‘This Is Us’ Recap: Season 6, Episode 15 — ‘Miguel’

This week, This Is Us viewers finally got the Miguel backstory episode they’ve been hearing for years was in the works.

And not only does the hour chronicle Miguel’s past, it also witnesses his passing: Jon Huertas’ character dies at the end of the hour. (For a statement from Huertas, click here.)

Read on for the highlights of “Miguel.”

A TOUGH MOVE | In flashbacks to Miguel’s childhood, we learn that his family moved to Pennsylvania to live with a cousin after Miguel’s father couldn’t find work in their native Puerto Rico. He wound up doing landscaping, and during one job at a well-off white family’s house, young Miguel went into the home to use the bathroom but got distracted by a baseball game on TV. The man of the house invited Miguel to watch Roberto Clemente and the Pirates play, then asked if the boy had been to a game yet. Miguel said no, but that he’d be happy to sit anywhere in the park in order to watch Clemente do his thing. The home owner corrects him: “Son, where you sit is all that matters.”

MIGUEL MAKES IT |Then, we get snippets from Miguel’s life as a young adult. He lands the job at the construction firm where he and Jack eventually work, but he only gets an interview when he submits his resume under the name “Mike Rivers” — because the multiple attempts he made to apply under his true name, Miguel Rivas, “never got a call back,” he points out to the boss, Mr. Lundy.

Miguel’s professional success irks his parents, and what starts out as a happy Christmas visit ends badly. His folks don’t like that their son has straightened his curls because “I’m not trying to look like I just flew in from San Juan, Mami.” Miguel can’t understand why his father, in particular, is angry about the new car he just bought or his offer to help pay for the constant nursing his aunt — who had a stroke in her 20s — needs. “Why is it so hard for you to watch me make something of myself in this place, in this place that you brought us to?” Miguel asks, hurt, and his father doesn’t have a good answer. Miguel leaves in anger.

THE BALLAD OF MIGUEL AND REBECCA | Flashes of Miguel’s life with Jack, Rebecca and Shelly follow. We watch Jack engineer a bar hangout so that Miguel and Rebecca, who don’t like each other much at first, are forced to get to know each other better. Then Miguel meets Shelly, they get engaged, they bring their first child, Andy, home from the hospital. Things turn less happy. Mr. and Mrs. Rivas argue while Andy and his younger sister, Amber, watch from the stairs.

The story jumps ahead. As we know, Miguel tearfully says goodbye to Rebecca just as they’re realizing they’re more than friends. His relationship with his children suffers more after his move to Houston. In 2008, he gets a call from his mother that his father has died. After the funeral, his mother reassures him that his father “died proud of you. He’d want you to know that.” And after Miguel marvels at how his elderly mother still provides much of the physically taxing care for her sister, she says, “Love is giving your heart without expectation.” He says he’s lost, and she reassures him that he will find his way — and someone to love.

One night, after seeing Beth’s Facebook post about baby Tessa (and Rebecca’s tagging within), he direct-messages her. Their relationship builds to long, frequent phone calls, and then they have dinner while he’s in Pennsylvania for work. Though the interaction is a little awkward at first, Miguel quickly (VERY quickly, right?!) cuts to what he’s been waiting to say. “I’ve never felt at home anywhere. And if I’m being honest, the first time that I ever felt homesick in my life was when I left you on that porch.” Rebecca smiles, gets up from her seat, sits next to him, and kisses him. “It’s really nice to see you again,” she says.

He retires and returns to Pennsylvania. They move in together, but their plan to ease the kids into this new knowledge at Thanksgiving is thwarted when Randall, Beth, Kevin and Kate walk in on their mom and Miguel kissing in the cabin kitchen. Though everyone is freaked at first, Randall and Kate eventually become OK with the idea. Kevin, as we know from the show’s first season, is not — especially when Miguel announces that he’s in love with Rebecca.

FALL RISK | The present-day portion of the episode takes place with Miguel and Rebecca living in the home Kevin built for them. Based on that, and Rebecca’s general state of being, I’m guessing that we’re in the era not too long after Kate and Philip’s wedding. Miguel wakes at 5:30 every morning, gets his and her medications sorted, and is ready and waiting for Rebecca when she wakes up around 6:45. We see bits and pieces of Miguel’s doctor’s visits: He’s had a hip replaced, he has high blood pressure, and he’s been experiencing shortness of breath during exercise. Still, he maintains to the…