This Is Us' Jack Damon Flash-Forward: Your Frame-By-Frame Guide To Every Clue

TVLine turns our investigative gaze upon This Is Us' little Jack Damon, who's not even a year old yet but who is already — thanks to the aforementioned time-jump device — a confirmed rockstar.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

At first, we have no idea who this barenaked man and his dog are, nor why we're in his apartment, which is littered with empty liquor bottles.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

He winces at the sunlight, makes himself some scrambled eggs and bacon...

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

... and accidentally drops his plate when the dog paws at it. "Sammy, stay away," he says, keeping the pup from the ceramic shards.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

From the way he feels for the pieces of the dish and the way he looks up, it becomes clear: The man is blind (as is Blake Stadnik, the actor who portrays him). 

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

The man goes to a diner, where a waitress approaches and asks if she can help him. "Oh my God, why did you do that? Why would you do that?" he shouts.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

As she sputters an apology, he starts laughing. The guy's got jokes! Not amazing jokes, but jokes nonetheless!

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

He learns her name is Lucy, and he asks her to sit with him.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

She does.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

He says he's got a hangover resulting from the drinking he did "because last night I was writing a song and I realized I completely suck and I'm going to play in cocktail lounges and country clubs the rest of my life." (Btw, he's a musician.)

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

(We also learn that he can see some light and "really, really blurry shapes, but nothing clearly.") When he asks Lucy to describe the diner where she works, she reveals that she's got dreams, too. "It's not what I would open — I'm a chef, or I want to be a chef, I would say — but it's warm here, you know?"

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

"May I?" he asks, reaching for her hand.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

"Sure," she says, slipping her palm into his.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

"Damn," he says, awestruck, a moment later. "I think I'll have another cup of coffee."

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

When he gets home from breakfast, the man starts noodling around on his keyboard. Looks like someone's been inspired!

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

Next, we see some key moments as their romantic relationship progresses...

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

... including what seems like their first time in bed...

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

(Sammy, your dirty dog, look away!)

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

... and some hangout time at the apartment. (Notice how much bigger the dog is, marking the passage of time)

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

Then a very fancy Sammy wakes Lucy up one morning with a Tiffany's bag hanging from his mouth.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

What's this? her face seems to say. Yep: The man — whose name we still don't know — is proposing.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

After she says yes, they embrace, and the camera pans to the framed broken plate, withouth which none of this would have been possible.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

At another time, they're in a car. The man thanks Lucy for coming with him. "I know how boring this is for you."

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

She says she's tired, and he thinks it's because they're in the process of getting her restaurant off the ground.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

Nope. "I'm pregnant. I'm six weeks pregnant," she blurts out. He's so happy.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

She is less jubilant. "I wanted to get my career sorted before... How the hell is this going to work?" she asks, looking worried.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

A brief moment of flashback: At this point in the present-day storyline, Kate and Toby learn that their 3-month-old son's impaired eyesight will not be restored. He will be blind for his entire life. So yep, the man we've been watching is a grown-up Jack Damon. "We've always known for a while now that Kate's son was going to be born prematurely, and blindness — retinopathy — is a very common thing that would come from that," series creator Dan Fogelman said at the time. 

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

Jack takes the stage, where he is announced like the rockstar that he apparently is. The crowd goes wild. Fogelman later confirmed that the flash-forward takes place "10-plus years" after the series' other significant time-jump.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 1: "STRANGERS"

Jack sings "Memorized" to a rapt crowd. (Fun fact: The song was a collaboration between This Is Us composer Siddhartha Khosla and Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith, who also happens to be Mandy Moore's real-life husband.) You can read Stadnik's memories of shooting the scene, which was filmed at a real-life Chicago concert, here.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 9: "SO LONG, MARIANNE"

... and then Jack, who is setting a large bowl of cocktail shrimp on a table set for guests. "The hot dogs smell amazing," he notes, hinting that the Pearson Thanksgiving Day traditions first seen in Season 1's "Pilgrim Rick" are alive and strong.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 9: "SO LONG, MARIANNE"

"I know. Your baby and I need to eat them, STAT," a very pregnant Lucy jokes.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 9: "SO LONG, MARIANNE"

"Have some shrimp. There's five pounds," he replies, showing us that Nicky's Thanksgiving tradition, first seen earlier in the episode, has lived on, as well.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 9: "SO LONG, MARIANNE"

In the briefest of flash-forward snippets in Season 4's Thanksgiving episode, we see Sammy...

SEASON 4, EPISODE 15: "CLOUDS"

After we watch footage of Kate and Baby Jack (and then Toddler Jack, and then Pre-teen Jack and his band) tinkering around in the music studio Toby built for his wife and son, we see Young Adult (or maybe Teen) Jack recording in there.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 15: "CLOUDS"

Look at him do his thing!

SEASON 4, EPISODE 15: "CLOUDS"

(Anyone else worried that Kate kinda drops out of the action here as the years pass by? Or is that just natural for a growing kid to want to write songs on his own? Discuss.)

