Spoilers for those who haven't seen the This Is Us series finale!
Don’t mind me; I'm just still crying over the fact that This Is Us came to an end on Tuesday, May 24th, as part of the 2022 TV schedule.
After six years, six seasons, and so many boxes of tissues being used up, This Is Us Season 6 closed out the series with a heartwarming look towards the future of the Pearsons, and back to the memories that shaped them into who they were when we left them.
As someone who has been watching the show since the very beginning (my father recommended it to me), I wanted to share my thoughts and feelings on the This Is Us series finale, and how I’m going to be dealing with the fact that I don’t get to see my Big 3 anymore.
Heartbreaking Sadness
It hit me in the first ten minutes of the episode - ya’ll, this is it.
You guys have to understand. I have not experienced this time of sadness for a TV show ending in a while, usually because most of the time, I spend my days binge-watching television so quickly that it’s hard for me to form emotional connections to these characters and watch for years on end how they change and grow.
I think the last time I felt this way was back in 2008, when Avatar: The Last Airbender ended, and This Is Us had me feeling that same heartbreaking sadness at the beginning of this episode. After watching all these characters that I loved for so many years say goodbye to the person that they cared about the most (in their eulogies for their mother), I thought, this is really the end. Be right back, about to go cry.
Happiness
I know for a fact I can’t be the only one who cried during that Deja (La Trice Harper) and Randall (Sterling K. Brown) scene. One of my favorite characters from This Is Us was William (Ron Cephas Jones), Randall’s estranged biological father who ended up becoming a big part of the Pearsons in Season 1 of This Is Us, before his tragic death in the episode, “Memphis.”
So, leave it to This Is Us to have me hysterically crying when Deja, who just announced to her adopted father, Randall, that she and Malik (who was finally revealed to be the father of Deja’s baby) were having a child and they were going to name it William, after Randall’s biological father.
The significance of this is crazy. Deja never even had the chance to meet William, and yet, she has heard so many amazing stories about him that she and her fiancé decided to name their own child after him, showing just how amazing of a man he was. Randall gets his first grandbaby and the first boy of his family, and is ecstatic that he will be named after his father. It was the sweetest and happiest moment of the finale, and I’m still crying right now just thinking about it.
Amazement
Was I the only one who was astounded at the fact that the little Big 3 suddenly appeared in this episode? Because holy crap, this was amazing.
The fact that the creators of this somehow knew exactly how they wanted the show to end and that they filmed these scenes - as well as Randall’s daughters with William before they set off for Memphis - over three and a half years ago (according to Sterling K. Brown on Twitter) just so they could have them ready with the younger kids. Ugh, perfect storytelling. I was shocked and in awe.
I can’t even fathom how much planning it must have taken to make sure everything lined up perfectly so those shots could be used and yet it all ended so wonderfully. I just love it.
Jubilation
I have to say, while I do love some Randall and Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) and all their cute relationship moments, there was just something about seeing Rebecca (Mandy Moore) and Jack (Milo Ventimiglia), the definition of couple goals, come together again after so many years apart.
Rebecca is understandably scared of death; lying there in the back of the caboose with Jack, but he reassures her that no matter what, she’ll still be there with her family, and says to trust him, which she does, squeezing his hand - therefore concluding that plot point from Episode 15 where she squeezed Randall’s hand hard. She was actually squeezing Jack’s hand in her supposed train purgatory before she passed on.
It was a beautiful way to round out her story and had me feeling some type of way. Death is always such a sad part of life, but Rebecca and Jack made it look so much less scary, knowing that they would be there for each other because they were finally reunited.
Bittersweetness
Like I said in the beginning of this - I have watched this show since the beginning. And I have fallen in love with every single character/plot that this show has given to me, whether it be the harrowing story of Kate (Chrissy Metz) trying to lose weight, to Randall’s acceptance of his birth father or Kevin (Justin Harley) trying to find himself, not only in Hollywood but in life in general - it all fit so perfectly.
This show came out during my first year of college. I am now two years out of college. I got it at the right moment in my life, because when I felt like no one was there for me, I always had the Pearsons to fall back on, the American family that just made sense, that was there for each other no matter what.
And I clung to that, desperately, for so long. My father and I spent the weeks talking about our favorite moments, the times that made us cry, and everything else in-between. It was almost like a full-circle experience. My father was the person who got me into movies and TV, and now, here we are, bonding every week over a show about a close family, much like how we were. The relationship between Jack and Kate always reminded me of my father and I.
But it’s over now, and it’s bittersweet. I’m so happy that I had the chance to go on this journey from the very start, and experience this show with everyone else that is just as big of a fan as I am. I’m also so sad to see it end. As William said in the penultimate episode to Rebecca, “If something makes you sad when it ends, it must have been pretty wonderful when it was happening.”
Yeah, it was pretty wonderful, indeed. I’m so thankful that I got to go on this crazy, wonderful, intense, and emotional train ride with the amazing This Is Us cast, the creators, and everyone else involved with the show.
This Is Us has ended, but no matter what, these memories will always live in my heart. So, I want to say a sincere thank you to every person who worked on this series. Thank you for showing me how to take the sourest lemon that life has offered me, and teaching me how to turn it into something resembling lemonade. I will never forget you.
