"Okay" This Is Us "The Car"

With the Super Bowl episode being such a tragic event, the episode is a remembrance of the man from the view of the family car. 

"The Car" was a powerful eulogy of who Jack Pearson was as a father and a husband. It just had enough balance of emotion, inspiration, and humor to the previous episode. You see Rebecca and the kids still dealing with the loss but also remembering their father in bits and pieces in time that starts with buying the car and leads to that final weekend. With a bit of help from Dr. K, doing his wise man thing, reminding Rebecca that she's just as strong as Jack and letting her know how much he was scared, too.

After her talk with Dr. K, she takes the kids and Jack's ashes to Jack's favorite tree, which also holds a deep place for Rebecca. She tells Kevin, Kate, and Randall that they should live and not have to worry about who's the man or whose fault it is that leads Jack back into the fire. But the one thing that leaves with a powerful meaning is that Jack was a man who could see into the future, which Rebecca talks about before pouring some of his ashes by the tree.

In the last scene, Jack tells the car dealer he doesn't want to buy a used car. Still, the station wagon means he doesn't have much money to pay for it. Still, all he wants is for his family to be okay, and it ends with Rebecca driving the kids to a Bruce Springsteen concert that Jack bought a couple of weeks ago for them to go and also help her with her fear of driving through the bridge that we see at the beginning she fears.

The writing and the performance of this episode could not be any better. There was depth, and there were well-developed characters, mainly Rebecca, who we see grow a lot. Mandy Moore should be considered for an Emmy role, not to mention Milo Ventimiglia as well. The one scene that stood out was when Dr. K visited and talked with Rebecca, followed by the scene where she and the kids talk about Jack at his favorite tree spot. Overall, I give this episode a 9/10.

You can catch This Is Us on Tuesdays at 9/8c on NBC.