[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for The Last of Us, Season 2 Episode 2, “Through the Valley.”]
Recently, it looks like Pedro Pascal’s been dying so much on display screen. That’s not a completely correct assertion on two ranges. For one, characters like Fink the Fox from 2024’s The Wild Robotic and The Mandalorian from The Mandalorian survived their narratives. Extra importantly, dying on display screen has been an enormous a part of Pedro Pascal’s resume from the start.
His first notable TV look, as an ill-fated faculty freshman in a 1999 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ended with him turning into a vampire and getting dusted by the titular heroine. And whereas it was Oberyn Martell’s aptitude as a personality that made Pascal an immediate hit with Recreation of Thrones followers in 2014, it was his stunning squishing throughout a duel that left probably the most lasting impression.
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Right here we’re, 11 years later, with a unique HBO present however one other stunning corpse — effectively, as stunning because it may very well be stated to be, after Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) acquired by with Joel within the second episode of Season 2. This isn’t sometimes the purpose in a season of tv the place a present would possibly kill off, y’know, one in every of its main protagonists. Episode 9 of a primary season? Why not. (RIP, Ned Stark.) Episode 4 of a closing season? Daring, however compelling. (Rot in hell, Logan Roy.) However so early within the season that we’ve barely gotten a style of who Ellie and Joel at the moment are… Sudden barely covers it.
Sudden, that’s, should you didn’t play the video games. When The Final of Us: Half II got here out in the summertime of 2020 (a really chill and regular time), the long-awaited sequel was critically acclaimed on a common stage. Nonetheless, it additionally obtained a really chill and regular response from all types of irate followers who took situation with a number of the sport’s greatest decisions — together with the choice to kill Joel off comparatively early within the sport’s motion.
Bringing that very same option to the TV adaptation is a daring one, particularly given the diploma to which Pascal has turn out to be a large star over the previous few years. Later in 2025, he’ll star in three very completely different huge display screen releases: the Celine Track romantic comedy Materialists, the Ari Aster modern Western Eddington, and The Unbelievable 4: First Steps, marking the start of Pascal’s time as a key participant within the MCU. Getting killed off in Episode 2 of the season might be an enormous think about him having the ability to movie all of these initiatives, after all, however it’s arduous to not think about an HBO exec or two questioning out loud throughout a growth assembly “However does he have to die?”
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The Final of Us (HBO)
One imagines, although, that in that very same growth assembly, present creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann’s response was a agency “Sure.” Mazin specifically has been on the file because the starting about wanting to remain devoted to the video games, which means that this was at all times the place we had been headed.
As somebody who casually follows online game tradition, I hadn’t performed Half II however had learn sufficient of the commentary across the sport’s decisions to concentrate on what was coming. That stated, I didn’t anticipate it to occur so quickly within the season (once more, Episode 2!), or for director Mark Mylod to so intently echo moments of the sequence because it occurs within the sport. (Must you want to see how the sport portrays it, there’s loads of Half II footage on YouTube.)
“By way of the Valley” isn’t a one-to-one recreation of the sport’s narrative, although, as a result of it provides a complete dang zombie incursion to the motion, because the city of Jackson makes an attempt to battle off a horde that features some advanced variations on the Cordyceps monsters. (Most of) the city survives to battle one other day, although it’s a bittersweet outcome, given the corpse being dragged again house on the episode’s finish.
Joel’s demise is with out query a brutal second for the collection — whereas the physique rely could be decrease, by way of the emotional affect drawing comparisons to the Pink Wedding ceremony could be correct. But a very powerful themes of The Final of Us are all tied up in Abby’s actions, the most important amongst them being the truth that our actions have penalties.
It’s a credit score to everybody concerned with the present that whereas this can be a character demise that’s been a recognized a part of the established narrative since effectively earlier than the TV present was ever greenlit, nothing in regards to the execution feels rote. Viewers haven’t had a lot of an opportunity to get to know Abby but, regardless of Dever being an instantly sympathetic actress. However from the opening scene of the season we knew that whereas she could be obsessive about getting vengeance, it’s not a petty or shallow obsession. Joel murdered Abby’s father, somebody who from her perspective was a superb man — a physician actually making an attempt to save lots of humanity.
That’s one thing Joel did to save lots of Ellie, and from his perspective it was the proper alternative. As a result of what The Final of Us forces us to confront, each within the sport and now the present, is that neither Joel or Abby are horrible folks — they’ve each made horrible decisions, however for comprehensible causes. The place Joel’s demise takes the story will probably be revealed within the remaining episodes, however anybody doubting the present’s dedication to placing the entire sport story on display screen is probably going silenced now.
All that being stated, whether or not by the hands of an Equalizing Denzel Washington or within the enviornment throughout Gladiator II, watching Pedro Pascal die stays a viscerally painful expertise, irrespective of how usually we’ve seen it occur or how inevitable it could be. He’s simply that charismatic and interesting a performer. As viscerally painful as Joel’s closing moments had been, although, and as unhappy and violent because the aftermath will seemingly be… It was the form of powerful alternative the most effective, most critical dramas know the way to make.
New episodes of The Final of Us premiere Sundays on HBO and Max.