Milo Ventimiglia revealed his one regret about Jack's story on "This Is Us ," other than Jack's death.- At a
PaleyFest panel, he said it "broke my heart" that Jack never reconciled with his brother Nicky.
"This Is Us" star Milo Ventimiglia got honest about the regrets he has for Jack Pearson at a PaleyFest panel discussion with the cast in Los Angeles on Saturday.
Asked at the event if he would change anything about Jack other than his death, he mentioned the relationship between Jack and his little brother, Nicky.
"I was always really deeply saddened by the fact that he couldn't come together with his own brother," Ventimiglia said at the panel, attended by Insider. "Knowing how close his boys are, and by extension their family, that just kind of broke my heart."
Fans of "This Is Us" know that Jack always protected Nicky growing up, keeping the boy safe from their alcoholic father and following him to Vietnam when Nicky was drafted.
Sadly, the brothers had a fight in Vietnam that they never recovered from. Jack thought Nicky (played by Michael Angarano as a young man) purposefully killed a boy named Lanh (Tan Ly) in the village where they were stationed during a fishing accident. While stoned, Nicky had previously expressed animosity towards even the women and young children in the village.
Viewers know that in reality, Nicky was just using a dangerous method to fish with Lanh that involved throwing grenades in the water. The two were bonding, but when the pin of a grenade was pulled early, their language barrier prevented Nicky from telling the boy to jump in time. Nicky jumped at the last minute, but Lanh remained on the boat and was killed.
Jack, who had only seen Nicky's hatred toward Vietnamese children, died years later still thinking his brother had malicious intent. Even when they saw each other after the war in the '80s, the truth was never clear for Jack, who had told his wife and kids that Nicky died in the war.
Ventimiglia said at PaleyFest that it's heartening to watch "the Pearsons now embracing Nicky and Nicky coming to life and changing when he was so deeply rooted in that dissolution and just complete shattered life" that the boys grew up in.
The "Gilmore Girls" star said that though Jack's love story with his wife Rebecca (Mandy Moore) was "cut short," she at least went on to have a "wonderful" life. Though Nicky (played as an older man by Griffin Dunne) has found love in his later years, his journey to happiness has taken longer, so it's more bittersweet.
The final season of "This Is Us" airs Tuesdays at a 9 p.m. ET on