This Is Us Review: Top Moments from “The Train” (Season 6 Episode 17)

Is it really This Is Us if we don’t leave this series a sobbing mess?

Apparently not, because This Is Us Season 6 Episode 17, “The Train,” is every bit the emotional gut-punch this somber penultimate calls for as fans endure the most poignant and potent storytelling since “Superbowl Sunday.”

The episode’s raw account of the human experience cannot be so easily critiqued when all you want to do is wallow in its beauty. So come bask with me in this emotional farewell’s most significant and sad moments.

Something Resembling Lemonade

“You’re as tough as they come, Rebecca Pearson.” Dr. Katowski’s words crack us open rather effortlessly as he revisits the sour tribulations of Rebecca’s life with that gentle, all-knowing tone.

Rebecca and the Doctor have always had such a sweet bond, and having her spend her final moments basking in his honest praise is bittersweet perfection. 

He beautifully describes the ways Rebecca survived, reminding us how much this woman weathered in her rise from most despised character to the beloved anchor of this series. She nearly died giving birth just to endure more loss, but her persistence has built a Pearson empire brimming with life.

We see as much when This Is Us cleverly includes a shot of the many Randalls and Kevins mingling together in the train car.

The train acting as a dream-like limbo could have proven corny, even gimmicky, but it allows the show to revisit cherished faces of the past and the many faces of the Big Three in such profound cinematic ways.

The Art of a Good Goodbye

Such a small part of this episode, the goodbye montage is a brief homage to Rebecca in this celebration of life. However, the farewell messages from Pearsons-by-marriage are too perfect not to mention.

Sophie compares Jack and Rebecca’s great love story to Kevin and hers. The sentiment is so pure, and she even acknowledges that true loves can take years to find each other again. you have to love a good foreshadowing.

Beth is perhaps the most powerful goodbye of the night despite how quietly her words go into the night.

She thanks Rebecca for showing her how to be the best mother she could be and tells her it’s okay to go; Beth Pearson has got it from here. The series passing the patriarch torch from Rebecca to Beth is the emotional cherry on top of this crumbling cake.

There are plenty of goodbyes left unsaid, but Nicky joking about choosing “very sad” straws and a perfectly-casted adult Deja revealing her and Malik are endgames softens the blow. And yes, Toby, that Phillip joke is pretty damn hilarious too!

The Cycle of Life

Perhaps the most emotional thread throughout this penultimate episode is about a family of absolute strangers.

We should know by now if we’re stranded in a hospital with no indication of the timeline, Jack Pearson is about to step into the frame and change everything.

It’s a great callback to the pilot twist that put This Is Us on the map, altering the trajectory of this farewell episode in bold ways.

The choice to throw in one last curveball with Jack on the night of the fire is brave, but it’s ultimately what this timeline-hopping show is about.

Not only does This Is Us return to the storytelling tools of its trade, but fans are rewarded with a new layer to Jack’s death. One that is entirely fresh but just as gut-wrenching and beautiful as the first “Superbowl Sunday” performance.

The concept that death isn’t deliberate in its irony is one This Is Us loves to paint a story with because death is so often cruel and unassuming.

Yet, every once in a while, something remarkable comes from that loss, and that is where this show stands to thrive.

That philosophical ponder is played out to perfection as the doctor rushes to save a flatlining child after seeing no change in Jack’s condition on the night of the big house fire, just for Jack’s heart to give out as Marcus’ heart starts beating again.

To have that boy go on to cure the very disease, Rebecca is suffering from is too beautiful a homage to Jack to despise for its neatness. Because somewhere, a cluster of siblings mock their family motto, some bizarre metaphor about sour lemons, all because Jack saw a father in desperate need of a Pearson grand gesture.

Talk about sweet, stinging irony. This Is Us, I will be sending you my therapy bill for this one. 

A Brotherly Bond

After years of watching Kevin and Randall nearly tear each other to pieces at every minor inconvenience, “The Train” gives us a look at their relationship as it stands today, unproblematic and beautifully unbothered.

We finally see the soft tenderness within every sibling relationship on full display as the two carry each other to the end of this painful loss.

Watching Kevin and Randall banter back and forth about the questionably-good painting of Kevins that Rebecca proudly displayed over her bed is such a huge milestone. Also, I will never get over Kevin and Randall choosing their mother’s death bed as the appropriate place to dissect all the weirdest aspects of this drama.

Between them realizing how strangely ripped Jack was for a dad in the nineties or the fact that everyone had a crush on their mom, there is only top-tier comedy to be had here.

It wouldn’t be a proper farewell to Mandy Moore’s powerhouse mother without acknowledging the absurdity of This Is Us.

A Happy Ending at Last

Regardless of how far we strayed from Jack and Rebecca’s love story in the later seasons, their reunion is the only way this episode could end.

This Is Us fans needed to know that these soulmates could still find their way back to each other after an unthinkable tragedy. And find each other they do as Rebecca reunites with Jack in the caboose of the train, the last stop on her farewell tour and the first word that Alzheimer’s had stolen.

Seeing Jack’s kind smile staring back at Rebecca is well worth the wait; knowing Rebecca’s time alone was necessary for forging a legendary character separate from her husband’s legacy.

Rebecca and Jack, Mandy and Milo. These two carried the drama series through the craziest of storytelling highs and the brutalist slumps of a sophomore story with in-human determination and extraordinary on-screen chemistry.

In one of the most unconventional happy endings on television, Rebecca finished what they started and found her way back to Jack Pearson. So we can all rest easy knowing the perfect ending to the perfect love story does, indeed, exist.

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The series finale of This Is Us airs Tuesday, May 24th at 9/8c on NBC.

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