Anyone else stay up after the Super Bowl? It’s way harder to accomplish than you may think. But like everyone else who’s been sucked into NBC’s hit This Is Us, knowing the details behind Jack Pearson’s death was kind of important. After all, they’ve been teasing this episode since the show first started.
Played by Gilmore Girls alum Milo Ventimiglia, there was a lot of emotion (read: a pretty massive breakdown) after the audience found out that their favorite television dad made it out of the burning Pearson house alive. Not only did he manage to grab the dog, but he took care of all of the family heirlooms as well. Because he’s a champion.
Then, (and, spoilers are ahead — you might find a few of those on this site, but we’ll try to warn you ahead of time) he ends up passing away due to a heart attack suffered from the smoke inhalation. Television wife Mandy Moore — who plays the role of Rebecca — wasn’t even in the room at the time. She was trying to select a candy bar from the vending machine, thus ruining chocolate for her for the rest of her life. Moore sold the performance. The look of shock, disbelief, whathaveyou made us all question what we’d do in that same situation.
Still, it was kind of a letdown. Because, as mentioned before, they’ve been teasing this moment since the very start.
So, here are a few ways they could have made Jack Pearson’s death sadder.
1. Jack’s ambulance crashes on the way to the hospital. Since fans thought that Jack would get into a drunk driving accident for awhile due to his history battling alcoholism, it’d have added that sad element of “crash” we were waiting for for a few episodes. Not like anyone wants to see an ambulance crash, but tears would be flowing if that’s what happened.
2. Both Jack and the dog don’t make it out of the house. Because animals are amazing, and nobody wants to see that. We’re dog lovers here at Best Recap Ever, and Kate, who’s played in adult form by Chrissy Metz, had a pretty genuine relationship with her pup back in the day.
3. Jack and Rebecca get into a massive fight immediately before the fire. Justin Hartley’s character of Kevin, oldest of the Big Three, had a lot of regrets because he last saw his father under rough terms. Unable to fulfill his football scholarship due to an accident, he’s in the midst of a teen crisis and says something he doesn’t mean. And that’s the last time Kevin sees Jack. For Rebecca to have had an epic fight with Jack prior to his death would have made things so much worse.
4. Jack assumes that Kevin’s in the house, and doesn’t make it back out while trying to find him. As you know, Kevin was with his girlfriend Sophie at the time of the fire. When Jack woke to find smoke, he wisely chose to question Rebecca on whether or not Kevin was in the house (which is impressive, as he’s in the midst of panic.) If that hadn’t happened, and the two didn’t communicate, that’d be even more of a weight on Kevin’s shoulders. Sad city, population: everyone.
5. Jack dies trying to rebuild the house. It’s his trade and his craft. It’d make sense for Jack to want to renovate the family home, if not build them another. If he died in the process of construction, it’s the death of a family member in the midst of a death within a new family business that was risky from the start.
6. It’s revealed that Jack currently haunts the kids. Know how to take an amazing relationship and make it terrible? How about adding a ghost in there. We know that the Big Three already has a ton of guilt (especially Kate) but it’d be even worse if Jack’s presence is still there in a negative way, telling them what they could have done.
…Listen, you may think that’s ridiculous, but we still see Randall’s birth father hanging around. Yeah, it’s mostly due to flashback, but whenever I see him, my very first thought is “ghost.”
Come to think of it, perhaps Jack Pearson’s death was best left off-screen. We’ve suffered enough.