‘This Is Us' Season 1, Episode 12 Spoilers: “The Big Day” – Rebecca Forgets Jacks Birthday; Kate, Toby Engaged

‘This Is Us’ season 1’s episode 12, titled “The Big Day,” is set to follow Rebecca as she unintentionally forgets Jack’s birthday. Meanwhile, it seems that the next episodes may address Kate and Toby’s possible engagement.

The synopsis for “The Big Day” posted on TV Guide reads, “An exhausted Rebecca (Mandy Moore) forgets Jack's (Milo Ventimiglia) birthday, as their triplets' due date quickly approaches; Dr. K (Gerald McRaney) struggles to cope with the loss of his wife; and the firefighter who brought Randall (Sterling K. Brown) to the hospital fights to save his marriage.”

Rebecca has been struggling with the stress of impending motherhood as she and her husband Jack await the birth of their children. It seems that she will forget Jack’s special day in the incoming episode. It would be interesting to see how the Pearson matriarch would make up for the lapse and reconcile with her husband.

Jack has been trying his best to be a good husband and father despite having grown up in a physically abusive household. He swore to his mother that he would never become someone like his father. In his desperation to provide for his future family, he swallowed his pride to ask his father for a loan while pretending to be single and struggling with gambling problems.

Meanwhile, creator Dan Fogelman shared some insight on Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Toby’s (Chris Sullivan) relationship in the next episodes during an interview with Entertainment Weekly. He said, “As we move forward into the next few episodes, yes, they are calling each other fiancé by the time we return to them, but there’s something underneath their relationship which is slightly unsettling but still in a charmed way.”

He continued, “They’re both going through this relationship of extremes together, where they’re up and down, and Kate is making a lot of big life decisions and going through in subsequent episodes a lot of stuff at her core and a lot of heavy-duty, emotional, therapeutic-type stuff. They’ve always been playing in their own version of Toby’s romantic comedy where things happen really quickly and decisions are made really quickly and without a lot of thought, and I think this “proposal” continues that path.”

Fogelman explained, “They act before thinking, and they act before analyzing, and that has both charming and positive consequences but then also can lead to problems. So I think you’re meant to feel a little easy about the proposal in terms of the very question you’re asking: “Are they really engaged?” [It’s] something we return to many times in the upcoming episodes.”

The midseason premiere revealed Toby’s fate after he collapsed on Randall’s table and brought to the hospital for an emergency procedure in episode 10, titled "Last Christmas." Toby’s survival from the heart attack was revealed in the early moments of episode 11, titled "The Right Thing to Do.” It seems that there would be a future for Kate and Toby after all.

During his recuperation, Toby was advised to undergo surgery since he was suffering from arrhythmia. He feigned staying asleep following the operation while Kate declared her love for him saying that she would spend the rest of her life with him. Toby eventually woke up and offered a marriage proposal for his girlfriend to which she accepted.

‘This Is Us’ season 1’s episode 12, titled “The Big Day,” is scheduled to air on NBC on January 17, 2017. It will be followed by episode 13, titled "Three Sentences," scheduled for January 24.