This Is Us stars, the producers on this flash of Toby

Season 3 of That's us wasted little time to plunge back into the mystery "Who is 'his'? One of the last scenes of the premiere on Tuesday had another look two decades later, while Old Randall (Sterling K. Brown) and Adult Tess (Iantha Richardson) were preparing to visit this mysterious woman. But while Tess was stopping in the bathroom, Randall dialed Toby, who was back in bed and not looking well. (He was in a similar state in this not-so-distant flash in the season 2 finale).

"Are you going down?" Randall asked Toby (Chris Sullivan). "I do not know if I should," he replied. "She wants you here," Randall said. Toby finally agreed to come, then we took a larger picture of his bed, which did not contain Kate (Chrissy Metz). Yes, this next piece of the puzzle has sparked more questions, including whether Kate was "her," whether Kate and Toby were still married, and why Toby, of all people, would be tied to this plot of Randall-and-Tess .

What was going on in Sullivan's head when he learned that Toby was going to take into account the mystery of flash-forward? "Job security", it cracks for EW. "Thank God, I survived until a late age. He is an old Toby, so we now know he is in the future. I was surprised. "

Sullivan notes that the scene was filmed with some alternative dialogue lines, so he was interested to see what made the final cut. "We shot in different setups and two different lines, alluding to different things," he says, noting that he knows the mysterious woman's identity well. The actor no longer thinks about Katoby. "I can not say anything, one way or another," he says. "It's a well-constructed scenario."

One of the things that Sullivan is ready to declare: Toby's decision to throw her antidepressants into the toilet behind Kate's back in the hopes that it would help with their fertility struggles was … not good. "It's a terrible idea," he says. "Not recommended. And in the next episodes, we will discover that this is part of the reason [behind] this flash-forward that we saw at the end of season 2. "Seconds TIU Executive Producer Elizabeth Berger: "We showed it last season, it takes it to a very dark place, so we know it will happen. And we will watch it get rid of all season long. "

Metz echoes this feeling, pointing out that Toby's decision is mainly motivated by the mutual anguish of the couple. "There is so much guilt that they both have, and they both share," she told EW. "It's one thing when you want to have a baby and she feels inadequate, as if she were not doing her part as a woman. But Toby says, "I do not do my part as husband or man to help him conceive." They both live the same, but very differently. They try to show one for the other, but it will be difficult, really, really difficult.

Almost as difficult as the guessing game about the mysterious woman's identity. "There is no one who is off the table," says TIU executive producer Aptaker. "We were at [creator Dan Fogelman’s] house north; the three of us went there to work on this episode. We had a very passionate debate at dinner. We knew it was going to be Toby, but how much do we want to show in his life? And what is the right moment to give people just enough time to ask the right questions? And we just decided that he, in a bed well done without someone else, felt so empty – that was the right amount of excitement we wanted to give.

Despite Toby's introduction to the future of flash – and Kate's absence – it's easy to understand that Kate is the "woman" in question. "It will not be what you expect," she says, "but it will be difficult to digest, of course."

In season 3, the show will come back to Randall and Tess's journey from his office to where they are headed. "We'll always talk about it one day or one night," says Aptaker. "We are very conscious of not frustrating people and not broadcasting them too long, but the way we play over time is also part of what is fun and exciting. It is something that we will reach sooner than later. Adds Berger: "It's that balance of pleasure, but not distracting and frustrating. We are constantly walking on this tightrope.

Brown is the man who runs the Pearson family on this tightrope, while Old Randall spoke to Tess about the visit and now has Toby on board. Speaking about his role as a family organizer, he tells EW: "She's someone we know and care about, so you'll see Randall trying to galvanize anybody." the family because it's a critical moment and he wants everyone. be there. It looks like the next index may focus less on identity than on the situation. He suggests: "It is in the spirit of" that led her to this situation? "

And as the pieces of the puzzle pile up, who knows? Kleenex boxes too.

That's us tunes on Tuesdays at 9pm ET / PT on NBC.

To read what Mandy Moore had to say about this other twist at the end of the episode, go here.