Jack and Rebecca had a painful parting on Tuesday night’s “This Is Us,” as she headed out on tour.
The couple exchanged a brief, uncomfortable goodbye – one that even their kids gave Jack a look over.
“To leave on a note of such — it’s just like the air in the house is so heavy,” Mandy Moore said in NBC’s “This Is Us” aftershow video, posted on YouTube Tuesday night. “There’s so much that’s not being said between these two people.”
Teenage Kate even showed her disapproval of the way her parents left things, looking at Jack and saying, “Dad,” in a tone after Rebecca left. (Jack eventually ran outside, but Rebecca was already driving off.)
“Now that she’s gone on a tour for two weeks, which really isn’t a long period of time, but, to not have that resolution or conversation of, ‘We’re OK.’ But this is something that’s been bubbling up and boiling in between them since Miguel and Shelly broke up,” Milo said in the aftershow video, adding when Jack and Rebecca, “are not quite connecting … it’s unnerving.”
Mandy said the heartbreaking scene is the kind of situation Jack and Rebecca aren’t used to.
“I almost feel like Jack and Rebecca don’t know how to see their way out of it because they’ve never really been in this situation before,” she said.
But not every moment last night was heartbreaking. There was a happy tears moment where Randall shared details about a dream he had of his two dads – Jack and William – chatting on a couch about when Randall learned to drive. Randall shared the dream in a conversation to Kate after saying goodbye to William at the “fun-eral.”
The episode also seemed to inch a little closer to revealing how Jack died. Kate began to open about her dad’s death in a conversation in the present with Toby. “I’m the reason that he’s dead,” she told her fiancé.
The show then cut to Jack on the pay phone outside the bar, calling Kate and leaving a message where he said, “I’m gonna fix things with your mom. I love you Katie-girl.”
After hanging up the phone, Jack dropped his keys (the bar logo was clearly in the background). He then got into the car and started driving. (The lyrics to the song in the scene are, “all roads lead to an end.”)
“This Is Us” season finale is Tuesday, March 14th at 9/8c on NBC.
— Jolie Lash