How to draw “this is us” this “a simple day in life” flashback

[This story contains spoilers from the series finale of NBC’s This Is Us, “Us.”]

conquest at home It’s us How NBC Family Drama manages to travel through time. Jump Forward or Back, the six-season non-linear series, took decades to tell the Pearson family story from beginning to middle, and by the end of the series, the series even managed to air. . Spectators with a hopeful vision for the future.

The time jump meant that three sets of actors had to split up to play the three older brothers who are at the center of the story, which in the adult version of Sterling K. played by Brown, Chris Metz and Justin Hartley. So when creator and writer Dan Fogelman discovered his ending, he had to decide When To shoot.

In the series finale, titled “Us” and written by Fogelman, the episode takes place in two terms. In the present/future chronicle, the Big Three are after Mother Rebecca Pearson after her latest episode, Farewell to the Train. Rebecca and Jackie (Milo Ventimilia) then spend what Fogelman describes as a “simple day in the life” with their youngest children: a rare Saturday without plans, which allows you to create little moments around which. The show is based on.

“I always knew that would be the end and that the last episode of the second would end with Rebecca’s death and then the last episode would be an easy day in the life,” explained Fogelman. It’s us Final show and panel participated in a weekend the hollywood reporter.

Talking THR Ahead of the panel, Fogelman spoke in detail about “Slice of Life, Family Day,” which he compared to viewers who saw images of the characters.

“[The flashback tells] “It’s a very simple story to make people think about their families and the things they forget to sit down and do,” he explained. “And so I hope to finally give a message to speak to anyone who is worried about mortality or someone who is lost, I mean just because someone dies or dies doesn’t mean they are leaving their family history or abandoning their history. ”

Fogelmann had this goal in mind for a long time. But getting the timing right with the young actors who play Kate, Kevin and Randall was critical, as Lonnie Chavez, Mackenzie Hanksikaki and Parker Bates were all 8 years old and growing fast when the show began in 2016.

“It has just come to our attention so [flashback in the] An episode from years ago, first of all, at a time when there would be nostalgia for us and the audience,” Fogelman said during the panel during the filming of Pearson’s Saturday scenes at the start of the show’s third season and before. Actors will become teenagers as they are now.

“It’s like watching an old home movie,” Fogelman added, which is convenient because the Pearsons end up watching flashback home videos.

At another point in the day, Jackie teaches his children to shave as they speak words of wisdom that echo in Randall’s ears decades later: when his mother buries him and also receives the news that he will be a grandfather, he realizes the dichotomy of life. and he sees his father again that day. At the time, he didn’t understand why Jackie was so happy sitting on her family’s couch and watching her family enjoy a rather awkward Saturday.

“When you’re young. You’re always trying to be older. And when you get older, you’re always trying to come back. Come back,” Jackie explains to young Randall and Kevin, noting that his sister was beyond her wise years and understands the concept better. “You try to appreciate the moments. That’s what we do, we collect these little moments. We don’t recognize them when we’re in them because we’re too busy looking ahead. So we spend the rest of our lives looking back, trying to remember. trying to get them back.”

He added: “One day, you’ll make it.”

Flashback scenes make up more than half of the episode. Fogelman filmed three or four days of valuable footage with a family of five, as well as another scene between Randall and his biological father, William (Ron Cepha Jones), who imparted his fatherly wisdom to Randall about joy and unconditional love. He was a grandfather (also takes Randall’s daughters played by Nation Baker and Faith Herman before they got old). Both messages dovetail with Randall as the series ends. Finally, Randall, like Jackie for decades, sits and watches his family after Rebecca’s funeral, finding joy in the midst of sadness and collecting new family memories.

“We knew we wanted Rebecca to die in the last episode of the second episode so that the last episode, big and big and big and epic, wouldn’t end with death on the show,” Fogelman said. talked about It’s us It was a tribute to his own mother, whom he could not say goodbye to until her death. During the panel, he added, “The show ended literally and structurally with what happens after someone dies, which is the theme of the entire show: Someone can die, someone can die, but it doesn’t stop. Become part of the family history book, past and future.”

This message is leaked through Jack to Rebecca in his last words when he finally meets his first wife on the mystical train before departing. “It’s hard to explain, but you’re going to do all of this with them,” he tells her, allaying her fear of missing out on familiar moments once she lets go. “You will be there.”

And the hopeful note was always what Fogelmann wanted to leave.

“I’ve always found the show to be more hopeful and upbeat and hopeful and moving, in a positive sense, than just sad and scary,” he said. THR. “The theme of this episode and the show was that the family carries on even after losing an important figure. I didn’t want the last story to be about death, I wanted it to be about moving the family back and forth. So it was a very clear plan from the start and I feel like we got it right.”

Kirsten Chuba contributed to this story.