It has been exactly four weeks since HBO drama “The Last of Us” stunned viewers with a major cast shakeup.
Luckily, we learned in Sunday’s sixth episode, we wouldn’t have to wait long to see Pedro Pascal’s Joel again.
Joel, who died in the second episode of the season at the hands of season villain Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), was heavily featured in an emotional flashback episode that took place on Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) birthdays from ages 15 to 19 and included a pivotal conversation between Ellie and Joel.
The capsule episode felt reminiscent of last season’s masterful “Long, Long Time,” which showcased a devastating love story between two characters played by Nick Offerman and Murry Bartlett, a performance for which Offerman won an Emmy.
“What I took away from (“Long, Long Time”) is just the confidence that we can have, in a zombie genre show, a whole episode with no action and just drama between these two characters,” creator and executive producer Neil Druckmann told CNN in a recent interview. “Watching (Joel and Ellie) wrestle with their feelings… is as suspenseful, as tense as any action sequence.”
The decision to wait until the penultimate episode of Season 2, and to consolidate the birthday memories into one episode – which are instead shown intermittently throughout the video game on which the series is based – was, according to Druckmann, intentional for maximum emotional impact.
“We wanted enough space from Joel’s death so that the characters could miss him and the audience could miss him,” Druckmann, who also directed this episode, said.
The episode comes to a head with a heartbreaking sequence involving the oft-discussed character Eugene (Joey Pantoliano), the husband of Gale (Catherine O’Hara), who Ellie and Joel met while on patrol on Ellie’s 19th birthday. Eugene, they learned, was infected but hadn’t turned yet.
At one point, he made a heartbreaking request to say goodbye to Gale while he still has time, which Ellie was in favor of and Joel promised to both Ellie and Eugene he’d make happen. Instead, however, Joel took Eugene to the edge of the water, shot him dead and then lied to Gale about it. Ellie was devastated.
“The lie, just like the lie in Season 1, is meant to protect Ellie. But what it does instead is it confirms to Ellie, ‘Ah, this is what you do. You lie,’” Druckmann said. “And then she knows for sure he lied to her in that moment on the hill when they’re looking at Jackson at the end of Season 1.”
The context of Eugene’s death adds to the build up of tension between Joel and Ellie that was seen throughout the debut episode of this season, punctuating the emotion between the two when they are finally seen having that pivotal conversation on the porch where Joel confirms Ellie’s suspicions about what really happened at the hospital.
“They get into the heart of their conflict but also speak about the themes of this show of unconditional love…even if someone has wronged someone so horribly in the way that Ellie (believes) Joel has wronged her by robbing her of meaning,” Druckmann said.
Even in her anger, Ellie still forgave him.
“That whole thing is what the show is about,” Druckmann added. “Going backward and eventually and going forward.”
At the end of the episode, Ellie is seen walking back to the theater in the moments after she tortured and killed Nora. The hindsight of the flashbacks of Joel and Ellie in this episode, Druckmann said, served as “a reminder of who she was as we’re coming toward the end of the season.”
“You’re seeing this person capable of such intense violence (and) the question we want to answer going forward, not only the next episode but with future episodes to come, is: Once you commit such dark acts, is there ever coming back from that? Is there any way to stop this cycle?” he added.
The show’s finale is set to air on May 25 and, Druckmann teased, “things are coming to a head.”
“There’s a lot of things that we’re just waiting to see what will happen,” Druckmann said. “And with one episode left, a lot needs to happen.”