This article contains spoilers for the last two episodes of This Is Us.Over six seasons of NBC's This Is Us, the Pearson family has taken fans on a journey. There have been highs, there have been lows, and there has been a lot of crying onscreen and in living rooms across the world. The penultimate episode on May 18, 2022, was one of the most emotionally brutal storylines of the series, even though everyone knew what was coming — the death of matriarch Rebecca Pearson (Mandy Moore who deserves all the awards for her performance).
In the series finale, titled simply 'Us,' the Big Three and their spouses, kids, and Uncle Nicky were laying Rebecca to rest. Fans girded themselves for the series finale, made sure Kleenex was nearby, and sat down to have one last, emotionally devastating ugly cry with the Pearson family. Only, that didn't really happen. It wasn't that the finale left us wanting; in fact, it brought things around full circle, and sent us off with a bit of hope.
And yet that in itself was a bit disappointing even though the series finale stayed true to the overall feeling and theme of the show. We weren't left looking for any answers, and yet we aren't completely satisfied either. On one level, the series finale was simple. On many other levels it was the most complicated episode of the season. Let's examine why.
The Penultimate Episode Was Extraordinary
In the second to last episode, "The Train," Rebecca Pearson dies. As she is fading away, her family and loved ones take turns at her bedside saying goodbye. At the same time, Rebecca's spirit is on a train visiting the important people from her life. It's explained that when she was a young girl her father told her about fancy trains that you had to dress up to go on. William, Randall Pearson's birth father, was the conductor. The doctor that delivered Kevin and Kate was the bartender. Along her way through the train, Rebecca saw Miguel (who told her she was still his favorite person) and her kids and their partners at various points in their life as she made her way to the caboose.
As she makes her way through the train the words being spoken to her at her bedside come through on speakers. She pauses outside the entrance to the final car. "I'm waiting for someone," she said.
The Penultimate Episode Answered Questions
Way back in season three, This Is Us' creators had fans speculating wildly, when a flash forward to the year 2032 showed Rebecca in a hospital bed in the house Kevin built for her (which wasn't even a plan at that point). It was clear the family was gathered to say goodbye. Noticeably, Kate was not there and neither was Miguel, Nicky was wearing a wedding ring, and Toby was present. Fans went wild pontificating that Kate had died prior to that flash-forward. When Kate and Toby got divorced, that threw flames on the fire of that fan theory.
For three seasons, fans of This Is Us have been wondering what that scene meant. In the penultimate episode, we got our answers. Nicky met Edie early in the sixth season and married her. Miguel had preceded Rebecca in death. Kate was in London, going international with her curriculum for music schools for the vision-impaired. She got a call from her brothers that it was time to come home and say goodbye, and as the family gathered around Rebecca's bedside, Kate was on a transatlantic flight.
Kevin and Randall are at Rebecca's bedside when she says "I'm waiting for someone" on the train. That someone was Kate. And she made it to her mother's bedside just in time, allowing Rebecca to pass peacefully with all three of her kids at her side. Kate wasn't dead! Thank God!
Kate Asked The Hard Question
The series finale of This Is Us focused on the funeral of Rebecca Pearson. As the triplets prepared their eulogies (which were silent by design, series creator Dan Fogelman revealed in an interview with the Los Angeles Times), the episode flashed back to a day when the Pearson family was young and had nothing on their schedules for a Saturday. The Big Three are young teenagers. Jack is still alive, and they end up playing a game of pin the tail on the donkey, a game Rebecca and Jack bought when the triplets were babies because the cover of the box showed two white kids and one Black kid — it looked just like their family.
When the funeral is over, the triplets are sitting on the porch and Kate wonders "What if we drift away?" She voiced the hard question — without their mother to ground them and provide a central gathering place, what would become of their relationships as siblings? Randall is exploring a run for President of the United States, after all. Her brothers assured her that wouldn't happen.
Most Of The Flashback Shots Were Shot Four Years Ago
In the flashback scenes in the last two episodes, Dan Fogelman revealed that all but one were shot four years ago. The young actors that play the teenage Kevin, Kate, and Randall, are all too old to play those roles now, so the writers mapped out the series finale way back in season two and shot all the scenes four years ago — the pin the tail on the donkey, the one with Jack teaching Randall and Kevin how to shave (when he tells them life is about "collecting these little moments"), and that whole day from the past the series finale focuses on.
The only exception to that is the scene where Rebecca and Jack find the pin the tail on the donkey game in the toy store. That scene was actually the only scene in that day that wasn't shot four years ago, the Los Angeles Times reported. The penultimate episode and the series finale ended with Rebecca and Jack laying next to each other in the bed in the caboose of the train, finally reunited after all the years apart.
It Was Always About Jack and Rebecca and Their Legacy
In the end, This Is Us came full circle and left fans knowing that everyone (even 'us') was going to be all right. Kevin and Sophie were solid, Kate's career was flourishing, Randall's political career was on the rise, and he was going to be a grandfather to a grandson named after his father William. The kids were all going to be okay without Rebecca, and we will all be ok without This Is Us. The Kleenex industry, however, might see a dip in sales now that the weekly cry-fest of the certified tearjerker is over.
The series was always about Jack and Rebecca and their love and the legacy they created. Their kids had kids, and those kids would go on to have kids too, and so on. The Pearson family lives on, just not weekly on NBC anymore.