Warning: This article contains spoilers for the final season of This Is Us.

Six seasons, 106 episodes, and several oceans’ worth of tears later, This Is Us (2016–2022) wrapped up a multi-generational story of the football-loving, tragedy-enduring, patriarch-worshipping Pearson family.

The penultimate episode, “The Train,” ended with Rebecca (Mandy Moore) dying peacefully in her sleep surrounded by her family while metaphysically reuniting with her beloved late husband, Jack (Milo Ventimiglia). Considering how many fans (erroneously) predicted that Rebecca’s death would be the series closer, there were plenty of questions about how the finale, titled simply “Us,” would wrap things up. Read on to refresh your memory of how creator Dan Fogelman pulled it off.

How many timelines are in this episode?

Three! There’s a Saturday with the pre-teen Big Three (Randall, Kate, and Kevin), there’s the funeral, and Rebecca and Jack talking on the train the day she died. The two are in bed facing each other while they speak, exactly how we saw them so many times before. And, of course, there are memories of different timelines scattered throughout — this is This Is Us, after all.

How did everyone say goodbye to Rebecca?

We don’t know! Instead of giving us the traditional lineup of speeches, Fogelman makes the lovely choice to depict the funeral in an elliptical montage with most of the family’s reflection taking the form of flashbacks.  

After all, we know what the Big Three would say in their eulogies— we spent season 6 watching them talk about what Rebecca meant to them. Instead, we see moments that reflect what funerals often consist of: a joke that makes everyone laugh through tears; holding hands in a pew; or just sitting quietly alone after the service.

So what happened on the Saturday?

Not much, but soooo much. It starts with Jack and Rebecca chatting in bed. Jack notices, for the first time, a tiny scar Rebecca has just under her right eyebrow. She describes a long-ago moment when her Dad’s watch caught her while he pushed her on a swing. She laments that she used to spend her park days worrying about when they would end instead of enjoying them. 

The parents realize they have no obligations for once — a rare free Saturday. Thus, the family decides to play Four Square and Pin the Tail on the Donkey, watch home movies, and figure out why the kids are in such a mood. We even get one more classic Jack parenting scene: teaching the boys how to shave. It’s a lovely, ordinary day that Rebecca actually enjoys while it’s happening.

One last Pin the Tail on the Donkey game! Awww.

We finally learn why that game is such a touchstone that decades later, Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) brought it to the house for Rebecca’s final days. In a flashback, we see Jack and Rebecca buy the game when the kids are infants. The box features a white girl, a white boy, and a Black boy. It’s a sign Rebecca simply can’t ignore.

Okay, I’m emotionally prepared. Tell me about Rebecca and Jack.

On the train, Rebecca admits to Jack that she’s scared. He assures her they’ll still be with the kids (although not having to watch them shower, she’s relieved to find out). They talk about the luck of finding each other in the bar all those years ago, and say how much they love each other. Rebecca squeezes Jack’s hand as she finally passes to the next life.

So when she squeezed Randall’s hand right before she died, she was actually squeezing Jack’s hand?

*sob noises* Yes!

Since I’m already a puddle, hit me with one more mega-emotional moment.

So glad you asked. Randall (Sterling K. Brown) tells his daughters how pointless it feels that, after so much worry over losing his mother, life simply goes on. That’s when Deja (Lyric Ross) reveals that the baby she’s carrying is a boy and they’d like to name him William (Ron Cephas Jones). Not so pointless after all. Randall cries at the tribute to his birth father and spontaneously dances with glee at no longer being the only male in the family.

So what now for the Big Three?

After the funeral, the siblings sit on the steps to talk. Kevin (Justin Hartley) says he’s going to focus on his nonprofit and be with his family as much as possible. Kate (Chrissy Metz) is going to open so many music schools for the blind, that people will resent blind kids for how good they have it. And Randall is strongly considering going to Iowa to eat deep-fried Oreos — code for exploring a presidential run. 

More importantly, they promise there will be no drifting apart. When they picture “family,” they don’t see their spouses and children first — they see each other. They end with their childhood chant: 

Kate: First came…

Kevin: Me.

Randall: And dad said…

Kevin: Gee. And then came…

Kate: Me.

Kevin: And mom said…

Kate: Whee. Then came…

Randall: Me.

Kate: And they said…

Randall: That’s three.

Kevin/Kate/Randall: Big Three.

And that was Us.

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