[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for The Last of Us, Season 2 Episode 6.]
4 weeks after The Last of Us shocked viewers with the brutal death of Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal), he’s reborn. Properly, probably not. However as teased on the finish of the earlier episode, the latest installment of HBO’s acclaimed zombie drama introduced Pascal again for some flashbacks protecting the years between the tip of Season 1 and the start of Season 2. Over the course of the episode, Joel and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) navigate the difficulties of parenting an adolescent/being an adolescent throughout apocalyptic occasions.
Issues truly start with a good deeper flashback to Joel’s personal days as a young person in Austin, Texas, 1983: Joel and youthful brother Tommy know they’re about to get in bother with their father (a shock cameo from Higher Name Saul and Hawkeye star Tony Dalton), the sort that often results in getting hit with a belt. But Joel’s father doesn’t find yourself lashing out, as a substitute giving Joel a beer and speaking about his personal abusive father, acknowledging the cycle of violence that’s been handed down from father to son. “I hope you perform a little higher than me,” he tells Joel, about his personal future as a father or mother — phrases that clearly persist with him for the many years that observe.
From there, the episode tracks a string of Ellie’s birthdays, from 15 to 19, and the methods Joel finds to have fun his adopted daughter whereas dwelling within the relative security of Jackson. Age 15 is comparatively easy — he trades scavenged Legos for a misspelled birthday cake, and restores a guitar by hand as a present. Age 16 entails a visit to a long-abandoned museum Ellie’s thrilled to discover, climbing on high of a dinosaur with glee earlier than having fun with a simulated journey to area in an actual area capsule.
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Age 17 is much less rosy, as Joel catches Ellie doing “all of the teenage stuff directly” — medication and playing around with ladies and getting a tattoo to cowl up her scar. It’s additionally when the actual pressure between them begins erupting, because the sincere dialog they’ve wanted to have since Salt Lake Metropolis begins to fester Age 19 (skipping over 18) begins with Ellie rehearsing the questions she needs to ask Joel about what occurred then; as a substitute of getting solutions, although, she will get affirmation that Joel is a gifted liar.
It’s right here we discover out what occurred to Eugene — the episode’s second large cameo, as Joe Pantoliano exhibits up because the soon-to-be-dead husband of Gail (Catherine O’Hara). Whereas on patrol, Joel and Ellie discover Eugene bitten however nonetheless alive and human sufficient to need precisely one factor: To speak to his spouse one final time. Regardless of each their pleading, Joel doesn’t hesitate in mendacity to Ellie about his intentions for Eugene, sending her off on her personal with the horses whereas he walks the doomed man to a really fairly execution level.
Ellie’s emotions of betrayal at Joel’s newest lie — rooted so deeply within the lies which have come earlier than — push her to inform the reality about what occurred once they deliver Eugene’s physique again to Gail. It’s the fracture level of their relationship, resulting in the rift we noticed at first of the season, and the awkward New 12 months’s Eve that will get explored in additional depth because the episode will get nearer to catching up with the current.
The Final of Us (HBO)
This consists of increasing on scenes beforehand seen briefly within the season premiere, together with Joel lastly, lastly telling Ellie the complete reality about what occurred in Salt Lake Metropolis, actions he took as a result of “I used to be egocentric in a approach you’ll be able to’t perceive.” After which he passes his father’s phrases onto her: “For those who ought to ever have [a child] of your personal… Properly then, I hope you perform a little higher than me.”
In a season that began on such a grim be aware, it means quite a bit to know that whereas Joel and Ellie won’t have ended their time collectively as intently as they started, they’d at the very least begun to reconcile. “I don’t know if I can forgive you for this, however I want to attempt,” she in the end says, and one can solely think about how arduous Joel has clung to the hope embedded in these phrases. An individual can stay for an awfully very long time off hope.
Pascal is now not the star of The Final of Us — Ramsey now owns that place — so this can be a likelihood for him to offer a efficiency that elegantly wraps up his time on the sequence, reminding us of who Joel is at his greatest and his worst. Joel was clearly not a fantastic particular person earlier than he met Ellie, however their bond reworked him, and we get to see each side of that change mirrored in his actions. As a result of what’s so affecting is the best way by which his “worst” moments are all fueled by Joel’s want to guard these he loves, making errors alongside the best way, however at all times well-intentioned.
What’s so hanging in regards to the episode is the way it emphasizes how totally realized a personality Joel is; not only a survivor, not only a father or mother, however an entire particular person. Pedro Pascal received’t be profitable any Grammys for his Pearl Jam cowl, however the loving approach by which he performs “Future Days” after restoring that guitar — with the identical fingers which have killed so many individuals — speaks volumes in regards to the multitudes all of us comprise, the countless chance inherent within the mortal soul. He’s an artist and a assassin, a loving father and a liar. None of it in contradiction to the person we’ve come to know by this present. All of it so very human.
The Final of Us is streaming now on Max.
