This Is Us season 2 episode 14 review: The death and … the future?
In the past, we obviously had a story that was about a great deal of pain and suffering. We don’t quite know how else to describe a story that showed us, finally, how the Jack character died after such a long wait.
We spoke about it a little more in-depth in this article, but the cause of Jack’s death was smoke inhalation after going back into the house. It was his attempt to save the family dog Louie that did him in. It felt like the show touched on every single note in the best possible way — while it acknowledged that the death happened and it was terrible, the writers also did not bludgeon you over the head for it. they did not show Jack die, nor they feature Rebecca actually telling Randall and Kate that their father was dead. We already knew the truth and we’ve already seen their suffering.
What a performance by Mandy Moore through all of this; we have a feeling that the Pittsburgh Steelers will never be though of the same way — Rebecca still had on that jersey-shirt from the day before.
In the present
In the present, we saw each one of the Pearsons doing everything that they could in order to remember Jack on the day of his death twenty years later. For Rebecca, she had Kevin there and the two had an opportunity to bond in a way that they really had not in the past. Meanwhile, for Randall he was desperate to make this into a “celebration” — he wanted to be happy when he thought about him, even if that was not always the healthiest thing for him to do.
Of the two, the strongest moment for us came when Justin Hartley performed a wonderful monologue as though he was speaking to his father at the tree — it was one of the first conversations like that he’d had in ages.
For Randall, the big reveal there is that it looks as though we’re going to have a chance to see, potentially, Randall become a foster father again in the future.
As for Kate, she just needed a day in order to stew in some of her anger and hurt. She also wanted to go back and watch the VHS Jack recorded of her performance, the last one she had before her father’s death. Luckily, Toby was able to call a guy to fix it after it stopped working. At first, it appeared as though she was going to be inconsolable for most of the episode, but eventually this turned into an opportunity for her to bond with Toby as she realized just how much she loved him and appreciated him for everything that he did.
Related – Take a look at what else is coming on This Is Us
The future
That’s right: Tess becomes a part of the foster-care industry in the future, as a result of what Randall taught her in the present. MIND BLOWN. We’re going to the future now.
CarterMatt Verdict
If you love great, emotional television, it almost goes without saying that you loved this episode of This Is Us. This was a worthy culmination of the entire series to date — we learned a lot about grief, but we also learned about understanding and love.
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