【Dear Utol (2025): Itch Follows Episode 23】

Warning: Spoilers for the "Super Bowl Sunday" episode of This Is Usahead.

Well,Dear Utol (2025): Itch Follows Episode 23 Jack Pearson didn't burn to death in a house fire in Sunday's episode of This Is Us, but he did die becauseof the house fire. And it was devastating.

From the first moments of the episode and through the very end, the "Super Bowl Sunday" episode of This Is Uselicited tears again and again with its relentless waves of sadness and more than once made me shout "NOPE" while I watched the Pearson family get torn apart by the death of Jack.

SEE ALSO: Why we're so addicted to watching 'This is Us' and crying

The episode opens with the Pearson house already engulfed in flames, caused by a faulty slow cooker that was left on and enabled by a smoke alarm that didn't have any batteries in it. Jack wakes up and sees smoke coming in through the bedroom door and things are not looking good.

NOPE 1: When the house was on fire

No one wants to watch the Pearson family burn to death, nor watch their house full of memories go up in smoke. Thankfully Jack sprung into action immediately, going to grab Randall out of his room.

NOPE 2: When Jack said "I love you" to Randall

Clearly this is the beginning of the end. Jack is getting his appropriate last words in. This is too much. The tears are here.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

NOPE 3: When Jack saved his whole family

What a hero. Jack burned up his hands while rescuing Kate out of her room and, thinking quickly, rigged up a way to safely drop his wife and two kids down to the lawn from the second floor. They're all safe... But Jack isn't coming down.

NOPE 4: When Jack went back for the dog

The dog, Louie, barks from inside the house, and Jack decides to go back in and get him, all while his wife Rebecca is screaming at him to forget the dog and get down to safety. Jack climbs back in the bedroom window and moments later the room he just entered is engulfed in flames. Everyone is screaming and crying.

NOPE 5: When Jack got the important stuff

Jack, somehow, makes it back out the front door with the dog under his arm and a pillowcase full of family memories and Kate's audition tape. What a guy. The only problem is, death still lurks around the corner for everyone's favorite TV dad.

NOPE 6: When Kate's tape gets messed up

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In present day, Kate likes to sit and watch the tape that her dad made and saved from the fire every Super Bowl Sunday (healthy!), but on the 20th anniversary of his death, the VCR starts messing it up. Kate starts freaking out; I start freaking out. No one wants this tape to be ruined.

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NOPE 7: Rebecca makes Jack's favorite lasagna

Rebecca reveals to Kevin that every Super Bowl since Jack died, she goes to the store and buys everything to make Jack's favorite lasagna, and then watches the Super Bowl alone and eats the lasagna. It's a perfect tribute to Jack, and a great way to get the tear ducts prepped for what followed.

NOPE 8: When Rebecca is on the phone at the hospital

Back in the past at the hospital, Jack seems to be doing OK and so Rebecca leaves the room to make hotel reservations and call the kids at Miguel's. While that's happening, the hospital staff behind her is bustling with action. Something is happening. Why is something happening. Rebecca please turn around.

NOPE 9: When Jack dies

All the smoke that Jack inhaled was too much for his body to take and he went into cardiac arrest. The doctor tries to tell Rebecca but she doesn't understand. Nobody understands. Jack is dead and no one was in the room with him and my face is wet.

NOPE 10: When Rebecca tells the kids

Randall and Kate are sitting at Miguel's thinking that their parents are fine, and Rebecca has to go in and break the news to them that their dad — the greatest dad on TV — died. It's overwhelming and heartbreaking.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

NOPE 11: When Kevin pours his heart out to Jack's tree

Back in the present, Kevin is the only one who tries to avoid the Super Bowl every year (and he was the only one that missed the entire house fire and everything after). He visits his dad's tree to talk to him, pouring his heart out about how he wants to be a better person and be as good as his dad was.

NOPE 12: When Jack keeps fixing Kate's window

Kate tells Toby a story about how her bedroom window used to leak when it rained in her youth and her dad would fix time and time again, showing just how patient he was and how amazing and accommodating he was as a father.

NOPE 13: When Rebecca finds the necklace

In the past, Rebecca drives back to the burnt-out house and has a good cry along with the rest of us and finds the necklace that Jack gave her in the bag of memories Jack collected from the house. Now she can always have that with her.

NOPE 14: When Kevin brought the laugh

In the present, Rebecca told Kevin that Jack always seemed to bring her a laugh from the great beyond on Super Bowl Sundays, and this year it hadn't happened yet until Kevin tells her that he wasn't sure if he was at the correct tree. Rebecca laughs. Kevin laughs. I yell.

NOPE 15: When Tess is old

Randall's present day family is celebrating the Super Bowl with joy (mostly) instead of with sadness and Randall has a heart-to-heart with his older daughter Tess, telling her she's his No. 1 no matter if they foster kids or if he wants a new job. And then we're straight dupedinto thinking that Randall and company are going to foster a new young boy, but it turns out that the social worker was actually Tess in the future and then we see future Randall and the family is fostering Deja again and I can't see anything anymore because there's just a wall of water between my eyes and the TV and oh my god are we going to get a new time period in the future where Randall is old and Tess is a social worker? This is too much.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Bonus NOPE: Mr. McGiggles's funeral

In the middle of Sunday's episode, Randall's youngest girl Annie has a little lizard named Mr. McGiggles. Randall's wife Beth accidentally steps on the poor lizard and the family has a little funeral service for him along with all of their guests for their Super Bowl party. Randall starts talking about the suddenness of death and everything is getting sadder and sadder until Beth jumps in and cuts him off. Poor Mr. McGiggles. Poor Jack.

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Topics Super Bowl