There were a lot of disturbing things about Kevin and Madison's respective bachelor and bachelorette parties on This Is Us. But the most bizarre thing was not five grown men watching Jerry Maguire together in cabin or the fact that Kate hired a man to pose naked so she and her mom could paint a man's penis together. That was more than enough to leave both Madison and Kevin wondering about their future together, but the real, most pressing question left at the end of "Jerry 2.0" isn't whether a wedding is going to happen after all, but why Madison doesn't seem to have any friends. Like, at all.
Look, there's nothing wrong with Kate. But Madison should have more of a social circle, shouldn't she? Isn't it a little weird that she's just all alone, all the time? What would she do without Kevin or her twins? This is a question she needs an answer to, and soon, if things between her and Kevin head south.
Madison's lack of any family or friends was first really noticeable when she went into labor early. As Kevin rushed to be by her side, Madison tells a nurse that she isn't close with her family and all of her friends lived "back East." She also tells Kevin that she's sad none of her friends could "come early" to attend her bachelorette party ahead of the wedding, noting that they all have babies and just couldn't drop everything to sip and paint with her.
But are they ever coming? Are they real? Is this like when kids lie and say they have a boyfriend or girlfriend "from another school?" Madison is going to have to show up with these so-called friends sooner or later, and you can't just ask some strangers at the mall to sub in. Usually, inviting your in-laws to a bachelorette party is a nicety, and you don't even really expect them to come. They aren't the whole party.
In Madison's defense, it's hard to make friends as an adult, but she really needs to put herself out there a little more!
For a show that gives its main characters such rich and layered interior lives, Madison is so one dimensional it stands out as a major oversight. All we know about her is that she is a banker who attends support groups (where she met Kate). She has a strained relationship with her father, and if Kevin leaves her at the alter, Madison has literally no one left in the world except her two infants. Let's hope she gets a happy ending and it's her pulling up in the car with a new beau in that flash forward, because otherwise, it's all too tragic.
Images: NBC