SEASON 4, EPISODE 18: "STRANGERS (PART TWO)"

"Anything?" Jack asks as Lucy rubs her hugely pregnant belly. "Nothing," she says, rubbing her stomach as they talk about how she's two days past her due date.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 18: "STRANGERS (PART TWO)"

Meanwhile, in a gallery, a woman we don't yet know talks up some art to a potential buyer.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 18: "STRANGERS (PART TWO)"

Afterward, a co-worker refers to the woman as Hailey and wonders why she doesn't want to date him. She replies that they're just friends, but he knows she's still hung up on a one-night stand she had with a famous guy. He wonders the exact nature of the man in question's fame. "It's a movie star," is all she will tell him.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 18: "STRANGERS (PART TWO)"

Lucy asks Jack to play her something, so he pulls out a guitar and sings an acoustic version of his hit, "Memorized." Her contractions start in earnest during his peformance, which ends abruptly as they rush to get their things and head to the hospital.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 18: "STRANGERS (PART TWO)"

Lucy paces as her labor continues at the hospital/birthing center.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 18: "STRANGERS (PART TWO)"

(Is it weird that we kinda covet the big birthing tub in Lucy's room? It is, isn't it? Yeah, it is.)

SEASON 4, EPISODE 18: "STRANGERS (PART TWO)"

Jack and Lucy take a moment to face the reality that their baby is arriving that day. They don't know the child's sex. "We both wanted it to be a surprise, remember?" she says...

SEASON 4, EPISODE 18: "STRANGERS (PART TWO)"

... until a nurse walks in and asks, "You ready to get this little girl out into the world?" The parents-to-be trade are surprised...

SEASON 4, EPISODE 18: "STRANGERS (PART TWO)"

... then supremely happy.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 18: "STRANGERS (PART TWO)"

Back at the gallery, Hailey shows a painting to another client.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 18: "STRANGERS (PART TWO)"

Then her smartwatch beeps, and whatever she sees on it causes her to grab her things and run out of the gallery. 

SEASON 4, EPISODE 18: "STRANGERS (PART TWO)"

Her co-worker assumes she's rushing off to meet the movie star...

SEASON 4, EPISODE 18: "STRANGERS (PART TWO)"

... but it turns out she's hurrying to see Jack, Lucy and their newborn daughter!

SEASON 4, EPISODE 18: "STRANGERS (PART TWO)"

"Boy or girl?!" Hailey demands as she enters the room, startling the nurse, who tries to stop her. 

SEASON 4, EPISODE 18: "STRANGERS (PART TWO)"

Jack announces that he has a girl, then quells the nurse's worries: "She's my sister."

SEASON 4, EPISODE 18: "STRANGERS (PART TWO)"

Hailey asks what her new niece's name is.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 18: "STRANGERS (PART TWO)"

Yeah, we approve, too.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 18: "STRANGERS (PART TWO)"

"Hope," Jack says.

SEASON 6, EPISODE 3: 'FOUR FATHERS'

While the rockstar stands at what looks like a grill, his wife, Lucy, sips some white wine in the sunshine.

SEASON 6, EPISODE 3: 'FOUR FATHERS'

"I can feel your concern. Blind guy, hot smoker. I can assure you, I have done this hundreds of times, and I still have both of my eyebrows," he says. (Our bad for thinking it was a grill.)

SEASON 6, EPISODE 3: 'FOUR FATHERS'

As he puts a steak on the fire, Jack says, "I know it sounds crazy, but every once in a while, that smell hits me, and it takes me back to that day." Lucy responds, "I know."

SEASON 6, EPISODE 3: 'FOUR FATHERS'

Then we get Jack's perspective of a moment from his childhood, when Toby warns him not to get too close — to the smoker, we gather — and then Kate's voice yells Jack's name in a panic.

SEASON 6, EPISODE 3: 'Four Fathers'

"Hell of a first memory, huh?" Jack asks his wife. But she understands why it left such a mark on him.

SEASON 6, EPISODE 3: 'Four Fathers'

"You know, you don't need to keep using that thing," Lucy says as they make their way over to the table. "It's the literal symbol of the day your mom and dad's marriage blew up."

SEASON 6, EPISODE 3: 'FOUR FATHERS'

Looks like the day left an actual mark on Jack, too. Lucy lightly jokes that the day in question nearly "permanently deformed you."

SEASON 6, EPISODE 3: 'FOUR FATHERS'

'I keep it because it's delicious," he says, feeding her a bite. She agrees.

SEASON 6, EPISODE 12: 'KATOBY'

... the adoring family members look on. And we note that Toby is wearing a wedding ring, meaning he married Coffee Shop Woman. We should also point out that this is the furthest point in the timeline that we've seen Kate, whose absence has been glaring from the flash-forwards so far. She lives!

SEASON 6, EPISODE 12: 'KATOBY'

Toby and the woman he met at the coffee shop are at a bar, and it appears to be several years after their first interaction. They're talking with someone...

SEASON 6, EPISODE 12: 'KATOBY'

Then Jack and Lucy show up! We're apparently at a point on the timeline somewhere between Jack meeting his future wife and becoming a giant rockstar. Jack hugs his parents. "I can't wait to hear you play later," Kate says.

SEASON 6, EPISODE 12: 'KATOBY'

As everyone listens to Jack perform...

SEASON 6, EPISODE 12: 'KATOBY'

... who turns out to be a mustachioed Philip! He and Kate are there, too, and everyone seems to be getting along so well!

SEASON 6, EPISODE 18: "US"

During a montage of Pearson (and Pearson-related) kids enjoying swings through the years, we see Jack and Lucy pushing their daughter, Hailey.