Spoiler alert: This story includes details of the major Episode 2 fatality.
That “Last of Us” death hurts, especially so early in Season 2.
We’re not talking about Tommy Miller’s (Gabriel Luna) awesome blow-torch barbeque of the bloater beast in Episode 2 (now streaming on Max; new episodes Sundays, 9 ET/PT). Shroomzilla had that coming.
But, for those not familiar with “The Last of Us” video games from which the HBO series is adapted, the brutal death of Joel Miller – the role that propelled Pedro Pascal to superstardom – is an emotional bludgeoning. By a golf club. That is the weapon on hand for vengeful Abby Anderson (Kaitlyn Dever), who fatally tees off on Joel to avenge her dead father. The torturous clobbering comes after Joel saves Abby from infected hordes and is coldly executed in front of his surrogate daughter, Ellie (Bella Ramsey).
“People are going to be upset. That’s sometimes how good drama goes,” says executive producer Craig Mazin. “This was something that was always meant to happen. So much of the first season was, in a weird way, leading to this moment. And it’s upsetting.”
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‘Very injured’ Pedro Pascal Plays broken Joel in ‘Last of Us’ Season 2 with Bella Ramsey
Joel’s death was ‘largely preordained’
Joel’s demise was already laid out, nearly blow-for-blow, in the source material, “The Last of Us Part II” video game. When Pascal took the role, Mazin says the actor knew Joel would face this savaging in a potential Season 2. And, of course, there was a Season 2.
“Loss is kind of how this story functions, so this was largely preordained,” says Mazin. “When I talked to Pedro the first time, I said, ‘This is how this will go.’ I wanted him to know that we’re not going to do this for seven seasons with you in that spot. We’re going to do a season, and if it goes well and there’s a second season, this will happen.”
The TV version provides one episode and change to build up some empathy for Abby, the Firefly daughter of the unarmed, scrubbed-up surgeon Joel killed in his Season 1 finale killing spree. In an Episode 2 hospital flashback, Abby discovers her father, who was about to remove Ellie’s brain for a humanity-saving cure. Abby has been searching for Joel, and payback, for five years.
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Trapped and wounded by Abby, Joel’s eyes give license for revenge. “They have a weirdly intimate moment of connection where Joel, on some level, recognizes her right to retribution, to avenge her father,” Mazin says.
It’s important that Abby goes too far: ‘There’s justice and then there’s this other thing’
The Joel beating is conducted mostly off camera, but it’s brutal. The golf club hits to the head depicted in the video game are directed primarily at Joel’s shot-up leg for the sake of semi-reality. “This is live action,” Mazin says. “We do have to work a little closer to truer physics.”
Abby breaks the club and uses her fists before horrifyingly sticking the broken club into Joel’s neck. “So that broken piece of golf club was the coup de grâce. In some ways, it’s more haunting,” Mazin says. “We actually tried to show quite a bit of restraint in what people see. But it’s important for Abby’s character to go too far. There’s justice, and then there’s this other thing.”
Ellie vows revenge and circle of ‘toxic mourning’ continues
Half of the Firefly crew is appalled, including Owen (Spencer Lord), who ultimately has to tell Abby to stop the torture and “finish it.” Medic Mel (Ariela Barer) can’t hide her tears. Trapped, Ellie reflects viewers’ horror, and her primal need for her own form of revenge.
“Is Ellie going to do exactly what Abby did, pursue her and hunt her down at any cost? What does this toxic grieving do to us?” Mazin asks. “This is not a revenge story. It’s a story about grief and how people handle grief.”
We haven’t seen the end of Pedro Pascal in ‘Last of Us’
Rest in Peace, Joel. The final view of the deeply flawed protector is his covered body pulled through the snow to Jackson by horse. But we haven’t seen the end of Pascal. The troubled father figure still has – at least – a fateful confrontation with Ellie, as alluded to in the Season 2 trailer.
“I don’t think I’m spoiling anything,” Mazin says. “We have not seen the last of Pedro Pascal on ‘The Last of Us.'”
But the show shifts its focus to the aftermath of the seismic death and the actions of the grieving Tommy, Dina (Isabela Merced), and Ellie – who spits a vow of revenge.
‘The way Bella as Ellie says, ‘You’re all going to die,’ you can’t help but believe it is absolutely true,’ Mazin says.
As the somber Fireflies trudge away in the snow, Abby looks disturbed after finally killing Joel.
“It’s not remorse,” Mazin says. “There is a sense of dissatisfaction. This thing she thought would fix the wound in her didn’t fix it. She walks away no happier than when she showed up.”
Pedro Pascal and Kaitlyn Dever exchange Instagram hugs
Pascal, Ramsey and Dever have all discussed the monumental death. But, just to make clear that this is only showbiz, Pascal and Dever exchanged loved-up Instagram posts, smiling and hugging in the snow together. “My best snow buddy,” Dever wrote. For the same picture, Pascal wrote, “Thank you, scene partner. You little miracle.”
