On the heels of a Thanksgiving episode that focused on Pearson matriarch Rebecca (Mandy Moore) celebrating the family-focused holiday at three different points in her life, “The Guitar Man” explores how Kevin interprets the directive his mother issued to each of her children at the Thanksgiving dinner that was set in the present day: To spend the final years of her life living their lives to the fullest. Similar to Rebecca’s episode, “Taboo,” “The Guitar Man” also follows a single Pearson through several different moments in time, exploring Kevin’s memories of childhood and young adulthood, as well as seeing him through a challenging experience in the present day. Here’s everything we learned in the Milo Ventimiglia-directed episode, “The Guitar Man.”
Do Kevin and Cassidy end up together on This Is Us?
After being instructed by his mother on last week’s episode to “be fearless,” Kevin bids his siblings farewell at the cabin and sets off to “live my fearless best life for mom.” But then, after returning to L.A., Kevin decides to take his kids across the country back to the cabin, which literally everyone in his life expresses doubts about, from his coworkers to his siblings. Randall (Sterling K. Brown) seems especially skeptical of Kevin’s mention that Cassidy (Jennifer Morrison) will be there helping Nicky (Griffin Dunne), but Kevin insists “it’s not like that.” At the cabin, Nicky greets Kevin and the twins; Nicky’s new girlfriend Edie (Vanessa Bell Calloway) and Cassidy’s 12-year-old son Matty (Noah Salsbury Lipson) are there too. Kevin is dismayed to learn they’re “demoing” before construction has even started, but apparently the crew poured the foundation wrong. But when Kevin begins to freak out, Cassidy and Nicky both put him in his place with some perspective, with Nicky reminding Kevin that Cassidy has had things a lot harder than he has. Properly chagrined, Kevin apologizes to Cassidy, but not before Edie gets in a pointed dig about how unsurprising it is that their relationship didn’t work out. Later that night, Kevin is awakened by a phone call alerting him that Cassidy’s been in a car accident. “Car accident?” he says in confusion, arguing that it’s impossible as he opens the door to her bedroom. But when he looks inside, he realizes she’s gone. Kevin and Nicky rush to the hospital, where they learn that Cassidy is going to be okay, but will be uncomfortable since she refused any painkillers, due to her history with addiction. The doctor also reveals that Cassidy drove straight into a pole, a fact which sails right over Kevin’s head, but seems to land on Nicky with some gravity. As Kevin walks out celebrating that Cassidy’s injuries will heal, Nicky drops a dose of reality on his head, explaining that in Afghanistan, Cassidy worked “human intelligence,” meaning she knows how to sell messages she doesn’t mean. Nicky insists that Cassidy is not okay, reminding him that both Jack and Nicky carried the stress of Vietnam with them for years after coming home from the war, and that Cassidy is in trouble, even if Kevin didn’t notice any signs. But when Kevin says he’s not sure how to help her, Nicky tells him to “just be,” saying that Kevin’s presence may be enough. So Kevin stays. In true Kevin fashion, he then unloads every thought in his head on an unsuspecting stranger in the waiting room, who doesn’t utter a word (or show any interest, really) throughout Kevin’s monologue about how Cassidy is one of the only people in the world he cares about, outside of his family, and how Kevin wants to be a better person. Once he’s done, a nurse tells him that he is finally allowed to see a banged-up Cassidy. After telling her that Matty is okay, Kevin says that he won’t ask her about what happened, but that he will stay with her. “I’m not going anywhere,” he says. Looking despondent, Cassidy admits that she doesn’t sleep well, and sometimes goes for a drive to clear her head. She’s haunted by the ghosts of people she knew from Afghanistan, both those she left behind and those who came back only to die here. She often feels crushed by the weight of it all, but the previous night, she felt happy. When she went for a drive, she still was happy, but as she felt herself falling asleep, instead of stopping, she sped up. Back at the cabin, Kevin calls Matty’s dad and arranges for him to come pick up Matty. After getting off the phone, Matty worries about seeing his mom, and Kevin suggests they make a painting for her, which is something Jack used to do with Kevin when he was overwhelmed by his feelings. When Matty leaves, Kevin sends his guitar with him. At the hospital. Nicky puts Cassidy in touch with a readjustment counselor at the VA, refusing to accept her assurances that she’ll be fine. Cassidy accepts the card he offers, looking grateful. When she returns to the cabin, Kevin gives her the master bedroom, and Nicky notices a sketch of a logo Kevin has been working on for Big Three Homes. Kevin suggests hiring more vets to build even more homes.
Is Kevin married in the future on This Is Us?
We still don’t know if Kevin winds up a husband by the end of This Is Us Season 6, but for now, we do know that by the end of “The Guitar Man,” he’s feeling newly confident in his abilities as a father (and, y’know, a “solid” grown-up). When Kevin and the twins fly back to L.A., a flight attendant watches him interact with this kids and tells him, “You’re good,” to which he responds, “I’m getting there.” That’s kind-of a reference to what happened in the circa-2000 flashback of this episode, when teenaged Randall (Niles Fitch) and Kate (Hannah Zeile) track down an obviously drunk Kevin (Logan Shroyer) at the abandoned community pool. After reminiscing about their childhood pool memories, Kevin tells his siblings that he doesn’t belong in the deep end, like the other two. He belongs in the shallow end, “because I’m shallow,” and doesn’t have what it takes. He doesn’t have the right… “foundation,” Randall supplies.
Does Kevin quit acting on This Is Us?
In the 2000s flashback, lamenting the end of his marriage and his lack of potential, Kevin also toys with the idea of quitting acting and staying in Pittsburgh to go into construction, like their father. “Dad was solid,” he muses. As they leave, Kate tells him he may be a shallow screw-up, but that he’ll figure it out someday. So maybe he will quit acting before the end of Season 6 for a more “solid” life with a better “foundation,” or maybe he’ll figure out how to build that for himself while still making it in Hollywood.
What happens next week on This Is Us?
The May 22 installment of This Is Us, titled “The Hill,” will be the second of the Big Three trilogy and will focus on Kate (ChrissyMetz). If Kevin’s episode is any indication, it will likely revisit Kate’s past as a child and as a young adult, but focus mainly on her time in the present. Currently, the biggest conflict in Kate’s life is with her husband, Toby (Chris Sullivan), and trying to maintain a long-distance marriage as he travels back and forth between their home in L.A. and his job in San Francisco. We’ve known since the end of Season 5 that Kate and Toby are headed for divorce, and the previous Season 6 episode “Taboo” showed them arguing constantly throughout the Pearson family’s Thanksgiving celebration over how to feed their son, Jack. Based on their trajectory so far, we expect Kate’s episode will center largely around her issues with Toby, and perhaps begin to setup her eventual relationship with her coworker, Phillip (ChrisGeere), who we saw her preparing to marry in the Season 5 finale. If you, like Kevin, know someone who is struggling and don’t know what to say to them, here are 21 things not to say to someone with depression (and what to say instead).
