The mystery of Mark continues. At the end of the October 22 episode of This Is Us, adult Kate (Chrissy Metz) found a photo of her young self with her college-aged boyfriend, Mark (Austin Abrams). “I wanted to believe so badly that you kids were happy, I didn’t see what was happening,” Rebecca (Mandy Moore) said to her. “I didn’t see it either,” Kate responded.
So, what is it that they missed? Answers will be coming soon, Metz, 39, promised.
“We’re going to find out more information, but obviously we know that this has impacted her in such a way that she still talks about it with her mother,” the singer told Us Weekly exclusively at the NBC x Vanity Fair Celebration of the Season event on Monday, November 11. “It’s very clear something traumatic happened. So we’re going to get to see that, how she’s affected and how that is, of course, taken into her adulthood.”
As for if what happened with Mark impacted her weight and her happiness as an adult, Metz explained that “everything impacts everything,” especially at a young age.
“There’s nothing that can be separated from anything. Whether we believe it or we see it or not, it absolutely impacts every choice. Every experience shapes the next,” she explained, adding that while very different both Jack’s (Milo Ventimiglia) death and Mark’s mystery affected Kate’s life. “Everybody’s traumas, they touch and change different parts of us. Jack was the first man she ever really trusted and loved, and it was her father. I think she’s looking for that, constantly, and maybe Mark’s not the guy that she can love and trust.”
She also added that Toby (Chris Sullivan) does know about Mark, but my not know “all the details.”
Earlier in the episode, Mark showed up to the house uninvited and Kate was forced to introduce him to her family.
“That will definitely prove to be symbolic of Mark’s larger personality. He’s obviously somebody that goes for what he wants and feels entitled to show up to a place even when he’s not invited,” executive producer Elizabeth Berger told Entertainment Weekly at the time. “We do feel like that is a little bit of a tell for where we’re going and what this guy is all about.”
This Is Us airs on NBC Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
With reporting by Emily Marcus
