black Pearsons are in two very different spaces regarding the trip to Vegas, right? You guys have a very interesting conversation, Kate and Toby, 'cause you admit to a certain co-dependence in your relationship. - Yeah, oh yeah. - And it's the first time I heard that

articulated out loud. So I'm curious, like the scene and that statement in particular. Yeah, I mean, it's a fairly self-aware thing to have, but it's a good thing to understand. My wife and I definitely have it. And it can...

can screw things up. It can get in the way. There is such a thing as healthy codependence. - For sure. - But that is an aware-- There has to be awareness around it. There has to be boundaries still involved. There has to be all these things. And healthy practices put in place, 'cause I'm definitely a codependent person. That's right. Yeah, we know. Can I ask you a question? How would you define codependency?

'Cause I need to know if I am or not. I'm not sure. - Codependency in my- - In your relationship. - In my relationship, in any relationship, or when codependence becomes a problem is when you essentially, in my opinion,

as it relates to say addiction, you turn another person into a drug of sorts. You, you put too much weight on their opinion of you, their, their input, their, uh,

You need them in a way that becomes burdensome both for them and you. Okay, that's probably closer to what I'm thinking of. Well, okay, so the actual literal dictionary definition is excessive emotional or psychological reliance on a partner, typically one who requires support on account of an illness or addiction. Right. And so let's put it this way.

A lot of people who end up with addicts, their side of it is codependence. Got it. They can be enablers. They can be...

The thing that they need to-- their side of the street in the relationship that they need to heal is codependence, generally speaking. So this also says, "A codependent person may have an excessive reliance on others for emotional support, validation, and decision-making." I think that's where it factors in for me. It's like, if I don't plan the vacation well, then--

I don't have any value. I don't, you know what I mean? It's like, if I don't do X, Y, and Z for my family, for my partner, for my parents, exactly. Then like, what value do I have? What worth do I have? What am I able to sort of bring to the table? I mean, there's a certain amount of it in the profession that we've chosen for ourselves. Oh, correct. And what I have just been experiencing the last couple of weeks, which has sort of like pivoted me right back into therapy, which I've sort of ebbed and flowed throughout my life. But I was like, I need therapy.

help, I need support, I need to talk to somebody. But I have found often that like the stressors of what's been happening in

Trying to sort of be strong, trying to show up, trying to plan things, trying to sort of like realign our life in a way when things don't go exactly the way that they're supposed to or the way that I hoped for something. It's like the littlest thing can go wrong. And I'm like, I'm a complete failure. I don't know how to do this. I, you know, it's like, what value do I have as a parent, as a partner or whatnot, if I can't show up and do X, Y, and Z? And it's like, what?

Obviously, that's not real. But in those moments, that validation, just that I would give myself by being able to perform those specific tasks. When I'm unable to do that, I feel like a complete mess. I think that is so, what a wonderful thing to share, because I think a lot of women feel that. And I think for women, they're like, Mandy Moore be feeling that stuff? Oh, yeah. That's...

All the time, but certainly like it's exacerbated right now. And I'm working through that, but like it's, yeah, I'm just sort of like, I just need to like check out of this moment because if I can't do it well, which in normal circumstances, I'm

pretty good at like having grace for myself. But for some reason, I found it extraordinarily hard in these last like few months to do that, to show up for myself in that way. And so much is out of your control. Sure. Yeah, for sure. For sure. So I guess I'm sort of making a different correlation between, and I have found myself in

previous chapters of my life, like deeply, deeply in a codependent relationship. You know what I mean? Like literally like subservient, like here is your breakfast in bed every day. And if I am not able to deliver that, then what value do I have?

in your life. Like that anymore? Oh yeah, like that, Sterling. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, I know. Different, different life. Another podcast. And you finally told Taylor no more. No more. Make your own damn breakfast. Yeah. Well, I more or less did say it to that person, but like, yes, like feeling as if like I had to make myself as small as possible to fit into somebody's life and to show up in that way. And if I was unable to do that, then like,

I couldn't keep this relationship intact. My life was off the rails. - It would have been fascinating to meet you, 'cause that's not who you are right now. - No, no. But I did a lot of work and excavating and unpacking all of that. And it was so strange that as that chapter of my life was ending, "This Is Us" came into my life. My life opened up in the most beautiful way. It's like when I chose myself,

The world that I was hoping to sort of find on the other side of it was there for me waiting. We'll be right back with more That Was Us. This episode is brought to you by Brooklinen. Spring is here, ladies and gentlemen, and it's the perfect time to refresh your space, starting with your bed. Brooklinen makes it easy with high-quality, seriously comfortable bedding. Our house is decked out in Brooklinen and has been for years. I love...

The luxury, I love the quality. I love the different aesthetics I can choose, the different colorways, the different fabrics. It truly is my favorite. Oh my God, the bedding is so soft and it comes in so many incredible colors. The color we got fit right in with our kind of bright color scheme in our bedroom. It's just a very cozy feeling. And for those cooler nights, Brooklinen's Dreamweave Waffle Bed Blankets and Ribbed Matlissé Quilts are the perfect layering pieces.

You can mix and match to create a bed that fits your aesthetic, whether you love neutral tones or bold pops of color. That's true. That is true. A green quilt can bring a fresh, calming vibe to the whole room, like a little touch of nature indoors. With over 100,000 five-star reviews...

and recognition from experts at Good Housekeeping, GQ, and Wirecutter, Brooklinen is just a brand you can trust. Shop award winners and fan faves in-store or online at brooklinen.com. That's B-R-O-O-K-L-I-N-E-N.com. Get 15% off your first order today.

All right. I've had it. Let's talk about travel. Everyone's got their own idea of the perfect getaway. Mine is to the mountains, I think. A lot of people like warm getaways. I like a cozy, I like a cozy, cold getaway where it's cold outside, but warm inside. Maybe with a little hot tub out on a deck somewhere. Oh, I love that. Or what about a wellness trip? Yes.

Picture this. You're staying at an Airbnb near a spa retreat, morning yoga on a private deck. Yes. A fresh smoothie situation in the kitchen. Total relaxation. Or maybe you're the type that would rather be in a cozy cabin like Chris. Like me. Yeah. Sitting by a fire with your family, just soaking everything in. So last season, we're about to do it again. We're going to take the kids up to Big Bear. Get a little snow action. Get a little snow. Put them on something that slides and push them down a mountain. Yeah.

