The This Is Us Cast Has a Message for Fans Who Wanted More From the Finale

For a show with so many twists and turns, the series finale of This Is Us was surprisingly simple. And that was by design. After all, the gut-wrenching penultimate episode saw the Pearson family say goodbye to Rebecca (Mandy Moore) after her long battle with Alzheimer's. It was a tough watch—so for the finale, the show's creator, Dan Fogelman, went in the opposite direction. The episode zeroed in on a lazy day with Rebecca, Jack (Milo Ventimiglia), and the preteen-aged Big Three. We watched the family figure out how to spend a rare Saturday where they had no engagements, no plans, no anything. And by the end, we were reminded of why we fell in love with this show to begin with: its emphasis on family. 

Still, some fans may have expected more from the finale, but the cast says it hit all the right notes. "The end is just beautiful and full," Ventimiglia said during a roundtable discussion with EW. "It feels complete. It feels like there's no more room for anything else nor does it need anything else. It's just full." 

Mandy Moore echoed this sentiment, saying, "It's very simple, too. There's an elegance to its simplicity." 

But Susan Kelechi Watson (Beth) perhaps said it best for fans who wanted a more action-packed finale. "Dan ended it just as beautifully as he started it, which means so much," she said. "He didn't make it into something new in order to end it, like it had to feel spectacular. It was the same beauty he brought it in with, he took it out with. And it feels like we have really followed these people on a real journey that didn't necessarily have to be tied up with a bow, but just that we got to see them live their lives out." 

Stream the final episodes of This Is Us on Peacock now.