The Magnificent Seven Season 2 Episode 5

The producers of This Is Usa hinted awhile back that we'd be spending a lot of time with Jack in Vietnam this flavor, and tonight's grueling episode certainly fabricated adept on that promise. Spotlighting Milo Ventimiglia and set entirely in the by, "Vietnam" finally begins to make full in some gaps when it comes to Jack'southward war machine service, and his human relationship with his brother Nicky. There was a lot to process, so here are six key things you might have missed.

1. The soldier who loses his foot was the man Kevin emailed at the end of final week's episode.

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Kevin contacted a man named "Mr. Robinson" last calendar week, asking for data about Jack. Tonight, we met the young Don Robinson (Mo McRae), a soldier who served alongside Jack in Vietnam and shared a rapport with him alongside some good-natured rivalry. Equally soon as Don started talking about his mail-Vietnam dreams of playing major league baseball, you had to know something atrocious was coming and we're not sure nosotros'll always recover from the sight of Jack handing Don his own severed pes.

2. The wounded soldier Jack was property in the season premiere wasn't Nicky.

When Rebecca asks Jack about the state of war on their start date and he downplays how awful information technology was by telling her he was 'merely a mechanic," we saw a quick glimpse of a bloodied Jack holding someone in his arms. Since the shot came correct before he mentioned Nicky, a lot of viewers assumed nosotros were seeing a glimpse of the brother's death scene. Simply this episode includes the full version of that moment, which sees Jack cradling Don afterwards he loses his human foot. Meaning we take no idea at all how Nicky will die, or whether Jack will be at that place with him when he does, or fifty-fifty whether he'south actually dead. If there'southward one affair This Is Us has taught us, information technology'southward to question everything!

3. It was Don who taught Jack how to breathe.

One of the most touching recurring motifs throughout the show has been Jack teaching Randall how to exhale through his panic attacks—remember the gut-wrenching scene when Randall did the same for William in his dying moments? Unsurprisingly, Jack did non acquire that technique from his own father. Instead, he learned it from Don, who (despite having just lost a limb) takes a moment to comfort Jack every bit he'southward about to be medically evacuated.

"You lot're scared, Pearson," Don tells Jack, asking if he ever gets tired of acting similar he'southward not. "I've been pretending my whole life," Jack admits. In response, Don puts a hand on the side of Jack's confront and tells him to exhale, telling him "sometimes nosotros're then scared that we're gonna die, we forget to practise the thing that keeps us alive." Jack clearly carried this with him, and years afterwards he taught information technology to his son. This was then emotional!

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4. Jack was non drafted, merely voluntarily enlisted to be with Nicky.

Did non see this coming! Jack had a medical exemption that meant he avoided the draft (more on that in a 2nd), but Nicky's number came upwards. Jack has always been incredibly protective of his little brother—Nicky only half-ironically refers to himself as "Lois Lane" to Jack'due south Superman—so immediately comes upwardly with a plan to become Nicky to Canada to avoid going to war. But en route, Nicky slips out of their motel room in the middle of the night, leaving a note that explains he's not going to flee the draft. "It's my turn to save the twenty-four hours," he writes.

But Nicky does still demand saving, at least every bit far as Jack'south concerned. A letter of the alphabet arrives from Nicky indicating that he's not doing well in Vietnam—he's been disciplined, and writes worrying phrases like "I know I'm non getting out of this place alive"—and then Jack has to go and find him. "I simply demand to be where he is, fifty-fifty if I can't become to him," he tells his doctor. "Even if I can't do annihilation for him, I just demand to exist there. He'southward my little brother. It'due south my job to have care of him."

5. Jack had a long history of center problems before his sudden death.

As we all know painfully well past now, it wasn't the firm fire that direct killed Jack, but a eye attack caused by fume inhalation. And as it turns out, there were alarm signs. Jack has had tachycardia (an abnormally fast middle charge per unit) always since his childhood, and it was severe enough to exempt him from the draft. Jack downplays the condition as "harmless" when he decides to enlist, but his doctor is clearly concerned.

half-dozen. Jack'southward father wasn't always a monster.

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This was a pleasant surprise, considering Stanley Pearson has been a pretty one-note villain throughout nigh of the show. On the 1 hand, this episode offered a lot more painful details of just how abusive hie was to his wife and children, making it articulate that his violence is a big role of why Jack is so protective of Nicky. In that location's also a roughshod scene in which Marilyn, Jack and Nicky'due south mom, greeted the mailman with a very visible bruise over her eye.

"He wasn't ever similar this," Marilyn tells her sons, after they both intervene to physically protect her from Stanley. And it'southward true: In a flashback to the twenty-four hour period Nicky was born, Stanley is sweet and supportive, offering fatherly communication to Jack in the waiting room. The appearance of Stanley's own father, flask in hand, does hint at some of his demons—nevertheless, you take to wonder what on earth happened over the side by side two decades to transform him into such an awful homo. Guess we'll accept to expect to find out!