‘This Is Us’: In the Wake of Jack’s Funeral Scene, Here Are 8 Fan Death Theories

Being a This Is Us fan means resigning yourself to go through at least a couple of the stages of grief every week. There’s almost always depression, occasionally anger, and, every time we’re reminded of superdad Jack’s premature exit from this planet and Rebecca’s decision to move on with his best friend Miguel, in creeps a large dose of denial.

But as a few crushing flashbacks in last week’s episode to the big three’s father’s funeral stridently drove home, no amount of bargaining is bringing him back from the dead or saving his kids from the gut-wrenching pain of losing a beloved parent so early.

“We don’t know at this point how Jack has passed away, but surely that has affected her and all of the kids into adulthood,” Chrissy Metz (Kate) said in the series’ official online aftershow.

Knowing this week’s episode is the 14th chapter of an 18-episode season, and judging by an interview creator Dan Fogelman gave Entertainment Weekly, viewers should start preparing to move into acceptance. “By the end of the season, you’re going to know a lot of the details of the how and the ramifications of it. We can’t do a show where every week is this kind of emotional but very safe release,” he explained. “Darkness creeps into the show because that’s what happens in life. We have to dive into the heavy stuff. [In] the back half of the season, people are going to have to put on their seat belts. I just wrote the finale today, and it’s a doozy.”

Not that all the cards will be on the table by the March 7 finale. After all, the writers need something to talk about in the two additional seasons they’ve already been promised by NBC. “It’s going to take even longer for the audience to get the story of what happened in full. There’s a long journey to go on still,” Fogelman continued. “In terms of how he died -— Was it illness? Was it something tragic? Something else? What was going on in their marriage when this happened? — that’s going to take a minute because we want to show that in the show. To me, even when you’re watching the pilot, long before you knew [about] Jack, this family felt loving and good but broken. You’ve got kids battling severe issues, and clearly there’s strained relationships with Rebecca. [And Miguel!] There was a break somewhere… something formative happened to them in those prominent late teenage years when you’re becoming an adult. It broke this family apart, not irreparably. They all love each other. But there’s stuff here, and I think a lot of it is held with Jack.”

Related: Catch Up on ‘This Is Us’ With Our Recaps

The slow burn storytelling and mystery surrounding the cause of death has left people searching scenes and storylines for clues, which Fogelman confirmed are in there when Yahoo TV talked with him last fall. “The show will feel almost like watching family home videos out of sequence,” he said at the time. “But there is a purpose to the sequence we show them in, and there are definitely details about what will be revealed later tucked into flashbacks and the present-day stuff. It is a traumedy version of Lost.”

Tonight’s episode may hold more answers, but until the big reveal, here are the current prevailing theories on Jack’s demise floating around the Internet:

1. Most of the details we are already privy to make it seem like Jack’s death was sudden and unexpected. A matter of the heart, as in his fails him, seems to be the most widely held belief. It would certainly explain how Kate reacted when Toby said he was going to skip surgery to repair his ticker. She did not hesitate for even a hot minute before agreeing with the cardiologist’s call and hightailing it out of the room when he first refused the operation. Having lost her dad before she could say goodbye would certainly explain the urgency under which she operates in that situation. Fogelman has admitted that Kate is the sibling most affected by Jack’s death, so perhaps she was alone with him when tragedy struck. Maybe even at a Steelers game, which would explain why it was so hard for her to return to the ritual of watching Sunday football.

Randall also acts like someone with personal experience. It could be that he is just making up for lost time with his bio dad, but his eagerness to drop everything and make the most of the time William has left could also be because he never got to say goodbye to his adoptive one.

2. Some think the Pearson patriarch meets his maker in a plane crash. Both Kate and Kevin are afraid to fly, with Kate’s traumatic experience with air turbulence leading her to make a rash decision about gastric bypass. Kevin also admitted that he destroyed all of the model airplanes he’d built with his pops as a kid when Olivia tricks him into attending a stranger’s funeral. It could also explain having an urn and not an open casket.

