The Last Of Us Kills [Spoiler] In Devastating Episode 2 — Read Recap
If your entry point into Joel and Ellie's world was The Last of Us Season 1, and you haven't played The Last of Us Part 2 video game, hoo boy. Strap in.
Even if you did play, and you knew the fate that would befall one of the show's central characters, you might not have guessed it would happen in the season's second episode.
Either way, this week's hour of the HBO drama is gutting: Pedro Pascal's Joel dies when he is murdered by Abby, who is the daughter of the doctor he killed while pulling Ellie out of the Firefly hospital in the Season 1 finale.
Read on to find out how it all goes down, then go here to see if what Craig Mazin told me about the rest of the season makes you feel any better.
ABBY'S NEXT STEPS | The episode opens as alarms are going off at the Firefly hospital in Salt Lake City. The place seems abandoned, except for two versions of Abby: One who walks down the hallway with a gun, the other who warns the first not to go into the operating room, because "he's dead" and "his brains are on the floor." The gun-toting one forges ahead, anyway, as the one who stays behind cries in the hallway. We're obviously in one of Abby's dreams, which ends abruptly when she wakes up in a sleeping bag on the floor of a ski lodge overlooking Jackson.
Thanks to the daylight and the home's big windows, she and her friends realize that Jackson is much larger than any of them thought it would be. They're daunted by the gates, patrols, guards and dogs — and by having no idea where Joel is in the expansive community. Abby is long on anger, short on actual plans; as they talk, it's clear that she's promised her friends that they won't have to hurt anyone in her quest to find Joel. Eventually, Owen, the tall guy with a beard, says he'll work on a strategy. And after Abby goes out on patrol, he admits to the others that his only intention is to get Abby to turn back "because, if we don't, the only people getting killed here are us."
THE MORNING AFTER | In Jackson, Jesse wakes Ellie for patrol. They talk about how he and Dina have been broken up for a week, and how a patrol the night before found a bunch of infected hiding under a pile of frozen dead 'shroompeople.
Ellie tells him that she was planning on going on patrol with Joel, which strikes Jesse as odd, given that she's been avoiding her Angry Dad. She admits that she knows that things seem bad between them, but that's because their relationship is "complicated" and unknowable to outsiders. "I'm still me, he's still Joel, and we — nothing's ever going to change that. Ever," she says, which is way more forthcoming than I expected her to be. Jesse then informs her that she can't patrol with Joel because he already left with Dina; he wanted to let Ellie sleep.
They swing by Tommy's town briefing — he's running through emergency protocol — and stay just long enough to grab sandwiches and listen to Seth stumble through an apology for his behavior at the dance the night before. "Happens to everyone," Ellie quips. "People get drunk and say awful s—t they've never thought before." Ha!
As she and Jesse leave, Ellie notices a storm on its way. But Jesse thinks the weather will stay up in the mountains. That turns out not to be the case. Though Tommy radioes for all of the patrols to return, Jesse answers that they're too far out and will hole up in a spot he knows until the snow passes.
Jesse brings Ellie and their horses to a "7-11 full of weed" where Gail's husband, Eugene, grew his pot. Eugene and Jesse were patrol partners, so he knew him well; Eugene also was a former Firefly who quit in 2010 because "he was tired of killing people." Though they talk about how Joel had to "put him down," we don't learn much more there.
JOEL'S FINAL MISTAKE | Back to Abby, who's spotted two people on horseback and starts to pursue them. The snow is really picking up as she slides down a major hillside and lands in a field full of frozen infected, which slowly gives way to an uprising of live infected that pop up from underground and, en masse, chase her. Abby is able to hustle her way to a building, where she's able to get a chainlink fence between her and the fungal undead... and it doesn't do her much good. The combined force of the infected against the fence pushes it over, so she's essentially crawling for her life in a tunnel made of Home Depot's finest. One infected gets through and is on top of her when a gunshot to the head takes it out.
As a dazed Abby stands, a man out of frame yells, "Give me your hand!" It's Joel, and he tells her to run. As Dina approaches and calls for Joel, Abby realizes that the man she's been hunting just saved her life. But the danger isn't over — there are still a LOT of infected very nearby — and when Joel and Dina struggle to form a plan, Abby suggests that they all go to her friends at the house halfway up the mountain. So they do.
Right around then, Ellie overhears Tommy freaking out a little on the radio, wondering why his brother and Dina are the only patrol that hasn't checked in. She instantly assumes the worst and runs out into the snow, Jesse close behind her.
And then everything falls apart in colossal fashion.
JACKSON UNDER ATTACK | Oh, you thought that all of your worry would be centered on Joel in this episode? The tendrils of Cordyceps that have snaked their way into the pipes underneath Jackson would like a word. When a worker on a crew within the town's walls breaks open a pipe — just like we saw last week — he realizes that there are live vines inside. Out where Joel, Dina and Abby are riding for their lives, even more infected surface from underground. Without warning, and like lemmings, the undead break away from chasing the trio and redirect themselves toward Jackson.
