The Genius This Is Us Transformation Secrets We've Been Waiting For

The mid-season fall finale of This Is Us left us — again — with one crucial question we still need answered: How the hell did Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia) die? That, and how can a show with more flashback scenes than Orange Is the New Black make each character look so believable? Seriously, the resemblance between the Pearson children — Randall, Kate, and Kevin — and their adult counterparts is eerie.

It's rare for a TV show to hire three actors to play the same character through their childhood, teendom, and adult years, but This Is Us is in a league of its own. Each episode rolls back decades to check in on the three siblings (aka "The Big Three") during significant moments of impact that shed light on how they ended up where they are in present-day — and the genius is that the flashbacks always feel completely seamless.

How? The show's makeup department head, Zoe Hay, recently unveiled all her behind-the-scenes notes on Instagram, explaining every last transformation trick you never thought you needed to know.