Spoilers ahead for the Max series and PlayStation game The Last Of Us: Part II.
Fans of the game always knew this moment was coming. When The Last Of Us Part II was released on PlayStation in 2020, it proved hugely divisive due largely due to the death of the main character, Joel Miller (played in the show by Pedro Pascal). But non-gamer audiences watching the HBO show this week would have been blissfully unaware of the trauma-inducing twist that lay ahead.
“Through the Valley” (Episode 2, Season 2) begins with a dream-sequence-flashback as new character Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) has a nightmare about the day Joel killed her father, a doctor murdered in the closing moments of Season 1 where Joel rescued Ellie (Bella Ramsey) from an operation which would have saved the world but ended her life (check out our Season 1 recap here). Abby wakes with a start, hunkered down near the settlement of Jackson as she and her crew of ex-Fireflies plan how they might find Joel and exact revenge.
Meanwhile, Joel and Dina (Isabela Merced) are out on patrol in the nearby mountains, as are Ellie and Jesse (Young Mazino), and back at Jackson, the townsfolk – lead by Tommy (Gabriel Luna) and Maria (Rutina Wesley) – are fortifying defenses against an incoming horde of Infected.
It's a complex chessboard of characters gradually closing in on each other, and with HBO being the studio behind Game of Thrones, one cannot help but see similarities to George R. R. Martin's epic fantasy, particularly with snow-bound zombies and brutal death scenes.
However, there were some key differences from the game here, particularly in the battle of Jackson. A blistering World War Z-style set piece telegraphed in the trailers, it's a welcome addition that sees waves of flesh-munching monsters breach the town walls, resulting in a high-stakes moment as Tommy faces down a Bloater.
Similarly, the reveal of Abby's identity comes much earlier. Part of the game's genius is that this crucial information is withheld until about the halfway point, making players initially hate her before slowly coming to understand. Showrunner Neil Druckmann has spoken about the reason for instead sharing her backstory straight away: “If we were to stick to a very similar timeline [as the game], viewers would have to wait a very, very long time to get that context,” he reflects. “So, it felt appropriate… to move that up and give viewers that context right off the bat”.
However, the moment of Joel's death remains largely the same. As Abby tries to get close to Jackson she is pursued by a herd of Infected, only to be rescued by Joel. They flee on horseback (along with Dina) to Abby's group, where Joel is captured and slowly tortured to death… but not before Ellie arrives to witness her surrogate father's final moments.
While offing a main character in Episode 2 of your new series is a bold move, the death of Joel will doubtlessly be a launchpad for what happens next. As well as functioning as the catalyst for Ellie's arc, it's the emotional bedrock for The Last of Us' central thesis: the cycle of violence, and empathy for one's enemies.
Yes, audience members are freaking out after seeing Joel brutally bludgeoned to death, but were we so incensed when he murdered Abby's unarmed dad in Season 1? Was Joel actually a bad guy? Or is every hero just a villain in someone else's story?
In an age of entrenched political binaries and rhetoric that dehumanizes other people, The Last of Us might just be a show whose time is now. Certainly, this episode's closing song – performed by Ashley Johnson, who played Ellie in the game – warns that these characters are all about to “walk through the valley of the shadow of death,” and the repercussions of Joel's murder will shape everything that is to come.