I love that. And we found a nice cozy little spot, like I said, a little hot tub on the deck. We did the same thing last season at Lake Arrowhead. I love that. That feels like a great little family tradition to start. And here's the thing. While you're off making those kinds of memories, your home could be doing the same for someone else. So why not list your place on Airbnb while you're away? Maybe there's a family looking for a spot just like yours or someone just needing a place that feels right.

You call the shots. You decide when to host, how to set up your space, who stays. Airbnb makes it super simple. So while you're off enjoying your trip, your place is working for you. So what's the perfect getaway? The big game, a quiet retreat, a trip back to a place that means something special? Whatever it is, hosting on Airbnb could be the way to make it happen. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.com slash host. ♪

- There's a few more deep things to talk about in this conversation with Kate and Toby. First of all, I almost glanced over Madison at the top of this scene.

And the interaction between the two of you made me laugh out loud at least two or three times. It's my favorite side of Toby. It's fucking fantastic. Yes. Yeah. He's so over Madison. She calls him Toblerone. And he's like, I don't like that. Like, you're so... Then she hits him with the one-two Mike and... You guys are so Mike and Molly. And I was like, oh, that is so...

- Rude. - Rude. - And he says under his breath, "I really don't like you." - I really don't. - But then what was the one at the end that he was like, "I don't like, actually no, I do like that." - No, I think she's like, "Okay, see you later, Toby Bryant." And he's like, "What are you?" Oh, you know, actually like Toby Bryant. That's not fair. - That's very good, yeah.

Yeah, because the ironic part is that Madison and Toby have quite a bit in common. Yes, they do. Because Toby later in this episode tries to call you Randy. He sure does. Randall is not a Randy. Randy, can I call you Randy? No, okay. Yeah. So we get into the media. You guys talk about the codependency and why it's important that you have separate

bachelor part, bachelor, bachelorette parties, right? While you very much want to be together, it's important for us to have some things that are separate. And they kind of confide. It's the first time I've heard Kate talk about like, I don't really even know Beth. Like, why is she coming? Why can't I have Randall? Like, she wants to be with her brother. She wants time with him. He backs up Beth and is like, okay, we can switch it. Like, no, we should keep it this way. Yes, yes. Can you imagine that episode of television though, real quick? Just a little fan fiction. Huh?

- What we do the other way? - And what those scenes look like. - Oh, we can kind of get there in a second because we have a behind the scenes Magic Mike story to tell. But there was also your brother. That's what I wanted to talk about. - Oh yeah. - Yeah, Toby brings up a brother. - Toby brings up his brother and how he finds a way to not be present or whatnot. Now here's the thing, and I only want you to touch on it and how you feel about it. Chris Sullivan has a brother. - Yes.

- And we, this is only like, 'cause I know this is just surface, but I thought like it's an interesting sort of parallel. - Yes. - If you want to touch on it at all. - It is parallel. - There we go. - And there we have it. - And there we have it. - There we have it. - Yeah, no, I thought about that as well. - Yeah. - But it was, it's just interesting 'cause I'm like, oh yeah, and then we never hear from your brother ever. - It's just another spooky moment in this show. - That's been like, yes, peppered in. - Where things like start lining up with our real lives. - Yeah. - Just like what the? - Yeah. - Here's the thing about it too.

And this is, I mean, just sort of addressing, sibling relationships are so different and unique to every pair of siblings. I have an older brother and an older sister. I have a little brother and a little sister, but they were adopted when I was already in grad school. So they're 22 and 24 years younger than me. So didn't really have a chance to like connect and grow up together.

And grew up a little bit with my brother and sister who are 14 and 12 and a half years older than me. Right? So you're like an only child. So there's where I'm my dad's only son. Yeah. Right? And I have my brother and sister who I love and adore. But there is also an estrangement. Yeah.

- There too. My brother functions very much like Randall in our house. I function very much like Kevin. I come and bring the sunshine and the joy and everything. And he's like, well, you're not here all the time and dah, dah, dah. And we have these things that happen, right? And I feel like,

I honor the show in showing that it's not always peaches and cream between these three people who grew up in the same household and have the same experience because they have very different memories of the experience that they had as well. So it's just like, I say that to say we were just talking about our kids in the last episode and how we're sort of like, hey, you guys are going to be the only people that you have, so try a little harder. But isn't that, so we talked about it in the last episode, right? And doesn't that make you,

it makes me hesitate to like even talk about how it should be. Because I wonder if part of the difficulty in families, right? Because the idea like, well, we're all a family, but each kid who is born into a family is born into a completely different family than the other children. Preach.

yours being dramatically so dramatic that it's evident. Right, right, right, right. But when we have kids that are like a couple years apart, it just seems like, "No, no, this is a family." - Yeah. - Right. But it's still-- they're vastly different. And to like put any kind of pressure on like, "This is your sibling. This is how siblings act," for me, it's like-- has been part of the stress for me is like,

but that's not the way it is. And, and part of the, my stress about the way it is, is because people have told me it's supposed to be different. Sure. And I'm like, but it's not. Yeah. And so like, I haven't really found peace with that relationship. So it's like, yeah, but this is the way it is now. Right. And, and,

And I can ease into that and let it play out and try to stay present and hope that it changes. And if it doesn't, you know, it's like, I don't know, it's an interesting dynamic that is hard to navigate as they're right there. I hear you. I do hear you. And you make a very, very good point because it's almost like,

there should be a level of acceptance for what is versus what should be. And always trying to make something into what it should be means that you're not accepting what is in front of you. That and their children. Meaning that like, you know, we can sort of say like, ideally,

this person is a value in your life. If you take a look and focus, like what is a value? What do you like about this person? And they'll enumerate several things. I was like, okay, why don't you choose to focus on those things right now? Right. Rather than this one thing that he wants to use the PS5. Right.

Like focus on that thing. 'Cause like you'll hear things like, why doesn't so-and-so like me? And why is so-and-so so annoying? And I was like, well, because sometimes you do things that are unlikable and sometimes you can be annoying or whatnot, but what are the things that you do? So maybe it's a matter of like, sort of like highlight accentuating the positive, that type of thing. - Sure, sure, sure. - But we as parents too,

'cause Ryan will have these moments, especially 'cause it's two dudes in my house who are duty dudes being like, why do they just beat each other up? I was like, they're bonding. And she's like, for real? I'm like, yeah, that's what it looks like. - I would be in Ryan's boat like, what? - But there's also, you can see it in your school relationships, right? Like I'm friends with this dad

out of convenience. - Sure. - You know what I mean? - Sure. - Because we end up in the same space. - A lot. - Yeah. - At the same, every weekend at a new toddler birthday party. - Yeah. - There's my guy. - Yeah. - That's my guy. - I can talk to him. - I can talk to that guy. And the ironic part about, and that's fine. - Yeah. - That relationship is what it is.

