Yes, ‘The Last Of Us’ Just Did That

This story contains major—major— spoilers for HBO’s The Last of Us. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) kept her promise. True to her word, Joel (Pedro Pascal) is now dead, in a horribly violent fashion—the victim of Abby having pulled her best Signs and swung away just like Rory did at Augusta last week. (By the way, if I had a nickel for every time Pascal died via gnarly head wound on an HBO adaptation, I’d have two nickels—which isn’t that much, but it’s weird that it has happened twice.)

Depending upon how online you are, Joel’s abrupt end was either a poorly-kept open secret or the most upsetting and surprising character death since the Red Wedding on Game of Thrones (or the night Ned Stark’s neck met the business end of a blade.) Gamers have had some time to process it: Joel also dies in the Naughty Dog game The Last of Us Part II. That news came in a few different waves ahead of the game’s release in June 2020, beginning with an initial leak of screenshots and details that took place about a month and a half before the game’s release. Some folks wrote it off as speculation, but then, about five days before the game’s release, the first three hours of the game made their way online, officially confirming Joel’s fate (this Reddit roundup does a good job of charting the timeline up to the game’s release if you’re curious for more). Given the peak-pandemic timing of the reveal, the news felt inescapable; I know I came across it at one point or another.

Nevertheless, there’s undoubtedly a subsection of the audience for the series who just had their minds blown by this plot twist. Although the actual circumstances of Joel’s end—i.e., club, head— didn’t change, tonight’s episode “Through the Valley” (written by Craig Mazin and directed by HBO stalwart helmer Mark Mylod, whose work tonight adds another series-regular death episode to a resumé that already includes “Connor’s Wedding”) switches up the game’s narrative by having Jackson overrun by Cordyceps, forcing Joel and Ellie apart from one another and trapping Abby and her crew in the midst of it. In the game, Joel and Tommy rescue the others from a sudden horde attack, while you’re playing as Abby, giving the whole sequence an extremely hefty weight. The fall of Jackson gives in the show ratchets the stakes higher, while likely giving Ellie (Bella Ramsey), Tommy (Gabriel Luna), and maybe even Dina (Isabela Merced) an excuse to leave town in pursuit of Abby.

Either way, the song remains the same, and elements of the game-to-show adaptation are set in stone. Joel’s dead, and now Ellie will take center stage. It’s probably not the last time we’ll see Pedro Pascal on The Last Of Us, however, as we’re still due a flashback to explain why he and Ellie were at odds with one another in the season premiere. But make no mistake: Joel’s death feels just as gut-wrenching now as it did when the game came out five years ago—magnitudes more if you had no idea it was coming. (Although we won’t blame game players for scrolling through social media in search of tear-jerking reaction clips to help ease the pain of an old wound being reopened.) In the wake of Abby’s bloody act, The Last of Us is now positioning Ellie to embark on an odyssey of vengeance that’ll make Unforgiven or John Wick look quaint in comparison. What will happen to her soul if she finally gets what she wants? We’ve got five more episodes to find out.