[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for The Last of Us, Season 2 Episode 2, “Through the Valley.”]
Recently, it seems like Pedro Pascal’s been dying quite a bit on display screen. That’s not a completely correct assertion on two ranges. For one, characters like Fink the Fox from 2024’s The Wild Robotic and The Mandalorian from The Mandalorian survived their narratives. Extra importantly, dying on display screen has been a giant a part of Pedro Pascal’s resume from the start.
His first notable TV look, as an ill-fated faculty freshman in a 1999 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ended with him turning into a vampire and getting dusted by the titular heroine. And whereas it was Oberyn Martell’s aptitude as a personality that made Pascal an on the spot hit with Recreation of Thrones followers in 2014, it was his stunning squishing throughout a duel that left probably the most lasting impression.
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Right here we’re, 11 years later, with a unique HBO present however one other lovely corpse — nicely, as lovely because it could possibly be mentioned to be, after Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) received by means of with Joel within the second episode of Season 2. This isn’t usually the purpose in a season of tv the place a present would possibly kill off, y’know, one in every of its main protagonists. Episode 9 of a primary season? Why not. (RIP, Ned Stark.) Episode 4 of a last season? Daring, however compelling. (Rot in hell, Logan Roy.) However so early within the season that we’ve barely gotten a style of who Ellie and Joel are actually… Sudden barely covers it.
Sudden, that’s, in case you didn’t play the video games. When The Final of Us: Half II got here out in the summertime of 2020 (a really chill and regular time), the long-awaited sequel was critically acclaimed on a common degree. Nonetheless, it additionally acquired a really chill and regular response from all kinds of irate fans who took subject with a number of the recreation’s greatest decisions — together with the choice to kill Joel off comparatively early within the recreation’s motion.
Bringing that very same option to the TV adaptation is a daring one, particularly given the diploma to which Pascal has develop into a large star over the previous few years. Later in 2025, he’ll star in three very totally different large display screen releases: the Celine Tune romantic comedy Materialists, the Ari Aster up to date Western Eddington, and The Improbable 4: First Steps, marking the start of Pascal’s time as a key participant within the MCU. Getting killed off in Episode 2 of the season might be a giant think about him with the ability to movie all of these initiatives, in fact, however it’s laborious to not think about an HBO exec or two questioning out loud throughout a improvement assembly “However does he have to die?”
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One imagines, although, that in that very same improvement assembly, present creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann’s response was a agency “Sure.” Mazin specifically has been on the document since the beginning about wanting to remain devoted to the video games, that means that this was at all times the place we had been headed.
As somebody who casually follows online game tradition, I hadn’t performed Half II however had learn sufficient of the commentary across the recreation’s decisions to pay attention to what was coming. That mentioned, I didn’t count on it to occur so quickly within the season (once more, Episode 2!), or for director Mark Mylod to so carefully echo moments of the sequence because it occurs within the recreation. (Do you have to want to see how the sport portrays it, there’s plenty of Part II footage on YouTube.)
“By the Valley” isn’t a one-to-one recreation of the sport’s narrative, although, as a result of it provides an entire dang zombie incursion to the motion, because the city of Jackson makes an attempt to struggle off a horde that features some advanced variations on the Cordyceps monsters. (Most of) the city survives to struggle one other day, although it’s a bittersweet end result, given the corpse being dragged again house on the episode’s finish.
Joel’s loss of life is with out query a brutal second for the collection — whereas the physique depend could be decrease, by way of the emotional impression drawing comparisons to the Red Wedding could be correct. But crucial themes of The Final of Us are all tied up in Abby’s actions, the most important amongst them being the truth that our actions have penalties.
It’s a credit score to everybody concerned with the present that whereas it is a character loss of life that’s been a recognized a part of the established narrative since nicely earlier than the TV present was ever greenlit, nothing in regards to the execution feels rote. Viewers haven’t had a lot of an opportunity to get to know Abby but, regardless of Dever being an instantly sympathetic actress. However from the opening scene of the season we knew that whereas she could be obsessive about getting vengeance, it’s not a petty or shallow obsession. Joel murdered Abby’s father, somebody who from her perspective was a great man — a physician actually making an attempt to avoid wasting humanity.
That’s one thing Joel did to avoid wasting Ellie, and from his perspective it was the proper alternative. As a result of what The Final of Us forces us to confront, each within the recreation and now the present, is that neither Joel or Abby are horrible individuals — they’ve each made horrible decisions, however for comprehensible causes. The place Joel’s loss of life takes the story will probably be revealed within the remaining episodes, however anybody doubting the present’s dedication to placing the complete recreation story on display screen is probably going silenced now.
All that being mentioned, whether or not by the hands of an Equalizing Denzel Washington or within the enviornment throughout Gladiator II, watching Pedro Pascal die stays a viscerally painful expertise, regardless of how typically we’ve seen it occur or how inevitable it could be. He’s simply that charismatic and fascinating a performer. As viscerally painful as Joel’s last moments had been, although, and as unhappy and violent because the aftermath will seemingly be… It was the form of powerful alternative the most effective, most critical dramas know the right way to make.
New episodes of The Final of Us premiere Sundays on HBO and Max.