But as soon as my kid goes to different school, I'm never going to see that guy again. You know what I mean? And there's an element of that in families where it's like, no, we are around each other because...

We have to be. We get together for Thanksgiving. I love this. He's talking about it without talking about it. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you don't appear to like me, which is fine. Right. And I maybe realize that part of the reason you don't is because I've tried so hard to get you to like me. Yeah. And there's all these dynamics that play out in This Is Us too, where it's like, yeah, we're brothers. Yeah. But we might not be friends.

- At all times. - I agree. - But there's a deep love there. - I agree. - There is a deep love there. - Look at me. - Is there? I mean, there must be, right? - There is. - So for me, I'll say- - God, I hope there is. - I will say for me, because like, I don't even know if they watch this podcast, but- - We're gonna find out. - If they do, we'll find out. Love my brother deeply. Love my sister deeply. If they weren't my brother and sister, we would not be friends. - Right.

That's how it is with family sometimes, though. Right. It's like, I get that. Yeah. We don't have the same interests. It's not even, we don't have the same opinion. We don't have the same lived life experience now as adults or the way we have families. Sure, don't make each other happy. Yeah. I'm talking about your... I'm talking about...

- But it's so interesting. That's one of the fascinating things about this TV show. - It's good too, because Mandy loves her brothers. It's like, it's all great. - Yeah, go to the Patreon to hear what Mandy wants. We don't have a Patreon for anyone who's listening. Hey, question, should we have a Patreon? Anybody listening? Let us know in the comments. - There you go.

Thanks, Sully. They decide to do their individual. That was a good. Thank you for joining me in that digression. I appreciate that. Let's get to Vegas. So we're going to Vegas. Randall and Beth are there. Beth is like screaming out of the top of the limousine. I was like, okay.

So happy to do whatever's about to happen. Randall is like on his phone, like, you know, Deja may call us. I don't know if we should be here. And she's like, I'm over you, bro. Yeah. Like, why don't you just be here? Yeah. Basically. Like, you keep doing this sort of thing. Like, I don't, I can't deal with it all the time. He says something like, well, I know it's easy for you to detach from certain things. And she's like, what'd you say? Oh, screw you.

And then he has to backtrack and say, I didn't say you were detached. I said you were detaching from the thing. What I meant was. I'm the heart, you're the head, which doesn't make it any better. Oh, no, no, you're digging yourself in. As far as he's concerned. And it's going bad. And he's not trying to, but he's also like, how come you don't care? Like, the girl just came to the house because the heat or, you know, the gas got turned off. He's also kind of like, you seem really, like,

It's too easy for you. Like, I can't do that, right? That's his interpretation of what's going on. But we come to find out that Beth is battling her codependency, right? Yeah. By trying to detach from this relationship because this child... Means a whole hell of a lot. Means a whole hell of a lot. Means a whole hell of a lot. But has been... But is with her mom. Has been reunited with her mom. So before we even get to there, they sort of like...

Randall goes off to hang out with Tobias, him and Kev, and then Beth goes to hang out with Kate. And it's a little bit of awkwardness at the beginning, but you see Beth takes a big swig from her bottle. She's going to have- And Chrissy's like, "Oh, that's what we're doing." This is what we're doing here. They wind up going to Magic Mike. Credit to Madison and the writers for fun, like, "I like," and there's a whale, and then there's Dick.

'Cause it's Moby and that you can get away with evidently on standards and practices. - That's right. - Yeah. - At 9:00 PM on Tuesday nights. They go to Magic Mike. Now here's the fun story. So Sue at Magic Mike, she's gotta do all this stuff as Beth or whatnot. - Yeah, but let's talk about Sue. - We're talking about Sue. - At Magic Mike. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - So there's something that got cut out of the episode. 'Cause all you see is her like laying down on the sofa thingamajig and the guy coming there crawling on top.

So there's this moment that they had, Joanna Kern, our director of this episode, she's like, "This is gonna be fun. We're gonna have a blast." - For those who don't know who Joanna Kern is. - Go. She's wonderful. She's icon of- - Another television icon. - We're talking about "Growing Pains." - The mother from "Growing Pains." - Yes, yes. And who's been directing, she directed episodes of "Army Wives." - She did? - She absolutely did. - Oh, she had a history with her. - So it was nice. It was a reunion, right? - But if you need a picture, who's directing Sue?

At the Magic Mike show, it's the mom from Growing Pains. Mom from Growing Pains, who's bout about it. She's so hype and energetic and awesome. There's this thing where the dude gets up in a trapeze, harness, whatever the thing is, what? Sue straddles my man on the harness, and then they spin. Boom. In the air, right? In the air, right? So they do this a few times. Yeah.

And it's funny because Sue is one of the most stoic people you will ever meet. Until she's not. No. But even in it. Because I saw something was wrong. Because I spent the most time with her. And she's just laid on the mat after she finished spinning and whatnot. And I said, are you okay? She said, SK, I don't think I can stand up.

She was so dizzy. She had like some sort of like inner ear thing. Couldn't walk. Like we had to take her to like the back room. I don't know if it was Dramamine or some other sort of thing. We're just going to just sort of like settle her down because she yacked repeatedly. But like you would only end up behind closed doors because in front of things. Yeah. I didn't even know. Pro. I didn't know that part of it. She got jacked up. Oh man. And they didn't even use that in the episode. And they didn't even use it in the episode.

But Susan has the footage. Oh, I saw all the footage and pictures. So the next footage is because... I wasn't shooting that day, but I was there. I'll come back to it. So we're with you and your fellas. Everybody's having a good time. It's cool. I was like, wow, there are a lot of gentlemen in glasses. Listen, how else are people going to watch a TV show and know that someone's a nerd?

- If they don't all wear glasses. - And most of them are bald. - Well, shout out, I asked before whether or not the brother that you brought to the viewing party for the football game, was he the- - Same guy. - It was the same guy. - Yeah, Scooter. - I was like, "Clack this, Scooter." - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Everybody's having a good time. - Toby's only friend. - They're chilling. We're all chilling. We go out to get a bite to eat.

