This Is Us dropped plenty of hints about Jack’s death before revealing how the beloved father and husband passed away during the show’s highly-anticipated Super Bowl episode, but these words from Randall will destroy you. In the fifteenth episode of the first season, Randall rushes home from work after William gets into a fight with his nurse. “You’re a sick old man,” Randall says to his father, “and sick old men need nurses to make sure they take their meds on time, and eat their meals on time, and don’t die when nobody’s looking.”
Those last five words were a direct reference to Jack’s death — we just didn’t know it at the time. Now we know that Jack survived the house fire, but he died at the hospital of a heart attack just hours later. Rebecca had left Jack’s side to make a few calls and grab candy from the vending machine when Jack suffered a fatal heart attack. He died alone. He died when nobody was looking.
When Kate and Randall left Jack and Rebecca in the ambulance after the house fire, they thought they would see their father again. He was just going to the hospital to get treated for a burn. But that was the last time Kate and Randall ever saw their father alive. They never got the chance to say goodbye, and that haunts Randall.
This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on NBC. The Feb. 6 episode will focus on Jack’s funeral and the grieving process for the Pearsons in the immediate aftermath of their devastating loss.
HollywoodLifers, do you catch that hint to Jack’s death in the first season? Let us know!