This Is Us star Jon Huertas braces you for tonight's maximum Miguel episode

Dan Snierson
·4 min read
This Is Us star Jon Huertas braces you for tonight's maximum Miguel episode
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Before This Is Us closes down, Miguel gets his close-up.

In the fourth-to-last-ever episode of NBC's hit family drama, titled "Miguel," the story of Jack's best friend and Rebecca's second husband (Jon Huertas) will be laid bare — from the Roberto Clemente-worshipping kid who moved with his family from Puerto Rico to Pennsylvania, all the way to the devoted husband caring for Rebecca (Mandy Moore) as her battle with Alzheimer's continues. "If people have been wanting this Miguel episode, they're going to get way more Miguel than they bargained for," Huertas quips to EW. "They are going to get a giant mouthful of Miguel. It's called 'Miguel' for a reason. Dan [Fogelman, TIU creator] really wanted Jonny Gomez [the TIU writer who penned the episode] to dive deep into who Miguel is, what makes him tick, what informed him as a character, as a man. I got to jump into the writers' room a little bit and infuse much of my own personal journey and stories and anecdotes that we could mold into the character and make it fit Miguel."

This long-anticipated episode was long-toiled over. "We spent a lot of time in the room trying to figure out the most important elements of Miguel's story, and one thing became evident early on: we could not separate his Puerto Rican identity from this story," Gomez tells EW. "I come from a family of immigrants, and it was important to me that we honored the struggle to assimilate while still holding onto your culture. And while Puerto Ricans are Americans by birth, those who move stateside face similar challenges while code-switching and navigating two languages, two cultures. It's why I was so thrilled to have Zetna Fuentes at the helm directing this. She understood the story so implicitly."

"This episode is massive – I still don't really know how Dan and our editor Julia Grove managed to fit this thing into an hour of television – and we'll see it all," he continues. "We'll see the events that shaped Miguel into the man that would become not just Jack Pearson's best friend, but Rebecca's eventual husband. It's a complicated story, but then again, Miguel's a complicated guy!"

THIS IS US -- “Miguel”
THIS IS US -- “Miguel”

Ron Batzdorff/NBC (3) Yael Ocasio as young Miguel, Jon Huertas as 1970s Miguel, and, yes, Jon Huertas as AARP Miguel

Huertas described the instalmment as "informative," "bountiful when it comes to story and heart," and — he searches a few seconds for this word — "realized." He explains: "Miguel's story has been realized, because it starts at such a young age in the episode, and it takes him through the oldest that we've seen him."

In between exploring his roots, and what happens as Rebecca's condition worsens, the episode promises to answer that mini-mystery of how Miguel and Rebecca somehow reconnected over Facebook after a period of estrangement. "I've always been so intrigued by Rebecca and Miguel's relationship," says Gomez. "Over the years, we've seen how Miguel dealt with the grief of losing Jack by pouring his time and energy into Rebecca and the kids. Like he owed it to him. But life is funny, and maybe Miguel wouldn't let himself admit he was starting to feel something more. We know he wasn't alone in that. As Rebecca herself says in [season 6 episode 'Taboo'], 'Somewhere along the way…' Dot dot dot. Neither of them could bring themselves to just say it. That ellipsis hung between them for a decade and we'll finally see what happens on the other side."

In addition to all of that, says Huertas, "you get to see the possibility of the Big Three finally come into terms with what Miguel means to them."

Gomez drops another clue about this massive download of an episode. "Pittsburgh Pirates legend Roberto Clemente was incredibly quotable," he says, "so I'll leave you with one of my favorites: 'Why does everyone talk about the past? All that counts is tomorrow's game.'"

Before tonight's game, which airs at 9 p.m. ET, peek at a scene that takes place in the 1970s. In the clip above, Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) tries to broker a friendship between Rebecca (Mandy Moore) and Miguel, but Rebecca? Well, she doesn't seem to be much of a fan. But she will be. And so will you, if you weren't already.

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