Why Isn’t ‘This Is Us’ on TV Tonight?

(Photo by: Ron Batzdorff/NBC) Sterling K. Brown.

Unfortunately for all you This Is Us fans out there, the show is on its winter hiatus, meaning a new episode will not air on TV tonight.

The most recent episode of the series aired November 27, and another will not air until January 15, 2019. This winter hiatus happens each year, and the next episode that will air is the 10th episode of season 3.

What did we learn from the cliffhanger leading us into the second half of the season? In the last episode, we learned that Jack Pearson’s brother Nicky, played by Michael Angarano, is not really dead. He did not die in Vietnam as we all presumed. Instead, he’s living in Pennsylvania.

According to an interview with co-showrunner Isaac Aptaker, the show will pick up right there, with Kevin trying to get answers from Nicky. And while that was certainly a big reveal, a number of questions remain. Who, for one, is the Mystery Village Woman? What do we need to know about her? And are Beth and Randall okay? Are they headed for splitsville?

In the final moments of the episode, viewers learned that the mysterious “her” is, in fact, Rebecca, and that Kate and Toby are expecting a boy.

In a recent interview with Dan Fogelman, the showrunner discussed the many twists and turns of season 3. Asked what the deal with Uncle Nicky is, Vanity Fair wrote, “When asked what, exactly, Nicky has been up to—and whether he’s been in hiding this whole time—Fogelman demurred that the story is ‘complicated.’ (No kidding.) But he did say that we’ll learn what happened between Nicky and Jack very quickly upon the show’s return in January. ‘There’s a lot more to be told, and it’s coming very soon,’ Fogelman said. But don’t think that means we’ll necessarily know all the answers by the end of the season: ‘I’m just saying the big mystery questions are answered pretty quickly.'”

While Fogelman wouldn’t give up the answer to whether or not Beth and Randall are donezo in the future, he was asked did Randall screw things up with her for good with his campaigning. Fogelman answered, “I will say that Randall and Beth, and Sterling and Susan, have some heavy-duty stuff coming up in the back half of this season, which I’ve already read, written, and seen… The couple has been incredible throughout the series, and they’re a couple that people have really taken to. The back half of the season is a real showcase for them.”