Let’s begin with a flashback to the End.
A scene from the finale is being filmed, one seemingly designed for significant tear-duct destruction.
We can’t tell you where it’s taking place or evenwhenit’s taking place but does it matter?
Pat Martin for Entertainment Weekly
Rebecca and Jack are, for lack of a better word, timeless.
), wielding a birthday cupcake and attempting a sexy dance.
Suddenly the contractions start, as does their oversized adventure.
Other than to say that everything comes full circle.
And that family is forever.
And that it just got awfully dusty and onion-y in here.
Sterling K. Brown and Susan Kelechi Watson.Pat Martin for Entertainment Weekly
And “Cut!”
“Good, right?”
enthusesThis Is UscreatorDan Fogelmanto director Ken Olin.
Chrissy Metz, Justin Hartley, and Sterling K. Brown.Pat Martin for Entertainment Weekly
He agrees: “It wasreallygood.”
Before the cameras roll again, though, Moore has a problem.
It’s not a big one.
Chris Sullivan and Chrissy Metz.Pat Martin for Entertainment Weekly
It’s actually a common occurrence on these stages for her and for any fan of the show.
“They’re right here!”
her TV husband chimes in, dutifully delivering the goods.
Mandy Moore, Milo Ventimiglia, and Jon Huertas.Pat Martin for Entertainment Weekly
Got enough for 10 million more people, Milo?
It’s hard to fully appraise the impact of this unicorn hit which ranked No.
The season 4 finale followed several characters you’d never met until you realized that you had.
Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimiglia.Pat Martin for Entertainment Weekly
(Kate and Toby’s son, Jack Jr., grew up to be a pop star!)
(This fact will be important later.)
The story sprawled across a century, with flash-forwards teasing end-game plots.
But in just a few days, no more twisty mysteries.
No more fraught family summits.
No more almost-revelations about Nicky and Edie’s sex life.
No more shiny flashbacks to Jack and Rebecca in Steelers garb.
The next time jump forThis Is Uswill be into the TV history books.
And canThis Is Usmaintain the momentum and take you on one last ride to remember?
Something you should know: Fogelman has been thinking and tinkering on this finale for several years now.
I think we’ve checked the boxes.
I think you’re going to feel a lot of resolution.
“It’s an exhale that says, ‘Okay.
Now I can say goodbye.'”
But maybe you’re feeling a bit like Rebecca like you’re not quite ready yet to let go.
This is… the beginning
There’ssomethinghere, thought Dan Fogelman.
As the emotionally attuned screenwriter (Crazy.
Which evolved into an idea that these people all shared a birthday.
It would be revealed early on that Jack had died years before.
The cause of death (involving a fire) would play out as a mystery.
Kate and Toby’s divorce would be teased late in the penultimate season.
(Watching a pile of home movies out of order was how he would describe the narrative flow.)
“And by proxy, all of my writers who have poured themselves into it.
It was more of us just telling a story and then after the fact we’re going, ‘Whoa!
I put a lot of that on television, didn’t I?'”
What they were putting down, viewers were picking up.
The pilot wowed with a twist for the ages.
The end of episode 2 ramped up the intrigue when present-day Rebecca showed up with her husband…Miguel.
In an urn on Kate’s mantle, as you’d discover three episodes later.
How did he die?
They were fascinated with this guy who seemed a bit of a mirage.
He’s a guy that anybody could be if they really put in the effort."
(Well, any guy who can do pushups with a kid on his back.)
His relationship with Rebecca also entranced viewers, who swooned over their joyful all-in romance and teamwork-through-tragedy ethos.
Moore saw beauty and opportunity in the couple’s flaws.
“I loved that they weren’t perfect.
To her surprise, they felt it.
And they felt seen.
When I was growing up, I had few examples….
I don’t think I had any in drama.
Brown points to the way that the couple supported and uncorked potential in each other.
“Even though he knew he was loved and appreciated, he never felt like hefit.
And so he finds this woman who accepts him and his eccentricity and his anxiety and loves him.
In return, he opens up in her this desire and ability to dream.
While the bonds of each couple were mighty, they would be tested.
