‘This Is Us’ Finally Shows What Caused Jack’s Death

This Is Us finally showed what caused the death of Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia) on Tuesday night’s episode.

It’s revealed that the family’s slow cooker shorts out and catches the Pearsons’ home on fire. The fire grows fast, creeping upstairs to where Jack is sleeping.

Rebecca (Mandy Moore), Kate (Hannah Zeile) and Randall (Niles Fitch) are also in the house at the time of the fire, but we (obviously) know they survive. The preview that followed the episode shows the family battling to escape the house, but we know Jack will not make it out.

While the episode did not actually show Jack dying, it is only a matter of time before the Pearson patriarch meets his demise.

The name of the Tuesday night episode lent itself to it being about a tragic day: “That’ll Be The Day.” The title is taken from a Buddy Holly song that features the line “That’ll be the day when I die” in its chorus, among other gloomy lyrics about goodbyes.

Over the midseason break, the minds behind the NBC drama said they’d show Jack’s death during the remaining episodes of season 2. It appears that time will come in the show’s post-Super Bowl episode.

“We promised answers in season 2, and we have eight episodes left and it’s all coming in short order,” creator Dan Fogelman told Deadline during the midseason break. “It will really be a heartbreaking surprise.”

Sterling K. Brown, who plays the adult version of Jack’s son Randall Pearson, also confirmed the reveal timing by telling E! News, “Before this season is over we will see how Jack Pearson dies. I won’t say too much more about it, but there’s only eight episodes, so it will happen soon.”

This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.

Photo by NBC / Ron Batzdorff