Warning! The following contains spoilers for the latest episode of This Is Us. Read at your own risk!
This Is Us really made fans wary of Rebecca's mystery man from the Season 3 premiere, but once viewers got to know Alan in Episode 3, he seemed alright. In fact, he seemed to be just as good of a guy as Jack, with the added bonus of having three years of dating history with Rebecca. So, why did Rebecca choose Jack, the guy she just met, over him? Executive producer and co-showrunner Isaac Aptaker explained the choice in a recent interview:
I think Alan represents a really, really solid guy and I think he would share a life with Rebecca where she wouldn't just be making dinner and [doing chores, like her mother did]. He wants her to have a career and he wants her to have a life. But at the same time, Rebecca has felt this connection with someone who is much less of a sure thing. He is a wild card.
Isaac Aptaker confirmed that Alan is just as great as This Is Us made him out to be. He's still the guy who helped Rebecca when she walked into high school shop class, and he'd never be rattled by having a wife who wants a career of her own. Alan even offered to take Rebecca to New York with him so she could pursue her music career, which she seemed completely on board with until she happened to bump into Jack at a local grocery store later that day.
Rebecca's second encounter with Jack wasn't the most romantic of exchanges, but This Is Us made it clear the two found something special in that grocery aisle. Alan never stood a chance. And, to make matters worse, he may have found out about the rejection from his mom, whom Rebecca confided in before she took to the streets to find Jack. Isaac Aptaker, who is always up for telling a unique Jack-related story, told THR that while Alan had the experience, Rebecca felt something with Jack she apparently never had with him:
She feels like she needs to follow her heart and try to check both boxes --- find a guy who is going to let her have a career and have this big life but who she also feels this incredible connection and chemistry and attraction to. She's taking a huge gamble because she's walking away from what she knows would be a very good, safe choice and hoping that Jack will be even more fulfilling.
This Is Us fans are always ranting about Jack and Rebecca's loving relationship, so we're assuming she made the right choice. Even so, it would be interesting to see what would've happened had she gone with Alan and pursued her musical career in New York like he promised she could. For all the love she shared with Jack, the music career never worked out for Rebecca in the long run and even became a point of tension in their marriage years later. Would things have been different had she chosen Alan?
This Is Us continues on with Season 3 on NBC, Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m. ET. For more on other shows coming to television in the near future, visit our fall premiere guide.