One fan even went as far as to suggest on Tumblr that Jack was a victim of the 9/11 terror attacks. But the numbers don’t add up. Given that they were born in 1980, the big three would have been 21 in 2001, yet they looked like teenagers at the memorial service. And remember that Fogelman confirmed in the EW interview that they were teens.

3. More recently, the theory of Jack dying in a fire is gaining some heat. AFriendlyInternetGuy even postulated on the TIU Reddit page that perhaps Jack died in a blaze of glory trying to rescue Miguel’s family. The user writes that it would explain why Rebecca and Miguel became so close and are now together and why Miguel’s family has not been mentioned in the present-day timeline. They also weren’t at Christmas or Thanksgiving.

A separate post from another redditor shoots down this posit, reminding us that Kevin has Jack’s necklace, the one Jack is wearing in every scene, so it’s unlikely he would not have it on in a fire. This is also evidence that a plane crash is unlikely because the necklace would not have survived that disaster.

4. Another series devotee reminded everyone of Jack’s increasing forgetfulness in “The Best Washing Machine in the Whole World” episode. He forgot dinner and Kevin’s football jersey number, and he forgot to tell Rebecca about the big deal he was closing and forgot to kiss her goodbye (even though making out is clearly something they make a priority). He also has a headache and is exhausted from watching a football game. Could he suffer from Alzheimer’s?

5. Jack’s problem with the sauce was noted early on. When the kids were still fairly young and needy, the stress of financing “triplets,” less me time, and certainly less Rebecca time had him staying out late throwing back beers with his bestie Miguel and coming home drunk. Eventually Rebecca gave him an ultimatum, and he did a 180-degree turn after sleeping outside the door like a bad puppy. He also gave her the moon necklace as a peace offering. That same token of his affection, however, could be the sign that falling off the wagon is not a good hypothesis. Why would she have worn it, now a symbol of a broken promise, to the funeral or when she popped over to Randall’s house before going to see a play in the city in the present-day?

Of course, even if he managed to stay sober for the rest of his life, the former liquid diet could have caused irreversible internal damage or weakened his immune system down the road. According to the American Heart Association, excessive drinking can be the cause of stroke, high blood pressure, or heart failure. (This dovetails nicely with the above heart-related and sudden-death theories.)

6. Excessive imbibing turned out to run in the family. To save Rebecca and the kids from living with her awful mom, he showed up on his abusive alcoholic dad’s doorstep for some quick cash, and it was clear they had not talked in quite some time. He lied about why he needed it, claiming it was a gambling debt, and clearly did not tell daddy dearest that he had a wife or babies on the way. (Remember, he removed his wedding ring.) It’s a horrible thought, but what if he runs into him down the road and he is feeling less generous. It certainly would not be the first time someone died at the hands of an under-the-influence parent.

7. A few blame an at-work accident. Jack is in construction, and accidents do happen in the field, but episodes have suggested that he spends his later days at a desk not behind a drill.

8. Some people prefer to rule things out instead. Most agree that cancer was probably not the culprit. When William came into his life with a terminal diagnosis, Randall doesn’t seem to have a lot of information. He does Internet research, has to get a specialist referral from a jerk at the office, and still has the kind of hope for alternative therapies or chemotherapy that would have been zapped by losing his dad to it. Instead, it is Beth who lost her dad to the disease and therefore knowingly refers to things like the “chemo boost” or how helpful medicinal marijuana can be.

Although Jack and William probably won’t die for the same reason, it’s a safe bet that their deaths will likely be handled in the same episode, perhaps that “doozy” of a finale Fogelman mentioned. Milo Ventimiglia, who plays the doomed dad, seconded his warning on Twitter Sunday. “Just read the season finale. Holy s*** hang onto your loved ones you’re gonna need a hug,” he wrote.

First, they are not ones to shy away from gut-punch plots that turn all of us fans into wet heaps on the couch. William has stopped chemotherapy, so his passing is likely imminent, and most of us have already come to terms with the fact that Jack cannot be saved. Except this dreamer on Twitter who is hoping for an outcome effected by #alternativefacts.

This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on NBC. Watch clips and full episodes of This Is Us free on Yahoo View.