Did the bell on that yard just smoke? Well, a fork in them: KaToby are basically done.
Above on Tuesday This is usKate extends an olive branch to Toby as she leaves the cabin after her 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. Great idea, right? He thinks for sure. But things are going well biergof down until the end of the hour, when it becomes clear that Toby is the Asshat he sometimes hinted at.
Oh yeah, I’m going to HAM on ol ‘Tobes from here on out. Who’s with me? Read on for the highlights of “The Hill.”
TREADING WATER | Let’s get through the flashbacks first. Because this episode is the middle installation of a three-part formation, it covers much of the same physical terrain that was done last week; 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 children cutting into the same pool, although after they are empty, locked and closed for good.
This week’s hours focus on Kate, so back in time, we watch as Rebecca and Jack try to coax their daughter into putting her face in the water. Jack is a little more successful, but Kate can not stop holding her dad long enough to even think about trying to swim. Elsewhere, as we know, Kevin wants to dive stubbornly off the board, even though he’s essentially a human rock, and Randall is somewhere an independent parent himself.
When we jump into the night that the elderly Kate and Randall find Kevin drunk and sad in the empty pool, they start to leave only to realize that they accidentally fired the brick that Kev used for the ‘Open gates around the property – so that they are locked.
As she seeks refuge, Kate compares her situation to her 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 that has taken me,” she says, though her brothers try their best to help her think about her true purpose in life.
Finally, the teenagers realize that they have to climb out. Randall walks in first, then Kevin positions himself at the top of the wire fence and tries to lift Kate up. But when she slips on her first attempt, she staunchly refuses to try again.
ALL TOBY> NEW TOBY | Right now, Kate is getting ready for her weekend away. We see her show little Jack (who is really the cutest – even the nasty neighbor Gregory is charming!) As one navigates the walk from his house to the park, and then she hangs out and looks Fight Club with Madison. “Sometimes I imagine hanging out with Old Toby,” Kate says, acknowledging a longing for her husband’s version that existed before he lost weight and became more confident. Madison assures her that Old Toby “is still in it. Go find him.”
But even before Kate leaves her house, New Toby calls to say that a business meeting will stand in his way of picking her up at the airport. She says it’s good, but after hanging up, she sees Old Toby in the mirror. (Yes, fat suit and hard shirt and all.) “Dir would have picked me up, “she says. (” TWO TOBYS ARE TWO MUCH, “I say.)
When she arrives, things seem good: Toby admits that he’s a little nervous about taking her to bed because it’s so long, but all is well … until he gets out of bed for to take a job call. Old Toby shows up, makes some bad jokes, mocks New Toby’s slimmer body and is halfway through Chris Farley’s “fat man in a small coat” bit Tommy Jong before she gets upset and holds him. “God,” he says, “but you will miss me.”
‘KATOBY’S DAY BY THE BAY | That seems to be the case, especially when New Toby takes her for a walk the next day to show her a house for sale. He apparently met the Realtor a few times and even got her approved for a loan in advance, and I’m surprised how little he realized she was not anywhere on board with this plan. Can he not see her face? Instead, he ignores everything and gives her the hard sale: “Kate, we can do this. We can make a living here together. But the fact that he wants to make an offer in a few days does not suit her at all.
Finally, Toby recognizes what it is and apologizes to her as she waits for a lift to a cocktail party at her boss’s. If the driver cancels before picking them up, Kate suggests they go for a walk. Didn’t Toby say that his boss lived by it? But the San Francisco-style walk is very uphill. And even though Tobes does not say it in so many words, he does not think she can hack the clot. They call another car.
All of Toby’s colleagues are kind, and Kate wonders if one of them accidentally drops a bomb: Toby got a job offer from a company based in Los Angeles, but he refused. This is news to Kate, who coldly informs Toby that she’s leaving. “You lied to me, and you made me a fool there,” she says, after tears. He replies that it was an old job to which he had applied, the offer had just passed and it was laughing low. Still, she is angry.
GO SF YOURSELF | At home, he tells her that everything he does is for her family. She replies that the roots of Jack, who just navigates comfortably in her home and neighborhood, are not a great move for her family. Toby contradicts that Jack’s schooling and adaptive technologies cost a lot of money, but he becomes evasive when she pressures him for exactly how much more money he makes in San Francisco than he would at work in Los Angeles. “It’s not just about the money, is it?” She realizes, adding that he’s pretty much the happiest person you’ve ever been, right?
The fight gets worse. Kate says she no longer knows who Toby is and that she misses “the goofy guy from our first date”. She lets herself slip that she imagined Old Toby, and New Toby is a huge jerk for her about it. Old Toby, New Toby says, “was a mess. He was miserable and insecure and of course … Kate, you’re in love with a coping mechanism. Then he says she is also changed, and that she is happier to be a supermom and to live with her brother than she ever was when he was in Los Angeles. She admits that she feels healthy, connected and focused “except for the one thing that makes me really, really sad.”
The next morning, after she has cooled down, Toby admits that he should discuss the LA offer with her, “even if it was not good.” And he’s glad he’s appreciated at work, and she’s feeling back in Los Angeles. However, he decrees that they must move to San Francisco, and that is that. “I need you to get on board,” he says. “Moving here is the only way we can stay with a family. It’s the only option.” Kate has some great feelings about it all, but she just says she’s going outside for some air.
She stands at the base of the hill next to Toby’s apartment, looking at the distance he thought she could not climb the night before. She goes up the whole thing. At the top, triumphantly, she calls out to Phillip and asks to be considered for a recently released teaching position at the school. Doesn’t sound like someone who’s ready to move, does it?
Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!
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