Everybody's having a good time. The two brothers are sitting right next to their brother-in-law to be. Everything's going well. Kev sees a co-star. His co-star from his movie. From his movie. He's like, oh, snap. Yeah. And we should also say before we get there that Kev is like being very vigilant about his sobriety. Yes.

He's fresh off of rehab. - He's very inappropriate with a housekeeper. - Just staring at him. - But just like the monologue to her is like, "And you're gonna witness. Here's what you're gonna witness." And she's like, "Jesus Christ." - But he's asking for help. Like it isn't quite appropriate, but he's also like, "I need accountability." - Straight white male privilege white box. - Totally. - Yeah. - I've been to Vegas like 200 times. You know how many times? Oh, 50 times. You know how many times I've been blackout drunk? She's like, every time he's like,

Every time, like, how did you know that? So he's there, everybody's drinking around him. - Yeah. - Toby's like, is this a problem? He's like, nope, not a problem. And it's interesting 'cause it reminds me of friends that I've talked to and they're like, your drinking isn't a problem for me. People who've gone through rehab, they're like, your drinking isn't a problem for me. It's my drinking. And so he's like, okay, cool. He sees his friend, a co-star walk by, he goes to say hi. You see Toby have a bit of a moment, being like, oh, okay, that's cool. I guess she's, whatever. - Yeah.

He goes to say hi. And this is something I'm wondering, you've never experienced this. I'm guaranteeing it. I'm calling my shot before. I don't know if you have or not. But the girl winds up telling him that she got cut out of the movie, right? And that Ron Howard sent an email or something like that, what have you. And he's like, half of my scenes are with you. And she's like, I don't know what to tell you.

I got cut out of my first two movies. Really? Yes. One of them was called Brown Sugar. It was with Taye Diggs, Sanaa Lathan, Boris Kojo, a bunch of folks. I had a scene with Method Man. And as soon as Method Man wasn't in the movie, I was like...

I took my mom and my sister to go see this movie in the movie theater. And at the end of the movie... Let's be fair, Method Man got cut out of that movie. Well, yes. And yours truly by proxy. And my mom at the end of the movie... It wasn't because of anything you did. My mom at the end of the movie was like, were you the young man in the back playing basketball? Like she's looking at the extras like... Oh, they didn't even tell you? No. Oh, Jesus. No. Rude. Rude. We're at the beginning of our career, okay?

- Rude, but still. - Still. Then I did another one with Jimmy Fallon and Queen Latifah, a film called "Taxi," where I was a mounted Central Park-- - Hot ranger. - Cop, ranger sort of thing. And it got cut out too. And I was like, "God dang it, am I gonna get cut out of everything?" So when Kev was sort of thinking about being cut out, fresh off of "Sobriety," I had a working sort of framework of like-- - Oh yeah, it starts to make him spiral too. - It starts to make him spiral. Have you been cut?

Just saying. Thank you. Not to my knowledge. Not to my knowledge. Mandy doesn't even watch the movies. She's like, I don't know. I don't watch myself. Mandy's like, I make them. I let them go. You got to let the art go. You got to let it go. Like a bird fly. Have you been cut? No, I don't get cut. Would you cut this guy? My shit don't get cut. Sorry, Sterling, but would you cut this guy? I'm trying to think. No. It happened a third time. I was in the Bourne.

- The one with Jeremy Renner? - Yeah. - Oh. - I had a scene with Jeremy Renner in it, and I got cut out of that scene. - Can I say something? - The Bourne deficiency? - Everyone is kicking themselves now. All those respective projects are like, "We had Sterling K. Brown, and we didn't." - The audacity. - We cut Method Man out of this movie. We could have had a Sterling scene. - Yeah. - Well. - Bless you.

So he's spiraling. He's spiraling. He's spiraling. And so he winds up going back to his room, doing sit-ups in front of the minibar.

- Like it feels like- - Praying, he's like praying to an altar. - It's such an interesting thing because it's like, I'm trying to fight something by looking directly at the thing that is- - That's just good TV blocking. - That's probably what it is. But not the healthiest idea, right? Randall winds up getting a call from Daisy. He's like, excuse me, I gotta take off. Again, Tobias clocks in and is like, okay. - They both left. - And they were sitting right next to him, right? It's not like they were at the other end of the table. That's bad.

Deja calls and she's sort of stilted in her responses and there's long pauses, et cetera. And he can feel something's not right. Yeah. Right? So he goes, he tells Toby, excuse me, you guys have a great time. Catch up with you later. And there's a few scenes that we cut out of this thing because I know we shot more than what we wound up seeing in the episode. We always did. There's more interaction, I feel like, after before we wind up walking to your door later on, Kev and I.

- Oh yeah, you guys. - What? With you either? - They didn't cut any of my stuff. - Okay. - They never do. - What am I saying? What am I saying? I'm sorry. They have the conversation and they get off the phone. She says everything's all right. It's just hard for her to talk when her mom's not on the line. So I gotta go. And he's like, okay. So he goes to the Magic Mike thing and he sees Beth fresh off of being groped by dudes, which is, here's a side tangent.

because it doesn't bother me. If you saw your wife or your husband at a strip club and they were having a lap dance or something like that, are you upset? Are you not upset? Yeah, Mandy, if you saw Taylor, if you walked into a strip club- If you saw Taylor at Anora, right? If he was in the Anora club and Mikey Madden, no. No. No big thing. I don't care. I don't care either. Okay. But let's also be clear for anybody who has not seen the Magic Mike show in Las Vegas. What you saw on our show was-

The Blue's Clues version of what happens at that show. It's pretty raunchy? People be getting violently dry humped at that show. On stage, people be getting aggressively penis slapped at that show.

Is this episode going to have to have an explicit warning? This is an advertisement. This is a non-paid advertisement for Magic Mike the show. Go see it. Get pee slapped. I did. I did join the dance. Did you just abbreviate penis? He did. Peen. Peen slap. Peen slap. Oh, I said peen. Yeah. People be getting the ball peen hammer. Like this. It is...

