This Is Us called back to season 1 during its recent “Clooney” episode, and most viewers probably missed it.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly‘s Dan Snierson, executive producer Isaac Aptaker confirmed the writer’s suspicions that one of the flashback scenes was a callback to a season 1 scene.
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Snierson hypothesizes that the scene with Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia) straightening his teenage son Kevin Pearson’s tie was reference to the season 1, where Jack teaches young Randall to tie a tie when he heads off to private school.
Aptaker confirmed his suspicions and elaborated on what that scene meant in broader context of the Pearson family’s relationships.
“Yeah. He and Kevin — and Kevin and Rebecca, too — have had such a volatile relationship, and we wanted to make sure that we really saw that certainly in Justin’s story, there’s a lot of love and affection he has looking back on his father,” Aptaker said. “So we wanted to make sure that we showed some of those really powerful, wonderful father-son moments. It’s not all Kevin screaming about how Jack ignored him when he almost drowned in a swimming pool.”
Kevin and Jack’s relationship has continued to be on the rocks leading up to his dad’s death. While they shared a strong bonding moment in “Number One,” they still butt heads up to the day Jack died, as shown in Tuesday night’s episode, “That’ll be the Day.”
Those torn-up feelings about his childhood eventually came to head in the present timeline during the midseason premiere, “The Fifth Wheel.”
This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.
Photo Credit: NBC / Ron Batzdorff
