Dear This Is Us,

You must know it (because everyone tells you), but you just have this way of always hitting it absolutely dead-center, out-of-the-park in the way you capture family life and basic human experiences. Your talent is so beyond that I would stand and cheer if I wasn’t already grabbing a dish towel to dry my many, many tears. And, per usual, as I watched (and rewatched) the Season 2 finale, my face was a lake of tears, because yet again you did your thing, helping us feel the moments we already know but maybe can’t hang words on. Moments that we’ve lived by still don’t feel quite real to, moments that we’ve thought about and don’t know how we’ll handle, moments that somehow by showing us what they can look like, bring comfort. With your nuance, honesty, wit and realness, you made the the finale into, truly, a work of art. Here are my favorite parts:

1. How everyone kept calling Kate “Katie Girl” like her dad always did. I’m sure at 37, she’s rarely called that (if ever since her dad died), but the way they said it — so tender and kind — man, she must have felt so loved.
2. I love how Randall and Kevin took on all the wedding planning for #KaToby to DefCon1 level of seriousness. They love their sister and wanted to do their dad proud.
3. How Kate’s dream flash forward gave us what everyone who’s lost someone they love too early dreams of: the chance to see what it would be like to have them there on those special days, to know what they would look like with more years on, what they would say in their toast, how they would hug you. You showed the thing we hide away in our hearts.
4. I am still moved by how Jack wasn’t there physically there, but was 100 percent in every moment, every inch of the day, their hearts and minds. Those we love who we’ve also lost are always with us, especially on big, beautiful days. There’s a throbbing ache and there’s unbelievable gratefulness. I love that they depicted it the way they did — a mix of emotions instead of denying the reality of grief: that it disappears over time.
5. How we finally(f!) got that moment between Rebecca and Kate where Kate said “You’re not in the way, you are the way.”
6. I can’t get over the omission of Toby in Kate’s dreams. It makes so much sense to me that they would keep him out of it. To me, he’s not there because if Jack had lived, I don’t think Kate’s life would have gone the way it has. As absolutely painful and life-altering as the aftermath of her dad’s death was, it has brought Kate to where she now is in life. His death didn’t cause her to meet Toby, but beauty can come from ashes, life comes from death, hope comes after hurting, healing comes after great loss.
7. Y’all, when the big three plus their mom had a sacred moment right in front of  everyone in the middle of Kevin’s toast. Taking those deep breaths, they made me weepy! The power that can come from just admitting a struggle — it’s like the act of simply calling it out frees you. Naming it somehow brings about a milestone moment that shifts things forever, loosening the struggles grip on us and allowing us to walk far enough way to see it with greater clarity.
8. How Kate chased down all the spots she and her dad had shared, and how she ended up at that same stump and sat there talking with him. Ohh, my heart.
9. How dancing is always the answer to a wedding celebration and speeches from the people who love you deeply are truly the best. I’m a sucker for a good toast.
10. And finally This Is Us, it was how you pulled us in. This family, the way they imperfectly and bravely and sometimes totally messed-uply deal with disappointment, challenges, death, joy, dad jokes, friendship, siblinghood, family, hurt, loss and more. Oh my heart.

Thank you for making art. Thank you for taking what life has given you – the beautiful, the heartbreaking, the questions that don’t have answers, the joy, the celebration and the people that matter most – and writing a story that can speak to us all.

 

Already waiting for Season 3 to start,

Caitlin