This Is Us – Vietnam

By: Maddie Ruby

If Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia) is your favorite character on “This Is Us,” I bet you were glued to the screen watching episode Vietnam. This episode revolves around our dear Jack and the life of his younger brother Nicky Pearson (Michael Angarano) in the Vietnam war. It goes in reverse order from their time in Vietnam all the way to the day Nicky was born, using flashbacks leading up to the war and from when the Pearson boys were kids.

This episode is one that answers a lot of our questions and gives the most background detail we have seen in this season so far. That said, it has by far been the episode to watch of the season. In this episode we see more of how Jack progressed into who he is (or was?) as a man and a father, a possible hint at a more in-depth reasoning of his death, and a different version of his father, Stanley (Peter Onorati).

We start with Jack in Vietnam, finally visiting his brother for the first time in what looks like forever. The episode then flashes back to three weeks earlier before we even have a chance to see Nicky’s face. Jack is a Sergeant leading his unit in a different location than Nicky is stationed and is just feeling the aftermath of a late-night ambush that leaves one of his men dead and one injured. The injured man (Mo McRae) is left without one foot. He seems to be the closest friend Jack has in the war and could very well possibly be the man Kevin (Justin Hartley) emailed in last week’s episode. I guess we will find that out eventually, but back onto Jack’s story. Soon after, Jack’s unit gets reassigned to a safer environment, which is closer to Nicky so Jack nearly must get on his knees and beg for permission from his commanding officer (Scott Michael Campbell) to go see his baby brother.

In a separate flashback, we see the Pearson family receive a letter from Nicky. In the letter we find out that Nicky has been downgraded to Article 15 in the Army, which means he’s been demoted in rank due to “reckless endangerment” and he is depressed. He doesn’t believe he will survive the war or see his family again. This is what leads Jack to decide he needs to go into the war. He tells his family doctor his plans to enlist, even though he was excused from the draft because of his irregular, fast heartbeat. Hmm. So, Jack has always had a bad heart? Interesting. We will keep that in mind. Anyway, he wants to save Nicky from dying in the war so badly that he convinces his doctor to help him fake his way through the military’s medical testing and enlist in the war.

We then travel further back to the day of the draft lottery, where obviously Nick’s number has been called. We get to see who Nicky really is during this flashback. You can tell how nervous sweet Nicky is and it is honestly sad because the whole family is telling him how he is the lucky one and that his number won’t get called. But, alas, we know the truth and that poor Nick’s number will undeniably get called for the draft. (The draft was conducted using birthday dates of men ages 21 through 25). As Jack and Nick sit in a bar with a silent crowd praying Nick’s number doesn’t get called, you can almost feel the fear and anxiety they are filled with just by seeing the looks on their faces – and the heartbreak when Nick’s birthday – October 18^th – gets called.

Don’t worry Nicky, Jack (of course) has a plan. His plan is to head to the Canadian border, without telling their family, and let his brother flee the country. Naturally, we know this trip doesn’t progress any further and an unsure Nick abandons Jack at a motel and returns home to go serve his country like he has been called to do.

Another flashback later shows the boys as children. Jack is outside with a football and little Nicky with his book. You can see even at this young age how protective Jack is of his little brother, something we will later see he was taught to do by his dad. Not only is Jack protective of Nicky, but of his mother Marilyn (Laura Niemi), too. When her and Stanley get in a late-night fight, Nick tries to come to the rescue, but it is Jack that backs him up and really makes Stanley stand down. The boys run and hug their mother as we hear Stanley mutter something along the lines of, “You three are truly made for each other.”  Marilyn thinks about how their father wasn’t always this way.

As it turns out, Marilyn was right and that we see a completely different Stanley then the one we have gotten to know and hate. The episode comes full circle to the flashback of the night Nicky was born. We see the youngest version of Jack we’ve seen so far and a friendly, affectionate and number one dad type Stanley. He is a sober, proud family man and ready for his second son to be born. Suddenly, we see alcoholism runs in the family when Stanley’s own father shows up drunk and clearly not caring about much. Thank God that it never reached that bad of a level with Jack. Finally, baby Nicky is born at 11:58 p.m. on October 18^th. Two more minutes and he may have never been drafted and maybe at least one of the Pearson boys would live on. A touching scene ends this flashback with Stanley pointing out that all the babies in the infant nursey with Nick share the same birthday and their names and birthdates being zoomed in on.

The last few seconds of the episode we return to the opening scene where we get a glimpse of Nick in all his Vietnam glory and tragedy. That is until the scene cuts black, leaving us to wonder what transpired until the next episode.