Highlights
- The recharacterization of Joel in the TV series makes his death scene more believable and emotionally impactful.
- Pedro Pascal's version of Joel is softer and more vulnerable compared to the game version, making his brutal murder even sadder.
- Joel's death scene in the TV show has the potential to be even more heartbreaking and devastating than in the game due to the live-action performances.
The way that HBO’s The Last of Us TV series has recharacterized Joel means that the most infamous twist from The Last of Us Part II will actually land better in the adaptation. The Last of Us Part II notoriously hid the real focus of its narrative in its trailers so that players would be caught by surprise when, within the first couple of scenes, Joel is brutally murdered by Abby as payback for killing her father, the Firefly surgeon from the end of the first game. Joel’s death scene in The Last of Us Part II is sometimes criticized because audiences can’t buy that a cautious and cold-blooded character like Joel would let his guard down and immediately trust Abby and her group. But the TV version of Joel, played by Pedro Pascal, is a lot softer and more vulnerable, so the death scene will be more believable when it happens to him in season 2.
The original version of Joel seen in the games is a relentless killing machine who completely lost his ability to emote after losing his daughter Sarah on the day of the outbreak. Pascal’s version of Joel in the TV show is a lot more trepidatious about killing people (which arguably made his climactic massacre even more shocking) and freezes up in the face of life-threatening danger. This Joel suffers from regular panic attacks and worries he’s not strong enough to keep Ellie safe. He has a lot in common with his video game counterpart – they both take a long time to warm up to Ellie, they both did some horrible things to survive during the 20-year time jump between Sarah’s death and Ellie’s arrival, and they both eventually embrace their role as Ellie’s father figure – but, personality-wise, the TV version is a very different character. He’s wary of strangers, like when he first met Sam and Henry, but he’s friendlier than the game character once those strangers give him a reason to trust them (like Abby does when she seemingly saves Joel and Tommy from the advancing horde). When the HBO version of Joel stumbles across Abby and helps her escape from a horde of infected, it’ll make more sense that he let his guard down and opened himself up to a relative stranger. And since this Joel is softer and more sensitive, his blood-drenched beatdown at Abby’s vengeful hands will probably be even sadder than it was in the game.
The Last Of Us Season 2 Needs To Keep One Key Element Of The Game
HBO's The Last of Us will probably change a lot in adapting The Last of Us Part II for TV, but there's one key aspect the series needs to keep.
There’s been a lot of discussion about how The Last of Us season 2 will chop up the second game into episodes of television. One suggestion would see the Jackson flashbacks from Part II linearized into the second season so that the Ellie/Abby revenge narrative could take place in season 3. But there’s a lot wrong with this idea. A full season of Jackson flashbacks would have no real stakes or conflict, because Joel and Ellie lived comfortably for those four years (albeit while gradually drifting apart due to trust issues). Using the flashbacks to break up the vengeance storyline offers timely reminders of what Ellie’s fighting for, and reveals that Joel and Ellie’s relationship has become a lot more complicated in the years since the first game (which makes the revenge story even more complex and thought-provoking). But above all, Joel’s death needs to happen early on, because it gets Part II off to an unforgettable start and it tells the audience right away that this story won’t be what they expected.
Joel’s Death Scene Could Be Even More Heartbreaking In The Last Of Us TV Show
Joel’s death in The Last of Us Part II is one of the most heartbreaking moments in all of gaming. The look of horror and helplessness on Ellie’s face as she’s forced to watch combined with the brutality of Abby’s modus operandi (beating Joel to death with a golf club) combined with how shockingly early in the story his death takes place all conspired to make Joel’s death a truly devastating scene. No matter how many times fans play through the game, it’s impossible to watch that brutal murder and hear Ashley Johnson’s cries for mercy and not tear up. But the scene might be even more heartbreaking when it’s rendered in cinematic live-action in The Last of Us TV show.
The scene is really harrowing and tearjerking in the game, but the fact that the characters are CG animated figures creates an inherent emotional distance from the audience. When the scene is played out in the TV show by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, it could be even more horrifying. Seeing the blood-soaked bruising on Pascal’s real, tangible human face and seeing the terror and heartache and desperation and hopelessness expressed on Ramsey’s own human face will make this scene even more devastating than it was in the source material. Joel’s death is one of the most polarizing twists in gaming history, but it could land a lot better in the TV show.