Just rang the bell on that backyard smoker? Because, stick a fork in them: KaToby is basically done.
Top of Tuesday This is usKate extends an olive branch to Toby as they leave the cabin after their combative Thanksgiving dinner: She will come to San Francisco for a weekend and they can start thinking about whether it’s a good idea to move to the city where Toby works. Good idea, right? He certainly means that. But things are going well downhill uphill at the end of the class when it becomes clear that Toby is the ass he has occasionally hinted to be.
Oh yeah, I walk HIM on old Tobes from here and in. Who’s with me? Read on for the highlights of “The Hill”.
TREAD WATER | Let’s get through flashbacks first. Because this episode is the middle part of a three-part set, it covers much of the same physical reason that last week did; The way back segments take place during a Pearson family visit to the local public pool, and the young adult Big 3 segments take place with the kids sneaking into the same pool, however, after it has been emptied, unlocked and shut down forever.
This week’s hour is centered on Kate, so in time back we see how both Rebecca and Jack try to entice their daughter to put her face in the water. Jack is a little more successful, but Kate can not stop clinging to her father long enough to even think about trying to swim. Elsewhere, as we know, Kevin stubbornly wants to dive off the board, even though he’s basically a human rock, and Randall is somewhere self-sufficient in becoming a parent.
As we jump to the night when older Kate and Randall find Kevin drunk and sad in the empty pool, they start walking to realize that they accidentally got rid of the brick that Kev used to open the gate around the property – so they are locked inside.
As they search for a way out, Kate compares their predicament to her being stuck in Pittsburgh with no life and no real plans for the future. “The only thing I get excited about is eating ice cream at the end of the day, but we can all see where it has taken me,” she says, though her brothers do their best to help her think about her true purpose. with life.
Eventually, the teens realize they will have to climb out. Randall walks first, then Kevin places himself on top of the wire fence and tries to help Kate up. But when she slips on her first try, she vehemently refuses to try again.
OLD TOBY> NEW TOBY | Right now, Kate is getting ready for her weekend. We see her show little Jack (who is seriously the cutest – even the grumpy neighbor Gregory is charmed!) How to navigate the walk from her house to the park, and then she hangs out and watches. Kampklub with Madison. “Sometimes I imagine hanging out with Old Toby,” Kate says, confessing a longing for the version of her husband that existed before he lost weight and became more confident. Madison assures her that Old Toby “is still in there. Go and find him.”
But even before Kate leaves her house, New Toby calls to say that a business meeting will stand in the way of him picking her up at the airport. She says it’s fine, but after she hangs up, she looks at old Toby in the mirror. (Yep, fatsuit and high shirt and all.) “You would have picked me up, ”she says. (“TWO TOBYS ARE TWO MANY,” I say.)
Once she’s arrived, it looks good: Toby admits he’s a little nervous about taking her to bed since it’s so long ago, but all is well … until he gets out of bed to take a work call. Old Toby shows up, makes some bad jokes, mocks New Toby’s slimmer body and is halfway inside Chris Farley’s “fat guy in a little coat” bit from Tommy boy before she gets upset and stops him. “Good,” he says, “but you’ll miss me.”
‘CATOBY’S DAY AT THE BOW | That seems to be the case, especially when New Toby takes her on a trip the next day to show her a house for sale. He’s apparently met with the real estate agent a few times and even gotten them pre-approved for a loan, and I’m struck by how little he realizes she’s nowhere near this plan. Can’t he see her face? Instead, he ignores everything and gives her the hard sale: “Kate, we can do this. We can create a life out here together.” But the fact that he will make an offer in a few days does not suit her at all.
Eventually, Toby realizes what’s going on and apologizes to her while waiting for a lift for a cocktail party at his boss’s house. When the driver cancels before picking them up, Kate suggests they go. Didn’t Toby say his boss lived close by? But the walk is, in San Francisco style, totally uphill. And even though Tobes does not say it in so many words, he does not think she can hack the climb. They call another car.
All of Toby’s colleagues are cute, and Kate is having fun when one of them inadvertently throws a bomb: Toby received a job offer from a company based in Los Angeles, but he declined. This is news for Kate, who coldly informs Toby that they are leaving. “You lied to me and you made me a fool in there,” she says with tears up close. He replies that it was an old job he had applied for, the offer had just come through and it was ridiculously low. Still, she’s mad.
GO SF YOURSELF | At home, he tells her that everything he does is for their family. She replies that it’s not a good move for their family to uproot Jack, who is just getting used to navigating their homes and neighborhoods. Toby points out that Jack’s schooling and adaptive technologies will cost big money, but he gets evasive when she pressures him about exactly how much more money he makes in San Francisco than he would have on the job in Los Angeles. “It’s not just about the money, is it?” she realizes and adds that he is “pretty much the happiest you’ve ever been, right?” He admits that he is, and then shouts, “Won’t you want it for me ?!”
The fight gets even uglier. Kate says she no longer knows who Toby is and that she misses “the silly guy from our first date.” She lets go of the fact that she’s imagined Old Toby, and New Toby is a giant fool to her about it. Old Toby, says New Toby, “was a mess. He was miserable and insecure and disgusted himself … Kate, you fell in love with a coping mechanism.” Then he says she is changed, too, and that she’s happier being a supermom and living with her brother than she ever was when he was in Los Angeles. She admits she feels healthy, connected and purposeful “except for the one thing that makes me really, really sad.”
The next morning, after they have cooled off, Toby admits that he should have discussed the LA offer with her, “even though it was not a good offer.” And he’s happy that he feels valued at work, and she feels valued back in Los Angeles. However, he decrees that they should move to San Francisco, and that is it. “I need you to come on board,” he says. “Moving here is the only way we can remain a family. It’s the only option.” Kate has some great feelings about it all, but she’s just saying she’s going outside to get some air.
She stands at the bottom of the hill near Toby’s apartment, staring up at the distance he thought she could not climb the night before. She goes up in it all. At the top, triumphantly, she calls Phillip and asks to be considered for a newly released teaching position at the school. Doesn’t that sound like someone ready to move, does it?
Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!