This Is Us season 2: What happened to Nicky Pearson?

This Is Us on Tuesday night delivered yet another huge surprise in the closing minutes, as we learned that Nicky Pearson was a part of Jack’s life. Yet, at the same time there’s another big mystery in that nobody else really knows about this character, who they are, or what they went through with Jack. He’s seemingly kept it from everyone, and presumably, Nicky is dead due to the Vietnam War. With his father dying, we’re not sure how many more people are going to be around to tell the tale.

So why does Jack want to keep that secret? That’s a question that everyone probably wants to know, and there’s no telling as to when more information will be revealed. However, after the episode executive producer Glen Ficarra (who co-directed this episode) had the following to say to Entertainment Weekly:

“…Clearly this [reveal] looms large in the person that he is. The big thing is that he keeps secrets, that he has compartmentalized and hidden away this part of his life, which obviously was his brother, and it was a big part. Obviously a major thing happened, some trauma of some sort. And that’s what Kevin is doing. That’s what we’re trying to say with this episode. This life of keeping secrets and evasiveness is exactly the sort of behavior that Kevin is exhibiting. We’re trying to draw the parallels between the good and the bad of Jack, and how it manifests in his children.”

Ultimately, we do hope that answers come in due time without the show creating another huge mystery around it in a similar way to Jack’s death. We don’t think this show works as well as a mystery; it’s more about the deep, personal moments, and the emotional attachment that we have to some of these characters. That’s the sort of stuff that you are really going to remember more so than anything else. Our hope is that over time, we’ll just see some of this organically woven into the story, and we just wish that Jack had it within him to realize that sometimes, other people want to help you and you do want to open up to them here and there.

As for Kevin, we just wish that Jack stayed alive long enough to be able to teach some of these lessons to him about honesty since other people would help him with his addiction if they knew what he was going through. By keeping it hidden, Kevin is ultimately causing himself a little bit more peril in the end and opening up deeper wounds in the future.

What did you think about the Nicky Pearson reveal tonight?

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