SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses principal plot developments from Season 2, Episode 6 of “The Last of Us,” airing on HBO and streaming on Max (shortly to be HBO Max as soon as extra), along with the web recreation “The Last of Us Half II,” obtainable on Ps 4, Ps 5 and PC.
“The Last of Us” co-creator and authorities producer Neil Druckmann wasn’t sure which episode of the current’s second season that he wished to direct. For Season 1, he helmed the action-packed Episode 2, which was written by co-creator Craig Mazin, so he not lower than knew that this time, it have to be an episode he had a part in writing. That restricted Druckmann each to the season finale or the penultimate episode, every of which he co-wrote with Mazin and Halley Gross, his co-writer on Naughty Canine’s 2020 on-line recreation “The Last of Us Half II.” Each episode had strong selling components. The finale is, successfully, the finale, whereas Episode 6 is a flashback that covers how Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) turned so estranged from each other between the events of Season 1 and Season 2.
Lastly, it was Pascal who type of made the selection for Druckmann. Since Episode 6 constitutes his closing full episode of the gathering, the actor requested that Druckmann direct it. “It merely made sense,” Druckmann says. “I’m captivated with doing an episode that had no movement, which is kind of the inverse of what I did remaining time. So I merely felt like, this shall be an outstanding drawback.” Additional crucially for Druckmann, he realized that Episode 6 “is what the story is all about.”
Happening on Ellie’s birthday over successive years, the episode depicts how she and Joel, now completely a part of the tight-knit group of Jackson, Wyoming, have fallen right into a model new, uneasy rhythm as adoptive father and daughter. For her fifteenth birthday, Joel makes Ellie a cake and builds her a model new guitar, solely to have his plans turned the improper approach up after Ellie deliberately burns her arm the place she’d been bitten by an contaminated, so she might lastly placed on transient sleeve shirts as soon as extra. For her sixteenth birthday, Joel takes her to an prolonged forgotten pure historic previous museum that additionally has plenty of its reveals more-or-less intact, along with the home capsule from the Apollo 15 moon landing — almost exactly identical to the fan-favorite scene from the web recreation.
Bella Ramsey, Neil Druckmann and Pedro Pascal
Liane Hentscher / HBO
Points between them begin to bitter, nonetheless, on Ellie’s seventeenth birthday, when Joel walks in on her smoking weed whereas getting a tattoo from one different girl, Kat (Noah Lamanna), over the burn scarring on her arm. Joel is furious.
“So all the teenage shit suddenly,” he says. “Medicine and tattoos and intercourse and experimenting — with ladies?”
“It wasn’t intercourse,” Ellie retorts, equally incensed. “And it wasn’t a fucking experiment.”
Joel is incredulous, which solely fuels Ellie’s anger further. She requires to maneuver into the storage, and at last he relents and tries to make amends.
Two years later, on her nineteenth birthday, Ellie tries to psych herself as a lot as confront Joel about what truly occurred 5 years earlier on the end of Season 1, when Joel murdered almost the whole Fireflies in a Salt Lake Metropolis hospital to keep up them from killing Ellie to go looking out the remedy for the cordyceps an an infection — after which lied to Ellie about all of it. Sooner than Ellie can say one thing, nonetheless, Joel arrives and takes Ellie on her first patrol, the place they encounter Eugene (Joe Pantoliano), the weed-growing husband of Jackson’s resident therapist, Gail (Catherine O’Hara). Eugene has been bitten by an contaminated, and the foundations dictate that Joel ought to kill him on the spot, nonetheless Eugene pleads that he has ample time to make it once more to metropolis so he and Gail can say an accurate goodbye to 1 one other. Ellie forces Joel to adapt to Eugene’s request, and when she leaves to get their horses, he ensures her that he gained’t kill Eugene sooner than they get once more.
As quickly as as soon as extra, Joel’s lied. He knew there was little probability Eugene was going to make it once more in time, so to protect Ellie, Gail, and the rest of Jackson, he leads Eugene to a sexy lake and kills him.
After they ship Eugene’s physique once more to Gail, Joel lies to her as successfully. “He wished he might say goodbye to you specifically individual,” he says. “He wasn’t scared — he was brave, and he ended it himself.”
