Spoiler alert! This story discusses This is Us’ Season 6 episode “Don’t Let Me Keep You.”
This is UsIn its most recent episode, he jumped back in the past “Don’t Let Me Keep You,”Spending time with Jack Pearson in the days following his mother’s death. Laura NiemiReturned as Marilyn PearsonThe episode that flipped back-and-forth between Marilyn’s death five years ago and the Big Three’s first year was a great example of this. We haven’t gotten to spend as much time with Jack in the past few seasons, but as the series comes to an end, Milo Ventimiglia proved he’s quality over quantity, bringing the emotion full-force in a heart-shattering scene when Jack’s grief reached a tipping point.
“Don’t Let Me Keep You” saw Jack Pearson struggling in the aftermath of Marilyn’s death, as he realized how little he actually knew about his mother. The episode concluded with Jack breaking down after making tomato soup and hot dogs for his kids. Jack was crying. Rebecca, “I don’t have a mom anymore.”Milo Ventimiglia spoke to VarietyAbout filming the scene and how his TV viewers propelled that emotion.
That scene we had shot in order, so coming off of the kids and Jack feeding his kids this meal that his mom said was his favorite when he was a kid, I remember when we were working on that pre-scene, I was looking at our littles, Kaz, Ca’Ron and Isabella, and they’re dug into the hotdogs and tomato soup and they’re dipping and they’re being what kids are, which is funny on set and enjoying themselves and they get to eat when it’s not a meal time, so they’re laughing and having fun. Kaz smiled at me and looked up at Jack, which was quite touching. This was the moment that catapulted us into our next scene together with Mandy. [Moore].
The three kids — Kaz Womack As Kevin, Ca’Ron Jaden ColemanAs RandallAnd Isabella Rose LandauAs Kate — just digging into their soup while Milo Ventimiglia was acting this overbearing moment of grief is somehow so beautifully real life, and Ventimiglia said when the actor playing little Kevin looked up at him, he found the connection between his roles as their father and Marilyn’s son.
Mandy’s words are still etched in my mind. ‘Milo, what do you need? What do you need?’I just said: ‘I’m probably going to have my back to you, because that’s very Jack. He doesn’t let his emotions show.’ So I said, ‘Any way you want to let me know that you’re there.’ And when the cameras were rolling, I walked in, she walked up, put her hand on my shoulder. And I turned around and that’s what you guys saw… We don’t see Jack cry, that’s not his lot in life. He’s a man of particular era. These are the big moments when Jack breaks. He’s kind of on edge during the eulogy, a little bit toward the end. But when he finally does break, it’s a really, really tough moment. It’s tough to watch, tough to live, tough for me personally to have to believe when I was performing it.
Tough to watch for sure, because I’m pretty sure viewers found the incredible devastation that the actors promised This is Us’ final chapter would bring (or at least part of it, since there’s surely more to come). Mandy Moore’s support of Milo Ventimiglia was so sweet, and it sounds like she was fulfilling the vows the couple exchanged before playing husband and wife, as she checked in with him and asked him what he needed for Jack’s big moment.
There were no mysteries solved “Don’t Let Me Keep You,”We got instead a magnificent performance from Milo Ventimiglia, in what may have been our last Jack Pearson episode. Get out the tissues. This is UsFans, the Pearsons will be back next Tuesday “Heart and Soul”At 9 p.m. ET on NBC. You can also check out our 2022 TV Schedule for information on other shows that will be premiering in the near future.