Basically, the whole reason I started watching This Is Us was so that I could see Jamie Sullivan and Jess Mariano as a beautiful couple raising babies together, but boy is this show way more complicated than that. Don’t worry though — it's complicated in all of the best ways. In the second episode of the series, which aired on Sept. 27, Rebecca (Mandy Moore) and Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) are married with three kids in the late 1980s, but in the present day, those kids (Randall, Kate, and Kevin) talk about the fact that their father has passed away. Then, at the end of the episode, it’s revealed that Rebecca has married Miguel, Jack’s old best friend, which raises so many questions. How did Jack die on This Is Us ? When did Rebecca get remarried? How did she end up falling for Miguel?
Usually, I would say, “oh hell no” to cheating, especially on Ventimiglia, but if that ends up being how Rebecca and Miguel got together (and we don’t know if it is), I could see Rebecca’s side. She’s raising three 8-year-old kids, and Jack is out drinking with his buddy, Miguel — three bourbons, as he points out, before 5:05 p.m. Point blank, Jack is not pulling his weight. He tells Miguel that sometimes he doesn’t recognize Rebecca as the woman he married, and Miguel is basically like, “Dude, you do not know how good you have it.” Later, Jack realizes the same thing, apologizes to Rebecca, and she tells him to shape up with the drinking or ship out. Honestly, bravo, Rebecca — you have triplets and do not need to put up with that.
This sequence leaves me with so many questions, though — how did Jack die? Was he just old or sick or did it somehow relate to his drinking? And did Miguel pursue Rebecca while she was still married and not being appreciated by Jack, or was their marriage a byproduct of grief?
Viewers got a glimpse of present-day Rebecca and Miguel visiting Randall’s house and even Randall, who is Miguel’s stepson, seemed weirded out in his presence. I know that This Is Us is not going to reveal everything right away, but I need to know if Rebecca and Jack disintegrated or if he died while they were still together, and how she ended up with his best friend. After all, Jamie Sullivan and Jess Mariano have both been through enough.
Images: Ron Batzdorff/NBC (2)
