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‘This Is Us’ delivers another twist ending (and lots more tears)
After another heartfelt episode, “This Is Us” delivered a twist ending yet again in its second episode, and this one left us reeling.
You might remember from the pilot episode that Randall (Sterling K. Brown) mentioned his adoptive father, Jack (Milo Ventimiglia), died years earlier in the timeline. If so, you were probably pretty shocked to hear his kids announce that grandma and grandpa were at the door.
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Unfortunately, instead of a newly resurrected Jack standing alongside his beautiful wife, it’s revealed that Jack’s best friend, Miguel (Jon Huertas), is the “grandpa” they’re referring to. Awkward.
We can’t say this twist is technically as surprising as the one from the pilot, especially given that Miguel spent most of his time waxing poetic about how amazing Rebecca (Mandy Moore) is and how jealous he is of Jack’s perfect relationship. Coupled with Jack’s drinking problem and their resulting marital struggles, this twist is actually pretty on the nose.
The question we have to ask ourselves is whether Miguel maintained a safe distance as the family friend until Frank passed away and merely stepped in as Rebecca’s new life partner after the fact, or whether we’re about to see a darker and more triangular love story emerge while Jack is still alive and well.
Whatever the story is, they’ve been together long enough for Randall’s kids to call him “grandpa” instead of Miguel, which is doesn’t give us a lot of hope for Jack and Rebecca’s marriage.
For our part, we hope Miguel and Rebecca don’t end up having an affair due to Jack’s drinking problem.
“This Is Us” has done a great job of depicting real life problems with incredibly three dimensional characters, while also tugging at the heartstrings of viewers.
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Jack and Rebecca’s martial issues might make for a realistic and engaging subplot that doubles down on the family drama, but cheating and love triangles and broken families don’t exactly follow the tone the show is going for. Drama is one thing, but we’d hate to see this turn into one of those soap operas Kevin (Justin Hartley) escaped from to become “The Manny.”
That being said, “This Is Us” officially has us on the hook with its first two episodes. It’s delivered happy tears, sad tears, heartfelt laughter and everything a good primetime drama should, and it’s steadily becoming one of the most talked about shows of the new season.
So long as it keeps delivering solid writing and family feels, we’ll keep turning up for more.
“This Is Us” airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.