What 'This Is Us' Season 2 Will Reveal About Jack's Death, According To The Creator & Cast

Fans haven't really even stopped weeping over the first season of This Is Us, and it sounds like next season won't offer any reprieve. But, that's not gonna stop people from tuning in, because fans have to know if Jack dies in This is Us Season 2. After all, it's important to mentally prepare ahead of time, right?

According to the creator Dan Fogelman, we'll learn about Jack's death and then some in Season 2. "If that is a question that has haunted people, over the course of the second season, they will get all the answers they want," Fogelman said at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "The first episode has a big giant piece of the puzzle that will potentially set the internet abuzz and hopefully give some momentum toward that storyline."

In Season 1, it quickly became clear that Jack was no longer alive in the show's present-day scenes, but showrunners have yet to reveal exactly how and when his death takes place, other than vaguely revealing that his three children, Randall, Kate and Kevin, were roughly teenagers when it happened. While it's encouraging to hear Fogelman doesn't plan to keep us in suspense for too much longer, don't put away your detective caps just yet.

"[Fogelman] is going to give an answer, but it's going to beg a lot more questions," Milo Ventimiglia, who plays Jack, told THR at the ATX Television Festival.

The show's plot left us at a breaking point last season, with Jack and his wife Rebecca (Mandy Moore) in a troubling place in their relationship. Loud ugly-crying was heard across the country (or at least across my neighborhood) as Rebecca asked him to leave their home, and he left her with an impassioned speech full of love. Fans remain hopeful that they'll reconcile, but his inevitable death — and the horrifying possibility that it happens before he's had a chance to mend things with Rebecca — still looms above viewers' heads.

Fortunately, Ventimiglia himself seems to be relatively prepared for a reconciliation. "There needs to be some kind of resolution or conversation or a whole bridge to be built that got shattered at the end of the last season," he told THR. "There's a lot of work to be done there."

We'd all love answers immediately, but Fogelman is playing the long game, and he's doing it well.

"By the time we get to the end of the season, we'll have done everything exactly as we set out to do," he told Variety ahead of last season's finale. "Very few details changed from my initial plan. The second season is going to play out much the same way. Whether we're going to be able to continue doing that without the audience ever becoming frustrated — that's going to be one of our biggest challenges."

Frustration is inevitable, but so far for fans, it's been the good kind — the kind of frustration that comes from knowing we're in capable hands, and from a plot that steadily keeps chugging along, revealing new clues and keeping us invested in the lives of these complicated characters. It seems the cast of the show themselves are just as invested as we are. Moore told Variety that when Jack's death is finally fully revealed, it will be "heartbreaking."

"What else can you expect from this show?" she said. "Heartbreaking in the way that life is heartbreaking. That's what I love about this show. The way he passes is going to be heartbreaking for people."

Have tissues and your Tuesday night support group ready. The more answers we get, the more we'll be able to begin to properly mourn along with the Pearsons. It's going to be a bumpy but hopefully ultimately satisfying ride.