The season 1 finale ended with Rebecca and Jack under separate roofs.
“It’s like, ‘No, no, no.
Couples have their arguments and hope that they find their way back together.'”
In season 3, it was Randall and Beth who hit an uncomfortably rocky patch.
says Brown with a laugh.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, fair enough.
I hope it all works out.'”
(It did work out, but not for another key couple on the show.
We’ll reopen those wounds a little later.)
Of course, relationship navigation was just one thread of life that the show explored.
“We always have monitored ourselves,” notes Fogelman.
At a certain point, you’ll run out of those incidents for a family.
Or exacerbated a lot of them.”
“But this was sort of an opportunity for me to say goodbye.”
“Look, theMannystuff was fun,” says Hartley.
Another work in progress: Kate.
“When you see yourself, you’re like, ‘Oh, wow.
I’m important enough and deserving enough to be talked about.’
What a concept, you know?”
This Is Ustruly turned topical when the writers decided to address the headlines that dominated the summer of 2020.
“And it was amazing to see the response that [the episode] got.
It really struck a nerve, positive and negative.
People who were like, ‘If I wanted to watch the news, I’d go to the news.
I’d come to this show to escape!’
“The title that nobody thought would work is why the show connects.
Of course, with such discovery has come that well-documented, unrelenting wellspring of emotion.
Jesus, even the mailman cried when William died.
Of course, because this is a show steeped in monologue and dialogue about feelings.
But I’ve never understood [that criticism].
I do find a lot of art now underly sentimental.
And when they talk about their divorces, they’re overwrought messes….
I’ve never understood how our show is more sentimental than all of that stuff.”
Moore sees a fearlessness in processing feelings and going to vulnerable places.
“I think that’s what people are going to miss about the show.
Maybe they’re not even fully aware of it.
I did think it was funny, at times, that our show got pigeonholed for that.
You have to be in the right frame of mind to allow this into your life.
This show does not shy away from it.”
The cast believes that the show’s laughs got overshadowed by all that talk of its tears.
Or any Worst Case Scenario-izing between Randall and Beth.)
Tears at least from sorrow weren’t usually the problem behind the camera.
Justin does the impersonation the best, but it’s thisHuh!
and it’s the funniest sound.”
“It was quite the opposite.
Was it a release valve?
Just goofing around by this “band of clowns,” as Sullivan refers to the cast?
“Folks ask, ‘How do you carry all that around?’
And I’m like, ‘Well, I don’t.
I let it out.’
And as a result, I feel a little bit lighter going home.”
This is… preparing for the end
The beginning of the end began in the middle.
As the years passed and ratings remained impressive, NBC was understandably not eager to part with the Pearsons.
“The conversations were flattering, and they were never forceful,” shares Fogelman.
But you have to stick to the plan.
The only thing that’s kept us afloat all these years was knowing where we were going.
“It’s a testament to how trusting everyone’s been in the process,” remarks Fogelman.
They always really trusted us to do our thing…. And the actors never questioned anything.
And they were like, ‘Great!'”
“It didn’t seem that big,” remembers Ventimiglia with a shrug.
Thank God Dan was thinking ahead to get it!
[They] just played as any other scene[s] that we shot, which was good.
It kind of took the pressure off.
I mean, he said it like it was in stone.”
The cement was drying on the show’s ending in other ways, too.
The season 3 finale flash-forward to an old, ailing Rebecca was Fogelman’s last tentpole in the ground.
He’d always believed that the final season should center on her decline, likely from Alzheimer’s.
Serious debate in the writers’ room followed.
We feel that it’s taken the show to really beautiful, fascinating territory."
That’s been our balancing act."
It helped that the show’s scribes had personal experience with the disease touching their families.
“And as universal as it is, we don’t feel like it’s been widely told.”
It’s: ‘Oh God, here are all the childhood issues rearing their head.
The mother who they all worship is now ailing.
What are the decisions for her going to be?
How are they going to process it when they lose her?’
It doesn’t get any bigger than that."
She went into research mode, reading books, talking to journalists battling the disease, and calling neurologists.