That's because it's violent. If it wasn't violent, it'd be. No, no. It is violent. It's violent. But I guess it's violence that is invited. Yeah. That you want. Encouraged. You know what? So this is interesting. Another quick tangent. How many women do you know

whether you were one of them or not, that enjoyed the male strip club. - Oh, it's not for me. No judgment, but it's not for me. - It's not for you. I've heard a lot of women say that. And there's a few who are like, "Yeah, I'll go." - I guess I haven't asked. - All right. - Yeah. - Yeah. My wife doesn't like it. My wife would actually rather go- - I think I've been to more male strip clubs than my wife. - To see women. - She'd rather probably go see women. - 100%, me too. Yeah. - Let's talk more about that. - Now I bet you wish we had a Patreon.

oh sully oh sully so i did i wound up getting on stage with the fellas right because people were like taking it yeah so we had like one shot you have photos and videos of this right we have photos go to our socials right now yeah and we'll repost those yeah yeah yeah we can find the footage is fantastic it was fun it was fun it was a good time because sterling got ball peen hammers they were smacking them around

with, I'm kidding. - Only above the torso. I review his whole thing from here to here. - Yeah. - That's why I take the swag. - If you wanna see, let's do this one. If you wanna see what really happens, go watch the Queer Eye in Vegas when they visit Magic Mike. That's what happens at that show. - Okay, I got you. - Well, that feels appropriate. - That makes sense, that makes sense. Okay, so.

Randall rolls up. Randall rolls up and sees Beth and she's like, "Randall, what are you doing here?" He's like, "I got a phone call." To his credit, he doesn't trip off of his wife. To his credit, I was like, okay. I didn't know if they were gonna have him get mad about that 'cause I think that did get cut. I think he got a little upset about it and they actually wound up cutting that part, which I think is cool. He's like, "I got a call from Deja and

I can tell something's not right. She didn't say anything was wrong, but she was sort of stilted and there was a lot of weird pauses or whatever. And Beth is like, so nothing's wrong. And he's like, yeah, but like something is sort of like going. So you came in here to tell me that nothing is wrong with her, but you had to crash your sister's bachelorette party. He's like, bruh.

Read the motherfucking room. Yeah, like yeah people are in here having a good time and I'm trying to have one night Yeah, one night homie where I don't have to deal with your anxiety. Yeah. Oh, yeah I didn't know being married to me and you know, it's funny. I kind of forgot This was one of like our first fights. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. She admitted that she was like I sit in your anxiety every day Yeah, you couldn't give me this one

- Yeah. - It was like, wow, that's a shade of Beth I've never seen before. - This is true. - But I appreciate it. - Absolutely, absolutely. - Truth. - And then Kate stands up. - Yes, right? - And makes it a whole new situation. - And she's like, Kate, this ain't got nothing to do with you. I need you to sit down. She's like, no, this is my brother. And she's like, this is my husband.

She's like, I'm abundantly clear who is more important to Randall. Right? Now this fight is seven different directions that it's going in. Now everyone's picked a fight with everyone. Everybody is in a fight with everybody. She winds up excusing herself and that's like, it all sort of like falls from there. Yeah.

but one of the interesting things about is like this was one of my first scenes with chrissy we had a scene immediately after william's passing yes right at the house but it was a short little thing so this was like a little bit longer so it's been amazing it feels like you guys have had dozens of scenes i get one scene with mets a year yeah right like one on one and it was a really beautiful scene because what

what i appreciated information wise is like people always say it's me and kev kate says whatnot but when mom when dad died like it was you and me man yeah like we were kicking it we were the ones who were there yeah you'd watch sex in the city with me you know what i'm saying it was awesome and i wanted to tell her and i was like yo look i'm a straight young black dude i wasn't really that into sex in the city but i was into it because you were into it right yeah um and it's just

a beautiful moment of connection to contrast me and chris talking about it as early as they have a hot take um but it was really quite lovely and she also tells him she's like so how's the how's the bachelor party going like ah now we wind up leaving so he can hang out with his friends yeah kev wound up seeing a co-star i wound up taking the conversation with deja and she's like i'm like wow what's the big deal she's like

He kind of just wanted to hang out with you guys. Everybody else was filler. Everybody else was filler. And that's, and you're like, oh shit. So I know a scene got cut where I went to go get Kev from his room. Cause the next thing we see is the two of us at your door saying like, sorry, bailed on you. So I was like, ah, it's no big deal. Like, you know, what are you talking about? I was like, you want to take a walk? I'll go get my coat. Yeah. Right. And okay. So we go on this walk.

We've told you a little bit about this story. I feel like. And I'm trying, you may remember it better than me. I'll remember it as you guys tell it. So we wind up going on this walk in old- We're in old Vegas. Old Vegas, right? Which is really cool. Big, bright lights, multicolored, not white. And, thank you. And there's this dude who just starts heckling Justin. Yeah.

Like Mandy, unmercilessly. And I think he waits in between takes, but it's-- 'cause I think he was that extra with this. It was a crowd. It was a crowd. We had done our scene, our talking scene. And then it was the three of us standing in the middle of the strip looking into all this stuff. Doing like little montage. And a crowd was forming around us 'cause-- -You're filming a TV show. -You're filming a TV show. And there's a guy.

who's around the outside of the back. I can't remember what he was yelling. Can you remember what he was yelling? - It was about like, you think you're so handsome. He's like, I look better than you. - I look better than you. - And like this dude was drizzy drunk.

Drizzy drunk, drunk, drunk. And we were just like, bro. Me and Sully kept looking at each other like, it's going to stop. Because we were starting to get angry. Yeah. And Justin was just like- He thought it was funny? He was like, yeah, whatever.

Justin is a Buddhist. This is like seeing the Buddhism. This leads perfectly into my behind the scenes story of Vegas and Justin. Yeah. Because part of me as Chris, the actor, was very much looking forward to having time with Sterling.

-And Justin. -Yeah. Like, I was like, "I love these guys. I respect these guys. We don't really get a lot of time together." -Sure. It'll be fun. -"We're going to Vegas. We're gonna hang out." And I was like, "Or maybe not. I don't know. I don't know if we'll have time." But I was very much looking forward to it. And you came in a little later. Yeah. But I knew Justin and I were getting in at the same time. And I texted him, like, "Hey, you wanna go-- Oh, do you wanna go do something? Do you wanna hang out?"

