It pretty much goes without saying at this point that Jack is one of the best (and hottest) TV dads of all time. He's giving; he's loving; he has arm muscles for days. Basically, he's the perfect representation of an ideal husband and father. That's why it's so hard for viewers to accept his inevitable death we know is on the horizon in all of these flashbacks. And Tuesday night's episode "Jack Pearson's Son" may have just hinted at how that comes about. Jack starts drinking again on This Is Us after having an intense fight with Rebecca, which could end up leading to a downward spiral to his eventual death.
Guys, I'm not going to lie — I don't even like to think about Jack's death in any kind of capacity. At this point, I'm not even the least bit curious how he dies because picturing a world (fictional or otherwise) where he doesn't exist is simply too painful. (Yes, I get really attached to TV characters, what of it?) But try as I might to ignore what's grimly on the horizon, the fact of the matter is that the cause of Jack's death is going to rear its ugly head eventually, and I'm starting to think his addiction to alcohol could be end up being the culprit.
Throughout the entire episode, viewers saw Jack struggle with the idea of Rebecca going on tour. On the one hand, he wanted to be supportive of her dreams because he's Jack and therefore amazing. But at the same time, he was stressing out about taking care of everything solo — not to mention the fact that he could tell her bandmate has a major crush on her. So when he found out that they used to date just before their big Valentine's Day dinner, he was understandably upset. Granted, he went a little too far in saying she can't go on the tour now, but she should've come clean with him about it right from the start.
Regardless, it led to a big fight, which led to him leaving and order a big cheeseburger with onion rings all by himself... along with an alcoholic beverage that he began jugging almost immediately when it was set down in front of him. Does this indicate that drinking becomes a much bigger problem again? Could his death have something to do with it — whether it be drinking and driving or suffering from alcohol poisoning?
I'm getting worked up just thinking about it. I'd like to think that if Jack has to die, then it will be doing something heroic since that's become such a big part of his personality at this point. So I'm hoping to be wrong about this. In fact, I've never wanted to be more wrong about something. Either way, though, this isn't a good sign of what's to come and I'm nervous about what the next episode will bring to light.
