Family. Love. Loss. In episode fourteen of season two of NBC’s hit drama series, This Is Us, we see all of these things wrapped up into a 1-hour episode. In this heart-wrenching Super Bowl episode, we finally find out how our beloved Jack Pearson loses his life, and in true This Is Us fashion, the episode will leave you speechless and reaching for your tissues.
Let’s start at the beginning. At the start of the episode, we see Jack lead his family to safety during the house fire that ultimately takes his life. This scene is so heartbreaking because even after he gets his wife and children to the sidewalk outside of the house, he goes back in to save the family dog. Seems crazy, right? Not to Jack Pearson, because he sees how much his daughter, Kate, loves the dog. We always knew that Jack was a selfless man who put his family above everything, but the fact that he would risk his life to save his daughter’s dog is a whole new level of love. What makes this so special is the fact that Jack doesn’t do this to be the “hero”, he does it simply out of the love he has for Kate. Jack will do anything, even risk his life just to make sure that his she doesn’t have to deal with the loss of her pet (how ironic).
Once Jack gets out of the house with Louie (the family dog), we’re under the impression that Jack is out of the woods. He and Rebecca drop their kids of with a family friend, and then go to the hospital to get Jack’s relatively minor burns treated. We see the couple interact with the doctor, who basically tells them that Jack is ok, and because Jack and Rebecca are they couple that they are, they have a super adorable and endearing interaction before Rebecca leaves the room to grab a snack from the vending machine. Moments later, we see Jack’s doctor approach her in the waiting room and deliver the heartbreaking news that Jack has passed away. Rebecca’s reaction broke my heart. Mandy Moore (the actress who plays Rebecca), captures the utter shock that anyone who just heard that news would experience. She has the chocolate bar that she had just gotten from the vending machine in her hand, and when she’s given the news, she tilts her head in confusion, and takes a bite of the candy bar. I know this seems small, but everything about that sequence is so devastating. She was given this life-changing news,and instead of falling apart, she takes a bite out of her candy bar because, the idea that her magnificent husband is gone is so unreal to her. After telling the doctor that he must be out of his mind for saying that Jack is dead, she walks back into her husband’s hospital room to tell him how crazy his doctor is, only to see that what the doctor said is true. We see Rebecca’s reaction to seeing Jack, the love of her life, laying lifeless in a hospital bed. Her reaction is devastating (I’m not kidding, it will really cause you to cry an entire river). Once Rebecca pulls herself together enough, she has to give her children the news that will change their lives forever; she has to tell Kevin, Kate, and Randall that their father has died. Watching the kids handle this huge bomb that was just dropped on them will literally rip tears from your eyes. These actors have the gift of capturing the shock and pain that someone would really feel in that moment.
Jack Pearson has a way of talking to people, a way of communicating with his kids, that can be seen as nothing less than a gift. Over the course of the show, the viewers have grown to love him in a way that most people have never loved a television character before. People see themselves and their own situations in This Is Us; I know I do. When I was young, I lost my dad, and he was pretty much the OG Jack Pearson. He was the greatest dad ever, so seeing a character like him on television touched me and gave me way to remember him. So, I say to the cast and crew of This Is Us, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.