Ellie, seething, can’t take it anymore. “That’s not what occurred,” she pronounces, and tells the truth to a devastated Gail, who slaps Joel and begs him to go away.
Joel seems to be like at Ellie, shocked by what she’s achieved. She stares daggers at him: “You swore.”
9 months later, the current returns to Joel’s porch on the night time time sooner than he died, after Ellie kisses Dina (Isabela Merced) at Jackson’s New Yr’s Eve celebration and, to Ellie’s dismay, Joel defends them from the town’s resident homophobe, as seen throughout the season premiere. On this episode, after Ellie arrives dwelling from the celebration, the two lastly have it out about what truly occurred at that hospital in Salt Lake Metropolis.
“I’m going to give you as quickly as remaining probability,” Ellie says. “Do you have to misinform me as soon as extra, we’re achieved.” Joel can barely converse at first, nonetheless he confesses his crimes.
“Making a remedy would have killed you,” he says in tears.
“Then I was alleged to die!” Ellie says, crying too. “That was my goal! My life would have fucking mattered, nonetheless you took that from me!”
Joel, sobbing now, is resigned to the outcomes of his choices, nonetheless he doesn’t regret them. “If in some way I had a second probability at that second, I’d do it as soon as extra,” he says. “On account of I actually such as you. In a way you probably can’t understand.”
There’s an prolonged silence. “I don’t assume I can forgive you for this,” Ellie says. “Nevertheless I need to try.”
For anyone who has carried out “The Last of Us Half II,” the timing of this breathtaking scene between Joel and Ellie is beautiful, as a result of it comes on the very end of the game, after far more has transpired for the whole characters. Druckmann outlined to Choice why he, Mazin and Gross chosen to maneuver that scene thus far up for the current. He moreover talked about what guided their keen in regards to the model new scenes between Joel and Ellie on her birthdays, his emotional response to seeing locations from the game created in precise life — and what occurred when O’Hara disagreed collectively along with his course for the scene whereby Gail slaps Joel.
Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in Season 2 of “The Last of Us.”
Liane Hentscher / HBO
How did you resolve on what new scenes you wished to include throughout the improvement of Joel and Ellie’s relationship, like Ellie burning her arm or Joel actually developing the guitar?
We wished this episode for Ellie to go looking out out definitively that Joel lied. Throughout the recreation, we did in a very completely completely different method, the place she traveled all the easiest way once more to the hospital and positioned documentation. It felt like we may be stretching the reality of the world and the best way dangerous it’s on the current as compared with the game. However as well as, paperwork and exploring that home, I don’t know if that makes as compelling of a drama for a TV current. The engine for the current is a little bit of completely completely different than the engine for an interactive experience. So that ultimately led to the whole Eugene sequence.
On account of we have now been spending additional time in Jackson than we have now been throughout the recreation, we obtained right here up with way more ideas than what ended up throughout the current. Nevertheless each a sort of was vetted by this lens of the arc we wished, the place they start out on this lots higher place. They know there’s a lie, nonetheless they’re making an attempt to maneuver earlier it, after which this issue merely weighs on them and their relationship. Each step you’re feeling choose it’s pushing them apart. That was essential issue that we might have appreciated out every sequence, to drill that dwelling.
How did you arrive at Joel having a troublesome time accepting that Ellie is gay at first?
It started with dialog throughout the recreation, which was, Joel is oblivious, and errors Ellie’s friendship with Jesse for one factor additional. I take into account that’s one factor Halley wrote — it’s so approach again now, I overlook. We truly wished to keep up that proper right here, after which take it a step further. He finds out [Ellie is gay] throughout the recreation when she kisses Dina on the dance floor. Proper right here, it felt like there’s an opportunity to point additional of Ellie’s evolution of becoming an adolescent in Jackson, and for that misunderstanding to create additional of a rift between them. However as well as current evolution, forgiveness, movement — you could actually really feel how lots Joel is making an attempt.