The lookout on the wall sees a sea of infected careening toward the gates. He sounds the alarm, which throws everyone into action. Tommy and Maria share a kiss before he rides out onto the main street, yelling for everyone to head for the roofs. Then he presides over the counterattack, which involves dousing the infected horde with flammable liquid, then setting them on fire.
Eventually, a growling bloater (remember those?) breaks through the wall, clearing a path for a mass entrance. Tommy makes a stand with a bunch of other men while Maria and the other sniper run to higher ground. Did I mention there's a full-on blizzard that is making everything 300 percent more difficult?
Tommy wields a flamethrower as the infected advance and some of his fellow guards freak out and run. People are getting bit. Bodies are all over the place. It's carnage. And it looks like it's going to get even worse when Tommy lures the bloater into a blocked-off alley... and then realizes that his gas tank is getting lower, and the bloater doesn't seem to be losing steam. Tommy is literally backed into a corner and likely thinking it's the end when the creature lunges for him but winds up collapsing and dying before he can get there. Tommy, smartly, unstraps his now-useless weapon and flees.
TIME FOR THE TRUTH | OK, now for the worst part. Abby's friends are looking for her, and they help bring her, Joel and Dina inside. Dina is a little worse for wear: She has frostbite on her hands, and she's acting a little sluggish, but she still notes a backpack with a WLF patch on it. Joel wants to go right back out — he can see what's happening at Jackson — but then Abby introduces him to the rest of her group, and the vibe changes in an instant. Joel is so preoccupied with trying to make contact on the radio that he doesn't notice when Abby's friend, Manny, puts a gun to his head.
As the group disarms Joel and Dina, he guesses that they're Fireflies. "Used to be," Abby snarls. "Haven't you heard? There are no more Fireflies. They're all gone." Her friend, Mel, injects Dina with a sedative she promises will only put her to sleep for an hour. Then, Abby turns to Joel, who has his hands up. She says they'll let Dina live if he tells the truth: "Where was the last place you saw the Fireflies?" He says Salt Lake City. "At least you're honest," she replies.
But Jackson is on fire and Joel is watching it happen, and he has no patience for any of this. "I saved your life," he says gruffly. "What life?" she asks, shooting him in the leg. He slams to the ground, crying out in pain, and Abby orders him tourniquetted so he doesn't bleed out while she continues her monologue.
ABBY GETS HER REVENGE | She keeps talking about how he killed "18 soldiers and one doctor. You remember that one: an unarmed doctor you shot in the head." She looks at him with pure disgust. "Yeah, that was my dad. Guess you probably already figured. The nurses said you barely even looked at him as you pulled the trigger."
She says she's part of a militia in Seattle that has a code about not killing people who can't defend themselves. "And right now, that's you. But I am going to kill you. Because it doesn't matter if you have a code like me, or you're a lawless piece of s—t like you. There are just some things everyone agrees are just f—king wrong." She's crying. Joel nods, lip trembling — he knows what's coming — but he also can't stop being Joel for one second. "Shut the f—k up and do it already," he says.
His response angers her greatly, and she grabs a golf club from a bag in the corner and comes at him. "You stupid old man. You don't get to rush this!" she says as she hits his busted leg over and over. Her friends exchange glances, disturbed — and rightly so. It gets to a point where Abby is primal screaming as she punches Joel over and over, his face looking more like a side of beef with every blow.
HE'S GONE | Ellie follows horse tracks to the lodge and gets inside, approaching the group with her gun drawn when she hears the screaming. But the weapon gets knocked out of her hand and the others pin her down on the ground, where she — and we — can see that Joel is slowly leaving us. (Side note: Bella Ramsey's anguished "Jooooooooooel!" here is beautifully, painfully done.)
His hand twitches. It's not clear how much he can see her through his mangled face. But when she repeatedly begs him to get up, he summons everything he's got and tries. He can't do it. And then Abby picks up the golf club, which now has a sharpened end.
Ellie begs her not to do it, but Abby doesn't care: She shoves the metal stick into Joel's neck, and all the sound drops out as Ellie watches her surrogate dad die. The most heartbreaking thing about this highly heartbreaking scene, to me, is how Ramsey communicates Ellie's despair at realizing there's no time to fix things between them. He's gone, and they had unfinished emotional business, and she loves him but maybe hasn't told him lately, and that's that.
'THROUGH THE VALLEY' | When Ellie comes back to herself, she screams that she's going to kill everyone. But then Manny kicks her in the stomach, silencing her, and Abby and her friends leave. Ellie belly-crawls over to Joel, sobbing as she takes his hand. She rips the shiv out of his neck, throws her arm over him and puts her face very close to his. It's awful.
Back in Jackson, Tommy and Maria survived the infected onslaught, but the town is in pieces. Tommy nearly collapses, sobbing, when he realizes his wife is alive.
Outside what's left of the gates, Jesse rides up to the lodge. Later, as "Through the Valley" plays, Ellie rides behind him, Dina on her horse, while they drag Joel's wrapped body back to Jackson.
Now it's your turn. What did you think of the episode? Hit the comments with your thoughts!