Honestly, by the time "Us" rolled around on May 24, 2022, we were all exhausted. Six years of crying. Six years of trying to map out a family tree that hopped across decades like a stone skipping over a pond. When Dan Fogelman announced the series would end after six seasons, there was this massive, looming expectation for a "Big Bang" ending. Fans wanted a twist. They wanted some final, earth-shattering revelation that would recontextualize everything we knew about the Pearsons.
We didn't get that. And that’s exactly why the This Is Us finale worked so well.
It was quiet. It was almost frustratingly mundane at times. While "The Train" (the penultimate episode) gave us the grand, metaphorical goodbye to Rebecca Pearson, the actual finale was just a Saturday. It was a bunch of scenes of a family hanging out in the driveway, playing pin the tail on the donkey, and sitting at a funeral. It felt real. Life doesn't usually end with a cinematic montage and a swelling orchestra; it ends with the people you leave behind trying to figure out how to spend their next Tuesday.
What actually happened in the This Is Us finale?
If you were looking for high drama, you probably felt a bit let down. The episode, titled "Us," split its time between the day of Rebecca’s funeral in the present (well, the "future" present of 2033ish) and a random, lazy Saturday in the 1990s.
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In the past, Jack and Rebecca have a rare day with no plans. The Big Three are pre-teens. They’re at that awkward age where they’re starting to pull away, but they’re still kids. They watch home movies. Jack teaches the boys how to shave. It’s a nothing day. But as Jack tells Rebecca, these are the moments he wants to hold onto. It’s not the birthdays or the hospital visits. It’s the smell of the house on a Saturday morning.
In the future timeline, we see the aftermath of Rebecca's death. The Big Three—Randall, Kate, and Kevin—are sitting on the steps of the family cabin, reeling. Randall is dealing with the news that he’s going to be a grandfather (Deja is pregnant with a boy). Kate is worried that the siblings will drift apart now that their "center" is gone. Kevin just wants to be still for a second.
They make a pact. They won't drift. They’ll keep "drifting" into each other's lives instead.
The stuff people missed about Randall’s ending
A lot of the post-show chatter focused on whether Randall Pearson would actually become President of the United States. The finale drops a pretty heavy hint. During the post-funeral gathering, Randall mentions he’s considering a trip to the Iowa State Fair—the classic launching pad for a presidential campaign.
But look at Sterling K. Brown’s performance in those final moments. It isn't about power. It’s about the fact that he finally feels settled. For six seasons, Randall was defined by anxiety and the "search." Searching for his birth father, searching for his birth mother, searching for a legacy. Sitting on those steps, he realizes he is the legacy. He doesn't need to find anything else.
Why the "Quiet" approach was a massive risk
Most TV shows go out with a bang. Breaking Bad had a machine gun in a trunk. The Sopranos had... well, a black screen. This Is Us had a father and son talking about shaving cream.
Critics were divided. Some felt it was too sentimental. Others, like Jen Chaney at Vulture, noted that the show’s greatest strength was always its ability to find the profound in the pathetic details of everyday life. If the finale had been some massive, plot-heavy thriller, it would have betrayed the previous 105 episodes.
Think about the structure. Fogelman actually shot about half of the finale’s "past" scenes years in advance. He wanted to catch the actors who played the young Big Three (Parker Bates, Lonnie Chavis, and Mackenzie Hancsicsak) while they were still actually kids. You can see it in the footage. There’s a grainy, authentic texture to those scenes because they weren't recreated on a soundstage years later with CGI—they were preserved. It’s a meta-commentary on the show itself. Time moves on, people grow up, but the film stays the same.
The symbolism of the "shaving" scene
There is a long, slow scene where Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia) teaches Kevin and Randall how to shave. It takes up a significant chunk of the runtime. On paper, it sounds boring. In practice, it's the heartbeat of the This Is Us finale.
It represents the passing of the torch. Jack knew he wouldn't be there forever—though he didn't know his time would be cut so short by a slow-cooker fire. By teaching them this mundane masculine ritual, he was tethering himself to their future. Every time Kevin or Randall looks in the mirror to shave for the rest of their lives, they are interacting with their father.
