‘This Is Us’: Upcoming Episode About The Pearson Family Car Could Provide A Clue As To How Jack Dies

The big This Is Us Super Bowl episode is just days away, but some fans are already looking to the episode that will air after that — when they actually know Jack Pearson’s (Milo Ventimiglia) cause of death and can finally move on to the next phase of the Pearson family’s story.

While the “Super Bowl Sunday” episode is queued up and ready to go immediately following the Eagles-Patriots matchup on Sunday, another This Is Us episode will air less than 48 hours later in the show’s regular Tuesday night timeslot. IMDb posted the synopsis for the post, post-Super Bowl episode, titled “The Car.” The episode description is “The history of the Pearsons as told through the life of the family car.” The cast for the “The Car” episode includes all of the main This Is Us stars as well as guest star Mark Proksch, who will play a character named Mel.

But the synopsis, “The history of the Pearsons as told through the life of the family car,” is a bit unusual, even for a show that is constantly throwing fans curveballs. While This Is Us probably won’t delve into My Mother, the Car turf with a talking vehicle, the description sounds like it will be a nostalgic look back at the Pearson family’s life — and with Jack’s death looming, fans are wondering if the car could have something to do with his death, thus the retrospective. Indeed, nothing on This Is Us is done without intention, so the Pearson family car must have quite a story to tell.

This Is Us fans know that a house fire burns the Pearson’s home. They also know that Jack’s death is somehow related to the fire. But other tidbits about the night Jack presumably died — like the fact that the Ziploc bag of belongings his wife Rebecca (Mandy Moore) had with her when she drove to the burned-out remains of their house didn’t appear burned — have fans questioning everything they think they know about the Pearson patriarch’s demise.

Of course, in that particular scene, it appeared that Rebecca was driving the Pearson family’s wood-paneled Jeep. So if Jack was dead when Rebecca went to examine the fire damage, it likely wasn’t due to an accident in the family’s Grand Wagoneer as he fled the fire scene.

In addition, TMZ posted photos from a recent This Is Us shoot which shows Mandy Moore and teen Kevin and Kate (Logan Shroyer, Hannah Zeile) decked out in black for what is surely Jack Pearson’s funeral scene. The photos also show the teens getting into the Pearson family car, which means the car didn’t die along with Jack. But the photos also make it clear that Kevin Pearson didn’t have a cast on his leg by the time his father’s funeral rolled around. So either there was a big time jump from the night of the fire to the day of the funeral, or Jack didn’t die in the fire at all.

The only thing that is for sure is that all of This Is Us fans’ burning questions will be answered after the “Super Bowl Sunday” and “The Car” episodes air next week.

This Is Us airs on Sunday, Feb. 4 and Tuesday, Feb. 6 on NBC.