If you were hoping for a miracle, I’m sorry. Joel Miller is gone.
The second episode of The Last of Us Season 2, titled "Through the Valley," finally went there. It did the thing. HBO officially pulled the trigger on the most controversial, keyboard-smashing moment in modern gaming history, and honestly? It felt even more personal this time around. Even if you saw it coming from a mile away because you played the 2020 sequel, the way Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann handled Joel death The Last of Us show was a massive departure from the source material in some really specific, gut-wrenching ways.
Let's be real. Watching Pedro Pascal—arguably the internet's favorite dad—get taken out is a lot different than watching a bundle of pixels meet his end.
The Setup: Why Jackson feels different now
In the game, Joel and Tommy are out on a routine patrol when they rescue a stranger named Abby from a literal sea of infected. It’s fast. It’s chaotic. They end up trapped in a lodge, and before you can even process that these "new friends" are actually a hit squad, Joel’s knee is gone.
The show flipped the script. Instead of Tommy being the one by Joel's side, we got Dina.
This change matters. In the show, Tommy is back in Jackson defending the gates from a massive horde (a sequence we never saw in the games, by the way). This leaves Joel out in the wilderness with Ellie’s new love interest, Dina, played by Isabela Merced. When things go south at the lodge, Joel isn't just fighting for himself; he’s trying to protect Dina. According to showrunner Craig Mazin, this was a deliberate choice to highlight Joel's "ultimate dad" energy. He wasn't going to let Dina get hurt to save his own skin. He surrendered because he had to.
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The "Golf Club" moment was weirder than we expected
We have to talk about the golf club. It’s the symbol of this entire franchise's trauma at this point.
In the game, Abby uses a Nine-Iron to slowly, methodically beat Joel to death. It’s a blunt-force nightmare. The show started that way—Kaitlyn Dever’s Abby definitely lands some heavy swings—but then the club breaks.
Instead of just grabbing another weapon or finishing him with her hands, the show’s version of Abby finishes the job by stabbing Joel through the neck with the jagged, broken shaft of the golf club. It’s a "gnarly" death, as some critics have called it, but it adds this layer of frantic, desperate violence that felt slightly more intimate than the game’s version. It wasn't just a "game over" screen; it was a messy, loud, and final exhale.
Why Abby's "Speech" changed everything
One of the biggest complaints about the game was that Joel never really knew why he was dying. He asks Abby who she is, and she just says, "Guess." He dies thinking he’s being killed by random hunters or maybe some leftover Fireflies, but the specifics are blurry.
The HBO series changed that.
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Abby actually monologues. She tells him exactly who she is. She brings up Salt Lake City. She mentions her father—the doctor Joel killed to save Ellie in the Season 1 finale. Watching Pedro Pascal’s face as he realizes the bill for his past sins has finally come due? That’s acting. He doesn't beg. He doesn't even look surprised. He just gives this tiny, heartbreaking nod of "Yeah, I figured this was coming."
The "Finger Twitch" that broke the internet
If the stabbing wasn't enough to ruin your week, the creators added one tiny detail that wasn't in the game. As Ellie (Bella Ramsey) is pinned to the floor, screaming for Joel to get up, we see Joel’s hand.
His fingers twitch.
He’s trying to move. He’s trying to reach for her. Director Mark Mylod mentioned that they spent a whole day on the floor trying to find the "perfect place of connection" for that shot. It’s a reminder that even in his final seconds, Joel wasn't thinking about his own pain or the Fireflies or his dead brother. He was just trying to be a father one last time.
Is Pedro Pascal really gone?
Technically, yes. Joel is dead. There’s no "Lazarus Pit" here, and this isn't a Marvel movie where he’s going to pop back up because of some multiverse glitch.
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However, fans of the story know that we haven't seen the last of him. Because the show is jumping around in time, we’re going to get some "supersized" flashbacks in the coming episodes. Episode 6 is rumored to be a massive dive into the five years between the two seasons, covering things like Ellie’s birthdays and the "Space Capsule" scene that gamers adore.
So, while the Joel death The Last of Us show is a permanent fixture of the timeline, Pedro Pascal will still be on our screens for a bit longer. He's just "flashback duty" now.
What happens next: The fallout in Jackson
The show is now pivoting from a survival story to a revenge thriller. With Joel buried in the outskirts of Jackson, Ellie is no longer the girl we knew in Season 1. She’s fueled by a level of rage that is honestly kind of terrifying to watch.
If you’re struggling with the loss of the lead character, here’s how to process what’s coming:
- Expect a tone shift: The show is going to get much darker. The "dad jokes" are over.
- Keep an eye on Tommy: In the game, Tommy goes on his own revenge quest. In the show, with his new son and the responsibilities of Jackson, his path might look a little different.
- Look for the nuance: The show is going out of its way to make Abby more human earlier than the game did. You might hate her now, but the writers are betting that by the end of the season, you’ll at least understand her.
Joel's death wasn't just a shock tactic; it was the "inciting incident" the story needed to move forward. It sucks. It’s brutal. But in the world of The Last of Us, nobody gets a happy ending—they just get an ending.
Next Steps for Fans:
If you want to prepare for what's coming, go back and re-watch the Season 1 finale. Pay close attention to the way Joel looks at the doctor in the operating room. That one moment is the entire reason Season 2 is happening. You might also want to look up the "Museum Flashback" from the game—it’s widely considered the best part of the story, and the show is expected to adapt it in the next few weeks.