Sunday night's Super Bowl episode of "This Is Us" demonstrated the show at its worst – a grimly manipulative, dragged out "mystery" about teasing and torturing a family and its audience with slowly yet surely killing their beloved father, a melodrama drained of emotion not only because we pretty much already knew what was going to happen but also because, after all of that, Jack's not actually going anywhere.

But despite that tough sell, hopefully those who dipped their toes into "This Is Us" Sunday night stuck around not even 48 hours later for Tuesday's follow-up, which demonstrated exactly what the show can do so well: showing how small moments – of joy, of sadness, of grace – echo so large through time, how the past delicately molds and forms the present and future. It was emotional precisely because it wasn't attempting to be all-caps EMOTIONAL, an episode about real life and real people rather than twists and single-handedly trying to solve the world's water shortage problems with human tears. 

Montages have always been one of the best tools in the "This Is Us" arsenal, so it shouldn't surprise fans that a strong episode like this was basically an episode-long montage, short on plotting but high on weaving together meaningful moments big and small. Jack's funeral serves as the core of the episode, with a shellshocked Rebecca driving the kids to the service early, but from there, the show bounced across lovely little snapshots throughout Jack's time with the family – all generally linked to the family car, their Jeep Wagoneer (juuuuust slightly better product placement than the now-infamous Crock-Pot). 

The scattered memories bounced from buying the car at the dealership to bravely crossing a treacherous bridge with the help of Weird Al Yankovic's "Lasagna" (the Pearsons' first concert, because this family is the greatest) and Randall's of course encyclopedic knowledge of phobias. While plot was far from the focus Tuesday night, some of the segments brought back old discoveries – like Jack's brother and time at war, summoned after Randall and Kevin almost bicker their way into a car accident – while others gracefully introduced new ones. The origins of Jack's tree? (which, by the way, Kevin, you got it right!) A cancer scare for Rebecca that thankfully reveals itself to be just that – a scare. 

Sure, many of these memories ended for a foreboding lesson from Jack – a note to Rebecca after her scare about wanting to be cremated since he predicts he'll go first, a stern warning to the boys to learn to have each other's backs when the world won't – a tribute to the man Jack was and the people he wanted to leave behind. But some of the most touching material came in the slighter scenes, like the bridge sing-a-long or Jack and Kate talking music on the way to an Alanis Morissette signing, comparing their tastes with easy, lived-in conversation (this cast continues to be aces) that felt way too much like road trip memories with my own father. Though none of our banter could create anything as clever and funny as Jack calling Morissette's music "complaining with a guitar."

Tying it all together and literally bookending the episode is the car, the communal power of this box of steel, glass and oil. And while it maybe doesn't quite connect with the theme all the way through with the funeral timeline, it still works as a lovely little vessel for these light and delicate photographs from a life – much more emotional and impactful than the heavy lingering on a death we've experienced over the last few episodes. 

That being said, we still have to flash forward to the funeral, deftly and affectingly directed by "This Is Us" executive producer and regular Ken Olin. Gone is the plucky heart-squeezing soundtrack; even the speeches and classic "This Is Us" emotional monologues are half-glimpsed. Instead, Olin approaches the funeral from Rebecca's quietly rattled perspective, detached and dissociated to the point that the funeral seemingly ends right as it's begun, gone in a haze of memory and shock. In a show that often edges near overplaying its hand, this was a big moment done just about right, more about honesty than heartstrings. 

I was concerned that would change after the funeral ended and Rebecca took the ashes instead of letting the director deliver them to the reception, seemingly setting up a moment where something wrong would happen with the ashes. Thankfully, we avoided that melodrama – though we did get some bickering Pearson kids at the reception thanks to Kevin discovering Randall claimed their father's watch. But hey, they're crappy teens so of course they'd not realize their place – and at least we got a brutal burn from Randall to Kevin about how he might've not been able to stop Jack from going back in, but at least he was there. 

Kate escapes outside from that drama to find the doctor from the show's premiere, the birth of their children. And he has not gotten any less charming. Again, it's a moment that could veer into mawkishness, this old man parting wisdom on a grieving widow, but their conversation – about how Jack didn't have all the answers and how she can handle what comes next – played with such sweet humor and a delicate touch. Not to mention warm performances; Moore and McRaney truly play off each other like two intertwined souls who've experienced life and death together. 

Moore's tremendous performance this episode (and this entire season; when did the star of "47 Meters Down" and "Because I Said So" get so great at acting?!) continues on as she reenters the funeral ... just to immediately leave again, with the kids and Jack's ashes in tow. Instead of the formal funeral, the four make their way to Jack's tree, "where you find out you're OK," as Jack once said – despite never having been there before. There, Moore delivers a lovely speech, they scatter most of Jack's ashes (as we know, Kate keeps some in the urn) and, as a perfect sendoff, they decide to go together to the Bruce Springsteen concert Jack bought them all tickets for. As we know from the last season and a half, the healing was far from finished that night, but for a moment, the Pearsons – and us poor tear-stricken viewers – feel like we're gonna be alright. 

It's a pretty perfect end to the most famous (or infamous) storyline on "This Is Us" – and a perfect way to head into a very long Olympics break, with the show not returning until the end of the month. The spotlight may have belonged to the Super Bowl episode this week, but "The Car" was the truly super hour of television. 

This Is Sadness rankings

I actually welled up more tonight – especially when the Pearsons came together emotionally at Jack's tree near the very end – than I did during the EMOTIONALLY DEVASTATING TEAR-PALOOZA OCEAN OF INSURMOUNTABLE SADNESS that Sunday night promised to be. Still, I have to acknowledge that everyone else on Earth cried Sunday while I just sat that and pondering how my coal heart manages to beat. So I'll fittingly just give this a Kristen Bell Sobbing In A Car. 

So, like, a 9 out of 10