This Heartbreaking ‘This Is Us’ Theory Explains Why Kate Blames Herself for Jack’s Death
If you watched This Is Us last night and are having trouble functioning this morning, we completely understand. Yesterday's episode was gut-wrenching, to say the least. After 13 super-emotional episodes, we finally (spoiler alert!) learned the cause of that fire—you know, the one everyone's convinced killed Jack. It turns out Rebecca and Jack's neighbors gifted them with a faulty crockpot, which accidentally turned on in the middle of the night and set the entire house on fire. To be clear, last night's episode didn't 100 percent confirm Jack died in this fire, but it was certainly implied.
Twitter exploded shortly after the episode wrapped. Fans were in shock, awe, and tears—and several of them couldn't help but bring up a theory that originated months ago. In the episode where we first learned about the fire, we also met Teenage Kate's dog. People speculated shortly after this that perhaps Jack ran back in the fire to save Kate's dog but didn't make it out alive. There wasn't much evidence for this back then, but the theory existed nonetheless.
And it was reignited last night. After all, dogs played a huge role in yesterday's episode. Toby wanted to adopt a dog but told Kate he knows they're a "sensitive issue" for her. She later goes to a shelter to look at dogs and almost buys one, but quickly erupts into tears and storms out. She winds up going back, though, and adopting a pet—but it's clear she has several issues to work through. This, mixed with the fact Teenage Kate played with her dog a lot in yesterday's episode, has fans thinking he's the cause of Jack's death—that Jack ran back to get the dog and died.
This is the dominant theory on Twitter right now. Here are just a few examples:
Glamour asked This Is Us executive producer Isaac Aptaker about this theory after the season two premiere, but he didn't say much. "That would be tragic! Could be, though Chris Sullivan (Toby) thinks Miguel burned down the house! [Laughs.] You don’t know," he said.
Thankfully, we'll find out the answer when the next This Is Us episode airs after the Super Bowl. Prepare to sob.
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