If you watched Tuesday night's episode of This Is Us, titled "What Now?," you may have assumed that we finally got our answer about Jack's (Milo Ventimiglia) untimely passing. However, clever Redditors have declared that This Is Us has officially faked out its audience — and the evidence is pretty compelling.
In the episode, Jack — who has just fallen off the wagon — heads to the bar for a drink after Rebecca (Mandy Moore) leaves for the first leg of her tour. Jack doesn't give Rebecca an appropriate goodbye, something that young Kate chastises him for. When receptionist Heather (Megan West) hits on him while he's out, Jack realizes that he has to go and make things right with Rebecca — despite having one too many at the bar. He calls Kate to thank her for the advice, then speeds off in his car after dropping his keys.
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Considering that this is the penultimate episode of the season, it certainly seems possible that This Is Us was implying that Jack would get into a fatal collision due to his drunk driving — something that Kate in present day still feels guilty about. But what if that's just what the series wants you to think? Clever Redditors noticed a photo that suggests Jack survived the car ride, so we shouldn't shed tears for the Pearson pop just yet.
One of NBC's official photos for upcoming finale "Moonshadow" revealed Jack, alive and well. However, it's what he's wearing that gave Redditors some pause: it appears that Jack is wearing the same outfit that he wore in "What Now?," only now it's daytime.
Redditor Harmony30 thinks they've figured out what happened:
"Notice the unbuttoned shirt and the jacket besides the chair and the blanket on Jack's left. I strongly believe Jack returned home after realising how incapable he is to drive two hours to Cleveland or maybe he has a near-miss (which would be quite the suspense!). He crashes on the couch and maybe the kids return the next morning since Jack obviously cannot go pick them up like he said he would and one of them put a blanket over him."
We'll have to wait until the finale to see if that theory checks out... but if it does, it means we still have no idea how Jack really dies. Come on, show: just give us one legit clue!