This is Us loves its road trips, and this week served up a two-for-one whopper. As the Big Three drives six hours to see their resurrected Uncle Nicky, we also go back in time, to an equally prickly visit between Nicky and Jack. Everything goes sideways.
Here’s how it all hit the fan in this week’s pearl-clutching episode.
Jack’s PTSD led him to cut Nicky out of his life.
I always thought it was a long shot theory, but the notion that Nicky didn’t die after all, and Jack purposely disconnected from him after the war, did cross my mind. We’ve never fully explored the extent of Jack’s PTSD on the show, but it apparently runs deep: He cut out everything from his pre-Rebecca life after Vietnam. Nicky constantly wrote Jack letters—not just the postcard Kevin found buried in one of his old boxes last week. Every time Jack received one, usually mailed to his job, he filed it away like he did every other symbol of his past. That is, until he received one piece of correspondence delivered right to the Pearson's home address.
Jack is so livid about Nicky's letter, he decides to confront him in person.
At first, it seems like Jack might finally be ready to face his issues with Nicky for the first time since Vietnam. But actually, he just wants to take the six-hour drive to Bradford, Pennsylvania (he tells Rebecca he’s going on a work trip) so he can diss Nicky in person and tell him not to write him anymore.
But Nicky, still chain-smoking and drinking, now living in a rundown trailer, brushes off Jack’s cold shoulder and invites him inside for some hot chocolate. Jack reluctantly goes inside and they bypass the small chat despite years of not speaking. Jack reiterates that he's moved on with his life and shows Nicky a photo of Rebecca and the kids, as if to say, "I’ve got a new life now and you no longer matter to me." It’s harsh, but it’s what Jack thinks he needs to do to make peace with himself and the brothers' relationship. At the same time, he’s been lying to his family about Nicky being alive, hence robbing them of a relationship with him. Jack also doesn’t give Nicky chance to make peace with their relationship and everything that happened between them in Vietnam. Jack shrugs off Nicky’s own PTSD and refuses to hear a vital piece of information that could actually shift things between the brothers.
Nicky got the young son of Jack’s Mystery Vietnamese Woman killed in the boat explosion.
Remember how we initially thought Nicky died in the boat explosion in Vietnam? What we didn’t know is that the son of Jack’s Mystery Woman was in the boat with him. (Sidebar: It is way past time that these two characters should have names.)
In a war flashback we see Nicky waking up from a nap to find the little boy standing next to him with a big smile on his face—the same little boy who needed medical help, whom Nicky turned his back on, in an earlier episode. This time, Nicky warms up to the little boy, even letting him wear his eyeglasses, and invites him out of the boat. The two seem to be getting along and start playing with spare grenades—a really, really, REALLY bad idea, of course. The boy drops one of the grenades on the floor of the boat, and they suddenly have five seconds to vacate before it goes off. Nicky tries to warn the boy about it, but he doesn’t understand and just stands there. Nicky decides to save himself and jumps into the water just as the boat explodes. That’s when Jack and the rest of the troops run toward the boat to save Nicky, and Jack sees what happened to the little boy. He immediately blames his brother.
Before Jack can really rip into him, Nicky is helicoptered away from the scene, leaving the Mystery Woman completely inconsolable. In the midst of this story of two brothers, this Vietnamese woman is inconsolably screaming as she realizes what happened to her child because of Nicky's actions. This juxtaposition is bothersome. It’s shown in a flash and only to elevate the stakes of Jack and Nicky’s relationship. I really hope this narrative ultimately leads to more illumination about this woman and her relationship with Jack.
Nicky is heartbroken over Jack’s death.
It’s been more than two decades since Jack’s death, but for Nicky, he just died today. Nicky never got to tell his brother that the young boy’s death was an accident. The animosity Jack had for Nicky was built on false information, and he took it to the grave. Kate, Randall, and Kevin still want to ask Nicky more questions, but once they tell him about his death, he’s visibly upset and asks them to leave.
Kevin decides not to turn his back on Nicky.
After Nicky dismisses them, Kate, Randall, and Kevin drive home thinking about how they got to this moment. But for Kevin, who literally traveled the world to get to Nicky’s trailer in his own state, meeting his uncle is monumental on his journey to get closer to his father. It’s also part of his therapy: Making amends with his past and not repeating his father’s mistakes. Instead of turning his back on Nicky, Kevin makes a U-turn. He finds his uncle sitting with a gun in front of him. Randall gently pushes it away. Can Kevin help Nicky find his way back into the Pearson family? Will that be the closure he’s looking for? I’m also curious whether his presence could help illuminate some of Jack’s mysteries for Rebecca, who deserves it.
Rebecca is unraveling at the thought of Jack lying to her about his brother for years.
After she sees off Kate, Randall, and Kevin on their road trip, Rebecca begins to realize just how much Jack hid from her—despite her encouragement that he open up. In another flashback, we see Jack return from his trip to Nicky’s and tell Rebecca he was actually visiting a fellow vet with PTSD. Rebecca asks if his visit helped him, but he says, “a little” and that he's not sure. She suggests outside help but he quickly changes the subject, the subtle pivot signifying that this is not up for discussion. Now in the present, Rebecca tells Miguel that she feels she could have done more. This is a great moment in the series—it touches on how Jack’s PTSD affected the woman he viewed as the cure for his past and its pain.
However, the moment is between Rebecca and Miguel, and he tries to comfort her. He tells her she could only know so much, and even as Jack's best friend, he didn't know him as well as he thought he did. (Ok, Miguel, but Jack probably couldn’t have foreseen you marrying his wife, so you were clearly a mystery to him as well.) As for Rebecca, something tells me that Jack’s “work trip” wasn’t the only thing he hid from her. I wonder whether this will incite her to reflect on other similar moments, and whether we’ll learn if she sought counseling to learn how to handle it. There's more to her story here, and there’s some foreshadowing when she tells Miguel that she wants to know the truth. What else will she find out?
Additionally:
Beth has FIVE interviews! It’s really nice to see her get back out there.
Rebecca’s lie about William continues to haunt Randall as he reflects on Nicky. We haven’t heard about this since last season, but in this episode, Randall says he’s less bothered by the fact that Jack lied about Nicky after learning that Rebecca lied to him about his biological father. The bar for expecting the truth from his parents has really fallen.
