Dan Fogelman offers insights into the time-warping family drama’s final episode, which was years in the making.
The Pearson matriarch has been eulogized.
The Pearson matriarch and patriarch have been reunited in the afterlife.
Justin Hartley as Kevin, Chrissy Metz as Kate, Sterling K. Brown as Randall.Ron Batzdorff/NBC
The Pearsons are history.
The Pearsons are forever.
On Tuesday night, the final, sweet brush strokes were applied to the Pearson painting.
And while the painting is still drying, your eyes are, too.
In short, by design, this landing was to be stuck…gently.
That’s not to say that “Us” didn’t still slip in a few surprises.
Kevin was focusing on his non-profit home-building company and spending time at the home he built.
(She was scared.
), it was all over.
And I think [we] did that here…..
It’s not just ending with a death; it’s ending with that person carrying things forward.
That OG Pearson couple is being carried forward into the future generations of their family.
That was the ending I wanted to leave people feeling.
There’s been so much conversation about how much people cry when they watch the television show.
And, of course, we see their traditions passed on to future generations.
You’ve mentioned the wordsimple, but the planning that went into this was probably anything but.
I didn’t really feel boxed in.
I knew we had it.
I knew it was good.
I really should make this the third-to-last episode.'"
It’s time for me to look at it."
I just kept putting it off and putting it off and putting it off.
I have to look at this."
And it was half, if not more of the episode the final episode of series shot years ago.
I had it on my laptop and I shared it to the big screen downstairs.
Which I never do with anyone, but I was almost too nauseous to look at it by myself.
But we sat and we watched it and we were just so absorbed.
And it was such a nice experience.
I was just very excited by it.
We’re not going to use any of that."
Because that’s where you really would’ve gotten screwed financially.
And then for the actors, they just never questioned anything.
For this particular storyline, it’s not like it required any knowledge of serialized events.
And they were like, “Great!”
Then they came in and nailed it every single day.
One of the news flashes out of this finale is that Randall seems poised to run for… president.
I actually thought it was kind of genius.
The idea that one of your characters becomes president is a big swing.
We had debated so many different things.
It was often very debated about Randall’s endpoint.
and everybody going batshit.
The spin-off/reboot does sound like something a lot of fans would be interested in.
I suspect Sterling and Susan are going to be pretty busy for a while.
We remember a few things from earlier moments this season.
When young Randall tells the cop at the pool that he’s going to run for president one day.
In your mind, does he win?
Or does he even run?
Or do you think he goes all the way?
This is definitely a cutoff in that point of time that one of the few things we leave hanging.
And if Aaron Sorkin wants to rebootThe West Wingwith Randall, then I give it to him.
I do have a definitive answer in my mind.
Early in the episode, we see Randall struggling to write the perfect eulogy.
Chrissy sang a song.
It was very much borne out of my experience, burying my own mother.
What did Chrissy sing?
And what did Sterling and Justin say?
Chrissy had not been told I’d be asking her to sing.
So I was like, “Chrissy, can you sing something?”
And she’s like, “Do you want me to just sing something?”
And I’m like, “Sing one of your songs from your new album.”
She’s like, “I don’t think it’s appropriate, tonally?”
And I was like, “What about ‘Time After Time’?
That was a song that was part of your character’s origin story with Rebecca.”
So that’s what she sang.
And it actually was beautiful and everybody was crying and clapping.
I remember Sterling had written out a lot of stuff, because he’s Sterling.
And Sterling was like, “I’ve got more!
I’ve got more!”
Because they knew their words weren’t getting me on camera.
I knew it would end with Rebecca and Jack.
I knew the pin the tail on the donkey stuff at the end.
I knew there would be the final Big Three scene.
I knew I wanted a scene between Kate and Toby [Chris Sullivan].
But I never really wrote any of it, nor had it really outlined.
Then I just sat down, I was like, “Okay, here’s my seven spots.
I have room for new scenes.”
And then I decided I wanted one last Worst-Case Scenario between Beth and Randall.
I wanted one last Kate and Toby scene.
I wanted to give Nicky [Griffin Dunne] a scene with Kevin their origin story.
It’s hard to explain but you’ll do all those things with them."
We know that everyone lives on through their family, but you’re visually exploring that idea further.
Can you walk us through the origins and intentions of that scene?
He is speaking abstractly, but it is also at the core of something I believe in.
That’s a really abstract complicated philosophical notion.
What was it like to film that scene?
I found what they were talking about moving, beyond just the actors and the relationship.
It was really powerful.
I think the whole crew felt it.
How can you not?
It was just a beautiful moment.
And everybody was crying.
Hopefully our finale is rewarding to parents in that way.
We spend so much around lives going, “How are we f—ing up our kids?”
Which is so much of what parenting is.
What was the biggest challenge in filming or putting this finale together?
So there were a lot of logistical challenges.
And then it was just also watching the tenor of it all.
Because then the whole thing gets just overwrought.
Was there a scene in the finale that you filmed or scripted that pained you to lose?
There’s no scenes of consequence.
There was one scene in the stuff we shot four years ago.
I feel the same.
So I don’t think a spin-off is happening anytime soon.
I don’t really understandwhat a movie would be, but you never know.
What should be chiseled on the tombstone ofThis Is Us?
And I think that will be a real part of the ongoing legacy of the show.
I think that’ll be a big part of the legacy as well.
