This Is Us was about to tell us how Jack died in the season finale…until they didn’t. For those of you who don’t want to wait until next season to find out, we have some great news!
In a press release sent by NBC today the network announced This Is Us is planning a summer special for this June in which they will tell us exactly how Jack died, apologizing for baiting us earlier this year.
Titled How Jack Died, this two-and-a-half hour special, billed as an “action-adventure,” will explore the events directly correlating to Jack’s death and how it affected the entire Pearson family.
The TV movie will go back and forth between the present day anniversary of his death and the actual day it took place, likely breaking our already broken hearts into more pieces.
“Look, we’re sorry,” says show creator Dan Fogelman. “We knew the finale would anger some fans but we had no idea just how much. We probably shouldn’t have teased his death in the penultimate episode without following through, so I wanted to make up for it with this action-adventure movie.”
The penultimate episode in question ended with Kate telling Toby that her father’s death was her fault, but we never found out why she thought that. This Is Us likely had plans to show us the answers for this in the season 2 premiere (or maybe not) but this new TV movie will give us a chance to find out way sooner.
“The real reason for this,” explains Milo Ventimiglia, who plays Jack, “is that we never got to explore an aspect about Jack that is really important to know before you find out how he died. He’s actually a spy for the CIA.”
Say what?!
“That’s a spoiler I didn’t want to reveal but I feel like our fans deserve to know so they could understand that finale better,” Ventimiglia continues. “He’s not supposed to have a family. Spies can’t have things tying them down, but Jack wanted one so badly he defied the CIA. And he got away with it…until now.”
Apparently the end of Jack and Rebecca’s marriage was just an excuse for Jack to run off and do one last mission, and Kate’s interference is what causes it to go awry.
Fogelman explains the premise of this action-adventure, “Kate really thinks she was the cause of Jack’s death, and you’ll see why this June. It’s not just a car accident, but she gets in the middle of some serious CIA shit and Jack is forced to risk everything to save her.”
This totally explains why Jack was randomly trying to rob a bar in the season finale as well – he’s such a wholesome guy that maybe that was the beginning of how he got tapped by the CIA to be a spy! It’s all coming together now, finally.
The This Is Us TV movie, How Jack Died, is set to premiere this June but has no specific date yet.
Will you watch the ‘This Is Us’ TV movie?
April Fool’s!