He’ll get points flawed. It’s the first time he’s [parenting] an adolescent at this age, nonetheless he’s making an attempt to accommodate all the points that Ellie wants. She must maneuver to the storage, and even supposing he doesn’t want her to, he gives it to her. She’s going to get this tattoo, and she or he does treatment, and it infuriates him. After which he’s her tattoo, and he says, This seems to be like larger than the one I’ve achieved on the guitar. He’s making an attempt. She must go on patrols, and at last he yields on that. Practically each factor she wants, he gives it to her, and it’s on no account ample, on account of ultimately their friction shouldn’t be about any a sort of points.
Liane Hentscher / HBO
When Joel gives Ellie her guitar, he sings the Pearl Jam observe “Future Days,” which he moreover does throughout the recreation. That observe was launched in 2013, when the pandemic begins throughout the recreation, nonetheless on the current, it begins in 2003. So I’ve to ask how Joel might know that observe if it was on no account written?
Correctly, I’m uncertain when it was written. You’d must ask Eddie Vedder that. Nonetheless, it did come out to most of the people in 2013, and it’s anachronistic in that it mustn’t exist in our timeline. Initially, as soon as we have now been making this episode, there would have been a novel observe. As we have now been exploring it, merely felt like we have now been prioritizing the flawed issue, this timeline of events and when points might be obtainable. Clearly, we’re not within the similar timeline as our universe, so now we have now some leeway. And that observe felt so important. On account of it was throughout the recreation, on account of it has lots affiliation, not only for followers, nonetheless even for myself, we modified course. The issue that we thought we cared about, we ultimately didn’t care about, and the emotional actuality of the observe was additional important than the timeline actuality of the world that we dwell in.
I was truly surprised that you just simply included Ellie and Joel’s closing dialog on this episode, on account of it’s the closing scene throughout the recreation — it’s identical to the emotional reward you get for ending. Was {{that a}} laborious willpower to make?
No. After we have now been making the game, I knew that scene must exist. I didn’t know the place it goes. That was true for all the flashbacks. Even pretty late in manufacturing of the game, we have now been transferring these flashbacks spherical. In talking about it with Craig, it’s the first time I truly thought regarding the time between seasons. A whole lot of writing is about ups and payoffs, and we’d have set certain points up that receives a fee off years later. That felt too prolonged, significantly on account of this season focuses lots on Ellie’s journey and this emotional actuality of what did she know? What didn’t she know? To attend additional years until Season 3 will come out — or even perhaps Season 4, it depends upon the place all the events land and what variety of seasons now we have now — I was merely glad by Craig that that will probably be too prolonged.
It was a day’s worth of dialog of us wrestling with it. The way in which through which I work is, when a suggestion like that’s made, I say, “Let’s play it by.” I merely assume that it’s proper, after which we play it by and by no means solely talk about this season, nonetheless communicate regarding the future seasons, after which say, does it make sense? If the reply is certain, we associate with it. If the reply isn’t any, we each maintain wrestling with it until we uncover one different decision, or we merely return to the best way it was throughout the recreation.
I take into consideration now this impacts how your keen about how the current goes to complete?
[Long pause] That’s correct.
Liane Hentscher / HBO
How did you technique directing the scene the place Joel lies to Gail, which crystallizes for Ellie that he lied about what occurred throughout the hospital?
We knew we had this Eugene thriller, and we had so many iterations on it of merely what that sequence have to be about. There have been variations that had all this movement and stopping and taking footage contaminated, and much smaller variations. It went from me to Hallie to Craig, from me to Hallie to Craig. It merely didn’t actually really feel correct for a really very long time, until we landed on him lying to her about killing Eugene. after which each factor merely fell into place, as far as, like, Oh, this is how she’ll know. It felt like such a dramatic method for her to find out points out.
