Fans of The Last Of Us have been waiting over two years to see our favourite apocalypse survivors Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) back on screen. But, if we thought a zombie infestation was the most brutal thing about the series so far, we’ve all been slapped with a big reality check.
Events of this week’s episode “Through The Valley” have officially rattled the fandom, staying pretty true to the original video game’s storyline. But as a non-gamer fan who would have never seen this big twist coming, I can’t be alone when I say: what the hell was that?!?!?
If you haven’t watched the latest episode of season two yet, turn back now. This is your spoiler warning before we get into the chaos and complete emotional carnage that took place here.
My heart can’t take this. (Source: supplied)
“Through The Valley” kicks off with a nail-biting undead siege on Jackson that feels straight out of a Game of Thrones battle sequence. It’s intense, it’s bloody, and for a minute there, it felt like the main danger was the zombie horde knocking on the front gates.
But the real devastation takes place elsewhere, in an abandoned ski-lodge overlooking the town, when The Last of Us delivered its most brutal move yet: actually killing off Joel.
If you’ve played The Last Of Us Part II, you probably saw this moment coming like a wrecking ball made of sadness. But for the rest of us non-gamers, the death came out of nowhere and hit like a truck.
I was not ready, and I’m not the only one.
I mean, we watched the man survive an apocalypse, take Ellie under his wing like she was his own daughter, fight off an entire Firefly militia to save her life — only to be bludgeoned to death with a golf club by an angry Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), who’s been gunning for Joel’s death since the end of season one.
The torture is unbearably slow and drawn-out as she exacts revenge for the death of her own father, and any viewer’s blood will be seething at the sheer cruelty of this moment. It’s not enough that Joel saved her life moments earlier, or even that he die quickly.
Adding a further blow, we even see Ellie find her way to the ski lodge and try desperately to save a bloodied Joel — and be made to watch the final fatal stroke as Abby stabs him in the neck.
Seriously, I’m going to need a sec here.
What have The Last Of Us cast said about the death?
Killing Joel is a bold AF move in terms of narrative that shakes the whole series to its core. Still, that doesn’t stop me — and the rest of the fandom, gamers and non-gamers alike — from having some serious whiplash.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Pascal admitted he’s in “active denial” over Joel’s death and the end of this character. Turns out, he was prepped early on that Joel’s death would be on the table, even if he didn’t know exactly when that would happen.
“It’s not like they said, ‘Hey, we kill you at the beginning of season two,’ but it was always an understanding that it would stay true to the source material in a specific way,” he said. “It was just a matter of how and when,” he told the publication.
Speaking to HBO during the official after-show, he added he has “nothing but respect” for the level of investment that people have in the game and in the series.
“I experience that myself. I’ve flung books across the room because its impact is so profound on me and experiencing the story. I think it is incredibly painful for people and that’s obviously a brilliant achievement of the storytelling,” Pascal said.
But at least he can take some comfort in knowing this won’t be the last time we see Joel onscreen, because like the game, there’s likely to be plenty of flashbacks peppered through season two.
And like us, The Last of Us‘ Bella Ramsey also had some strong feelings about the death.
“I knew that Joel was going to die but reading it in the script I was dreading getting to that bit… and I cried. I actually sobbed my little heart out. It’s the first time I’ve cried from reading a piece of writing,” they said, per Variety.
The show’s creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann — the latter of whom also created the video game series — also knew Joel’s death scene would be a doozy for viewers. But they noted it serves an “important beat” in the wider story.
“I experienced the worst of the negative reaction to it already five years ago. So in that respect, I haven’t been nervous,” Druckmann told Deadline, referring to the backlash to Joel’s death in the video game.
“It does hurt tremendously when it happens. It hurts, of course it does, because we love Joel, and more importantly, because Ellie loves Joel, and we’re experiencing her heartbreak, and we’re all going to grieve the loss of this person that we’ve come to love,” Mazin added.
Meanwhile, the internet might be dragging Dever’s character Abby through the mud right now (and honestly, fair), but you’ve got to give her props for her performance, which was all kinds of cold, raw, and convincing.
The actress even dished a personal connection to Abby and the grief of losing her father, given Dever started filming the role just three days after her mother’s funeral. (Her mother had been battling metastatic breast cancer and passed away in February 2024).
“It was just a massive scene emotionally, and with blocking, too,” Dever told Entertainment Weekly.
“There were so many moving parts and so many things to navigate… To be as honest as possible, I will just say that my days leading up to this scene were horrible.”
If this is how season two of The Last of Us is starting, I’m lowkey scared of what’s next. Joel’s dead and it’s only episode two — where does the series go from here??
But you best believe I’ll be tuning in next week (with tissues ready to go, just in case).
