This Is Us fans will soon learn the entire story behind Jack Pearson’s relationship with his mysterious brother, Nicky, and it’s happening soon. The upcoming This Is Us episode, “Songbird Road: Part One,” will give a fast-paced resolution to a flashback storyline that viewers never saw coming.
In an interview with E! News , This Is Us showrunner Isaac Aptaker promised that “everything is going to be answered about Nicky” in next week’s episode.
“We’re going to tell exactly what happened with him and Jack, why Jack said he was dead when he wasn’t, what everyone knew when… This is the opposite of a slow burn. This is exactly what happened, this is everything I need to know, a packed hour.”
In a separate interview with Glamour , the This Is Us showrunner confirmed that viewers will see Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Nicky (Michael Angarano) in a post-Vietnam setting — after finding out that Jack is now alive. The This Is Us executive producer described “Songbird Road: Part One” as a “huge” and “do-not-miss” episode that will touch on various time-lines.
“There’s a present-day storyline, too. We’re going to learn what happened to Nicky across all of our time-lines, including him in the present day.”
Apatker also confirmed that the postcard that Nicky sent to Jack in 1992, on which he wrote the message “last one,” could signal that it was the younger Pearson’s last attempt at reaching out to Jack. But the This Is Us EP also hinted that there could be more correspondence between the two brothers that didn’t survive the Pearson family’s 1998 house fire.
“[Kevin] has this handful of artifacts of Jack’s that survived the fire, so that’s just one piece of their correspondence. That’s not the whole story, but we will dive into exactly ‘last one’ of how many, ‘last one’ of what, all of that, next week.”
Aptaker also revealed that based on the date of the postcard it’s “totally possible” that viewers will see a scene with Jack and Nicky set between 1992 and 1998. This strongly signals that it’s likely to come to fruition.
In fact, in the promo for the “Songbird Road: Part One” episode, which you can see below, Jack is shown talking to his brother, Nicky, in his trailer. The time frame appears to be in the late 1980s or early 1990s, based on Jack’s facial hair. In the clip, Nicky asks Jack, “Did I ruin your life?”
The present-day Nicky will be played by veteran actor Griffin Dunne in upcoming This Is Us episodes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLm0UQuud0M
This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on NBC.
