‘This Is Us’ Creator Dan Fogelman Breaks Down Emotional Penultimate Episode, Its Surprise Twist & Cameos And Teases Series Finale – Video Q&A - Deadline

The flash-forward scene This Is Us fans have been looking forward to — and dreading — for years played out tonight, with The Pearsons and their families gathering at Kevin’s house to say their final goodbyes to Rebecca on her death bed.

Running parallel to Rebecca’s final hours, a younger version of her found herself on a train, a nice throwback to the “Caboose” episode earlier this season and flashbacks to her train rides with her dad decades ago.

The dad Kenny, played by Dulé Hill, lost control of the family car and one of the sons, Marcus, was taken to the hospital in critical condition.

As young Rebecca and William walked through the train, with some memorable This Is Us moments playing out around her, including Jack and young Randall’s Karate class scene, the two reached the caboose.

As her younger version entered the caboose, which was set up as a bedroom, Randall in real life whispered in dying Rebecca’s ear, “You tell him ‘hey.'” Rebecca squeezed his hand as if to confirm she heard him, and moments later, young Rebecca lied down on the bed on the train, turned around to see young Jack and told him, “hey.”.

In the first part of his video interview (you can watch it above), Fogelman speaks about filming that final scene, which required a reshoot, as well as the entire emotional episode.

During the conversation, Fogelman also gets personal, speaking about how losing his mom suddenly, without being able to say a proper goodbye, influenced writing the scene in which the Big Three spoke to Rebecca for the last time.

The show intentionally resolved all major mysteries ahead of time “so people can sit with the family in the final episode in the simplest of way,” Fogelman said