Every theory about Jack's death on 'This Is Us', ranked
From wildly implausible all the way through to fairly likely
From wildly implausible all the way through to fairly likely
From wildly implausible all the way through to fairly likely
The of This Is Us season two aired last night, and nope, we are still really no closer to figuring out how Jack Pearson died. The season two premiere ended on a pretty huge reveal, pulling back to show Rebecca sobbing outside the charred shell of the Pearson house, with Jack's possessions ominously in the passenger seat of her car. So...Jack died in a fire, right? Or did he?
It's possible that the fire is only one piece of the puzzle—in fact, . That season premiere also dropped a whole lot of other clues, many of which have been pieced together over the last ten weeks (Kevin's cast, Kate's dog), but there's still a whole lot left to be revealed in the back half of the season. And let's not forget, showrunner Dan Fogelman has we will find out the truth by the end of season two.
So, let's take a look at some of the excellent viewer guesswork around Jack's death. We're a year and a half into this game now, so a few of these have been firmly disproven, but they're still kind of fun to contemplate. Here are eight of the most popular fan theories about Jack's death, ranked in ascending order of plausibility.
8. He dies in the 9/11 attacks.
One of the most popular early fan theories, back before we knew a lot of details about when Jack died, was that he died in the terrorist attacks in New York on September 11, 2001. This theory gained traction after the revelation that Kate is terrified of flying, and Kevin threw away all his toy planes after Jack died. But this one has been pretty thoroughly debunked, because that glimpse we saw of Jack's funeral in episode 13 showed that the Pearson kids were teenagers at the time, and we know they were all born in 1980.
Anyway, even without the timeline issues, this theory veers too far into manipulatively corny territory. Anyone else thinking of that 2010 Robert Pattinson life-is-short romance ? No? Probably for the best, but suffice it to say, the terrible ending of that movie is relevant to this conversation.
7. Kate accidentally kills him.
Yeah, this one is a stretch, and makes sense only if you take Kate's words back in season one—"It's my fault"—super literally. Is it possible that Kate accidentally killed Jack by starting a house fire or cooking him some dish he was secretly allergic to? Sure. But it's way more likely that her role in his death was indirect. Maybe she asked him to be somewhere, and he died getting there. More on that later...
6. Miguel deliberately kills him.
You knew there was a reason you never liked that guy, even though he seems to be a pretty good BFF to Jack in the flashback timeline. The fact that he ends up married to Rebecca after Jack dies is sus, but what if it's also deeply sinister?
This theory seems to carry at least comic weight with the show's cast and crew. "Without spoiling anything, I forgive [Miguel] for killing Jack," said producer Glenn Ficarra to big laughs at . What if Miguel engineered Jack's death, and kept it a secret from Rebecca and the rest of the Pearsons this whole time? This is also , for what that's worth.
The biggest count against this theory—besides the fact that it's clearly a joke—is that showrunner Dan Fogelman has promised we will , which feels a little less likely if he's a low-key Talented Mr Ripley.
5. He commits suicide.
Yes, this is several shades darker than This Is Us would likely ever go, and feels completely out of character for Jack who, despite his struggles with alcoholism, is pretty relentlessly hopeful. But a few fans are going there with , and there are a couple of big pieces of evidence that could actually support it.
First, there's the aforementioned fact that everybody still seems so traumatized by Jack's death 20 years later, almost as though the family has taken a vow of silence about it. That could be just narrative convenience, because the writers need to keep the details of his death under wraps...or it could be something more.
Second, let's cast our memories back to season one's Christmas episode. Randall's office party takes an unexpected turn when he stumbles across a co-worker (played by Westworld's Jimmi Simpson) contemplating suicide from the rooftop. Randall had to literally talk him off the ledge, and referenced the loss of Jack in doing so, telling Simpson's character that it's his job as a father to stick around for his daughter. The scene was effective, because these actors are incredible, but also felt kind of random, especially because we'd never seen Simpson in the show before (and haven't seen him since). What if this wasn't a random aside, but a little bit of foreshadowing?
4. He dies from a terminal illness.
On the one hand, there hasn't been any particular hint that this is what happened, and you'd think it would have come up naturally while Randall's birth father, William, was dying of cancer throughout season one. On the other hand, this kind of death is right in the This Is Us ballpark: It's realistic and desperately sad, guaranteed to make viewers cry to the point of dehydration, and it's the kind of fate that would leave Jack a martyr and a hero. Kate feeling responsible, though, feels like a stretch if this is the case.
3. He dies in a real-life tragedy.
It can't be 9/11, but it could be the devastating 1994 USAir jet crash, which killed all 132 passengers on board. There's a lot of evidence for this: The crash took place just outside of Pittsburgh, where the Pearson family still lived at the time of Jack's death, and it perfectly explains Kate's fear of flying, and Kevin trashing his model airplanes. Of course, there's nothing to say that Jack's death has to be part of a real-life event—he could die in a fictional plane crash—but out of all the most popular fan theories, this one is pretty compelling.
2. He dies while driving drunk.
There was a point near the end of season one where we all thought we had Jack's death figured out. Shortly after Kate's revelation that she felt responsible came that episode where, as a teenager, she urges Jack to go after Rebecca when she leaves for her tour, and mend the rift between them. Jack had relapsed into drinking by this point, and the episode ended ominously with Jack driving away into the night, several sheets to the wind. This was it, right?
Nope. He made it to the gig just fine, and ended up getting into both a fight with Rebecca's skeezy bandmate Ben, and a vicious verbal argument with Rebecca back home. But just because this didn't happen in season one, that doesn't mean it's not going to happen at all. Jack's drinking is going nowhere good. Since he dies too young, and too soon after relapsing, to make alcohol-related liver disease a plausible possibility, drunk driving still feels very, very likely.
1. He dies in a house fire.
Believe it or not, this theory has been around since way, way before the season two premiere aired (fans are smart!). After the season one finale, began speculating that Jack might have died while trying to save Miguel's family from a burning building, which would also explain why Miguel's ex-wife Shelly, and his kids, no longer seem to be around in the present-day timeline.
Now, the specifics of this theory don't really work in light of the season two premiere. In that episode, the Pearson kids seem to be staying with Miguel after their house has burned down. Kate and Randall (along with his mysterious red-headed girlfriend) are seen crying on the couch at Miguel's place, while Rebecca drives to what's left of the Pearson house. It doesn't seem as though Miguel's family is involved, but barring yet another insane twist, it looks like Jack does indeed die in a house fire. Which could be a devastatingly neat way to bring back Joe the fireman, who took Randall to the hospital back in 1980. Too much? Or just the right amount for This Is Us?