The Last of Us season 2's premiere didn't kill Joel, but tonight's second chapter does. Yes, HBO didn't back down from adapting The Last of Us Part II's most controversial, harrowing moment, and Pedro Pascal's patriarch is no more.
The action-packed episode sees a horde of infected attack the Jackson settlement, all while Joel and Dina attempt to make their way home. Abby, meanwhile, wanders off from the base her group have set up and finds herself on the run from infected who have got smart enough to use their dead to hide themselves.
She's pursued and trapped behind a fence, but is saved by Joel (not knowing who he is until Dina refers to him by name). She encourages her two saviours to come back to the lodge her people are in, where the truth is finally revealed. She's the daughter of the Firefly surgeon he gunned down in cold blood.
They drug Dina so she won't have to see what happens, and Joel takes a shotgun blast to the knee from Abby. She proceeds to beat him savagely with a golf club and her bare fists, though much of this happens off-screen. That proves to be a much better approach than what we saw in The Walking Dead when Glenn died, for example.
Ellie, meanwhile, has left the settlement to find Joel and eventually tracks him down, where she too is disarmed. She tearfully pleads for Joel's life, but as he bleeds out on the floor (seemingly aware that Ellie is nearby), Abby finishes her father's killer by stabbing Joel through the back of the neck with the broken golf club.
That's a big difference from the game where she delivered one final blow with a club, and blood started spurting from his head. Why the change? It's no more or less savage, but either way, Joel is dead, and Ellie vows to kill them for what they've done.
The episode ends with Ellie, Dina, and Tommy dragging Joel's wrapped-up body back to Jackson. Is this the last we've seen of Pascal in the series? You'll have to wait and see.
In our The Last of Us season 2 review, we concluded with, "Pedro Pascal is a force to be reckoned with in The Last of Us, and with Bella Ramsey and Isabela Merced matching him beat for beat, season 2 is a powerful, rousing triumph that cements this series as the best video game adaptation ever."
The Last of Us season 2's returning cast includes Pedro Pascal as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie, Gabriel Luna as Tommy, and Rutina Wesley as Maria.
Other announced new additions include Kaitlyn Dever as Abby, Isabela Merced as Dina, Young Mazino as Jesse, Ariela Barer as Mel, Tati Gabrielle as Nora, Spencer Lord as Owen, Danny Ramirez as Manny, and Jeffrey Wright as Isaac. Catherine O’Hara also guest stars.
What did you think about The Last of Us's season 2 premiere?