(Warning: This post contains spoilers for Episode 305 of “This Is Us,” titled “Toby.”)
Well, you can forget about “her” because we have a new mystery woman who has entered into the Pearsons’ tale: a woman who Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) knew in Vietnam, and who Kevin (Justin Hartley) just discovered is wearing the necklace his father gave to him as a teen, in an old picture of Jack during the war.
Actually, don’t for about “her,” because we still really need to know who Randall and Tess are going to see in the future.
However, “This Is Us”s co-showrunner Elizabeth Berger told Entertainment Weekly this character — who was introduced briefly with her son in the “Vietnam” episode last week, and again during the closing moment’s of Tuesday’s Toby-centric episode — is going to be part of “a complex story,” and might actually, possibly, relate to that other “her.”
“That would be truly incredible,” Berger told EW when asked if these two mysteries tie together.
But that’s all we get for the moment, as the bigger question here right now is how does this mystery woman (played by Porter Duong) relate to Jack?
“Obviously, she is a part of Jack’s larger Vietnam story and what happened over there, and I think we can all feel that Kevin is inching closer and closer to finally launching that journey and getting himself to Vietnam,” Berger said. “We are definitely going to get answers, and we’re definitely going to see the way she fits into the larger puzzle.
Berger says it “a really complex story” that will unfold as we travel back in time more, and with Kevin to Vietnam in the present day.
“Any relationship between an American soldier and a Vietnamese woman at that time is going to be so complex, and bring with it so much loaded history, that it is safe to say that it is not going to be the most typical relationship,” Berger said.
This woman was first introduced when we saw her running after her son who was delivery some fish to Jack. Is that little boy going to be someone Kevin seeks out when he arrives in Vietnam? Berger told EW that’s a “good question.”
“I mean, all of these pieces are swirling, and we’re going to pay them off. The question for Kevin is going to be: Who is left in that village, where he’ll get these answers?” Berger said. “In some ways the journey is so abstract, even if you have a photograph with you. It’s going to be a constant quest for him to get the answers he needs, and they’re going to come from unexpected places and people we haven’t necessarily met yet. But definitely these people that we’re meeting along the way are all part of the larger fabric of the story over there.”
“This Is Us” airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on NBC.