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This Is Us Season 5 has been dropping clues about Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Toby’s (Chris Sullivan) relationship, and it looks like there’s a bit of trouble ahead. The couple just escaped a rough patch at the end of the fourth season. But recent episodes have caused some fans to worry. So is Kate and Toby’s marriage in any danger? Following the April 6 episode, This Is Us writers teased what to expect next.

Toby gets honest with Madison in ‘This Is Us’ Season 5 Episode 12

Chris Sullivan as Toby comforting Chrissy Metz as Kate in ‘This Is Us’ Season 5 Episode 3
Chris Sullivan as Toby and Chrissy Metz as Kate in ‘This Is Us’ Season 5 | NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

When Kate and Toby adopted Hailey in This Is Us Season 5, Toby revealed he lost his job. Then when Toby couldn’t find work, Kate became an assistant music teacher. So Toby became a stay-at-home dad with baby Jack and Hailey.

In This Is Us Season 5 Episode 12, titled “Both Things Can Be True,” Toby told Madison (Caitlin Thompson) he was having a hard time adjusting. That said, Toby bottled up his feelings around Kate. 

“I think I’m having a harder time with this whole stay-at-home dad thing, much harder than I’m letting on to Kate,” Toby told Madison. “The thing is, I loved my job. … And I love my kids. But if I’m being honest, I don’t love spending 10 hours a day with them.”

‘This Is Us’ Season 5 writers hint what’s next for Toby and Kate’s relationship 

As you may remember, Toby had a difficult time being honest with Kate in This Is Us Season 4. Toby didn’t tell his wife about his weight loss. Meanwhile, he chose to confide in the CrossFit Crew. 

Now, it seems the cycle is starting again in This Is Us Season 5. Then when speaking with Entertainment Weekly, writer Danielle Bauman and co-executive producer K.J. Steinberg suggested that Toby’s decision to bottle things up may have consequences with Kate.

“[Toby] was talking about historically the trouble that arises in his marriage when he’s not honest. And he chooses in that moment to bottle stuff up. That’s going to have a ripple effect,” Steinberg said. “I’m not saying it’s irrevocable, but certainly consequential.”

Then Bauman added, “It’s a tough pattern we can all relate to, once you’ve gotten into the groove of ‘I’m going to hold this in.’ And it’s something he’s still working on.”

What Chris Sullivan previously said about Kate and Toby’s future

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For now, This Is Us fans will have to watch how Kate and Toby’s storyline unfolds. But when speaking with Entertainment Weekly in October 2020, Sullivan revealed season 5 will give into “the long term health of Toby and Kate’s relationship.”

Nevertheless, Sullivan suggested that there’s plenty of story left before Toby and Kate’s fate is revealed.

“You know that [creator Dan Fogelman] and the writers are going to have surprises and twists and turns all along these paths,” Sullivan said. “There is no straight line from point A to point B. There’s just not a lot that we either know at this point or can share.”

This Is Us Season 5 airs Tuesday nights on NBC.

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