Warning! The following contains massive spoilers for the This Is Us episode "The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning". Read at your own risk!
This Is Us really brought the heat in its Season 3 fall finale and delivered a twist that may be the biggest to date. Considering this is the series that kept the world on the edge of its seat with Jack's death, that's saying something. Ironically enough, this twist involved death, specifically, someone who was believed to be dead that isn't. The ending of the episode revealed Jack's brother Nicky Pearson is alive and well in the current day.
Nicky was only seen by the audience, sitting in what appeared to be a small home or trailer in Bradford, Pennsylvania. We know that because a shot was shown of his mail, which was made out to "Nicholas Pearson". This is really weird, of course, because Jack had always made it seem like his brother died in Vietnam, which is obviously not the case. Did Jack know his brother survived the war, or has Nicky been hiding all this time?
Those are answers fans will probably find out via Kevin following the fall break, as he was across the world in Vietnam learning that his uncle was not listed as dead in the war. Now that he knows that, we're guessing Kevin is going to track down his uncle, and try to get to the bottom of what's going on, and why he's lived his whole life without knowing he had an uncle.
This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman didn't tell Deadline whether or not Kevin would be getting the answers behind all of this, but he did confirm Nicky's story will be revealed when the show returns in January. What's even better is that fans won't have to wait long for the answers they're currently craving. Here's what Fogelman had to say:
What I can say is that there's a complicated story that's going to be told very quickly when we come back on the air, and it's a story about what happened between Nicky and Jack. It's very complicated. There's a lot more to be told and it's coming very soon.
Well, that's a story most fans probably didn't know they were going to here, and certainly more of a surprise than the reveal that Rebecca is Her. Luckily that somewhat lackluster reveal has been almost completely overshadowed by this new one, and the opportunity to bring Jack's troubled brother into the Pearson family fold.
Of course, that's if that's what Nicky wants. After all, we still don't know who all in the Pearson clan knows he exists, and whether his existence was another closely guarded secret by Rebecca. It's also possibly Miguel knew about Nicky if we should find out that Jack is aware that his brother never died in Vietnam. That much wasn't clear in the fall finale, which showed Jack rushing to an exploded boat that he seemed to believe his brother was on.
That said, one would think it would be very hard for Nicky to return to the U.S. if he had faked his death overseas during the war. This might mean that Nicky may be responsible for the death of someone who died on the boat, which could've been the final straw in he and Jack's crumbling relationship. Jack isn't usually the vengeful type, but let's not forget he went a majority of his adult life without seeing his father.
This Is Us will reveal more about this mystery when it returns in 2019 on Tuesday, January 9 at 9:00 p.m. ET. For a look at other things premiering before or around that time, visit our fall and midseason premiere guides. Could this twist be what the show needs to boost its ratings?
