If you’ve just come from the latest episode of The Last of Us… my thoughts and prayers are with you.
Through the Valley showed off that new season budget to its full potential, with a swarm of Infected raging war on the sanctuary of Jackson, Wyoming. However, you may have been more preoccupied by another explosive plot. Fans of the original game, The Last of Us Part II, knew this was coming… but perhaps not this soon.
MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE LAST OF US SEASON 2 BELOW
When Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) was introduced to us in episode 1, we knew she was out for vengeance, and she got it.
After accidentally triggering a huge group of Infected, she found herself at an abandoned school. She nearly got bit during a harrowing moment as she was barricaded in by a horde, but she was saved… by the person she and her team had been hunting for – Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal).
She led him back to the lodge where her team were waiting, and together they ambushed the hunter. By the time Ellie (Bella Ramsey) had found his location, her father figure was already beaten to a pulp, ready to be finished off.
The ending shot of Jesse and Ellie dragging Joel’s body behind on a horse makes his death pretty final.
While Joel also dies in the games, there were key differences I picked up on for the show. If you’re curious, keep on reading.
Joel was with Dina, not Tommy
One of the biggest notable changes was that Joel was patrolling with Ellie’s flame Dina, and not his brother Tommy.
Presumably, this was so the episode could showcase Tommy defending an attack on his town – a sequence so action-packed it put Game of Thrones’ The Long Night to shame. And of course, so he could have that one-on-one battle with a Bloater.
Otherwise, the events pretty much went down the same. When Abby shoots Joel in the leg, in the games Tommy is knocked out by being clocked around the head several times, while Dina is instead drugged by an injection.
Liane Hentscher/HBO
Abby’s golf club killing blow was different
When I saw the golf clubs casually resting against the wall, I had a pretty good idea what was coming. Abby’s ferocious attack on Joel was largely the same, but there was one key difference at the end.
Rather than delivering a final, crushing hit to the head, she stabs him in the neck. I can’t really decide what’s worse. My sister made me aware that this death is referred to online as a ‘Joel in one’, which – ouch.
What came afterwards was perhaps the most heartbreaking change.
Liane Hentscher/HBO
Ellie wasn’t knocked out
In the original story, when Abby hits Joel one last time, Ellie struggles to break free and ultimately ends up knocked out by being kicked in the head by Jordan.
Instead, director Mark Mylod decided to keep her awake as Abby and her crew rush out of the lodge.
Devastated and dazed, she crawls over to Joel’s body and holds him one last time. Knowing how their previous interactions had been, it makes the ending all the more tragic.
Liane Hentscher/HBO
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