WARNING: The following contains spoilers for This Is Us Season 6, Episode 3, “Four Fathers,” which aired Tuesday January 18th on NBC.
This Is Us is well-known for playing a long game. Characters come and go through the Pearson’s lives, but there’s always a chance that someone we thought we’d never see again will reappear, with a larger role to play. In the most recent episode, “Four Fathers,” this very thing happened with one of Kevin’s ex-girlfriends. Cassidy Sharp returned at the end of the episode, as Kevin called her after a hard stretch of trying to figure out how to co-parent with Madison. Since Cassidy is back, let’s review what we know about her.
We first met Cassidy in the Season 4 premiere when Nicky vandalizes her veterans alcoholics anonymous meeting. She is a former soldier recovering from a battle with alcoholism. After Nicky calls Kevin for bail money as a result of his vandalism, Kevin temporarily moves to the East Coast to live near his struggling uncle. Both Nicky and Kevin are also alcoholics which is how they get to know Cassidy — they all end up at the same AA meeting.
Cassidy’s alcoholism and issues from her time as a soldier led to her divorce, and made it difficult to rebuild her relationship with her son Matty. At the time Kevin didn’t have kids, but he was supportive of Cassidy’s struggles and he and Nicky did what they could to help their new friend. Cassidy and Kevin’s relationship developed to include a sexual component, but they were never really were on the path to love and marriage. Both of them were just in it for the company, but not long term.
Eventually Kevin made the decision to move back to LA with the knowledge that Nicky was going to be alright. In leaving, he also left Cassidy and they parted on good terms. We last saw Cassidy in Season 5, Episode 12, “Both Things Can Be True” when we witnessed her reaction to Kevin’s engagement announcement in a magazine. She didn’t look devastated, just happy for them. At the time, it seemed clear that Kevin and Cassidy just weren’t meant to be.
However, now that Kevin is a single father and reaching out to Cassidy while they’re both in dramatically different points of their lives, maybe they could be endgame after all. In fact, they could be the definition of right person – wrong time that evolves into the right person at the right time. Kevin was upset about how his co-parenting situation was going and reached out to Cassidy, who was a little surprised to hear from him, but not bothered by it at all.
Both Kevin and Cassidy have had to overcome some serious hurdles and they understand the complicated nature of parenting with an ex-partner. They could support each other through their common struggles, and they obviously have a baseline of chemistry due to their previous relationship. While nothing romantic between them is officially confirmed, it is likely we’ve not seen the last of Cassidy Sharp.
Created by Dan Fogelman, This Is Us stars Milo Ventimiglia, Mandy Moore, Justin Hartley, Chrissy Metz, Sterling K. Brown, Chris Sullivan and Susan Kelechi Watson. New episodes air Tuesdays at 9pm ET/PT on NBC.
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