6 This Is Us Season 6 Theories Fans Have After Watching Season 5's Finale

Fans know quite a bit about the Damon family’s future. For example, Toby has shown up (seemingly very single) in the 2030s. Moreover, he still lives in the house he and Kate share now. Also, Jack Damon, their son, will grow up in this house, with the garage as his personal music studio.

What happened to Kate has been a mystery until now, but the main theories were either divorce or a tragic early death. With the new flash-forward, fans know the former will happen (and hopefully just the former). More importantly, by the looks of the Season 5 finale, Kate’s second husband will be her current co-worker, her fellow music teacher, Phillip.

So, how does Kate and Toby’s marriage unravel? How come he gets the house? Fans have so many questions, all of which they hope to be answered next season.

When Randall Pearson jumped into Philly politics in Season 3, his wife Beth wasn’t the only one who was shocked. Fans have been wary of what a successful career in the spotlight might do to the Pearson’s stable marriage, even as they’ve recognized that the adopted member of the Pearson triplets seems to have found his calling.

Even so, no one really expected Randall to take it national. However, a new New Yorker article seen in the 2020s flash-forward indicates the Philadelphia councilman is about to break out of local level fame and hit the big time. As Randall is an undisputed fan-favorite, viewers are sincerely anxious to see how this plays out and if Randall is headed for the Governor’s mansion, the House and Senate chambers, or the White House.

Like Toby being alive and single in the 2030s, fans have already seen a content Kevin living in the house Jack once dreamed of building for their family. His two kids with Madison are there, and Kevin has a wedding band on. So eventually, a second wedding is in the cards for him.

But to who? One thing fans couldn’t help but notice is how comfortable he and Madison are with each other at Kate’s future nuptials. Could the finale’s canceled wedding wind up just being a postponement? Of course, there are several other candidates Kevin’s been connected to along the way, from Season 4’s Cassidy Sharp to the eternal flame of his first wife, Sophie. Fans need This Is Us to fill in these blanks for Season 6.

Even before the finale, fans already knew that Nicky was taking the first steps to locating Sally, his first girlfriend and “the one who got away.” Viewers had already seen a wedding ring on his finger in the 2030s, so they knew he would get hitched. The question is: To whom?

Whoever it is, Nicky has married her by the mid-2020s, and he’s a good husband, as seen by him racing out to get wedding stockings when requested. But fans are still no closer to knowing who she might be. Sally is one candidate, but would an aging hippie feel the desire to be so formal as to wear stockings to a wedding? There’s also Cassidy, who has become Nicky’s BFF. (As a former soldier, she might be that formal. But also, as any of her fellow millennials will tell you, stockings are no longer fashionable, so perhaps not.)

One theory fans can toss out: the idea that Nicky becomes Rebecca’s third husband. The way he says to Kevin, “The wife wanted stockings, what was I supposed to do?” indicates he’s not talking about the Pearson matriarch. Otherwise, he would have said, “Your mother wanted stockings.”

This Is Us Season 1 was focused mainly on the past, introducing the Pearson clan’s history and building the mythos of Jack, the late family patriarch. But since the series revealed the details of his death mid-Season 2, the focus has slowly reversed. Over the last three seasons, the Pearson story has become the story of Rebecca, the silent pillar of the family.

Fans know she eventually remarried Miguel, and they know she will pass away surrounded by those who love her come 2030. But a lot of the family’s recent past gaps have been left unexamined by skipping over the details of the former. Moreover, the future of the family is tied up in her decline. Of all the stories fans anticipate being the focal point of Season 6, Rebecca’s later years are the ones they want to see most.

As many series have discovered in the age of prestige TV, you can hold the audience, but god forbid you fail to stick the landing. As the series rounds into its final 18 episodes, This Is Us will have to face that hurdle, giving viewers an ending that satisfies.

What fans suspect is that the final hour will be a wrap-up that extends from one end of the Pearson clan to the other. Showrunner Dan Fogelman already revealed certain finale scenes were shot early to capture child actors at certain ages before they grew up. That has fans leaning towards a finale that hits multiple periods on the way out the door, if not every period, from Jack and Nicky’s 1950s childhood to Jack Jr.’s impending fatherhood in 2050. If so, it could be a tearjerker for the ages. But then again, if it weren’t, it would be This Is Us.