'This Is Us': Full Story of Jack's Death Won't Be Told Until Season 2 (Or Later?)
Our hearts can only take so much emotional torture. There's only one episode left to "This Is Us" Season 1, and even though Kate Pearson (Chrissy Metz) just dropped a big hint on how her father Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) died, fans shouldn't expect to get the full picture in the season finale. It's not even clear when we'll get the full picture.
In the penultimate episode, Kate told Toby that it's hard to talk about her father's death because "It's my fault." We don't know whether it was literally her fault, or if she's just carrying guilt around for something Jack or others did, because she feels there was something she could've done differently, etc. Ventimiglia already said Jack's drinking would cloud his judgment and come back to bite him in the ass, and the episode ended with him driving off to Cleveland while still drunk. (At least he didn't cheat on Rebecca with Miguel's assistant. We were kinda worried about that. But drunk driving? That's even worse, man.)
Creator Dan Fogelman told Variety fans will have to be patient when it comes to the exact cause and timing of Jack's death. He has a plan to answer the questions, but they won't come in the March 14 season finale.
"By the time we get to the end of the season, we'll have done everything exactly as we set out to do," Fogleman told Variety. "Very few details changed from my initial plan. The second season is going to play out much the same way. Whether we're going to be able to continue doing that without the audience ever becoming frustrated — that's going to be one of our biggest challenges."
I describe it a little like pieces of information flying over the air and we let the audience grab them. They're slowly getting the shape of this big event in the family. Did it happen when the kids were in their 30s? Did it happen when the kids were younger? How did it happen? Was it sudden? Was it slow? We'll get a lot of that information, but the real story of it will play out not in the near, near future. In terms of seeing the moment where something happened to Jack, that's a little ways away. Where it will be finally all fully revealed, that's a ways off."
A little ways away? A ways off? Does that mean season finale vs. Season 2, or even later? Very cryptic.
Ventimiglia added this tease to Us Weekly:
As for whether the death scene has been filmed yet, Ventimiglia reveals, "No, we're a ways off," meaning that it won't happen in Season 1's remaining two episodes, given that filming has already wrapped on them.
So no death scene in Season 1, although it's possible we'll hear more about how it happened in the finale.
As much as we want Jack Pearson on our screens forever, we also want the full story of what happened. It's not like they've been subtle about Jack dying, and we have followed the clues. Let's just hope this doesn't turn into a multi-season mystery, 'cause that's not really what this show is about and it might start to distract from the bigger picture.
The "This Is Us" Season 1 finale airs Tuesday, March 14 at 9 p.m. on NBC.
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