(The show’s writers always consulted with experts in the field of whatever issue was being explored.)
“I was incredibly knocked out by her, from the beginning,” he says of Moore.
1 on the iTunes chart last month.)
says the actress, who was nominated for an Emmy in season 3.
“And it’s all thanks to Dan.
I’ll be thanking him for the rest of my life.
He was always grateful to come to work and never complained not once.
That was always a conscious thing we battled.”
Ventimiglia admirably anchored the early seasons as the show fired up thehow-did-Jack-die?mystery.
“We had built the house way out north of Los Angeles,” recalls Ventimiglia.
I remember the flames licking inside the door when they shouldn’t have been.
It was very physical and taxing.
“People still talk about the slow cooker,” he says.
“That one’s gonna be following me around forever, I think.”
Jack wound up haunted by the horrors of war and by cutting off his damaged sibling.
“It was a really hard pill to swallow for me.
But that’s what people do.
That’s what happens.")
By season 4, as Fogelman indicated, the story pendulum swung toward the living Pearson parent.
I had no problems supporting everybody in the stories that we had to tell.”
I really saw her grow and shine and just blow people’s expectations away with every performance.
And just so f—ing honest."
Only death did part Jack and Rebecca.
And it was R&B for life.
Seriously, where’d he go?).
The story line caught Metz by surprise.
And it stung a bit.
(Yeah, yeah, there were tears.)
“I’m like, ‘Uhhh, I don’t like this.’…
I mean, he was my day 1 role dawg.
And it’s just hard to put the breaks on.
And it feels weird because you feel like you’re cheating on somebody.
Sullivan saw value in finding honest conversations in something so common yet shrouded in stigma and shame.
Make no mistake, though, he also struggled with the divorce.
In fact, he and Metz didn’t really discuss the mechanics of it until they had to.
And when they did?
I bet you guys have so much fun together!'”
(Not the best shipper name.
Phillate?Definitelynope.)
Once again, the show aimed to balance the sour with the sweet.
Sophie, Cassidy, or the wedding singer?
(It was never going to be the wedding singer.)
When the answer was revealed to be childhood sweetheart-turned-wife-turned-ex-turned-girlfriend-turned-ex-again Sophie, social media lit up in approval.
“I was glad when I heard we were going to make [Sophie] work.
I love Alex and we work well together and she’s just such a joy to be around.
Sums up Hartley: “He finally figured it out.”
Also in this final stretch of episodes, viewers finally figured out Miguel.
(You didn’t think we’d forgotten about him, did you?)
(Huertas remembers one exceptionally dark theory that Miguel had something to do with Jack’s death.)
is how the actor remembers framing it with the writers.
“Having to turn the audience around was a huge challenge, and a welcomed one.
The selfish part of you as an actor wants to be opened up a little sooner.
We had a pandemic that got in the way of some of the stuff that we wanted to do.
He’d get the locomotive idea from executive producer K.J.
Steinberg, who had a family member with dementia who kept imagining herself on a train.
“She said, ‘What if that’s how she dies?
(Ask your doctor if reading a Fogelman script involving a death is right for you.)
She wasn’t the only cast member who was moved to tears and shortness of breath.
And so when I learned that part of the puzzle, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh!’
Because it’s so relatable.
I’m getting emotional!”
Once filming started and those farewell moments had to be put on film, things only intensified.
And she’s like, ‘I’m gonna do the best I can, Ken!'”
Then it was his turn.
“I’m like, ‘I’m doing the best I can!’
I was like, ‘This is how my scenes with Mandy Moore end.
This is the last time this group of people will be together in a scene.’
Other times wistful and respectful.
And then, finally, all wet-eyed and sputtering.
“People ask me, ‘How do you feel aboutThis Is Usending?'”
“And I’m like, ‘Mixed.
Hanging on and letting go.
Trains are leaving, but you’re digging in.'”
One train, in particular, is indeed leaving right now.
“Ooh, it’s going to bereallygood,” relishes Fogelman.
Moore positions herself on the bed in different ways.
“Do you want me to lean back and flip my whole body over?”
No, just a little turn will suffice.
