Recap: 'This Is Us' takes a drive through family life with Jack Pearson

USA TODAY

Rebecca (Mandy Moore) is behind the wheel in Tuesday's aptly titled 'This Is Us' episode: 'The Car.'

Spoiler alert: This story contains significant details from Tuesday's episode of NBC's This Is Us.

This Is Us slowed down the pace Tuesday, making pit stops in family man Jack Pearson's life in the follow-up to Sunday's intense episode that spelled out the details of his death.

The literal narrative vehicle is a Jeep Grand Wagoneer that Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) buys in the early 1990s when his kids, the Big Three, are 10. He can't afford it but he wants it so his family can "be OK." And he gets it because Jack is so good he can even outsell a car salesman.

The SUV becomes the centerpiece of the episode, as each of Jack's loved ones has an experience, via flashback, with the Pearson patriarch, with many more family driving scenes sprinkled in during the hour.

'The Car,' runs on two timelines, when the kids are 10 and when they're 17 (the adult Big Three get the week off).

More:Where does 'This Is Us' go after the big reveal about Jack's death? We have the scoop

The little Big Three, Randall (Lonnie Chavis), left, Kate (Mackenzie Hancsicsak) and Kevin (Parker Bates), play in the Pearson family car during Tuesday's episode of 'This Is Us.'

The SUV and Jack make frequent appearances throughout the hour, as the family heads to a "Weird Al" Yankovic concert; Jack drives truant Kate (Hannah Zeile) to an Alanis Morissette record signing while he touts the mastery of Bruce Springsteen; and Jack gives Randall (NIles Fitch) a driving lesson that nearly ends in disaster when the teen fights with his backseat bickering brother, Kevin (Logan Shroyer).

The main story picks up just after events of Sunday's much-talked-about post-Super Bowl episode, which revealed that Jack died of cardiac arrest caused by smoke he inhaled during the heroic rescue of his wife, children and dog from the family's burning house.

Grieving Rebecca (Mandy Moore) drives her 17-year-old children to Jack's funeral at the start of the episode. All seem raw and still in shock over the loss of the family's reliable anchor, with Kevin and Randall fighting and Kate blaming herself for her father's death because he took in more smoke rescuing her dog.

In the most touching scene, a distraught Rebecca, sitting outside the funeral reception, gets comfort and strength when she sees a friendly face, Dr. Katowski (Gerald McRaney), who delivered her children.

Viewers may have learned the details of his death Sunday, but Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia) is not going to recede as a presence on NBC's 'This Is Us.'

He bolsters the young widow, who feels lost looking ahead without the man who seemed to have the confidence and ability to handle anything.

She remembers what the physician told the couple when one of their triplets died: "I know. Take the sourest lemons and make something resembling lemonade, right?"

Katowski corrects her: "You didn't just make something resembling lemonade, dear. You made one of the sweetest damn pitchers of lemonade I ever saw, so don't you try to sell me on what you can't do."

In an emotional but funny flashback, viewers learn that Jacks' favorite tree, the one where adult Kevin sought to make amends to his dad on the 20th anniversary of his death, was actually part of a ruse to keep Rebecca from worrying too much about a possible cancer diagnosis in the 1990s.

After she's paged and calls the hospital to learn that it isn't cancer, Jack reveals he picked the tree because it was the closest one to a pay phone.

Randall Pearson (Niles Fitch) and his teenage siblings feel the effects of their father's death in NBC's 'This Is Us.'

Near the end of the episode, Rebecca, strengthened by her talk with Dr. Katowski, takes her kids and the urn with Jack's ashes to the tree. She tells the boys they don't have to try to be the men of the house and she tries, unsuccessfully, to convince Kate that she isn't responsible for Jack's death.

After spreading some ashes, the kids give Rebecca some space and she looks toward the sky.

"We're going to be OK, babe," she says. "I promise you, we're going to be OK."

Although the show sometimes pushes a bit hard to find a hopeful conclusion in a tight, broadcast TV hour, 'The Car' ends on the right note.

This Is Us will take a break during NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics, returning Feb. 27 for the first of Season 2's final three episodes.

Although Jack may be gone in one way, the teaser for coming episodes and future seasons reminded viewers that "Jack's story has just begun," before ending with a shot of him dressed for combat flying in a helicopter in Vietnam.