When This Is Us isn't making us cry, it's making us seriously frustrated with Kevin (Justin Hartley) and his inability to make a proper decision about his love life. Season 1 has introduced not one, not two, but three love interests for the former Manny, and Kevin has royally messed things up with each one. While I was thrilled that Kevin told mean girl Olivia (Janet Montgomery) off, I was even happier when he decided to give smart, funny playwright Sloane (Milana Vayntrub) a shot. Alas, Kevin had ditched both ladies in favor of pursuing his ex-wife Sophie (Alexandra Breckenridge), whom he cheated on 12 years earlier. While Sophie may be a nice enough nurse who totally didn't deserve to get wrapped into Kevin's romantic vortex of doom, the internet has uncovered some very shady behavior on Sophie's end. Is she really as sweet as we think?
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Okay, probably — but that doesn't mean she always was. As we know, Kevin and Sophie were childhood sweethearts, and Sophie was once Kate's (Chrissy Metz) best friend. Or at least, we think she was: there's a real chance that Sophie only hung around Kate to get close to Kevin, which is what Kevin implied to his parents during the episode "Three Sentences." While that's kind of crappy on Sophie's part, it's not exactly evil. However, Redditor jjr92 points out that Sophie was guilty of another kid crime: bullying Kate at the pool.
The Redditor shared a photo from episode "The Pool" in which Kate receives a mean note from her classmates, whom she thought were her friends. The note — which includes a cruel drawing of a pig — reads:
"We don't want you to play with us anymore. You embarrass us."
Here's the kicker: the note is signed Vicki, Samantha, and Sofie.
As the Reddit thread points out, Sophie's name is spelled with a "ph" on the official NBC website, and spelled with an "f" here — but that doesn't mean this isn't the same character. It's quite possible that Vicki or Samantha wrote that note (Vicki's name is first) and misspelled Sophie's name. If you're an optimist, it's also possible that Sophie didn't even know about the note, and that she didn't know her name was being associated with something so mean.
This may seem like no big deal — especially considering the events in "The Pool" happened 26 years ago — but it's worth wondering why This Is Us would drop hints about Sophie being less than kind to Kate while also establishing Sophie as the love of Kevin's life. We know that Kevin would do anything for his sister, so could this hint that he'll ultimately have to choose between Sophie and Kate in someway? We still don't know what the relationship between Kate and present-day Sophie is, though it's not like they stayed in touch after Kevin's marriage fell apart.
This Is Us is such an emotional rollercoaster that anything seems possible — even Sophie secretly being the worst.