Tonight’s episode of This Is Us finally revealed the answer to the question we’ve all been asking since a present-day Rebecca showed up at Randall’s house with “grandpa” Miguel in tow. So where is Jack, the lovable, scruffy papa of the Pearsons, in 2016?
Welp, it’s not good news, folks. As Rebecca and Jack fought over whether or not they wanted to have kids while watching the Steelers win the Super Bowl in flashbacks, Kate was having a Steelers tussle of her own with Toby in the present. See, Kate likes to watch Steelers games but only by herself. We knew this was an ominous foretelling of things to come, given the obvious callback to Jack and Rebecca’s love of football. But we spent the entire episode on pins and needles waiting for our theory to be misproven.
Kate eventually got upset with Toby for inviting another guest to his Steelers watch party, and when he pressed her on what exactly the issue was, she told him of the good ‘ole days when she used to watch the Steelers with her dad—which she still does today. Only her dad is now her dad’s ashes, which sit in an urn on her mantel.
So what we had all feared has been confirmed as fact—Jack is indeed dead in the present day, meaning we won’t see him interact with Rebecca or any of the Big Three in this timeline. Please excuse us while we sob in a corner uncontrollably and think about the meaning of life Kevin-style.