“Don’t rush that ‘Hey,'” Olin encourages Moore.
It’s always quiet on set when actors film a scene.
This one feels… quieter.
“Everybody’s been waiting for that,” Ventimiglia says of the moment later.
“I loved that sense of comfort,” raves Moore.
“That’s a lot of people,” he says, shaking his head.
“It’s just… a lot of people.”
Observes Sullivan: “This was a fitting way to go out, all of us together.
This is the most we’ve all got to work together in six seasons, ironically.
it’s possible for you to tell people are a little more present, paying a little more attention.
Everyone’s having a good time, but there’s a calm over the crowd.
It’s respectful somberness, bright sadness.”
Watson, for one, has chosen to process this moment… horizontally.
Brown walks into the room and drops to the floor, planking head-to-head with her.
“Did you do your nails?”
“I did,” she says.
“I have seen everyone process differently,” Watson says during a break.
Some people are more anxious than normal.”
Brown gets down to brass tacks: “Who cries the most?
Chrissy cries the most.”
“You’ve been there for a very difficult part of my life.
I’m a walking miracle.”
“We were walking through the house and just looking at it,” says Brown.
I took a picture, Su took two pictures, and we said goodbyes.
It was beautiful.”
“This is what the show has been from the very beginning, you know what I mean?
This is real parenthood here!
Or fake real parenthood.
Like, ofcoursewe’re closing out this experience with crying babies.”
And then our upstairs sets, the bedrooms are behind the first floor.
And then as we were walking out, I remember hearing Mandy say:Goodbye, house!
That’s very sweet.
And what did you say, Milo?
“I didn’t say anything.
There was nothing else to add.
She TV-wife nailed it.
Family photos weren’t the only items liberated from the set.
The cast are taking as much of the show with them as they can.
Huertas received Toby’s big green egg from season 6’s “Four Fathers,” which he directed.
(Fogelman offered every star the chance to write or direct an episode, and almost everyone did.)
Sullivan is buying the Jeep Grand Wagoneer from the show.
Moore received her Steelers jersey for the Super Bowl episode and her moon necklace.
Metz requested Kate’s piano.
“So I’m hoping, fingers crossed.”
“But I didn’t get a piano for God’s sake,” says Hartley.
“She got apiano?
That’s crazy.”
So where will Rebecca’s children find themselves on Tuesday in the episode simply titled “Us”?
“Simple” is another.
“Uplift, too.”
“It feels purposefully a little different, in a really good way.
It will just be a very simple, quiet episode after a very big, loud one.”
“It feels complete,” offers Ventimiglia.
“It feels like there’s no more room for anything else, nor does it need anything else.
It’s justfull.”
You really did.’
No one’s going to be disappointed.
This is a really beautiful way to end this story.'”
“That OG Pearson couple is being carried forward into the future generations of their family.”
Cast members are split on such a notion.
Some would jump at the chance to revisit this charmed experience.
(“They’re my favorite people,” says Hartley.
“I’ll work with them whenever, however, and with whatever they want me to.")
Some want to freeze this experience in amber.
(“It’s perfect.
Leave it alone,” says Ventimiglia.)
Still, others are firmly undecided.
“But really it would be about: ‘What’s the idea?
What does the script look like?'”
Oh, and one more question: “How awesome is Miguel in this thing?”
“My well may be drained of family stories,” he says.
“So I don’t think a spin-off is happening anytime soon.
I don’t really understand what a movie would be, but you never know.”
In any case, the show’s legacy is likely secure.
Even if some of it was glued on.
“That’s better than any Emmy nomination,” says the actor.
“I feel like Jack Pearson’s mustache that Dan didn’t want brought back mustaches for men.
It normalized them a little bit.
I’m pretty proud of that.”
“All We Have is the Forever Now,” offers Moore.
Let’s turn to the man who plays the man who’s known for resplendent speeches.
Eulogizes Brown: “Here liesThis Is Us: Did its best to keep online grid television relevant.
Happy to have relieved you of some therapy bills.”
Pick up a copy of EW’s specialThis Is Usedition,available to purchase onlineor wherever magazines are sold.
