‘The Last of Us’ mourns Joel in latest episode, and sets up its new duo: ‘Now our 2 people are Dina and Ellie’
The following post contains spoilers about The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 3, “The Path.”
The Last of Us said goodbye to Pedro Pascal's Joel.
Sunday’s episode, titled “The Path,” opened in the direct aftermath of Joel’s death, with his brother, Tommy (Gabriel Luna), tending to his body in the makeshift morgue Jackson, Wyo., residents set up following the deadly infected attack.
As Tommy cleans Joel’s hands and takes notice of the watch Joel’s daughter, Sarah, fixed for her father for his birthday, just before she died during the initial stages of the pandemic, he has a simple request for his deceased brother: “Give Sarah my love.”
“I thought of that scene quite a bit. I call it the one-man wake,” Luna said in an interview with HBO released after the episode. “It was definitely a very long night shooting that scene.”
In another part of town at the hospital, Ellie is receiving care for her wounds after Manny (Danny Ramirez) kicked her in the stomach following Joel’s murder. She awakens with a startle and screams in agony. The episode then picks up three months later, with Ellie’s wounds having properly healed.
“Ellie is in pain,” co-creator Craig Mazin said in an interview with HBO. “We understand she’s in physical pain because she was really hurt. But more than that, it’s quite clear she hasn’t left that room in a way. She’s still on the floor watching it happen.”
Joel’s death and its impact on the people he knew occupy a significant portion of “The Path,” which contextualizes the shocking twist in a way that the source video game was unable to do.
“In the game, after Joel dies, because the mechanics of the game are very action-oriented, the mourning period is relatively short,” co-creator Neil Druckmann said to HBO. “Here, we can take almost an entire episode and really feel the loss of this character.”
That mourning period includes a scene of Ellie returning to Joel’s now-empty house and walking through every room. In a moment reminiscent of a similar scene in Brokeback Mountain, when Ellie sees Joel’s jacket hanging in the closet, she goes over to it, hugs it, and cries.
“Shooting the scenes in Joel’s house were sad, really sad,” Ellie actress Bella Ramsey told HBO. “There’s a couple of takes where I really cried into his jacket.”
While “The Path” leaves room for the audience to grieve the loss of Joel — and even includes a new credits sequence that removes the silhouette of Pascal from the animated opening — its title is indicative of the episode’s ultimate narrative goal: putting Ellie on a path to confront Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) and potentially take revenge on her for murdering Joel. After appealing to the town council to get a seal of approval to head out toward Seattle, where Abby has gone — information Ellie learned from Dina (Isabela Merced); more on her in a bit — Ellie takes matters into her own hands with help from Dina.
“Dina’s role for Ellie is vital because it acts as a balancing part of it or a voice of reason,” director Peter Hoar (“Long, Long Time”) said to HBO. “Is there another way, should we be thinking this differently? If it hadn’t been for Dina, this episode would have been very short.”
“Dina’s a ride or die,” Merced added. “Of course, Dina would plan it out and have a whole map situation. She supports Ellie through and through.”
In the back half of the episode, Ellie and Dina travel together to Seattle by horseback, growing closer as friends and potential romantic partners.
“We get the sense right away that Ellie’s force of spirit will be what drives everything forward. But it is Dina’s thoughtfulness, intelligence, and prudence that will keep them both alive,” Mazin said. “Here also on their path is a sense that their friendship is maybe more than friendship. Ellie is trying to figure it out. On the one hand, Dina sort of says it’s not. On the other hand, Dina kind of says it is. Hard to tell.”
“The two of them now are our pair,” Mazin added. “We are a show where two people are alone, getting from place to another. Now our two people are Dina and Ellie.”
“The Path” is a pivotal episode for Ellie’s growth because it’s the first time she’s existed in the present world of the show without Joel by her side.
“I think when Ellie loses Joel, she really becomes him and steps into his shoes,” Ramsey said. “He was her hero and her role model despite everything. It is basically like the equivalent of losing a father. It’s losing the only person she ever had, the closest thing to family she ever knew, it’s like losing her entire world. So, in that, she becomes him.”
The Last of Us airs weekly on Sunday night.