‘This Is Us’ Star on Being Kevin Pearson’s Mystery Romance

The actress discusses her and Justin Hartley’s long-awaited love story with The Hollywood Reporter, as well as how a production issue during the pandemic nearly derailed her homecoming. Kevin Pearson has finally found his happily ever after with four episodes left before the series finale of This Is Us.

Kevin’s (Justin Hartley) love life had been teased in the previous episode, which revolved around the bachelor spending the night with either close friend Cassidy (Jennifer Morrison), the wedding singer (Katie Lowes), or his ex-wife Sophie (Alexandra Breckenridge). Kevin and the Pearson family had gathered to the hotel for Kate’s (Chrissy Metz) second wedding to Phillip (Chris Geere), and Kevin, who was perpetually single, was having a bit of a fling.

But, as Tuesday’s emotional hour showed, the lady in question was the fan-favorite choice: Kevin’s on-again, off-again love, but always soul mate, Sophie. And it took a long, winding route to get there.

Breckenridge told audience, “Kevin has such a big character arc in terms of growth,”

Seeing the Pearson sibling grow into the man, her role always hoped he could be but now, in his mid-40s.

She said, “It took him years,”

“The character was just so self-involved, and he wanted desperately to not be self-involved. It was so hard for him to get out of his own way. But, in the end, he did, coming from one way of being and moving into another way of being entirely.”

Kevin’s adult relationships have always been tumultuous. After putting off his wedding to Madison (Caitlin Thompson), the mother of their twins, Kevin has returned to his serial dating habits in recent episodes, particularly after an ill-timed attempt to woo Cassidy falls flat. Any relationship attempts after her have failed, as he recounts to his childhood sweetheart, Sophie, in “The Night Before the Wedding.” Sophie, on the other hand, needs to witness the changes for herself to be convinced.

After receiving the This Is Us call, Breckenridge has returned for Kevin-and-Sophie arcs throughout the series, participating in some way in all six seasons. They reconnected as adults in the first season, more than a decade after Kevin cheated on Sophie to break their marriage. However, in season two, the couple broke up once more. Sophie returned in later seasons for a visit from Kevin, who was unsure about a new relationship, on her doorstep; for her mother’s death in season five; and, now in the sixth and final season, for her attendance at Kate’s wedding — first with her husband in tow at the engagement party, then solo at the wedding weekend months later.

Breckenridge says creator thought early in the series for Kevin and Sophie to reconcile in the end.

She said, “I think in season five, I had a conversation with Dan where he said, ‘This is how we would like it to go.’ But we weren’t really sure how it was all going to shake out,”

Breckenridge’s situation was complicated by the fact that he had won a major role in the Netflix series Virgin River, which was filming its first and second seasons back-to-back in Vancouver at the time. She was able to return to film Sophie’s mother’s funeral episode, but the epidemic struck, halting all activities. Virgin River was one of the first series to resume production, and she says it became evident during the third season that she wouldn’t be able to fly from Canada to Los Angeles, where This Is Us is shot, due of COVID-19.

“This Is Us arrived and she said, ‘We want Alex to come back for this many episodes.’ But I wasn’t able to do it. And it was a horrible happy problem to have,”

“But once we knew that it wasn’t going to happen, I think they pretty quickly started to formulate a different plan for Kevin and Sophie to end up together in the end. They were like, ‘OK. So, this isn’t going to happen this way. We’re going to do it this way.’”

As a result, it took the two a little longer to make their way back to each other. Kevin and Sophie, on the other hand, were able to walk into their own as time passed. When the two rejoin at Kate’s wedding, Sophie is happily divorced and working as a travelling nurse, inspired by her late mother, and Kevin has started his construction company, inspired by his late father, and is prospering as a father while co-parenting with Madison.

Regarding their love story she said, “I think it ultimately paid off, because it gave the two characters more growth on their own as two individuals. And I think that’s the greatest way people can come together, is being whole on your own before you are able to invest in love with somebody,”

Breckenridge said that she’s grateful the two productions were able to make it work so she could return for these final episodes. Sophie will continue to appear through the series finale.

Viewers have been pulling for Kevin and Sophie to reconcile for a long time, and a conversation between Kevin’s mother Rebecca (Mandy Moore) and Sophie during the wedding celebration finally prompts them to do so. Rebecca, who has early-onset Alzheimer’s, believes she is speaking to a young Sophie when she tells her that Kevin would become the man Sophie always wished he could be when the time is right and she has the patience to wait. Sophie gives Kevin a monologue shortly after, assuring him that she wants to adore the man he has become.

Breckenridge said, “Rebecca is almost seeing into the present. She thinks she’s seeing into the future, but it’s the present. And what she says in that moment is so powerful and impactful in the present, that it causes Sophie to take that leap once again,”

She continues, “I think Sophie was pretty much always there and always more ready to be in a relationship than Kevin was able to be in a relationship with her, because Kevin’s orbit was in and around himself. He wasn’t able to show up for her in the way that she needed, or that both of them needed to have a stable relationship. I think it’s actually beautiful the way that everything turned out. I think Kevin’s storyline really needed to take that journey on its own to be able to have this solid relationship at the end.”

“Sophie’s heart always belonged to Kevin,”

She added, “She was willing to take a chance with him in their 30s and get back together, and he ended up having an addiction problem. In that moment, she was solidly like, ‘OK, this is done for me now. I have to walk away and find somebody that is going to be able to show up for me who appreciates me.’ And she found that. She found someone who was stable and kind, but she just wasn’t in love with him. So when she comes back and sees Kevin [at the wedding], I think she’s really secretly hoping maybe things have changed. And as they re-get to know each other, she realizes that things have changed, and she takes that leap again because she’s never really stopped thinking about him, and he’s always been the one for her.”