Six years ago today, the trailer for the then new NBC drama series This Is Us exploded, breaking records with about 80 million views in 12 days. He was a forerunner of the phenomenal six-season series that ended tonight with the end of the series, titled “We.”
The closing was set immediately after the penultimate episode, “The Train,” as the Pearsons reunited for Rebecca’s funeral. Last week, the creator of This Is Us, Dan Fogelman, described it as capturing “a day in the life, which is a lot of what the show is about,” and noted that the last two hours of This Is Us, which he wrote, they are “very different episodes that talk to each other.”
In addition to Rebecca’s death, another thread that connects the two episodes is the sequence of dreams with young Rebecca and Jack in the van of the train van where Rebecca was last week. The last lines of both episodes were told by Rebecca and Jack in that van as they greeted each other with “hey” on “The Train” and called “I Love You” at the end.
THIS IS US – “Us” Episode 618 – Pictured: (lr) Milo Ventimiglia as Jack, Mandy Moore as Rebecca – (Photo: Ron Batzdorff / NBC) NBC
The finale opened with young Jack and Rebecca waking up in bed at home in a setting that reflected the scene from the van to Jack’s mustache. The duet’s morning conversation produced the memorable finish line Fogelman had made last week: “I wish I had enjoyed it more while it was still happening instead of worrying about when it would end,” Rebecca said. Something Jack said at the end with him and Rebecca lying in the van bed was one of the favorite lines in the entire series for star Milo Ventimiglia, he revealed during a panel Sunday. Responding to Rebecca who posed for a casual date in a bar decades ago when she began her romance, Jack (Ventimiglia) said, “When the world puts something so obvious in front of you, you’re not leaving.”
In the end, there were multiple parallels between Rebecca and Jack’s conversation and the scene of Rebecca’s death on “The Train,” including Randall telling his mother, “We’re fine. “Just before she died last week, and Jack said to Rebecca, ‘Girl, we did well. You did very well,’ in the finale. He also shook Jack’s hand on the train at the end as he did with Randall’s hand in his final moments of the previous episode.
In the same way that the sequel to “The Train” was based on the references of the train and the wagon at the premiere of the season, the theme A Day In the Life at the end was based on Rebecca’s heartbreaking speech. in episode 2, in which he said, “I don’t care to forget.” about the big things. These are the little things I’m not ready to let go of yet, “he said, adding that playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey on a Saturday is one of those little moments he fears.
That Saturday with the preteen Big Three, during which the family watched home movies, played Pin the Tail on the Donkey and Jack taught the boys how to shave, was the center of the finale. Filmed almost four years ago, the footage was released along with recently filmed parts of the farewell.
Young Kate killed her in the game Pin the Tail on the Donkey, explaining that she did so well using the voice of her parents and siblings as a spatial reference. “As long as I know where you are, I know where I’m going,” he said.
THIS IS US – “Us” Episode 618 – Pictured: (lr) Chris Sullivan as Toby, Griffin Dunne as Nicky NBC
Chris Sullivan, who plays Toby on the show, cited this as his favorite line of the show. Toby himself was later seen playing with the Pearsons after Rebecca’s funeral.
In another This Is Us link between the past and the future, a scene with William, Randall and the young Tess and Annie that takes place when William and Randall were on their way to William’s last trip to Memphis, William told Randall the joys of being a grandfather. He juxtaposes himself with Randall himself preparing to become a grandfather in the final.
In it, Deja told Randall that she had a child, that she and Malik would name William, whom she had never met but who she met through her own father, she said.
As we watched Randall struggle to write his praise of Rebecca (“Mother was Magic” was all he could muster on a reference card), the show chose not to show the speeches the Big Three made in the commemorative service of his mother.
Instead, we had a final scene of the brothers sitting on the steps of the family hut.
We have found out what their future plans are for each one. Kate will open more music schools for the visually impaired. Kevin will focus on his non-profit organization. And Randall, whose political career had been hinted at for a couple of seasons, will explore a presidential candidacy with a trip to Iowa.
Kate shared her nightmare that, after her parents left, “we’re adrift.” She and her siblings vowed to stay close and sang the famous Big Three song we had just seen nine minutes earlier in one of the Pearson home movies that lazy Saturday saw decades earlier.
In the final, Randall and Beth had a final round of their game on the worst side division stage, while Toby and Kate shared a sweet moment, in which she told him she loved him, a good farewell gift for the KaToby fans.
The episode also included a couple of vintage jump montages that have been a staple of This Is Us: there were the Big Three waking up as children and the morning of Rebecca’s funeral, as well as several generations of Pearsons pushing their little ones. park swings, from Rebecca when she was a little girl with her father to Rebecca and Jack with the Big Three as a child, then her children as adults with her children and finally Jack Jr. and his daughter. This last scene was notable for being the farthest in the future that the show has ever come.
In the end, Rebecca told Jack on the train that she didn’t want to leave her children and that “there were so many things left that I wanted to do with them.”
“You will,” Jack assured her. “It’s hard to explain, but you’ll do all these things with them. You will be there. “
While the two said “I love you”, the series went into its final montage with a wide score that was used before the series once, in the episode of season 1 where Kevin showed his painting to his nieces. The camera turned to each of the Big Three, with Randall looking at Deja with his hand on his belly. The final shot was young Randall and Jack from the scene on Saturday with the camera focused on Jack as he watched his family.
In a post-mortem interview (you can read it here), Fogelman breaks down the ending, answering questions about key moments and scenes, including his choice of the final lines of dialogue and the plan and decision not to show the praises of Big Three. to his mother. . He also talks about filmed but unused footage, Randall’s political future, and the possible spin-offs of This Is Us.