This post contains spoilers about This Is Us Season 2, episode 14, "Super Bowl Sunday."
Last night's very special post-Super Bowl episode of This Is Us, appropriately titled "Super Bowl Sunday," was one of the most highly-anticipated hours of television this year. The episode promised to finally clue fans in about how Pearson patriarch Jack died.
And it did do that—Jack died of a heart attack brought on by smoke inhalation after successfully saving his family and Kate's dog, Louie, from the house fire. Even though we knew Jack's death was coming, this was kind of a twist because he made it out of the fire alive—something not all fans were expecting.
But that wasn't the big twist of the night. This Is Us would never settle for just doing one little earth-shattering thing like killing Jack in a huge episode like this. The real twist of the episode involved Randall and his oldest daughter, Tess.
In the fall finale, we met a wonderful little boy in need of a home, and his social worker. While the obvious guess seemed to be that Randall and Beth would take the adorable little guy in, This Is Us zigged instead of zagged and revealed that the scenes of the little boy actually take place in the future and his caring social worker is none other than a grown-up Tess.
That's right, there's a new timeline on the show because the youngest Pearsons are important, too. The flash-forward also includes an appearance from an older Randall that will bring tears of joy to your eyes (in case the tears of sadness you wept for Jack need some company).