We probably just learned how Jack dies on “This Is Us,” and I’m not crying, YOU’RE CRYING
There are spoilers ahead for the season premiere of This Is Us, so avert your eyes — and get ALL THE TISSUES — if you haven’t watched it yet. You know what, even if you have watched it, go get some tissues, because you’re going to need them. Get every tissues you can.
The series premiere of This Is Us last year kicked off on the Big Three’s 36th birthday, so it’s only fitting that the Season 2 premiere kicks off on their 37th birthday — we’re all now another year older, and it also feels like This Is Us has taken years off our lives. Because we’ve been crying so much over it for the past year. It’s been fun.
Season 2 picks up shortly after where Season 1 left off, with Rebecca and Jack momentarily separated (no, don’t want to talk about that now, and not ever), Randall and Beth considering adoption, Kevin in LA working on a movie for Ron Howard, and Kate pursuing her music career. These are all great, and wonderful things, but let’s talk about what we really need to know: All the details about Jack’s unavoidable death. While the episode doesn’t clearly state what happens, we can infer:
If you were betting on “dies in a fire,” congratulations — except that none of us are winners here, because Jack is dead.
Towards the end of the episode — with Kevin, Kate, and Toby all out at a very awkward birthday dinner in which Kate leaves to go back to an audition she walked out of earlier — Kevin explains that he and Kate just have a ridiculously deep bond. Of course they do, they’re twins. But it goes even further than that, as Kevin confesses that Kate was the one to tell him that their dad had died when they were 17. This puts Jack’s death around 1997-1998.
Even though you’re probably crying already, it gets worse. The last few seconds of the episode flashes back to that night the Pearsons learn their father has died. The kids appear to be in Migue’s living room, and Kate is clutching a dog — so at least we have a happy episode to look forward to, “The One Where The Pearsons Get A Dog.”
As for the final seconds of the episode? Late ’90s Rebecca pulls up in front of the family’s house with Jack’s personal affects in the car, having clearly just come from the hospital/morgue. And now…the house. It’s been completely destroyed in a fire. So have our hearts.
There’s still more to this story that we don’t know, so stay tuned for even more episodes of hysterical bawling, because This Is Us has only just gotten started.
