{"id":282565,"date":"2023-06-26T00:00:30","date_gmt":"2023-06-26T04:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tvobsessive.com\/?p=282565"},"modified":"2023-06-25T17:12:05","modified_gmt":"2023-06-25T21:12:05","slug":"this-is-us-the-train-explores-the-act-of-dying-in-a-beautiful-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tvobsessive.com\/2023\/06\/26\/this-is-us-the-train-explores-the-act-of-dying-in-a-beautiful-way\/","title":{"rendered":"This Is Us: “The Train” Explores the Act of Dying in a Beautiful Way"},"content":{"rendered":"
The following contains spoilers for This is Us<\/strong>, \u201cThe Train\u201d (written by Dan Fogelman, Jon Dorsey, & Danielle Bauman and directed by Ken Olin)<\/em><\/p>\n When I was younger and would watch TV with my mom, she would cry for anything, and I mean anything. Toilet paper commercials could bring a tear to her eye, and I would enjoy making fun of her for it. “Wait until you get older, you’ll see,” she would tell me every time. I got older and remained stone-cold. That is until This Is Us<\/em> came along.<\/p>\n If I could force the whole world to watch this series, I would. It is, and I mean this, the best show I have ever seen. The writing is superb, the narrative made sense, and they knew how to fuck with your emotions. I can go on and on but I won’t. My purpose here is to talk about the penultimate episode of the series, “The Train.”<\/p>\n This is one of those episodes you could watch without having seen the rest of the show, and it will gut you all the same, especially if you have experienced loss in your life.<\/p>\n Rebecca Pearson (Mandy Moore) is the matriarch of the Pearson family. The series long portrayed Jack (Milo Ventimiglia), Rebecca’s husband, as the glue that held the family together. After they were married, Rebecca got pregnant with triplets. Tragically, one of the triplets died during childbirth. Serendipitously, Jack and Rebecca adopted another baby born the same day and that made “The Big 3” Kate, Kevin, and Randall.<\/p>\n Jack dies when they are in high school. This alters their paths and who they become later in life. The show ran 6 seasons, and most of them were spent illuminating Jack and how special he was to the family. It was only in the later episodes that we started to understand that Rebecca was the one who held it all together and how special she truly was.<\/p>\n The realization makes it all the more devastating for her children and the viewers to see her decline in health due to Alzheimer’s. “The Train” takes place as Rebecca is at home in bed, actively dying. Her family are there and take turns sitting with her at her bedside. While they are doing that, Rebecca subconsciously finds herself on a train.<\/p>\n The Train is a sort of representation of her life. She is staring out of the window when she mentions that her dad always wanted to take her on a train like this. She looks up to see William (Randall’s real father who also died). He acts as a guide of sorts and asks her to accompany him to the bar, but she insists she is waiting for someone. Presumably, it is Jack.<\/p>\n William explains that they don’t have a lot of time and asks her to follow. As they go through the cars, she hears Beth (Randall’s wife) on the intercom. Simultaneously, Beth is by her bedside expressing her love and gratitude. Rebecca then sees a teen Beth sitting on the train.<\/p>\n No matter what religion you are or your thoughts on spirituality, you can look at this and truly envision that this would be how it all happens as you are crossing the life\/death threshold. Doctors tell us that even though our loved ones aren’t awake, they can still hear us. I think this was a beautiful way to portray that.<\/p>\n
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