10 Saddest ‘This Is Us’ Moments

This Is Us is notorious for being a tearjerker, with almost every episode offering some sort of emotional moment.

The Pearson family have experienced a lifetime of deaths, health scares, breakups and goodbyes over the past two seasons.

However, some of those sad moments stand above the rest.

Scroll through to see what This Is Us moments we ranked as the saddest of the sad.

10. Kevin and Sophie’s Breakup in “The Most Disappointed Man”

As he spirals through addiction, Kevin Pearson (Justin Hartley) decides that he will fly to New York City and prove his dedication to Sophie (Alexandra Breckenridge), and he even buys three engagement rings to propose.

However, he arrives and has a nightmare about what married life with Sophie will be like. He’s miserable and addicted to pills, all while Sophie struggles to get him to be a fatherly figure.

He wakes from this nightmare and realizes he’s in no place to be with Sophie.

He goes to Sophie’s home to end things. He tells her he’s an “empty shell” with “nothing to give” her, while she points out that he’s just in a depressive spiral.

“Trust me when I tell you, I’m saving you from 40 years of disappointment with me,” Kevin says. “When I dream of our future together, Sophie, it’s a nightmare for me.”

This “nightmare” remark visibly upsets Sophie. She begins to tear up and closes the door in Kevin’s face.

This farewell for one of This Is Us‘ main couple was depressing no matter who’s side of the breakup you were on. Kevin obviously needs help, but Sophie’s life was flipped upside due to Kevin’s addiction.

9. Jack’s Urn in “The Game Plan”

Season one’s fifth episode, “The Game Plan,” served as the first reveal that Jack is dead in the current timeline.

There is a dispute between Kate Pearson (Chrissy Metz) and then-boyfriend (now fiancé) Toby (Chris Sullivan) about watching the latest Pittsburgh Steelers game alone.

After an argument, Kate reveals that she watches the team’s games with her dad, who is cremated in an urn on her mantle.

Toby is surprised by the revelation, but embraces it and joins Kate’s ritual.

The reveal that Jack was not living hit viewers in the gut upon first watching, and it does not get any easier upon repeat viewings.

8. Deja’s Goodbye in “Number Three”

After bonding with foster child Deja (Lyric Ross), Randall (Sterling K. Brown) and Beth Pearson (Susan Kelechi Watson) are pushed towards an ultimatum.

They can press charges on Deja’s mother and put her back in jail for probation violations related to an outburst at their home, or they can allow Deja to go back into her mother’s home. Pressing charges would mean the couple would likely get to adopt Deja as they planned, but that would make them the cause of Deja being separated from her mother.

The couple ultimately decides to not press charges and give up custody of Deja. They share a heartfelt goodbye, but stress that they can help Deja in any way that’s needed.

This goodbye is a for-sure a top-ten tearjerker, as it appears the Pearsons will not interact with Deja for a long time. However, Deja appears to be on her way back before season 2 wraps up.

 

7. Kevin’s Breakdown in “Number One”

In “Number One,” Kevin comes back home to accept an award at his former high school. He runs out of painkillers and results to wandering around and drinking wine.

At one point, he completely loses it. He drunkenly rants to himself in the middle of his alma mater’s football field about all the tragedies in his life and the mistakes he has made.

This is just the start of his breakdown. He drunkenly goes back to the celebration and hooks up with a former classmate, a plastic surgeon. He swipes her prescription pad an almost gets a prescription for painkillers with it. However, he realizes he forgot his necklace, which he got from his dad, at the woman’s house.

He rushes there and breaks down on her front lawn as she refuses to search for it.

6. Randall’s Breakdown in “Jack Pearson’s Son”

Kevin is not the only Pearson child to deal with a breakdown.

In season 1, pressure mounts for Randall throughout the season. His biological father William (Ron Cephas Jones) is dying, he is falling short at work and he is not able to make all his familial obligations.

