Warning: Spoilers ahead for The Last of Us season 2, episode 6.
In the game, these flashbacks are sprinkled throughout Ellie’s three days in Seattle, but the TV show drops all the flashbacks at once, back-to-back, at the most pivotal moment in Ellie’s journey. When Ellie tortured Nora, her vengeful crusade finally claimed her humanity. The flashbacks jump back to show what a sweet, innocent kid she was before losing her dad and heading to Washington. The episode features six separate flashbacks in chronological order, spanning from 1983 to 2028. When does each flashback take place, and what is their dramatic and thematic significance?
Young Joel In Austin, Texas - 1983
Joel Has A Heart-To-Heart With His Dad
The cold open of The Last of Us season 2, episode 6 goes all the way back to 1983 — two decades before the outbreak — and introduces us to Joel and Tommy’s dad, played by Tony Dalton. After Tommy gets in trouble, Joel stands up to his dad to protect his brother from a beating. Joel and his dad have a heart-to-heart about how every generation of fathers does a little better than the last, and he hopes Joel will do better than him. This sets up the episode’s focus on Joel’s failings as a father to Ellie.
Ellie's 15th Birthday - 2024
Joel Gives Ellie Her Guitar
The next flashback takes place on Ellie’s 15th birthday in 2024, a couple of months after Joel and Ellie arrived in Jackson. Joel picks up a birthday cake from Seth, but he’s frustrated to see that Seth has written Ellie’s name as “Eli” in the icing. Tommy brings Ellie home with a chemical burn on her arm, which she did to cover up her bitemark so she could wear short sleeves again. This happened off-screen in the game; it’s mentioned, but we don’t see how it happened. The TV show explains that Ellie was on K.P. duty (cleaning the kitchen).
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When Ellie’s arm is recovering, Joel shows her the cake and gives Ellie her present: a guitar. Ellie asks Joel to play something, so he plays a beautiful acoustic rendition of Pearl Jam’s “Future Days.” This is a direct recreation of the game’s opening scene, but the distinction here is that Joel made the guitar himself instead of finding it in an abandoned house, so it has an even more personal connection to him. This scene explains why playing guitar makes Ellie upset in the present day, after Joel’s death, and why she played “Future Days” in the theater.
Ellie's 16th Birthday - 2025
Joel Takes Ellie To A Science Museum
A year later, on Ellie’s 16th birthday, Joel takes her to a science museum. She climbs a big T. rex statue, plays with a model of the Solar System, and gets into a space capsule. There, Joel gives her his real present: a tape recording of the Apollo 11 shuttle launch. Ellie closes her eyes and enjoys the closest thing she’ll ever experience to achieving her dream of going to space. This is an almost shot-for-shot adaptation of the most heartwarming sequence from the game, right down to Ellie’s space travel fantasy.
This trip to the museum, complete with the greatest birthday gift of all time, is a reminder of Joel’s best qualities.
So much of Ellie’s revenge storyline focuses on Joel’s worst mistakes. But this trip to the museum, complete with the greatest birthday gift of all time, is a reminder of Joel’s best qualities: he’s a really good dad. Unfortunately, on the journey back, Ellie is reminded of her distrust of Joel when she sees some fireflies buzzing around the woods.
Ellie's 17th Birthday - 2026
Ellie Moves Into The Garage
On Ellie’s 17th birthday a year later, Joel catches Ellie in a midday romantic tryst with her girlfriend Kat, who’s given her a tattoo. Joel handles the situation terribly, causing Ellie to move her stuff into the garage in an act of rebellion. Joel protests at first, but eventually relents. He convinces her to stay in the house long enough for him to make the garage livable with heat and electricity, but he agrees it might be a good thing for her to have her own space. This shows the rift starting to form between them.
Ellie's 19th Birthday - 2028
Joel Takes Ellie On Her First Patrol
Two years later, on Ellie’s 19th birthday, Joel finally relents and lets Ellie the patrol unit. He takes her on her first patrol and they’re called in to help Eugene, who’s been bitten by the infected. Eugene wants to go back to town and say goodbye to Gail before he turns, and Ellie thinks he has time. Joel sends Ellie to get the horses and swears he’ll grant Eugene’s request. But when Ellie comes back with the horses, Joel has killed Eugene. Ellie sees how easily Joel can lie to her and realizes he must’ve lied about the Fireflies.
New Year's Eve - December 31, 2028
Ellie Starts To Forgive Joel
The episode’s final flashback takes place at the New Year’s Eve party from the season premiere, nine months after Eugene’s death. This time, we see the scene from Joel’s perspective. After the incident with Seth, Ellie comes to see Joel on his porch. This is a composite scene of two flashbacks from the game. In the game, Ellie demands that Joel tell her the truth about what happened to the Fireflies years before she promises to try to forgive him on his porch the night before his death. But the TV show combines these flashbacks into one scene.
It was an economic choice to streamline the game’s storytelling for its TV adaptation, but it arguably weakens both scenes by cramming them together. In the game, Ellie has years to process the truth before she begins the path to forgiveness. But The Last of Us season 2, episode 6 condenses that to a matter of seconds, so Ellie’s forgiveness feels rushed. Still, the scene is played beautifully by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, as were all the episode’s other flashbacks.
The Last Of Us
- Release Date
- January 15, 2023
- Network
- HBO
- Showrunner
- Craig Mazin
Cast
Joel Miller
Ellie Williams
WHERE TO WATCH
- Directors
- Craig Mazin, Peter Hoar, Jeremy Webb, Ali Abbasi, Mark Mylod, Stephen Williams, Jasmila Žbanić, Liza Johnson, Nina Lopez-Corrado
- Writers
- Neil Druckmann, Craig Mazin
- Franchise(s)
- The Last of Us
- Creator(s)
- Craig Mazin, Neil Druckmann
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