‘This Is Us’ EP Dan Fogelman Says ‘The Train’ Captured a ‘Full Circle’ Moment: Hopes Viewers Find Finale Episode ‘Beautiful and Hopeful’
This Is Us viewers took a journey through the last hours of Rebecca Pearson’s (Mandy Moore) life in “The Train.” The installment allowed the Pearson family matriarch and fans to find closure. This Is Us Executive Producer Dan Fogelman says the episode captured a “full circle” moment. He anticipates viewers will find the upcoming finale episode “beautiful and hopeful.”
‘This Is Us’ EP said ‘The Train’ episode ‘exceeded his expectations’
In an interview with People Magazine, the This Is Us EP said that the penultimate episode “exceeded his expectations.”
“Every time I get excited about a big [episode] and think I know what to expect, the actors always surprise me when I see it on a screen,” Fogelman explained.
“And the way our crew puts things together makes it all so seamless and beautiful. It always catches me a little off guard. Especially when I think I know exactly how it’s going to look and feel.
“The first time I saw it, as we started getting onto the train and Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) was starting to say her goodbye to Rebecca; I was starting to go, ‘Oh wow. This is about to start bubbling out of me,'” he continued.
Fogelman said he was pleased with how the pieces of the episode fell into place.
He believes This Is Us‘ “The Train” was “really effective, and it feels really special.”
Kate’s race to see Rebecca before she died was Fogelman’s farewell to a ‘complicated’ relationship in ‘The Train’
SHE MADE IT. 😭 #ThisIsUsFinalChapter pic.twitter.com/838dzxTrqU
— This Is Us (@NBCThisisUs) May 18, 2022
Ahead of the episode, This Is Us fans could not understand why Kate (Chrissy Metz) was not near Rebecca’s bedside during “The Train.”
However, Fogelman said this intentional twist showed the character heeded her mother’s advice.
Rebecca told her children to “take risks and make the big moves” and not allow her cognitive decline to stop their lives.
He told People Magazine, “I’ve always been so enamored with the relationship between Kate and Rebecca.”
“Their mother-daughter dynamic is equally fraught and complicated. In the later years of their lives, incredibly beautiful and simple,” Fogelman explained.
However, Fogelman always knew Kate would race to get to her mother’s bedside in time.
“She’s off doing something big and fantastic and fabulous. That was spurred on by her mother’s ‘Go live your life to the fullest’ speech,'” he explained.
“Now, that very thing may prevent her from being at her mother’s bedside as she passes. And then the fact that in our story, her mother can hold on until she gets there, it felt like a full-circle realization of their entire relationship.”
Fogelman calls the series finale ‘beautiful and hopeful’
As viewers prepare for the final episode of the NBC series, they can look forward to an installment that Fogelman calls “beautiful and hopeful.”
He spoke of the series’ legacy and what he hopes fans can take from six years living with the Pearson clan.
“I think this show hopefully will leave people with the feeling that, of course, has a little bit of melancholy in it because it’s about loss and time, but it’s also something beautiful that I think is captured and said at the end of it all, and I hope it speaks to people,” he explained.
“I’m excited and sad at the same time for the end, but I think it will be really good,” he concluded.
This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EST on NBC.
