8 Years Ago, NBC’s Family Saga Delivered Network TV’s Most Gut-Wrenching Death Of All Time

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Eight years ago today, NBC’s This Is Us shocked viewers with a particularly heartbreaking death – arguably the most devastating ever seen on a major network. While losing characters is a common part of storytelling, helping us connect with fictional people, it’s especially prevalent on network TV due to the popularity of crime and emergency response shows. However, This Is Us, which premiered in 2016, stood out as a purely emotional family drama.

Created by Dan Fogelman, This Is Us quickly became popular on NBC. The show centered around the Pearson family – Jack and Rebecca, and their three children, Kevin, Kate, and Randall – who were all born on the same day. Over several decades, the series explored the family’s past, from the beginnings of Jack and Rebecca’s relationship to what the future held for their children. To make things even more complex, the story wasn’t told in a straightforward, chronological order.

This Is Us Season 2, Episode 14 Revealed The Truth About Jack’s Death

Right from the start, This Is Us established itself as a show full of surprises. Instead of prolonging the mystery of what happened to Jack, the show quickly revealed he had passed away sometime during his children’s teenage years. This shifted the focus to how he died, which became the main puzzle driving the first two seasons.

On February 4, 2018, during the “Super Bowl Sunday” episode of This Is Us Season 2, the show’s creator, Dan Fogelman, explained how Jack Pearson died. It turned out a fire started in the Pearson family home because Jack hadn’t replaced the batteries in their smoke detector. A faulty slow cooker was the source of the fire, and by the time anyone noticed, the house was engulfed in flames.

Jack and his family all made it out of the fire alive. Rebecca managed to get him to the hospital, and he initially seemed like he would recover fully. Sadly, just when things were looking up, he had a massive heart attack. The smoke he’d inhaled during the fire had severely stressed his lungs and heart, leading to his sudden and tragic death.

Why Jack’s Death On This Is Us Was So Brutally Traumatic (Even Though It Was Expected)

The power of Jack’s death wasn’t just how it happened on the show, but how the story unfolded leading up to it. Since viewers already knew he was gone, This Is Us could really explore the emotional impact of his loss on his family.

As a big fan of the show, I found this episode really interesting because it kept bringing Jack back into the present, making you wonder what life would be like for Rebecca and the kids if he hadn’t passed away. Every problem the family faced felt like it could’ve been instantly fixed if Jack was still there. And ‘Super Bowl Sunday’ was a total emotional rollercoaster! Just when you thought Jack was a goner, the show would throw a curveball and he’d pull through. It was brilliantly done.

Knowing Jack was going to die created a heavy, anxious atmosphere throughout the entire episode. What made his death on This Is Us so heartbreaking wasn’t a grand, dramatic event, but rather how ordinary it was—reflecting the unexpected way many people lose loved ones.

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2026-02-04 22:40