“The Last of Us” season 2 is tough to watch at times. Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) brutally beats Joel (Pedro Pascal) to death in just the second episode. There are horrifying torture scenes in the war between the Washington Liberation Front (W.L.F.) and Seraphites. But perhaps no aspect of the season is darker than watching Ellie (Bella Ramsey) descend deeper and deeper into dissociated cruelty on her quest for vengeance.
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The motivation is entirely understandable, but that doesn’t make it any easier for us, or Dina (Isabela Merced), to watch. Ellie’s drive to kill Abby is complicated — it’s pure anger mixed with guilt that she and Joel never had a chance to fully mend their broken relationship. Ellie takes him with her in spirit on her journey to Seattle, where she employs a few of the tricks he taught her — including one seen multiple times in season 1.
Near the end of “The Last of Us” season 2, episode 7, Ellie comes upon Owen (Spencer Lord) and Mel (Ariela Barer), two members of Abby’s crew who helped her capture and kill Joel. They’re in the middle of a tense conversation regarding a plan to help extract Abby from a hostile zone and leave Seattle together, though Mel isn’t exactly a fan of the first part of the plan. With her gun trained on them, Ellie orders them to tell her where she can find Abby, using a method she learned from Joel to ensure the information is good. “Bring me that map,” Ellie commands Mel, telling her to point to the correct spot on it. “And then you’re going to do it,” she tells Owen, “and it better f****** match.”
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Joel’s map trick pops up numerous times in The Last of Us
In “The Last of Us” season 1, Joel uses this same map trick as both an intimidation tactic and a means of extracting information. He tries to use it against a harmless old couple shortly before he and Ellie reach Jackson, Wyoming, though the menace isn’t necessary. Later in the season, he uses the tactic again while torturing a pair of soldiers from a hostile survivor group — one led by the sadistic preacher David (Scott Shepherd), who captures and torments Ellie. While Joel gets the information he wants (Ellie’s location) in that scene, he actually doesn’t use the double-mark to confirm it. Instead, he kills the first man after he gives up Ellie’s location, then kills the second without even asking for confirmation, saying simply, “I believe him.”
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It’s almost a running (very dark) joke that this tactic never actually plays out the way it’s supposed to. That holds true when Ellie uses it at the end of “The Last of Us” season 2. Rather than getting the map, Owen reaches for a gun, and Ellie shoots him dead. The bullet blows right through him and into the pregnant Mel, ultimately killing her as well. It’s a horrific, tragic scene, and the fact that it evokes one of Joel’s darkest moves — one that only ever seemed to generate fear or bring violence, rather than resolving things peacefully — just adds to the effect.
Joel has rubbed off a lot on Ellie by the end of The Last of Us season 2
The map trick isn’t the only thing Ellie takes from Joel. Despite the divide that forms between them after she learns the truth about what he did to the Fireflies, they both grow to resemble one another. Joel takes on some of Ellie’s silliness, though that’s also likely a result of aging and finally living in a peaceful community. The glimpses we see of him at the beginning of “The Last of Us” season 2 show a much gentler man than the one in season 1, though his harshness in matters like the infection of Eugene (Joe Pantoliano) prove he’s still more than willing to be the one who makes the difficult calls.
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Ellie, for her part, embraces some of Joel’s grim worldview, which pushes her further down her own path of violence. This descent is also tied to her vendetta, twisting up his positive influence on her with a feeling of murderous obligation. Ellie knows that if she were the one killed, Joel would never rest until some kind of bloody justice had been served. If that weren’t the case, would she feel so strongly about hunting down Abby?
“The Last of Us” season 2 is now streaming in its entirety on HBO Max.