Shocking New ‘This Is Us’ Fan Theory Will Break Your Heart
Jack’s death on This Is Us is the biggest mystery heading into the second half of Season 1. Not only are fans eager to find out how Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) met his end, but there’s also questions about how his wife, Rebecca (Mandy Moore), came to marry his best friend, Miguel (Jon Huertas). While theories about Jack’s death are many, one might just break your heart.
Hollywood Life reports that one fan came up with the idea that Jack actually died in the September 11 attacks. To back up the theory, Jack’s children – Kate (Chrissy Metz), Kevin (Justin Hartley) and Randall (Sterling K. Brown) – have all showed an uneasiness with flying. In fact, Kevin was recently shown destroying model airplanes that he and Jack had constructed.
According to Buzz Feed, Randall currently works in New York. We also know that the family likely grew up in the area, which means Jack may have had a job in the city around the time of the attacks.
Jack’s death on 9/11 would definitely explain his children’s attitude towards planes. It was also be completing devastating to lose a family member in a national tragedy. There are, however, some problems with the theory.
For starters, Jack’s kids were teenagers at the time of his death. Given their current ages, they would have been around 21 in 2001. Kate also told Toby that she watched the Super Bowl in 2006 with her father, which puts his death after the attacks.
Of course, this isn’t the only theory on how Jack died. According to Us Magazine, the other leading theory centers on how Kate handled Toby’s (Chris Sullivan) recent heart scare. Kate went into panic mode after Toby refused to undergo heart surgery. Could Jack have died of a heart attack?
“Kate’s reaction over Doofus being a scaredy-cat about the surgery makes me wonder if Jack’s death was heart-related? #ThisIsUs” one fan wrote on social media.
At the same time, there’s also the theory that Jack isn’t dead at all. The show first announced Jack’s fate when Kate talked about his ashes being in the urn in the living room. Some fans, however, aren’t convinced that Jack is really dead.
“So, they faked Jack’s death.. the urn is just filled with ashes from the fireplace.. He’s going to magically reappear. #alternate #thisisus,” one fan proposed.
Fans thankfully won’t have to wait long to find out which theory is correct. During the winter press tour for the Television Critics Association, Dan Fogelman revealed that Jack’s fate would be revealed this season.
“[The January 24 episode] is a big week, and we then have a while to go in the big picture,” he explained. “The needle we have to continue to thread is parsing out information so it never becomes too frustrating for people, but at the same point, it’s obvious there’s a before and after to this family.”
Fogelman continued: “Slowly but surely, you will learn when [he died], then, much later, how [he died] and then we’ll see it. But that will take hopefully many, many episodes.”
Yahoo is reporting that Fogelman also revealed that the show won’t explore all of the aspects of Jack’s death this season. Instead, Fogelman wants to take enough time for the story to fully develop.
“It’s going to take even longer for the audience to get the story of what happened in full. There’s a long journey to go on still,” he shared. “In terms of how he died — Was it illness? Was it something tragic? Something else? What was going on in their marriage when this happened? — that’s going to take a minute because we want to show that in the show.”
New episodes of This Is Us air Tuesday nights on NBC, check out a preview for the next all-new episode below.
[Featured Image by NBC]
