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‘This Is Us’ Season 5 Episode 12: Will Uncle Nicky fight with Miguel for stealing Jack's place in Rebecca's life?

A promo shows Miguel and Uncle Nicky help Kevin with some wedding preparations

A beautiful proposal. A twist in the tale. And a wedding preparation. ‘This Is Us’ is all set to shower more surprises as it returns with a new episode titled ‘Both Things Can Be True’. In a sneak peek from the episode, we can see a man helping his best friend propose. In the present day, however, the winds of change have already blown. Miguel Rivas (Jon Huertas) is now married to his best friend's wife.

A promo shows Miguel and Uncle Nicky (Griffin Dunne) help Kevin (Justin Hartley) with some wedding preparations. As Kevin tries to draft an email to Randall (Sterling K Brown), Nicky and Miguel have a pinch of hatred seeping under their skin. If we judge Nicky's exasperated looks and body language, it's clear he hates how Miguel stole his brother Jack Pearson's (Milo Ventimiglia) place in the family.

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When Miguel suggests “small plates” for the rehearsal dinner menu, Nicky sneers. “So the plates they’re not really small; it’s basically a bunch of appetizers that add up to a full meal,” Miguel explains. “That way, people can help themselves.”

In a snarky response, Nicky mutters, “You’re no stranger to helping yourself to whatever you want...” under his breath. Nicky doesn't appreciate Miguel's presence in the Pearsons' life and seemingly doesn't even like the fact that he married Rebecca Pearson (Mandy Moore). No surprises there, ha! Will Nicky ever be able to let it go or will he always have resentment towards Miguel?

Igniting the feud in fans' minds, Sterling K Brown posted a picture of his father and best friend and wrote: “Real film print of the first man to ever steal his best friend’s girl.”

The picture brought back memories from the past and stirred a long debate about whether it is really Miguel's fault that he took Jack's place in Rebecca's life. “It's not Miguel's fault that after Jack died Rebecca looked around and spotted the only adult male in the vicinity and said ‘You'll do. Please don't interfere with my family's hero-worship of Jack from now until we're all dead too’,” one fan defended him and said.

“Mr Steal Your Girl. At least he waited for his friend to die first,” another posted. However, a third said, “Will never like Miguel for that. Or Rebecca. Best friends are off-limits forever.” What's more, one curious fan even went on to ask: “But will we ever see what happened in the days after Rebecca accepted his Facebook invite?”

But that's not all. On Reddit, one fan sparked a long thread with a tweet that read: “If we don't get Nicky calling out Miguel for marrying Rebecca after Jack died tonight, then what's the point?”

Soon, many fans couldn't help but go to bat against Nicky. “Why does everyone act like Miguel and Rebecca got married at Jack's funeral? They're adults. Her husband died. He was single. End of story. I'm sure Jack would be glad she found someone that treats her so well, one fan posted and another wrote, “And it was over 10 years after Jack died! Besides, Rebecca is an adult and married her former husband's best friend yet only Miguel gets treated like shit for it. It’s not like it happened within two years if Jack dying. Plus it’s clearly more out of companionship than a romantic relationship.”

But the debate didn't end there. “Would Rebecca be with Miguel if Jack hadn't died? No. Are they soulmates? I mean, no. Do they have a lot in common and take care of one another and sure it's different but still cute in its own way and do they even deserve happiness??? Yes!” one fan wrote. Another said, “Honestly, it’s none of Nicky’s business and it would make me like the character less if he tried to make it his business.”

A third said, “Miguel and Rebecca wanted to marry each other. Yes, it was somewhat unconventional. But neither was forced into it, so what was wrong with it? Why would Nicky even care about their marriage? Furthermore, as an alcoholic for so many years, he would hardly have any high moral ground to stand on.”

A fourth added, “Yeah, it kind of seems like a weird little snippet to me, for them to be indicating that Nicky has a problem with Rebecca and Miguel together. He never knew Jack and Rebecca as a couple, together. It seems weird to have such a strong opinion about something that you don’t know the history of.”

“I’m not even sure it’s that unconventional! It makes sense to me that people grow close when they bond over shared grief, and I know more than one case where something like this happened in real life. If they had hooked up immediately then I agree that’s in bad taste, but that’s not what happened at all. I have to assume these comments about what a horrible person Rebecca is (and Miguel is) for having the nerve to love again aren’t being made by adults,” one fan said.

Written by Daniel Bauman and directed by Chris Koch, the beautiful episode might unravel secrets from the past. Dan Fogelman, Isaac Aptaker, Elizabeth Berger, John Requa, Glenn Ficarra, Ken Olin, Charlie Gogolak, Jess Rosenthal and Steve Beers executive produce. What do you think will happen and do you really feel it is right to blame Miguel for marrying Rebecca after Jack's death? 

‘This Is Us’ premiered on Tuesday at 9 pm ET on NBC after the mid-season winter break with Episode 5 titled ‘A Long Road Home’ on January 5, 2021. There will be a one-week break before Episode 12 titled ‘Both Things Can Be True’ is televised on April 6, 2021, at 9 pm ET.

The episode will be able to stream on Hulu the next day, on April 7, 2021. Binge-watch Season 5 episodes on NBC.com and the NBC App. Not just that, you can stream old seasons on Amazon Prime too.