Say what you will about this year' Super Bowl After Show of This Is Us, but it might as well be one of the best.
From the beginning to the end, "Super Bowl Sunday" delivers with highly emotional moments that was met with joyous and humorist moments. Even though he knew what this episode was about Jack's death, it was way more than just that as we see these characters take on the 20th anniversary of Jack Pearson's death that you would have thought died in the house fire but it turned out that he died from a cardiac complications due to the smoke that he had inhaled from the fire.
Throughout the episode, we see how each take on the day: Kate, who blames herself for Jack's death as it was her asking to get their dog in the house, re-watches the video tape that Jack made when she was singing in her bedroom, but worries of losing it when the VHS eats it but is saved thanks to Toby and his guy. Kevin looking to forget the day, but visits his Jack's tree and talk about the things that had happen and promises that he will be more like him even if it takes 30 years and talking with Rebecca about how she's gotten a message from Jack yet on that day.
Randall puts on a Super Bowl party for his daughters, but a sudden death of the family pet gecko changes things. He and Tess talk about how things have changed since meeting William, Deja and his new job. But a after telling her that she will always be his #1 to him, and promises to do things when she's older and we get to see a stunning future of Tess meeting with Randall as she's a Foster care worker.
But through the performances from the cast that was outstanding, the one that really stood out was Mandy Moore's character Rebecca, who dealt seeing Jack being the husband and father of saving his family, coming out with some severe burns and smoke exhaustion. After getting a check at the hospital, she leaves Jack to call to check on the kids and get a candy bar, but after that call changed and getting the devastated news, you see her changed from the person that she was to being the brave mother that she turned out to be, who deals with telling Kate and Randall. When Rebecca, in the present day, gets a call from Kevin asking if Jack sent a message, she thinks that it was Kevin that was the message this year.
I can go over and over about this episode as it was emotional engaging from the beginning to the end. From the first five minutes of the episode I was in tears due Jack getting back in the house to get the family dog. Each story had a special moment and the actors really delivered their best performance of this season so far. But Moore was the one that really stood out in this episode and deserves an Emmy nomination for this episode. The episode really depicts that after an even that something can go wrong in an instant and how a family can still grieve and come together on it's difficult day. The ending came as a stunner when we see the future of Tess as a foster care worker and meeting with her dad.
Overall, I give this episode a 9/10.
You can catch This Is Us with a new episode this Tuesday at 9/8c on NBC.
