'This is Us' star Susan Watson says her character Beth will be okay after Season 2 finale
For all the hearts that stopped after watching the season 2 finale of ‘This is Us,’ just know that Beth will be okay.
In a talk with The Hollywood Reporter, Susan Kelechi Watson, who plays Beth in the show, revealed the true meaning of what the Beth-centric time jump actually meant.
The final episode of season 2 ended with a time jump of 10 to 15 years in the future where an older Randall, Beth’s husband, tells his older daughter rather sadly that it’s time to see “her.” Theories of Beth’s death began to explode all over the internet, creating quite a commotion.
In response to all this, the executive producer and co-showrunner Isaac Aptaker later vaguely assured viewers that “Beth's OK," and now with Watson’s blatant confirmation. It’s safe to say that Beth is not going to die.
Watson told The Hollywood Reporter: "I remember seeing stuff coming out online where people were saying, 'We didn’t see a wedding ring on Randall’s finger,' and, 'He’s talking to Tess about something. Is it Beth? Is she gonna die? We’re not having it if Beth goes!'"
Watson went back and watched the episode to try and understand what the viewers were all talking about. She added, “So I watched the episode. I said, ‘What is happening here!?’ Because [the script] didn’t say all that."
The original script that Watson read didn’t actually mention that the pan to Beth was being made, so she was as surprised as anyone by the cliffhanger: "Viewers were getting all hyped up and I was laughing, thinking, 'This is hilarious — they don’t mean this. People who are writing this are being funny,'" she told The Hollywood Reporter.
"But articles kept coming out and I thought, 'Oh, we have no intention of killing Beth, as far as I know.' So I was with Dan [Fogelman] and I said, 'Dan — wasn’t that funny, they think we’re killing Beth. Right, Dan? That’s so funny?'"
The all the buzz around her character’s death actually made her question what she knew. At one point, she tried to press the creators to confirm that she was going to live. Fogelman assured her by saying, "No, we're not going to. Sue, it’s hilarious.'"
Watson also told The Hollywood Reporter about some other things fans can expect from season 3. She mentioned that viewers will see "how Randall and Beth deal marriage-wise with the adjustment of Deja and how that puts them in a rough spot.”
She also said that the third season will explore the themes of “depression, adoption, [and] what it is for a foster child to acclimate to a new family.” Viewers will also “see a lot of Jack in Vietnam [and] the early days of Jack and Rebecca,” she said.
Fogelman also teased that season 3 will delve deeper into Beth’s past and showcase how she became who she is.
When asked about what she wants for her character, Watson said, “I want to see her family. I want to see their faces, and I want to see what they’re like because I know so much about the Pearson side.
“I want to see what that side of the family is and where she came from because she’s interesting to me. She’s different from me in so many ways. None of my life as Susan resembles Beth’s, but I feel like there is something about where she came from that I’m familiar with.”