This Is Us season 2: Is learning about Jack’s death essential?
For this article, we do want to spend a few minutes discussing what is the obvious elephant in the room: Jack’s death. It’s defined almost the entirety of the series so far, given that it is this one of the reasons why Kate, Kevin, and Randall are the people that they are now. It’s what eventually changed Rebecca’s life to the point where she’s now with Miguel. It’s also one of the great mysteries of the show.
What we know for now is that Jack drinking alcohol again led to the epic argument between him and Rebecca, which in turn led to him being told to stay with Miguel for a while. Meanwhile, we know that Kate blames herself for what happened. That’s the real extent of it. There may be some more clues soon, but we’ve already heard it suggested that the truth about Jack’s death may not be something brought up for a while. It’s possible that you won’t learn the truth in season 2 at all.
Is this a mystery worthy of being a carrot dangled on a string? Well, part of the problem could be labeling it a mystery at all. If the show starts to play this up as some sort of dramatic twist like whether or not Red is Liz Keen’s father on The Blacklist, they’re doing it wrong. This is in our eyes a story point that should come into play when it’s organic to do so. If it makes sense to reveal the truth during season 2, it makes sense. If the timing’s not right or you have a better plan, wait. We don’t think that there is any reason to fear viewers tuning out when they learn the truth about what happened. These are people are for the story more so than being there to learn a big reveal before heading out the door.
Our big advice is simply this: Don’t try to make it some shocking twist. Go more for the emotion rather than the sudden execution. Part of what made the episode “Memphis” so heartbreaking was the anticipation that these happy memories for Randall were going to be taken away. The emotion was so palpable that it aided the storytelling and allowed the eventual death to come as a natural extension of the journey. We already knew his health was ailing; it didn’t come out of left field and wasn’t designed simply for buzz on Twitter.
How do you think the subject of Jack’s death should be handled on This Is Us season 2? Share your thoughts now in the comments!
Meanwhile, be sure to also check out our recent story regarding what the ratings expectations for This Is Us season 2 should be.