Holy moly! NBC’s hit family drama returned Tuesday and it didn’t mess around.
Warning: Spoiler alert! Do not proceed if you haven’t watched Tuesday’s season two premiere of This Is Us. Everyone else, you may proceed…
Give us a moment, we’re still recovering from the This Is Us premiere!
After a long six-month wait, the beloved Pearson family returned to our television screens on Tuesday, kicking off the highly anticipated second season with a whopper of a reveal about Jack’s death.
In final moments of the episode, titled “A Father’s Advice,” Jack confessed to Rebecca that he had been struggling with alcoholism, and didn't want to come home to her and the kids until he got himself straight.
Rebecca refused, vowing that they would work things out together, and he got in the car. The somber mood turned darker, however, when we flashed forward to the night of Jack's death.
"A few months from now, everything will be back to normal," Rebecca says ominously, before the camera pans next to her to an empty passenger seat with a plastic bag filled with Jack's prized possessions. As teenage Kate and Randall weep on Miguel's couch, insisting they need to find Kevin and tell him what happened, their mother pulls up to the Pearson family home -- revealing that it has been completely destroyed in a fire.
So did Jack perish in the fire? Creator Dan Fogelman revealed that the ambiguous ending is meant to raise questions.
"That's what we're saying to people. They don't know the details. Did he die in the fire? Did he get out of the fire?" Fogelman said following a premiere screening in Hollywood on Tuesday, confirming that the day of the fire was the day Jack died. "He didn't die four years later. Did he start the fire?"
Earlier this summer, Fogelman revealed that a big answer to the question of how Jack died would be answered in the first episode back -- and it didn’t disappoint.
“If that is a question that is haunting people, in the course of the second season they will get all the answers they want,” Fogelman said in August, noting that the premiere “will feed the beast enough.” “The first episode has a big, giant piece of the puzzle that will potentially set the internet abuzz and also, hopefully, give some momentum toward that storyline.”
“The Jack death was always going to be a big part of this family and a big part of the show," he added. "The internet changes things in a way where the conversation changes ... you have to be cognizant of it. I try not to read too much. We have a plan. We have not strayed from that plan. The way Jack’s death is going to play out is going to play out as it was planned since episode one."
What did you think of the This Is Us premiere? How are you feeling about the revelation about Jack’s death? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below or hit us up on Twitter at @etnow!
This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.
