Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 2.
Pedro Pascalhas died on screen before, and some of those deaths were just as violent and gruesome as in this week’s episode ofThe Last of UsSeason 2, “Through the Valley.” (RememberGame of Thrones? Some viewers may have thoughtit was too much, but, unfortunately, the depiction of Joel’s death is a necessary plot point of this adaptation ofThe Last of Us, and it isn’t about gratuitous violence and gore. Instead, it’s about being true to one of the most important unspoken rules of storytelling:if someone dies, you’ve got to show a body. This rule has been broken far too many times recently, and now we’re reminded of why it’s important.
Too Many Character Deaths Have Been Reversed in Movies and TV Recently
This rule may sound absurd to someone who’s unfamiliar with how storytelling works — ifsomeone is dead, they’redead, right? That’s how it works in our world, where seeing our loved ones after they pass is an important part of the grief cycle.You lose someone you love, so you have to see them and bury them to move on. But fictional stories have used the apparent death of a character to sidestep this
Gandalf (Ian McKellen) inThe Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ringis one of the more well-known examples. He falls into a fiery chasm with a Balrog thrice his size, but we don’t see a body, so there’s a possibility he could come back.Fast & Furioushas played fast-and-furiously-loose with this rule over the years, using the argument of not showing a body onscreen to justify the return of characters like Han (Sung Kang) and Gisele (Gal Gadot), who should have remained dead.Instead of a storytelling rule, itbecomes a gimmickto justify the absurdat best and a cash-grabbing attempt at worst.
Of course,storytelling rules can also be bent for shocking or dramatic effect sometimes, and reversing a character’s deathmay work very wellin this sense. Jon Snow’s (Kit Harington) return was one of the best moments on 2010s TV, and while his body does appear onscreen, it works within the rules ofGame of Thrones. Darth Maul (Ray Park) is literally cut in half inStar Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menaceand comes back later on inStar Wars:The Clone Wars, and we all overlook how absurd it is because it makes the series better. When it comes toThe Last of Us, however, viewers need to know that this isn’t a death that can be reversed.
Joel’s Death Can’t Be Undone in ‘The Last of Us’
Ironically,The Last of Usliterally shows dead people coming back as zombies, but thankfully, that won’t be the case with Joel. Not only is he not bitten, but we’re also not spared from seeing Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) thoroughly beat him with a golf club, and the episode makes a point to show us his body once she’s finished. The moment is made all the more dramatic when Ellie (Bella Ramsey) bursts into the room.She pleads for Joelto get up, and, for a moment, it almost seems like he might, butafter Abby delivers the killing blow, it’s clear he’ll never rise again.
The series actually goes beyond the game when it comes to portraying Joel’s tragic death. InThe Last of Us: Part II, Joel is beaten by Abby while Ellie watches, but we only hear the final blow, while the shot itself lingers on Ellie’s face. That’s the last we ever see of Joel, chronologically speaking, and we don’t see his body. The series, however, makes a point of showing us Ellie, Dina (Isabela Merced), and Jesse (Young Mazino) returning to Jackson with Joel’s body.This immediately puts to bed any weird conspiracy theories that fans might come up with, and establishes that, although there may be differences between the game and the series, they are bothThe Last of Us, and Joel’s death is a canon event.
“It’s Supposed to Make You Feel a Lot”: ‘The Last of Us’ Bella Ramsey on Season 2’s Emotional Roller Coaster and Evolving Infected
Ramsey also talks about the frustration and distance Ellie is experiencing when it comes to Joel.
What this means is that, like the game, the series is also about finding humanity in the darkest of times, and those moments are often related to losing someone we love. Season 1 was about Joel getting a second chance with Ellie after he lost his daughter, Sarah (Nico Parker), 20 years earlier, and, now,it’s about Ellie coping with the loss of the only person she could ever call family. It matters that she saw her surrogate father’s body, because now she’s starting her own journey of grief. Otherwise, she and the audience might have thought that Joel was being kept prisoner somewhere.
Will Joel Return in Some Form in ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2?
As dead as Joel may be in the present day, though, this isn’t the last we’ll see of him in Season 2, asmany trailershave revealed multiple scenes with him that haven’t played out in the series yet.Those appear to all be flashbacks, and, like in the games, we’ll still see plenty of Joel in them. So far, there are scenes involving Joel and Ellieplaying the guitartogether, as well as traveling to an abandoned museum, Joel looking at Ellie’s tattoo, and Joel discussing the significance of a moth for Ellie withGail(Catherine O’Hara).
Regardless of whether these scenes are in the game or not, flashbacks are a tool that both the game and the series use very intelligently to bring us more Joel. He’s a beloved character, and no one wants him to just vanish. Instead,these flashbacks can serve the purpose of tackling Ellie’s emotions and overall condition after losing Joel. In other words,flashbacks are memories, and that’s how we preserve the love we have for those who have already left us. They’ll also serve to help viewers cope with their death as much as they help Ellie, and it makes for some beautiful storytelling.The Last of Usis also about grief, and seeing Joel in those flashbacks may allow viewers to celebrate what’s good about him, regardless of all the bad he may have done.
Season 2 ofThe Last of Usis streaming on Max. New episodes air weekly on Sundays.
