Milo Ventimiglia thinks you’re sleeping on the real players in Jack’s death
Milo Ventimiglia says focusing on Kate is a case of missing the forest for the trees when it comes to Jack’s death on This Is Us.
Sometimes it feels like it’s just a matter of catching Milo Ventimiglia on the right day to get a really great Jack’s-death-scoop. Some days, he doesn’t have any time for it. Other days, he might provide an interesting insight — like when he to Deadline in a This Is Us Emmy feature focusing on the cast’s auditions, takeaway moments and life changes.
When it comes to Jack’s death, Milo would encourage us all to widen our focus. Just because it seems like Kate has been the most affected — and carries the most internalized blame — Ventimiglia doesn’t want you to sleep on how Randall, Kevin and Rebecca live with the past either.
More specifically, he said:
"In regards to the occurrences leading up to Jack’s death, people should pay more attention. Yes, Kate has been the only one vocal about it, but what about Randall, Kevin, and Rebecca? People shouldn’t set their sight on just one view."
Throughout the first season, we’ve seen Kate struggle with Jack’s death, particularly as it affects her ability to open up to Toby. We know she’s in possession of his ashes, that she struggles to describe the details of his death and that remembering his funeral led to a breakthrough at her weight loss camp. Toward the end of season 1, we learned she blames herself — though ultimately we also learned that he would survive driving drunk to see Rebecca on her tour.
But, to Ventimiglia’s point, we’ve also received hints about how the other children are coping. Kevin, we know, destroyed all the model airplanes he built with Jack. For Randall, it was very important that William not die alone — implying that perhaps Jack did. As for Rebecca, we know she still wears the necklace Jack gave her and yet, there’s still the Miguel of it all.
Which is to say, of course we want to know more about how everyone else is coping! Perhaps it’s just that Kate seems like the strongest source of clues and/or fastest track to answers.
In any case, the “big clue”-laden season 2 premiere can’t come soon enough.