For the first time, we saw Jack’s funeral on “This Is Us” and our hearts can’t handle it
We know what’s coming: At some point, Jack is going to die on This is Us and our hearts are already broken. Since the first episode of the show we’ve known that ~something~ happens to Jack in the future, and it was later confirmed that sadly yes, he’s passed away. For the first time we actually caught a glimpse of the family during this tragedy, and we’re going to need all the tissues in the world to dry our tears.
During “Three Sentences,” Kate ships off to a “wellness facility” hoping to get her weight under control. There, she’s asked to basically let go of her feelings and anger, and it turns out a lot of that streams from her father, specifically, the passing of her father.
In flashbacks, we see young 10-year old Kate being consoled by Jack at her birthday party. In another flashback, we see Kate (and the rest of her family) at Jack’s funeral.
Unfortunately, we don’t see any of the details about this funeral. The date of Jack’s passing is obstructed on the memorial programs.
We don’t get clear images of the family, so it’s hard to tell exactly how old everyone is (but Kate DOES look very short, so maybe she was still really young).
Don’t hold out for finding out Jack’s fate by the end of this season. According to series creator Dan Fogelman, he’s “always known when Jack died. The how is going to take much longer to reveal.”
“To me, even when you’re watching the pilot, long before you knew Jack may not be in the picture in the present day, this family always felt loving and good but broken,” Fogelman explained to Entertainment Weekly. “You’ve got kids battling severe issues, whether it be Randall and his anxiety, and Kate with many things of self-confidence and weight, and Kevin has gone off to Los Angeles, and clearly there’s strained relationships with Rebecca. There feels like there was a break somewhere, and it always felt to me, as I thought about this family, that something formative happened to them in those prominent late teenage years, when you’re really becoming an adult, and getting boyfriends and girlfriends, and forming as a human being in full.”
"How did it happen?" Fogelman continued. "Those questions aren’t going to be answered for some time. It’s something that, like many of the great tragedies in our lives, might not be talked about all the time or easy to talk about."
Oh boy. You know the longer we wait to learn about Jack’s death, the harder it is going to be for us to emotionally cope with it. Start stockpiling tissues.