And thinking, like really at the time I was like, "He's not gonna wanna hang out." And sure enough, he was like, "Yeah." - Justin thought I'd kick it. - "Yeah, what do you wanna do?" - That's so Justin. - Yes. - Well, what we did, and we didn't really ever even tell anybody what we did. - Oh goodness. - We didn't tell anybody. We didn't put anything on social media. We just went and did this thing because it is a little bit controversial. - Skydiving? - No, not skydiving. - You did the racing thing. - No, we didn't. 'Cause in Vegas, you can do anything you want. - You can, right?

Literally. Like I have driven open wheel Indy race cars. You can go out to the desert and drive a tank. Can you really? Buddy, you can get in an Apache helicopter and shoot a door gun in Vegas. What? When I say you can do anything you want in Vegas, you can do anything you want. And one of the things that you can do in Vegas is go to very specialized shooting ranges. Okay. Okay. And shoot...

any weapon that is available to humanity. And I was like, "Hey, Justin, do you wanna go shoot some guns?" Because I know how to, I enjoy it. I don't own any weapons, but I'm like, "This is our chance." And he was like, "Hell yeah, 50 cal, fully automatic." So here's what happens. So it's me and Justin, nobody else really arrived yet. We decide we're gonna go do this and then we're gonna go have dinner. And this particular gun range will pick you up at your hotel.

Concierge gun range? - It's Vegas, baby. - Vegas, baby. - Oh, my God. - And so I'm like, great. Actually, that'd be great because we didn't have a ride or anything. What they pull up in is a 1990s era military Humvee with two seats mounted on the roof. - No, dude. - And it's me and Justin. - This is awesome. - On some kind of weird romantic mandate. - You guys didn't tell me that's amazing. - Sitting, wind blowing.

on our way to a gun range on the roof of a humvee and and he's like you know we can't post anything about this and i'm like i because the world and with like yeah like yeah glorify it yeah yeah yeah but we had so we went and bought these packages and shot guns for like 30 minutes wow with these three guys who had no idea what this is us was that's amazing and then we went to dinner

We came back to the hotel and we, and, and the hotel we were in had a, had a Nobu. And so we, we went and ate sushi. Yeah. And this is, I'm coming around to how this tied into all of this. We walk in and coming out of the restaurant, we are in the, the lobby and coming out is a group of 15 women on a bachelorette weekend. Oh God. And they see Justin.

and lose their ever-loving minds, you guys. I believe it. And I want to be light about this story, but in this moment, Justin is sexually assaulted. Really? By a large group of women. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Wow. He's agreed to take a photo with them. Sure. And I'm watching. I'm literally not in the photo. I have one of their phones.

And he's being assaulted, like assaulted. Right. Like, yeah. Like being touched. No, they're women on a bachelorette party. They're drunk. Yeah. In Vegas. Totally. And the look on his face in all of these photos is not having it. Yeah. He's not having it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's upset. About as upset as I've seen him. Sure. Oh, wow. Like, but he takes the photo. All right, thanks. Good. Bye. Yeah, thank you. Bye. Yep. And we go in and we sit down and have dinner. And-

i've seen him in these situations a couple times and obviously this is before our moment on the street and i sit down at the table across from him and i'm like do you meditate what is your deal yeah are you a zen buddhist you said it yeah yeah are you do you practice zen yeah and he's like

-It's interesting that you asked that. -Yeah. And he started telling me about his practice. And his spiritual practice, as it were. And I'm obviously not gonna get too personal about it, but I've just seen his resilience and his positivity and the way he moves through the world and his non-attachment to things.

-It's impressive. -...emotional, physical, monetary. -It's really admirable. -Yeah. -Yeah. And it makes him a very light being to be around. -It does. -And kind of wherever he is, he's there. -Yeah. -You know what I mean? -He's so good at being present. -Yes. He's not thinking about the next thing. He's not looking around. He's like with you. -Yeah. -And we had dinner. And it was like, I'm gonna be honest, it was one of the best dates I've ever been on.

That guy's an enigma. It's like, I mean, I can't wait to have him on this podcast. It's going to be awesome. Yeah. And it's perfect casting for Kevin in terms of just like how people can be constantly underestimated because of how they look. Yeah. Right? Like they look like they should be this. So people think of them as that. And there's so much more. Right. Yeah. He is that. So this thing happens outside of,

And this guy, man, he keeps going in. He's like, "You think you're handsome? You think you're better than me? You're not better than me." He starts talking about how much money you make. He starts just throwing, he's trying to get a rise out of him. - Sure.

And at a certain point, I was like, "Justin, I'm gonna go talk to this guy." He's like, "Don't talk to him." Yeah, yeah. And Justin was like, "Just forget it. Forget it. Don't even worry about it." Yeah. 'Cause the guy was just baiting him. And it wouldn't surprise me if someone was filming his buddy. - Totally. - Who was like, "Watch this." - Totally. - Seeing if they could get this guy to lose his shit. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Yeah. - And they didn't. - They didn't. And it was cool. It was a good one. - It was a life lesson for me. - Yeah. Because it was like some weird part of like...

it wasn't even a person it was like a like a character trait yeah of society was like

"Oh, you're surrounded by all these people who are fascinated by you, but I'm not fucking fascinated by you, you piece of shit." And it's like, "Oh, I've got that voice in my head. Hey, there's that voice in my head." - Right. - "He's here." - Yeah, yeah, yeah. The physical embodiment. Good, I can take him out of my head and put him over there. - And put him right over there. Yeah, it was a fascinating thing to watch. But I gotta say, through all of my interviews about the show, being there with you guys

Getting to shoot that even just that little moment of a three of us in old Vegas was like a real special moment for me It was a great felt like a brotherly. I loved it I love because you gave you gave him the advice in the scene to call Ron Howard Yeah, you know and let him know what what your worth is and your value You know I'm saying like don't just sit and wait to find out that you've been cut from the thing like give him a call and tell him why you deserve to be in this film and he's like oh shit and

I'm gonna call Ron Howard, right? And you say, I'm not gonna give Randall, Randy, can I call you Randy? No, can't. He's like, I'm not gonna give you any advice, but if you're having a tough time with it, like I guess the rest of us should just, what's the analogy? Quit, give up. Basically, just give up, right? So there's something that you are able to give these brothers that allows them to move forward and make choices. Randall goes and apologizes to his wife, right? Like I know I can be a lot sometimes,

I'm sorry, I need to let Deja go, right? Before that, let's go to Kate and, which I thought this was a really lovely scene, Kate and Beth scene. Mm-hmm.

where Kate winds up admitting that like, you know, I was really close with my brother and sort of strong women are a little intimidating to me. You know, take my mother for instance, and you've got your shit together. You've got this career, you're fostering a child. Like I can barely take care of myself or whatnot. And so I'm just, it's hard for me to be in your presence. And then Beth is like, girl, you think I got it together.

