‘This Is Us’ Season 5: Will Madison die after Kevin's twins are born? Here's why fans feel Sophie could be back

Is it love or just friendship? As ‘This Is Us’ Season 5 spills its magic on screen, the one question revolving around in most heads is: How will Kevin Pearson (Justin Hartley) and Madison Simons (Caitlin Thompson) take their relationship forward? Last season, we saw a major revelation in the two characters' lives as the final Episode 18 — titled 'Strangers: Part Two' — disclosed that Madison is the mother of Kevin's children.

Did you ever expect to see Kevin Pearson as a father? In a heartwarming scene in the flash-forward, Kevin's twins come to hug him — and he has a little girl and a beautiful boy. However, what's unclear is who is his fiancée. Now, the official Twitter handle of the NBC show has released a 2.08-minute clip from the next season where Kevin announces the news to Kate Pearson (Chrissy Metz) and Toby Damon (Chris Sullivan).

Not just that, the show seems to have incorporated the coronavirus pandemic with finesse too. In the video, the two couples can be celebrating with a Covid-19-style hug standing in front of each other but not getting close. What's more, Kevin also tells Kate and Tobe that a “zoom call” wouldn't suffice for the big news. Of course, Kate and Toby are extremely delighted to hear that Kevin will soon be a father. 

Ever since the finale revealed that Madison was the mother of Kevin's child, fans on Reddit have tons of theories. There is a lot of doubt around their relationship as it's unclear who could turn out to be his fiancée. While Madison is giving birth to his twins, that doesn't necessarily mean she's engaged to him. “Kevin and Madison get to know each other, and develop a friendship... Madison will have difficult pregnancy,” one fan said, predicting that the two may grow closer to each other.

However, one fan had a rather startling prediction that would make every fan turn their heads: will Madison die after giving birth to Kevin's twins? “My biggest prediction for Season 5 is that Madison dies during labour. I think, her doctor is like a replacement for doctor K as he is starting to give advice to his patients. I also think that Kevin is going to relate to him at some level. The only level here I can think of is the death of the mother of their child(ren) as the mother of Sadie has not appeared yet. So best fitting scenario for now is that Madison dies and Kevin relies on the doctor for advice like Rebecca and Jack did with doctor K. This would also explain why we haven't seen the wife of Kevin yet, because it is not Madison,” the fan posted. 

We feel it makes quite a lot of sense. Because it doesn't seem likely that Kevin's fiancée would turn out to be Madison. Back in Season 4, after the woman in bed next to Kevin turned out to be Madison, showrunner Dan Fogelman's tweet from 2018 read, “Just FYI: Madison is my wife in real life @CaitwithaC and if you thought I was letting her sleep with @justinhartley on national television you're nuts. #ThisIsUs,” resurfaced again and started trending. 

Nonetheless, it could also be true that Fogelman has changed his mind. Disagreeing with that tweet, one fan pointed out, “If Madison was a bigger character, I'd say it's a possibility. Like if Sophie was made pregnant, I'd say it's possible they would do a full circle moment. But now they're using a character that they built up so slowly from S2 that very few saw it coming until this year. They aren't going to use a woman just to deliver the babies and die. It's not a good writing choice. And they don't have time to develop her character before delivery because by October she's going to be about 9 months.”

Back in March, many other fans predicted the same. “Y’all, what if Madison dies during childbirth,” one asked. Another said, “#ThisIsUs has been on my mind all day. Does anyone think maybe Madison dies during child birth and Kev then marries Sophie later? @justinhartley.” A third chimed in, “What if Madison dies from child birth in the future and Sophie doesn’t marry her finance. Sophie reconnects with Kevin to help him cope with Madison’s death and they end up married. It seems as if he’s engaged to Madison but that’s too obvious for the show. #ThisIsUs.”

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, when Hartley was asked if he could see Madison as not just a parenting partner but also a romantic partner, he said, “This is a big thing; this is babies coming into your life. So whatever the plan is, the reality will change [it]. When you're going through that with someone as well, the relationship is going to evolve in a way that you probably didn't expect it to, because they're both going through this for the first time.”

He then revealed that “[they’re] making fun of each other — they're friends that get annoyed with each other. That'll definitely be something that we explore in a big way in season 5.” Hartley added, “The way that he goes about being a dad is not something that people would expect Kevin to do," he says. "Or it might even be too daunting for anybody to be able to do. He sets a certain bar and we'll see if he can get there or not. He challenges himself.”

And is he closer to truly letting go of his on-again-off-again ex Sophie (Alexandra Breckenridge)? Will the next flash-forward reveal Kevin's romantic partner? Without giving out much, Hartley said, “I hope so. That would be the payoff, right? You want to know who it is — or if it was someone that had changed.”

Delving deeper into his character's psyche, he added, “He's also changed and he's grown as a human being. His approach to his love life and to relationships in general is so different than it was when we met him, or even a couple of years ago. He's slowed down a bit, he's safer, he’s more methodical, and he’s more practical about things. He takes a little more care, not only of himself, but of other people. I hope that he gets what he wants, and it seems like what he wants is a woman that loves him, with kids.”

Get set to watch the two-hour episode of 'This Is Us' premiere on Tuesday, October 27 at 9 pm ET on NBC. Following that, you can catch one-hour episodes starting at 9 pm from November 3, 2020.