The day after the Super Bowl, there’s a good chance that TV fans won’t be talking about the big game, but rather, the big fire. NBC is airing a special This Is Us following the game, and it will finally be revealed how Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) dies, once and for all.
“I don’t know if people are going to be ready for the next episode. I’m not. I haven’t seen it yet,” Mandy Moore, who plays Rebecca Pearson in the NBC drama, told Us Weekly in an exclusive interview. “I mean, I filmed it and it was really hard on every level. I think it’s … I think it’s gonna be a good soul-crusher.”
“Everything will be answered. We’re leaving nothing on the table. Everyone will know everything,” Moore continued. “I’m excited about that, because I feel like it’ll sort of relieve a little bit of pressure. People will know, and then we’ll be able to get back to telling the story of this family, and I think it’ll make things that much more bittersweet moving forward too.”
The episode was written by the show’s creator, Dan Fogelman, and may be “his best hour of television,” star Sterling K. Brown told Entertainment Weekly. “It is cinematic, it’s epic in scope. He is able to take the mundane and turn it into a superhero movie,” Brown explained. “Each one of us, once we read it we were like, ‘Did you read this yet? Yeah. It’s off the chain!’ We were giddy.”
Speaking to Us Weekly about the big episode, Ventimiglia said it’s “definitely going to hurt” to watch.
“In the short amount of time, people have really grown to love Jack, and Jack and Rebecca, and the family and the kids and the adult big three,” the Gilmore Girls alum noted. “I think this is just one of those moments where you know it’s on its way. And it’s going to sting. It’s going to hurt. But I think ultimately, hopefully, people can accept and hold the memory of Jack with a full heart and move that into their lives.”
This Is Us will air on NBC following the Super Bowl on Sunday, February 4.