That is the show's thesis: No one is ever really gone as long as their "rhythm" stays in the room.
Addressing the common gripes
Was it perfect? No.
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- The Miguel Problem: A lot of fans were rightfully annoyed that Miguel, Rebecca’s second husband and the unsung hero of the family, didn't get more real estate in the final hour. He got his own episode ("Miguel"), which was a masterpiece, but his absence in the finale felt a bit sharp.
- The Toby/Kate Resolution: We see Toby and Kate are on good terms. They’ve moved on. Some fans felt this was "too easy" given how traumatic their divorce was. But that's the thing about a time jump—it allows for the healing to happen off-camera, which is often where the hardest work of therapy and growth actually occurs.
- The "Future" Makeup: Look, we have to talk about it. The aging makeup on the Big Three in the future scenes was always a bit hit-or-miss. In the finale, it felt a little distracting during the more emotional beats. Mandy Moore, however, remained the gold standard for playing "old" without looking like a caricature.
The impact on the TV landscape
Since the This Is Us finale, we haven't really seen a "Big 3" network drama capture the zeitgeist in the same way. The media landscape has fractured. Everything is on streaming now. This Is Us was one of the last "water cooler" shows where millions of people tuned in at the exact same time on a Tuesday night to cry together.
It proved that you don't need dragons, zombies, or superheroes to get high ratings. You just need a deep, almost surgical understanding of human grief and joy. The show treated the "small" moments—a bad grade, a first date, a burnt Thanksgiving dinner—with the same gravity that Game of Thrones treated a royal wedding.
How to process the ending if you're just finishing it now
If you just binged the whole thing on Netflix or Hulu and you’re feeling that weird post-series depression, you aren't alone. The show was designed to be an emotional workout.
Here is how to actually move on from the Pearson family:
1. Watch the "The Train" and "Us" as a two-part movie.
Don't view them as separate episodes. "The Train" is the ending of the story's climax. "Us" is the epilogue. If you try to judge the finale as a standalone piece of plot, it feels thin. If you judge it as the "deep breath" after a long run, it makes perfect sense.
2. Focus on the cyclical nature.
The show ends with a close-up of young Randall looking at Jack. It mirrors the beginning. The "Pearson" cycle isn't about a destination; it's about the fact that Deja’s son will probably grow up hearing stories about a man named Jack he never met, and that man’s influence will shape how he treats his own kids in the year 2050.
3. Stop looking for "The Twist."
The twist is that there is no twist. Life just keeps going. The Big Three go their separate ways, they live their lives, they raise their kids, and eventually, they will all end up on that metaphorical train too. It’s a bit morbid, but it’s also incredibly comforting.
Final takeaways for the Pearson faithful
The This Is Us finale wasn't trying to win an award for the most shocking ending in TV history. It was trying to be a mirror. When Kevin tells his siblings that he feels like he’s just "acting" like an adult, he’s speaking for every 40-something in the audience.
The show ended by telling us that the "good old days" are actually right now. They are the boring Saturdays when you're annoyed that you have to do laundry or play a board game you don't like.
If you want to honor the spirit of the show, take a hint from the Pearsons. Call your siblings. Record a video of your kids doing something mundane. Don't wait for a "big" moment to appreciate the people in your house. Because eventually, the house gets quiet, the kids grow up, and all you’re left with are the memories of those lazy Saturdays in the driveway.
That's the legacy of the Pearsons. It wasn't about the drama. It was about the "Us."
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Next Steps for Fans:
- Re-watch the Pilot: Now that you know how it ends, go back to Season 1, Episode 1. The parallels in the dialogue are staggering.
- Check out the "That Was Us" Podcast: Mandy Moore, Sterling K. Brown, and Chris Sullivan (Toby) started a re-watch podcast that dives deep into the behind-the-scenes reality of filming these heavy scenes.
- Explore Dan Fogelman’s other work: If you miss the "multi-generational" storytelling style, his film Life Itself carries a very similar DNA, though it's much more polarizing than the show.