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For over a year now, This Is Us fans have been speculating about how Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia) died, and on Sunday night, we finally witnessed his tragic death and the ensuing devastation in the Pearson clan. While many assumed that Jack would pass in a fire sparked by an unruly Crock-Pot, Sunday’s episode actually allowed him to survive the fire (after saving the whole family, dog and photo albums) relatively unscathed. Of course, this is This Is Us, however, and by the end of the episode, Jack had died from cardiac arrest because of all the smoke he inhaled.
Perhaps no grief and shock was more painful to watch than his wife Rebecca’s (Mandy Moore), and after the episode aired Sunday evening, Moore discussed the tragedy with Entertainment Weekly, calling the way Jack’s death played out “exponentially more tragic” than it would have been if it was all done on-screen.
“It’s not some great cinematic death on camera. I’m sure most people were thinking that he passed away in the house and saving the dog, and those were all very good guesses, but I love that it happened so quietly,” said Moore. “I love that it also just allows us now to move on and really start to pick up the pieces of the family’s life.”
When asked about the unexpected nature of Jack’s death, Moore couldn’t give creator Dan Fogelman enough praise. “I thought it was perfect. I thought it was really fitting and human and real and grounded. I love that it wasn’t some television or movie cinematic death; it unfolded in a very real way,” she said. “And it’s very unexpected and, in that sense, exponentially more tragic. It just came out of the blue. I loved it. When Dan first told us, I was like, ‘Whoa. Oh my god. It’s going to gut people even more.'”
And gut us it did – Moore included.
“I was like, ‘I feel emotionally tapped out. I don’t think that my tear ducts have any more tears.’ This episode definitely put me through the wringer, emotionally. I was like, ‘I need a vacation. I need a break from crying!'”
With a show like This Is Us, it seems unlikely that her tears will stop anytime soon, but the Pearsons do move on. So what’s next? Moore knows that the Pearsons don’t have an easy path ahead of them. “It’s going to be a lot, emotionally, to juggle for this family — in the immediate aftermath, at least.”
And for all you Crock-Pot haters out there, Moore has some advice. “I don’t think there should be anger or grief at all. It was a tragedy, a plain tragedy. I think, if anything, people should take note to unplug all of their appliances.”
