This Is Us season 3 spoilers: Is Kate giving birth before finale?

When you think about the long-term future of This Is Us season 3 (which, sadly, is not on tonight), there are certain milestones you want the show to reach. For example, you want to see some sort of larger tease from the future timeline, just as you’d likely want to see some sort of reference to Nicky and what’s going on with him.

Then, we’ve also got the curious case of a pregnant Kate. She’s been expecting for a while now and the timeline seems to point towards a birth at some point near the end of this season. The question just becomes when exactly it happens. Do you make this the subject of the season finale, or do you try to devote something to that big moment beforehand? There is, absolutely, a case for both — it’s the sort of big-ticket story that can draw a lot of eyeballs, but maybe there is a bigger story beyond the big story. Maybe there’s a way to make our jaws fall on the floor so far that you can’t pick them back up.

Well, what we know is this: The title for season 3 episode 15 suggests that Kate and Toby’s baby may not be too far on the horizon. “The Waiting Room,” after all, is airing this March! We’re only one episode away from that (preview “The Graduates” over at the link here, or check out our video discussion below — if you dig it, subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube and check out our playlist).

We gotta make this clear: There is nothing about this title that guarantees that we’re going to be seeing Kate give birth … but it certainly suggests that a hospital visit is nigh. That’s something that seemed to be teased in some recent promos for what’s coming up (we’ve seen Kate being carted in) and this could be where a lot of it comes home to roost. This Is Us is a show jam-packed with a lot of emotion and that will be the case here. It is a bizarre mixture of fear and hope that comes with Kate going to the hospital. You want to cross your fingers that she ends up okay; there is her survival that you need to think about, and then there is also the issue of the baby’s survival.

Do we think that Kate will have her baby?

Maybe this is us being naive or sappy, but at this point, we just don’t think that the show would be that cruel to have something terrible happen to Kate’s baby again. You’ve also told that story and we like to feel like within the world of This Is Us, it should be a top priority to continue and try to tell new stories. You want to be able to challenge yourself and bring new ideas and thoughts to the table. There is something fascinating that comes from seeing Toby as a dad, for example — will he be good at it, and will it help him with some of his internal pain?

Do you think that Kate will give birth before the This Is Us finale?

Let us know your thoughts and productions on that subject below! (Photo: NBC.)