A Shocking Twist, Even on HBO

[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for The Last of Us, Season 2 Episode 2, “Through the Valley.”]

Lately, it feels like Pedro Pascal’s been dying a lot on screen. That’s not a totally accurate statement on two levels. For one, characters like Fink the Fox from 2024’s The Wild Robot and The Mandalorian from The Mandalorian survived their narratives. More importantly, dying on screen has been a big part of Pedro Pascal’s resume from the beginning.

His first notable TV appearance, as an ill-fated college freshman in a 1999 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ended with him becoming a vampire and getting dusted by the titular heroine. And while it was Oberyn Martell’s flair as a character that made Pascal an instant hit with Game of Thrones fans in 2014, it was his shocking squishing during a duel that left the most lasting impression.

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Here we are, 11 years later, with a different HBO show but another beautiful corpse — well, as beautiful as it could be said to be, after Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) got through with Joel in the second episode of Season 2. This is not typically the point in a season of television where a show might kill off, y’know, one of its major protagonists. Episode 9 of a first season? Why not. (RIP, Ned Stark.) Episode 4 of a final season? Bold, but compelling. (Rot in hell, Logan Roy.) But so early in the season that we’ve barely gotten a taste of who Ellie and Joel are now… Unexpected barely covers it.

Unexpected, that is, if you didn’t play the games. When The Last of Us: Part II came out in the summer of 2020 (a very chill and normal time), the long-awaited sequel was critically acclaimed on a universal level. However, it also received a very chill and normal response from all kinds of irate fans who took issue with some of the game’s biggest choices — including the decision to kill Joel off relatively early in the game’s action.

Bringing that same choice to the TV adaptation is a bold one, especially given the degree to which Pascal has become a massive star over the past few years. Later in 2025, he’ll star in three very different big screen releases: the Celine Song romantic comedy Materialists, the Ari Aster contemporary Western Eddington, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps, marking the beginning of Pascal’s time as a key player in the MCU. Getting killed off in Episode 2 of the season is probably a big factor in him being able to film all of those projects, of course, but it’s hard not to imagine an HBO exec or two wondering out loud during a development meeting “But does he have to die?”

One imagines, though, that in that same development meeting, show creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann’s response was a firm “Yes.” Mazin in particular has been on the record since the beginning about wanting to stay faithful to the games, meaning that this was always where we were headed.

As someone who casually follows video game culture, I hadn’t played Part II but had read enough of the commentary around the game’s choices to be aware of what was coming. That said, I didn’t expect it to happen so soon in the season (again, Episode 2!), or for director Mark Mylod to so closely echo moments of the sequence as it happens in the game. (Should you wish to see how the game portrays it, there’s plenty of Part II footage on YouTube.)

“Through the Valley” isn’t a one-to-one recreation of the game’s narrative, though, because it adds a whole dang zombie incursion to the action, as the town of Jackson attempts to fight off a horde that includes some evolved variations on the Cordyceps monsters. (Most of) the town survives to fight another day, though it’s a bittersweet result, given the corpse being dragged back home at the episode’s end.

Joel’s death is without question a brutal moment for the series — while the body count might be lower, in terms of the emotional impact drawing comparisons to the Red Wedding might be accurate. Yet the most important themes of The Last of Us are all tied up in Abby’s actions, the biggest amongst them being the fact that our actions have consequences.

It’s a credit to everyone involved with the show that while this is a character death that’s been a known part of the established narrative since well before the TV show was ever greenlit, nothing about the execution feels rote. Viewers haven’t had much of a chance to get to know Abby yet, despite Dever being an immediately sympathetic actress. But from the opening scene of the season we knew that while she might be obsessed with getting vengeance, it’s not a petty or shallow obsession. Joel murdered Abby’s father, someone who from her perspective was a good man — a doctor literally trying to save humanity.

That’s something Joel did to save Ellie, and from his perspective it was the right choice. Because what The Last of Us forces us to confront, both in the game and now the show, is that neither Joel or Abby are terrible people — they’ve both made terrible choices, but for understandable reasons. Where Joel’s death takes the story will be revealed in the remaining episodes, but anyone doubting the show’s commitment to putting the whole game story on screen is likely silenced now.

All that being said, whether at the hands of an Equalizing Denzel Washington or in the arena during Gladiator II, watching Pedro Pascal die remains a viscerally painful experience, no matter how often we’ve seen it happen or how inevitable it might be. He’s just that charismatic and engaging a performer. As viscerally painful as Joel’s final moments were, though, and as sad and violent as the aftermath will likely be… It was the kind of tough choice the best, most serious dramas know how to make.

New episodes of The Last of Us premiere Sundays on HBO and Max.