Milo Ventimiglia Blames Himself For ‘This Is Us’ Finale Hype

Milo Ventimiglia is as nice of a guy in real life as he is on This Is Us. On the heels of some negative fan reaction to the This Is Us finale, Ventimiglia took one for the team and told Entertainment Weekly he’s partially to blame for hyping up the “Moonshadow” episode to the point that fans thought they would get some real answers about his character Jack Pearson’s death.

“I may have just shot myself in the foot teasing it out, and the audience not getting the answer that they were looking for,” Milo admitted to EW.

“I’ll have to hold strong with that answer until Dan [Fogelman] wants to tell that story.”

Ahead of the This Is Us finale, Milo Ventimiglia told People that the final two episodes would be painful for fans and teased that fans should get a puppy to snuggle with. He has also urged fans to stock up on tissues and get a wine subscription. When talking about the This Is Us finale, Milo told the Hollywood Reporter that it would be a painful episode.

“I hope everyone has recovered from William’s passing is all I’m going to say.,” Milo teased. “Get ready. It’s a rocky ride at the end.”

The #ThisIsUs season finale delivered the show's biggest audience ever https://t.co/EyY8RJSyN0 pic.twitter.com/GNo2HchWrQ

— Variety (@Variety) March 17, 2017

Contrary to This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman’s statements about the show, Ventimiglia also fueled the fan fire by teasing that his character’s death story could possibly come before the end of the season.

“It could be the next episode,” Ventimiglia told Entertainment Tonight.

“It could be the second to last episode. It could be a ways away. But I think the idea is [to] embrace the moment that we’re in and know that it’s coming. You gotta be ready for it at any given time. It could very well be this season. You never know, you never know.”

Ever since This Is Us viewers found out that Jack Pearson dies sometime in the mid-1990s when his kids are teenagers, Milo Ventimiglia has urged fans to focus on how his character lived and not how he died. But many viewers stocked up on wine and tissues for the finale, expecting to get at least another piece to the puzzle surrounding Jack’s death. Instead, the This Is Us story arc went in a completely new direction, with Jack and his wife Rebecca (Mandy Moore) agreeing to separate after a blowout fight.

Milo revealed that fans of the NBC drama continue to grill him on the back-story of his character’s death, but that he feels “very strongly” that they should be more concerned with how Jack lived his life, especially when his marriage was in a state of disrepair. Ventimiglia added that the new storyline about the Pearsons’ fractured marriage is a “redirect” for the show, and while it was sad, he admits that it didn’t produce the tears that many fans were expecting.

“I think people were expecting this massive shut-yourself-in-a-hole-and-cry-for-a-week experience of an episode, but it’s different than that,” Milo said. “But it doesn’t make it any lighter or any less relevant to the lives of these characters, you know? It’s stressful, and painful, and it’s just sad.”

While some fans were disappointed with the This Is Us finale, Milo said he’s pleased with how the show’s final Season 1 moments played out.

“I’m actually really good,” Ventimiglia told EW.

“This now prolongs that question of ‘How is Jack going die?’ because that is not satisfied. But I feel that this last episode has showed a different side of the show, but it was a side that was necessary to show.”

Milo Ventimiglia wasn’t the only This Is Us star who hinted that fans need to be patient. Milo’s TV wife, Mandy Moore, took to Twitter to try to calm fans down after the unexpected backlash following the “Moonshadow” episode.

“Sometimes we don’t get all the answers we want. Patience. That’s the kind of show we’re making and I couldn’t be prouder. #thisisus,” Moore tweeted.

Sometimes we don't get all the answers we want. Patience. That's the kind of show we're making and I couldn't be prouder. #thisisus

— Mandy Moore (@TheMandyMoore) March 15, 2017

Mandy Moore previously told the Hollywood Reporter that This Is Us would “destroy” viewers by the end of the season, but she hinted that it might not be for the reason they were expecting.

“We’re going to destroy America by the end of the season,” the This Is Us star told the HR. “As if they don’t have enough to be upset about at this point in time anyway. But they’re going to be upset for a completely different set of reasons.”

Take a look at the video below to see Milo Ventimiglia and Mandy Moore in the final scene of the This Is Us episode “Moonshadow.”

This Is Us returns to NBC for Season 2 in September.

[Featured Image by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images]