The following contains spoilers for This Is Us, Season 6, Episode 16, "Family Meeting," which aired Tuesday, May 10 on NBC.
This Is Us has always been an ensemble series that spent time exploring the lives of the Pearson family and their various connections. Diplomatically, the show dives into each of the characters' lives, as well as their emotional journeys. However, in Season 6, Episode 16, "Family Meeting," the series finally reveals the true central protagonist during its final season. Rebecca Pearson is the true main character of the show and without her, the show does not work or frankly even exist.
In the latest episode, This Is Us highlights the deep impact Rebecca has had on the lives of her children, and how her influence has helped to guide and build them into the adults they grow to be. She raised three strong, wonderful children who all go on to have full lives of their own with their own families, who in turn go on to have their own lives. She is the crucial piece of that family tree. In the early years it seemed like the series was more focused on Jack Pearson and his relationships to his family and friends when he was alive, and then their relationship to his memory after his death. However, that is an incomplete view of the overall story that's now being revealed in the final season of the series.
Jack is obviously an important figure in the Pearson family mythology, but even his story is grounded and centered around his relationship with Rebecca. He grows into his potential when he's with her, and their relationship is as fundamental to his character as anything else, if not more so. She inspires him to get sober, to get a better job, and to be the Jack Pearson everyone fell in love with. She also gets to be a character outside their relationship, which shows that Jack is more defined by his role as a husband than she is defined by her role as a wife. She's not even defined solely in the role of a widow, or as a second wife to Miguel. Other characters are more defined by their relationship to her to progress the story forward.
This is not an argument about who is the best character in the series. Most fans of the show have their own identified favorite character for a variety of reasons. This is an argument about who is the most crucial to the overall story. Without Rebecca, The Big Three don't exist. Yes, Jack is the one who finds Randall and brings him into the family, but Rebecca is the one who makes him a true son, a true sibling, for better and for worse.
She's not always the hero in every stage of her children's lives, but her actions directly inform how those children turn out. Rebecca admits that Kevin was a difficult child and that their relationship was strained as a result of that, and she kept William out of Randall's life. Neither of these examples of her parenting are particularly heroic or admirable, but both Kevin and Randall still believe her to be an exceptional mother because she and her influence are more than her lowest moments.
Rebecca Pearson is the main character of This Is Us and that has been confirmed in the most recent episode of the final season. It has taken so long for the show to properly identify a main character because it has done such a detailed and complex exploration into the entire family. In doing so, the reveal of the true main character is more of a slow rollout, which unveils Rebecca as the most crucial character to the entire plot of the series.
Catch the final two episodes of This Is Us, Tuesdays on NBC.