Now its not Kate but Kevin whos having a hard time talking about Jack.

Then he opened a bottle of pills and popped one to dull the pain.

Why cant Kevin talk about Jack?

Whats going on with that old injury?

Is he about to head down a destructive path of addiction?

Will Stallone return for more frittatas?

Will the dog that Jack and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) adopted eat those as well?

Can you shed any light on what Kevins feeling and repressing?

Anger at Jack for not being around?

What is the cocktail of emotions that hes feeling?ELIZABETH BERGER:I think it is just that.

It is a very complex cocktail of grief, potentially some guilt just unresolved pain.

Last season we saw Kate really delve into that sadness.

And Kevin has not quite gotten there.

Hes earlier in his journey in grieving his dads death.

How dark will Kevins journey turn this season?Justin indicated that his self-questioningleads to a crisis of self.

[Laughter]BERGER: Thats how you know that hes doing the right things.

We know something happened to Kevins knee/legfrom the shot of the cast in the season premiere.

Then we see him popping a pill.

How much has this plagued him over the years?

But we had talks with several doctors about this who said a lot of things that we didnt understand.

In terms of the rest of the year, this is a starting arc for Kevin with his knee.

This is not something like, Next week hes going to be back on his feet and totally fine.

This is a bigger story here.

Are you going to be a story of an addiction as well?

Theres one way to interpret that, with the addiction and Jacks alcoholism.

So, youll have to wait and see how that goes.

How can we figure out a way to make these two characters cross?

Its like, Guys, youre all in different times!

Will we Stallone again?

Dan [Fogelman, the shows creator] said it was initially designed as a one-episode guest spot.

But it feels like youd definitely need him back.APTAKER: He shows up on set.

And obviously all of our expectations are sky-high and then he over-delivers.

Hes exactly like the magnanimous movie star we were all hoping for the actors, too.

Randall, Kevin, and Kate seem to have processed or not processed Jacks death in different ways.

Do they each see the events of that night a little differently?BERGER: Yes.

Especially last season, you felt Kates grief very palpably.

And now youre seeing her move through her healing process.

And Randall seems to have the healthiest relationship with Jacks death of all three siblings.

And youre going to see that that definitely correlates to what took place in the past.

Jack, now in AA, and Rebecca are having a hard time connecting with each other.

How much of that stuff will Rebecca and the audience learn before Jacks time is up?

Weve only seen hints of what his life was like before Rebecca, and it wasnt pretty.

Now the question is: How much of that healing gets to take place while Jack still has time?

We know the clock is ticking.

We know they had a moment of healing here.

So the first box has been checked as we move toward that night that we flashed to.

Did Randall and Beth bite off more than they can chew?

This girl that we found to play Deja, Lyric Ross, is so incredible.

She flew out here from Chicago and its her first time ever in Los Angeles.

I think she had done one guest spot onChicago Fire.

But there will be some frustrations.

That this isnt just going to be replicating Randalls exact story the way he originally imagined.

Which makes it sound much more lighthearted than it actually is.

[Laughter] That sounds like a relaxing sitcom, but hopefully its a little bit more than that.