Over the past few weeks, This Is Us has been dropping hints about Jack’s time in Vietnam but hasn’t given us any concrete details. That changed this week as the show put the rest of the timelines on hold and focused solely on Jack and his younger brother Nicky, who Jack has mentioned lost his life in war.
The episode opens on Jack finding his brother in Vietnam but cuts away before he says anything to him. Three weeks earlier Jack is leading his platoon through the jungle searching for the enemy. After making camp they are ambushed and this leads to a surprisingly believable firefight and one of the more realistic injuries I’ve seen on network TV when one of Jack’s men loses a foot in an explosion. Jack’s leadership and bravery are on full display here as he jumps from foxhole to foxhole assisting and checking on each of his men individually.
The following morning Jack and his men are put on an easy security job. There isn’t any action in these scenes but this works to the episode’s benefit. By showing a quieter side of the war, the writers set the emotional tone This is Us has become synonymous with. This helps the entire episode feel familiar, even if the setting is completely foreign territory. The episode doesn’t focus solely on the war, however.
After Jack gets permission to visit Nicky, the episode flashes back to the events that led to the two men enlisting. First, Jack’s decision to volunteer after the family receives a worrying letter from Nicky. This is followed by another time jump further in the past to show the night Nicky learns he’s been drafted and the lengths Jack goes to in order to protect him by trying to get Nicky to Canada.
Ultimately, Nicky decides to honor the draft and go fight in the war and this is followed by two more time jumps. As young children, Jack and Nicky already have a rocky relationship with their father as he is shown abusing their mother. Nicky stands up to him one night and that leads Jack to subsequently step in and defend his brother.
The final scene is particularly poignant considering the show’s obsession with birthdays. The scene sees a very young Jack and his father, who is sober and resembles Jack as a father, waiting at the hospital for the birth of Nicky. This scene is interesting as Jack’s grandfather shows up drinking and acting similarly to how his son does later in life.
The scenes between these two men mirror the scenes between Jack and his father. Jack’s father is made somewhat sympathetic through these scenes. The episode ends with Jack and his father looking at Nicky and the other babies. Jack’s father tells him that his only job as a big brother is to protect Nicky. This moment seems to form the basis of Jack’s entire character as an altruistic ‘good person.’
Overall, the episode provides a hint at what Vietnam was like for the soldiers while keeping the emotional core This Is Us is known for. The focused narrative of the episode still finds a way to subvert expectations with the quieter moments of the war and the reasons why Jack acts as he does come into better focus.
The episode ends with a cliffhanger of sorts as Jack faces Nicky in Vietnam but no words are spoken. I don’t expect to go another week without seeing the Pearsons in modern-day so I don’t think we’ll see the two men speak next week. It’s likely that this conversation will be revealed through Kevin’s search for information about Jack’s time in Vietnam. Either way, this episode is one of the stronger ones on the season and begins peeling back the layers of Jack’s character in a compelling way.