On the opening night of Kevin’s play, things come to ahead and Randall loses it in his office. He lets Kevin know he will not be able to make it, but Kevin senses something is wrong. Kevin rushes to his brother’s side and finds him crying in the corner of his office.

Kevin embraces the helpless Randall in what is one of the show’s most bittersweet moments. It good to see Kevin step up, but Randall’s pain is almost too much to bear.

5. Kate’s Miscarriage in “Number Two”

The heartbreak of Kate’s miscarriage comes in two devastating parts. In “Number One,” Randall reveals to Kevin that Kate lost the baby in a cliffhanger.

Viewers then get to experience the moment as it happened in “Number Two.”

Early on in the episode, it’s revealed that Kate and her fiancé, Toby Damon (Chris Sullivan), were simply sitting around their home when the miscarriage occurred.

Kate walked into the bathroom to measure the tub for a baby device, and then she doubles over in pain. She pulls down the shower curtain and calls out to Toby for help. Toby rushes in an does all he can to comfort his fiancé before heading to the hospital.

The rest of the episode sees Kate and Toby each grappling with the loss in their own ways.

4. Dr. K’s Lemonade Speech in “Pilot”

Dr. Nathan Katowski (Gerald McRaney), also known as Dr. K. was the doctor who delivered the triplets during the series premiere. He is also the one who comforted Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia) after Kyle’s death and inspired him to adopt Randall.

The moment where he sits with Jack and breaks the news that Kyle, he and his wife Rebecca’s (Mandy Moore) third baby, was stillborn rips viewers hearts out every time they watch the pilot episode.

On top of that reveal, Dr. K dropped a major nugget of wisdom that carried the couple through their tragedy. He explained how he, too, had lost an infant. However, his loss inspired him to work to save as many babies as he could. Dr. K hoped that Jack would do the same.

“I like to think that maybe one day you’ll be an old man like me, talking a young man’s ear off, explaining to him how you took the sourest lemon that life has to offer and turned it into something that resembled lemonade,” Dr. K said. “If you can do that, you will still be taking three babies home from this hospital, just maybe not the way you planned.”

3. Start of the Fire in “That’ll Be the Day”

This Is Us finally showed what essentially caused the death of Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia) on “That’ll Be the Day.”

In an emotional scene, Jack is up by himself and tidies up around the house, including the kitchen. He turns off the slow cooker just before heading up for the bed. The slow cooker shorts out and catches the Pearsons’ home on fire. The fire grows fast, creeping upstairs to where the family is sleeping.

While Jack ended dying due to smoke inhalation, most fans presumed they were watching Jack’s final moments. That build-up, emotional score and seeing Jack simply go about his day was almost unbearable.

 

2. Jack’s Death in “Super Bowl Sunday”

“Super Bowl Sunday” picked up where that fire-starting scene left off by showing the family discovering their house in flames.

However, Jack does not immediately die in the fire. After helping his family escape, he goes back in to save Kate’s dog. In the process, he inhaled too much smoke.

He is taken to the hospital for treatment, and everything seems all right. However, moments later, he suffered cardiac arrest and died.

His wife Rebecca was out of the room grabbing him a snack from a vending machine when it occurred. She was checking on the kids at a payphone while doctors ran behind her to treat Jack. She was oblivious to this and kept going about her day.

A doctor then comes over to her to break the news. She is obviously devastated and heads home to tell the kids and Miguel of his passing.

This twist on Jack’s death was devastating, and was an emotional moments two seasons in the making.

1. William’s Death in “Memphis”

While Jack’s death is a show-defining moment, the unexpected nature of William’s passing put it on top.

In what is arguably the show’s saddest episode, Randall and William drive down to Memphis to visit William’s hometown.  They drive around and William reunites with a family member he wronged long ago.

After a night of excitement and playing music, William falls ill. It appears the cancer is finally taking its final blow to William’s health.

William is rushed to the hospital, where the father-and-son share their goodbyes to each other, with William reflecting on his life. Randall is by his side as he dies.

Randall then drives all the way home with an empty passenger seat.