I've just been waiting for a moment. I was like, I got to deal with like, oh, Randall over here. Should we call? Should we do this? Should we do that? Like, I'm trying to have a moment because if I allow myself to go there, it hurts.

Right. The absence of this young lady in my life hurts a lot. And I just wanted to have an opportunity to think about something else. He wouldn't give it to me. We see all this candy on the bed from being, you know, upset that she's had. And these two sisters have a really lovely moment. Yeah. Right? Which like they start off talking about how they barely know each other or Kate mentions that. But to have like a moment of connection to building a relationship with each other, it was a really lovely special moment.

Then we finish with Beth and Randall sort of talking about how we need to let go. She's like, yeah, I need to do something. I can't remember the whole thing, you guys. But at the end of it, Deja comes.

She comes to the house? No, they see her in her car. They're walking. They go, no, they're going home and Beth says, hey, can you make a turn here? Yeah, to go check on her. And they go to turn, they go to the place where she's supposed to be staying with Shauna and see her sister walk down the hallway. Is Shauna in here? No, she don't live here no more.

They wind up coming out of the house, going around the corner, and they see Deja and her mom living in the car. Yeah. And that's where that episode ends. That's right. Yep. Right? Yep. So you want to get to the fan segment? Yeah. All right. That was full. That was a lot. We talked a lot. We went a lot of places. We'll be back with our favorite segment of the show. Fan segment. More That Was Us after this break. We'll be right back.

Hot take. Hot take. Hot take. Hot take. The three of us cannot harmonize. All right. It's time to stir the pot. Listen, we know This Is Us fans have a lot of feelings about the show, and we love seeing the debates, the theories, and of course, the hot takes that come out of it. So we combed through social media and our inbox, and you guys did not hold back. Some of these are...

Very spicy. Let's get into it. Agree, disagree, or somewhere in between, here are some of your hottest takes about This Is Us.

Okay. So Carmela G says, I think Randall was probably born at least a day before he was brought to the hospital. Well, I guess so, yeah. And even Randall points that out in one of the episodes, which would make him number one. We were just talking. I made this hot take a couple of episodes ago. Did you really? And I felt the two of you bristle because I was getting in your family business. No, no, no, no, no.

but it's true. I think the order in which he came to the family, he's number three. I think he's the oldest, but he does refer to Kev as like big brother sometimes. That's right. Well. Which is, because, I don't know, he's bigger than me. I'm just going to say, hot take, that's the source of all of their problems.

All right, who's next? Go ahead. In real life, Kate and Toby never, that's how it's spelled if you're watching, never would have gotten divorced. They were made for each other and would have found the groove. This is interesting. So because we had an inkling, like you didn't know for sure.

whether or not the marriage was gonna go in perpetuity. But we knew that we were seeing all these different walks of life. And I remember talking to you, you're like, "Eventually somebody had to get divorced." - Yeah. - And you kind of figured that it was gonna be you guys, right? - Statistically, someone would. - Yeah. - Were you okay? In terms of how you felt as the storyline play out, were you happy, sad, neither? - I mean, of course it's sad. It certainly, it did make things awkward for me and Chrissy.

Did it? Yeah, it was like, it felt weird. Like it felt, yeah, it felt, you could feel the tension of the situation. As an actor, happy for it. Sure. Challenging. Yes. Exciting, emotional. Right. Ups and downs. But yeah, I guess that hot take falls apart in the first three words, in real life. Yeah.

Let me do Cairo W. I'm reading through a tree, so if I mess up, let me know. Music choir teacher here. My hot take is on Kate's storyline about becoming a teacher, writing an international curriculum that should never...

That is a hot take! It's hot.

That is hype and hot. You said it in the intro, Manny. Some of these are spicy. That one. You know what Kira sounds like? Kira Cara, which are, please forgive me if I'm mispronouncing. I take two ways to say that name. The way that people will like, have you ever watched something with friends of yours who are not in the business and they'll see like a show and they'll be like, I can do that.

Oh, yeah. That's basically what Kira is saying right now. You think you're just going to come in and do what I do? Yeah. I've trained for years to do this. Yeah, that's right. Props. Understand that. In real life, I think you're absolutely right. That's right. We appreciate you, Kira. Can we see some more hot takes, please? I would love it. Go ahead. Madison's character completely changed when she found out she was pregnant. She started off being this funny, quirky character, a bit of a hot mess, and all of a sudden she turned normal, borderline boring. I wish they kept her quirkiness throughout the show. That is a hot take. Hot take. Hot take.

Good God. Well, I will say I understand what you mean, but I will also say that parenthood makes us all pretty boring. It does. The victor all of them. She was actually cool. And then borderline boring. Which is what I'm going to be spending the rest of my life telling my kids. But you know what? No! You made me borderline boring. I had a motorcycle. Your mother and I used to make love in exotic places.

Now look at us! Covered in hummus! Covered in hummus! It's the thing that happens as you get older. You guys tell me how you clock this.

The divide between your single friends and your married friends where your single friends are like, come on, let's go out to this place. It's going to be really cool. You're like, no, I can't take care of these kids. But there also is a secret part of me that blames it on the kids, but it's also like, that place is not going to be cool. And I'm glad I have this excuse. And you know what? It's 845. Good night.

Let me read this next one here, 'cause you have a better angle of time to read around the tree. - You got it, you got it. - All right, this is Sarah J. "My hot take is that Jack would have never abandoned his brother, Nicky, after the Vietnam situation, and he wouldn't have lied to his mother or family about Nicky's death. The way Jack handled the entire Nicky situation was so out of character." - Sarah J., first of all, you do not come into this house and talk about Jack Pearson.

all right there's a hot take on your hot take i think the thing about jack pearson is that he's like an onion like we we're constantly finding out things about him and i think he did keep things close to the vest yeah you know what i'm saying so i when she says that it's out of character i've seen a number of enough incidents with jack and rebecca where he decided to keep feelings or information to himself

to say that I'm going to push back on that one a little bit. Yeah, I'll push back on that too. Yeah, yeah, that's it. I'm not entirely sure that I agree with that. I think Jack is so beloved and understandably and necessarily so that when we see him do things that feel like

aren't loving or like in character with somebody who we love, I think it makes us bristle. While we're all human beings and we all have all these different colors and you just love them anyway. You know what I'm saying? I think that's what it is.

