‘This Is Us’ Boss Reveals If We’ve Seen The Last Of Kate’s Boyfriend Marc, What Jack Would Have Thought Of Him
Warning: This article contains spoilers from the This Is Us episode “The Cabin.”
This Is Us fans have seen the last of teen Kate’s toxic relationship — for now. Following the gut-wrenching episode “The Cabin,” viewers were left reeling from the actions of Kate’s (Hannah Zeile) bad boy boyfriend Marc (Austin Abrams), but that doesn’t mean the abusive ex record store employee is gone for good.
In “The Cabin” episode, not only did Marc lock Kate out of her own house and leave her outside in the freezing cold, but he broke one of her late dad’s most prized possessions. While an angry Rebecca (Mandy Moore) ultimately showed up and ordered Marc out of her daughter’s life, many fans wonder what Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) would have thought of Katie Girl’s first boyfriend.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, This Is Us executive producers Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger explained why the show’s writers chose to saddle Kate with a traumatic first relationship. The This Is Us EPs pointed out that the “beautiful” young love stories of teen Kevin and Sophie and teen Randall and Beth are “very charmed,” but early love does not always look that way.
“That’s just not everyone’s experience, so it felt like we had to accurately portray all the ways that early love can look — and unfortunately this is one of them,” Aptaker said.
The showrunners also addressed one of the most heartbreaking moments in the episode when Marc taunted Kate with the “World’s Best Dad” mug that had Jack’s picture on it before smashing it to pieces. Berger is pretty sure it wasn’t an accident, and she also thinks that even Kate knew her dad would not have approved of her boyfriend.
“There’s something about somebody who is not treating you well holding an object that used to belong to the person that treated you better than anyone in the world that is absolutely resonating with her,” Berger said. “And yeah, I think on some level she also knew, ‘If my dad was here, he would hate this guy,’ All of that is playing out as he’s standing in front of her holding that mug.”
On social media, fans are sure Jack would have never tolerated Marc’s treatment of his girl.
“Kate would’ve never been with Marc if Jack was still alive.,” one fan tweeted.
“You know damn well Jack would’ve tossed that DAMN Marc out on his a** on the first date with Kate period!!” another wrote on Twitter.
While Kate seemed relieved when her mom and brother showed up to “rescue” her from Marc, this may not be the last time viewers see her disgruntled ex. Aptaker cryptically said, “For the time being, that’s the last we’ll see of Marc.”
On a show that jumps through time, that’s not very encouraging.