As far as taking footage that scene, if no one knew the lie, what I like about that scene is he’s being very considerate. Would that you must inform Gail that he wished to see her, almost on this pitiful method, and I nonetheless wanted to place him down, on account of these are the foundations, and that’s the easiest way to keep up you safe? Usually you could buy the argument that the lie is more healthy than the truth, correct? Nevertheless for Ellie, it wasn’t, resulting from each factor else that has come sooner than, on account of she seen that he betrayed her perception. That meant additional than merely this second, it meant that each factor that Ellie was apprehensive about, the survival guilt that she’s felt all the easiest way once more to Season 1 of needing to justify Riley’s demise and Tessa’s demise and Henry and Sam and all these people who died alongside the easiest way so that one factor good can come of it on the end. It’s almost in that second she realizes nothing good obtained right here out of it. That’s not utterly true, nonetheless that’s how she feels about it. So it was merely important that all the actors knew the truth they’re going into it, and for it to be genuinely beautiful.
If I might, I merely must sing Catherine O’Hara’s praises.
Please do!
It was one amongst my favorite directing moments. Throughout the scene, she slaps Joel, after which in his shame, he’s alleged to take plenty of steps once more. We’ve been struggling with it. It merely felt artificial. It felt rehearsed. Initially, there have been no strains of dialogue for that little second. I went to Catherine, and said, “I imagine we have now to do one factor else proper right here. I don’t know what. What if, like, his proximity to this physique is in some way desecrating it now that the truth, and if you need, you could yell at him to get away?” And she or he’s like, “Oh, I’m not so sure. I like the beauty of there being no dialogue.” And I’m like, “Please, merely try it. If it doesn’t work, we’ll return to the other mannequin. Nevertheless I on a regular basis like experimenting, merely shaking it up in the end.” So I requested her to yell to get away. I assumed that can encourage Pedro [to step back]. In its place, she almost did the choice. It was so beautiful. She goes inside [herself] and begins sobbing, and begs him to please get away on this very easy spoken voice. I’m like, Oh, my God, that’s so lots higher than what I requested for. It’s a sort of beautiful moments of collaboration, the place I requested for one factor, she internalized it, made it one factor else, and it’s larger resulting from it. That’s the take you see throughout the episode.
Speaking of Gail, we on no account actually get to see her together with Eugene. Did you uncover depicting their relationship the least bit?
We didn’t. Pretty early on, we talked regarding the tragedy of that. We had a dialog about Episode 1 the place, like, “Should there be a picture of the two of them of their dwelling?” “No, merely the sneakers.” That’s the one sense you see, his sneakers subsequent to her sneakers. Usually these are my favorite moments in storytelling, these gaps the place we perception you as a viewer to fill in that relationship. You probably can picture them smoking weed collectively and doing all this stuff, nonetheless we felt like for this story, we didn’t need to point out.
Neil Druckmann and Bella Ramsey on the set of Season 2 of “The Last of Us.”
Liane Hentscher / HBO
Lastly, the whole sequence on the museum so intently resembles the best way it seems to be like throughout the recreation, all the best way right down to the usual of the mist throughout the air. What was it like so as to step into an precise, tactile home that you just simply’d spent loads of your life keen about as solely pixels?
I haven’t found the phrases to clarify this sense. It’s so surreal. I can’t even inform you why I get so emotional as soon as I’m on these items. The first time I walked on set, I was in Joel’s dwelling with Hallie, my co-writer on the game and was the other co-writer on the current on this episode as successfully. We’re like, take a look at this consuming room! That’s the place throughout the recreation, Maria talks to Ellie and Dina, and it seems to be like exactly the similar. Every set felt like that.
This [museum] set significantly, the day we’re taking footage this, I had two visitors from Naughty Canine, Arne Meyer, who’s our heads of communication, and Alison Mori, who’s my affiliate in working the studio. They obtained to see a part that we discover your self slicing from the episode, additional throughout the dinosaur museum. I’m like, embrace me, and we stroll by this darkish hallway with stars, and we obtained to the home capsule, and I’m like, “Look at this.” I’m emotional, nonetheless I’ve been seeing it as a result of it’s been constructed. I take a look at them, and they also every have tears of their eyes. This issue that we labored so laborious to good in digital varieties with pixels on a flat show display screen, now you could stand in it, you could go into it, you could contact it. All the buttons are working. The seats are precise. They creak everytime you sit in them. It felt like we went into the game. It’s this truly improbable feeling to know that this unimaginable crew that I labored with dealt with the availability supplies with such reverence. It truly moved us to tears.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