That's my take. I've kind of scanned this next one. It's a hopeful one, but I don't really see a hot take in it. So I'll read it. I'll read it. And if there's no hot take, we will accept the comment and move on to the next one. I wish we could have seen more of Miguel and Rebecca's story and seeing them fall in love years later after Jack passed away. I obviously love that Jack and Rebecca's relationship is...

It's so special. And a part of the show. However, as the show went on, I came to appreciate Miguel and all he did for the Pearsons. I enjoyed seeing him take care of Rebecca as she got older and the Alzheimer's took effect. I loved his episode in season six.

Bravo. It made me cry. He became one of my favorites early on. I just wish we could have seen more of him and even more of Rebecca and Miguel's story. Stephanie's a Brit. Look at how she spells favorites. I mean, I don't know if that's such a

- Crazy hot takes? I feel like I've heard that from people. - I mean, I guess we saw some of it, but she would have liked to have seen more. - The only hot take I see in there is her saying, "He became one of my favorites early on." - Yeah, that's a hot take. - Get out of here, hot takes. - Well, I'll say this. I don't know if we're gonna see one, but like Miguel, some of the things that I responded to on Instagram, there was a brother who was like, "I will never like Miguel." - Yeah, that's right.

Okay, Jack had a tendency to run away from his trauma's issues. His parents, his brother, et cetera. Each kid inherited that in their own way, whether that be running or clinging desperately to save the relationship to avoid pain. That was the family addiction. Not alcohol, weight issues like Kevin was trying to apply in the family therapy episode. Ooh, upside down face. That was the family addiction. Run away from trauma. Yes.

This might not be as much a hot take as just a little bit of preaching going on. I kind of agree with that. Yeah. I kind of agree with that. Because all of the quote-unquote addictions, addictions are not the problem. Addictions are attempted solutions. Yeah.

Sure. Two-way problem. Right, right, right. And the problem was this thing that they were all kind of equally running from in one way or another. She kind of just nailed the show. Yeah. Yeah, I think also it is...

human nature to run from trauma issues. - Yes. - I think one of the reasons why we have therapy is to be able to face and deal in a healthy way with the traumas that are affecting and impacting you in your everyday life, right? I've had conversations with friends and I take this for granted because as an actor, we tend to be a bit more introspective where a friend of mine said literally to me, he's like, "Why would I wanna dig that stuff up?" - Yeah. - "That would be painful. I don't wanna deal with that. That stuff is done." - Yeah.

And meaning it and thinking that it's actually done, done. Sure. Right? Like most of us just want to put one foot in front of the other and sort of keep it moving. It's not about living necessarily your best life. It's like, this is the life I got to live. Let me just keep living it. Yeah. Right? It hurts. Yep. To face shit. That's right. You know? That's right. And so I think that is, is the show, is life. It's the reason why the horror genre is so,

eternally popular. The metaphor of any horror movie is being chased by some kind of trauma, some horror, some demons, some devil, some killer. And you can run as much as you want. Eventually, you're going to have to face that shit. You have to turn and fight. Come on, bro. You got to turn and fight it. Amanda S. What? Hot take. There should have been a scene where we see Jack propose to Rebecca.

I disagree. I mean, do we not? Hot take on a hot take. Do we not? Hot take on a hot take. There's no proposal? No.

with all the grand gestures that have transpired, we never see like the actual- - Yeah, but I'm like, I feel like it's fine. There was enough- - Hot take. - Enough between them that we witnessed throughout the course of the show. - Take that, Amanda. Rebecca says, "Pfft." - There you go. That's it. Let's see. Sal Marina Tratt says, "I don't like the fact that Sophie ended up with Kevin because he finally got his shit together. She deserved better and it felt too predictable and easy." - Hot take!

Okay, well, let's see. Here's the secret. We didn't know if it was going to be with Sophie or not. She got a show going on in Canada. It all depends on Sophie's availability.

on her shoot schedule was alex available was alex available i've heard this before i've heard like it would have been interesting to see him and madison figure it out they actually have children together and a reason to sort of do it yeah the only thing i'll say to that is just because you had the kids necessarily if you weren't in a relationship before that was loving and full yeah i don't know if the kids are the reason to oh man especially especially since madison became so boring yeah

Kevin just couldn't do that to himself. Yeah. He needed somebody not so boring. Listen, is it predictable? Is it whatever? Sure, maybe. But sometimes so is life. It is satisfying. For me as a viewer, not as a person on the show, as a viewer, I wanted to see that union. That's right. It made me feel good. I like feeling good. That's right. I'm taking it. Hot take. Hot take. Hot take. Hot take.

Hey, everybody. It's Sterling back with another installation of the Retread segment. The Retread is brought to you by Peloton. Find your push. Find your power with Peloton. What did we talk about on this episode? We learned a lot in this episode. Vegas, baby. We learned that not everything that happens in Vegas stayed in Vegas. This is true. We learned that Mandy had a little bit of FOMO.

because she couldn't join us on this trip. I really wanted to be in Vegas. She wanted to be there and we missed you. It's true. We learned that Justin is a Zen Buddhist. He is a Zen Buddhist. And that he, some behind the scenes gossip, you guys were shooting in old Vegas. Yes. And someone was heckling Justin. That is correct. He kept it as cool as a cucumber. Didn't let him, knock him off his game. That's right. We also learned about P-Slap.

- Peen slaps? - Yes. - Yeah. - Peen slaps. - Peen slaps, yeah. - Yeah, sorry, peen slaps. - We also learned that if you have not seen Magic Mike Live in Las Vegas, buy your tickets immediately. - There's some aggressive, aggressive humping in that show. - Chris and Justin had one of the best dates of Chris's life.

Shooting guns. And that's fun. And eating sushi. This was the trip that I fell in love with Justin Hartley. I'm not mad at it. And trust me, he will be on our show soon. We're working on it. People said he's coming. We talked about codependence and our different definitions. I mean, there was a lot. We also talked about our delightful relationships with our siblings. This has been The Retread brought to you by Peloton. Find your push. Find your power with Peloton.

That Was Us is filmed at Rabbit Grin Studios and produced by Rabbit Grin Productions. Music by Taylor Goldsmith and Griffin Goldsmith. That was us.