Warning! The following contains spoilers for the latest episode of This Is Us! Read at your own risk!
This Is Us fans are still up in arms after the series' latest episode, where it was revealed that a faulty Crock-Pot slow cooker was the cause of the big house fire that burned down the Pearson home and probably killed Jack. After a group of fans took to social media to harass the company, creator Dan Fogelman felt compelled to share his thoughts on the outcry and come to Crock-Pot's defense:
Dan Fogelman gave the Crock-Pot social media person a break and did about the best job defending the company that he could since this whole mess started. It seems that This Is Us fans were so eager to cause a ruckus over a faulty slow cooker, they forgot that the gift from the Pearson's neighbor was described as "old junk," earlier in the episode. Had the Pearson's bought a new slow cooker from the store that caused the house to erupt into flames it'd be a different story, but given the appliance was a hand-me-down and had been sitting in a garage for who knows how long, it's a wonder it didn't spark up before then!
Dan Fogelman also reminded This Is Us fans that this is a fictional show, and while slow cookers can burn down homes, that wasn't the message the episode tried to send. Planes can also go down on a trip from Sydney, Australia to Los Angeles, California, and strand people on an island, but Lost hasn't kept airlines from running that flight. Fogelman's point sounds like he didn't craft Jack's death plotline just to spark a smear campaign against one of America's biggest slow cooker companies, so fans should chill out and accept that, sometimes, fiction is just that.
If there is anything positive that's come out of this Crock-Pot debacle it's that some This Is Us fans are pitching old slow cookers that probably should've been disposed of long ago. One woman responded to Dan Fogelman's tweet with a picture of a slow cooker she threw out that looks so sketchy it could've burned down the Pearson home twice:
This Is Us will not air at its usual time next Tuesday, and will instead air a special episode on NBC following the conclusion of the Super Bowl Sunday, February 4. The episode looks to be the one that finally shows Jack's death, so any fans who aren't caught up yet certainly should binge episodes in an effort to catch up before the big game. Those already caught up can visit our midseason premiere guide and see what new shows are coming to television in 2018.
