Warning: This article contains major spoilers for The Last of Us season 2, episode 2, and light spoilers for The Last of Us Part II.
the end of The Last of Us season 2, episode 2, “Through the Valley,” Abby manages to lure Joel back to the chalet where her friends are staying. She knocks out Dina and makes good on her promise to kill Joel slowly, just in time for Ellie to find them and be irreparably traumatized by the brutality she witnesses. Joel sure seems dead, but is he?
Since The Last of Us season 2’s trailers are full of Joel scenes that haven’t been seen yet, it’s unclear if Joel’s death will be permanent. It’s not unprecedented for a zombie show to feature the fake-out death of a beloved character. In The Walking Dead, Glenn fell off a dumpster into a swarm of zombies and seemingly got torn apart. But a few episodes later, it was revealed that he survived the attack by hiding under the dumpster and waiting for the zombies to . Is The Last of Us doing the same thing, or is Joel really dead?
Yes, Joel Is Dead In The Last Of Us
Abby Succeeded In Exacting Revenge
Joel is, indeed, dead in The Last of Us season 2. Abby succeeded in her quest to kill Joel and exact revenge for her father’s death and the deed is done. Ellie’s promise to exact revenge on Abby and her friends will form the dramatic backbone of the rest of the season. She’ll chase them to Seattle and hunt them down one by one. This storyline masterfully highlights the similarities between Ellie and Abby: they both lost their father, and they both focused their grief on their desire for vengeance.
HBO’s preview for the next episode has a handful of clips confirming that Joel is really dead.
Abby stabbed Joel in the neck with one half of a broken golf club, then Ellie, Dina, and Jesse are seen riding back to town with a body bag hanging from one of their horses, so the show is leaving it pretty unambiguous. HBO’s preview for the next episode has a handful of clips confirming that Joel is really dead. Tommy is seen mourning beside his body bag. Ellie is seen waking up in Jackson’s medical practice and reacting with horror to something off-screen (presumably the sight of Joel’s beaten, bloodied body).
Joel Will Still Return In The Last Of Us Season 2
The Game Has Plenty Of Flashbacks To The Past Five Years
Although Joel is definitely dead, we haven’t seen the last of him this season. The game features a handful of flashbacks to the past five years of Joel and Ellie’s relationship, and the TV show’s trailers have already confirmed that most of those flashbacks will be adapted into live-action. The second game begins with Joel giving Ellie her guitar and playing a song for her. The TV show skipped that, but the trailers seem to suggest that it’ll appear as a flashback instead, which will make it even more heartbreaking with the context of what’s to come.
The trailers have shown Joel taking Ellie to a science museum to stand on a giant replica of a T. rex and check out a space capsule. They’ve also shown Ellie seemingly learning the truth about what happened to the Fireflies, since she’s shown angrily telling Joel, “You swore.” So, don’t worry; we’ll still see plenty more of Pedro Pascal before the season ends.
How The Last Of Us Season 2's Trailer Hid Joel's Death
The Trailer Featured A Bunch Of Joel Clips From The Flashbacks
The trailers for The Last of Us season 2 cleverly hid Joel’s death by featuring a bunch of clips from the flashbacks. TV viewers who’d watched those trailers wouldn’t have seen his death coming in episode 2, because they were still expecting an episode where Joel takes Ellie to see a giant dinosaur. This allowed Joel’s death to catch audiences by surprise, even if they’d had it spoiled that Joel would die at some point in the season.
The Last of Us airs new episodes on HBO and Max every Sunday.
When Naughty Dog was marketing the game, they came up with a different strategy to hide Joel’s death. Fans had already speculated that Joel would die and the game would follow Ellie’s quest for revenge, so, to preserve that surprise, they replaced Jesse with Joel in one scene. In the director’s commentary on the PS5 remaster, Neil Druckmann itted that he regretted misleading the audience like that, so the marketing for The Last of Us season 2 avoided showing any fake Joel scenes that wouldn’t actually appear in the show.
The Last Of Us
- Release Date
- January 15, 2023
- Network
- HBO
- Showrunner
- Craig Mazin
Cast
Joel Miller
Ellie Williams
WHERE TO WATCH
The Last of Us is a post-apocalyptic drama series set two decades after a global catastrophe. It follows Joel, a seasoned survivor, who is tasked with escorting Ellie, a teenage girl, across a desolated United States, transforming into a harrowing journey of survival and companionship.
- Creator(s)
- Craig Mazin, Neil Druckmann
- Seasons
- 2
- Streaming Service(s)
- MAX
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