Oh my goodness. I can’t imagine there being a dry eye in the house after this emotional, beautiful episode of The Last of Us.

It’s good to see Joel again and get more about him despite his untimely demise early this season. We even get to see Pedro Pascal’s name and his silhouette at the end of the opening credits. If you were a fan of the games, you knew where this episode was going. However, surprise, surprise, we get some really great stuff that was exclusive for the show.

Starting with the opening, we actually get a flashback to Austin, TX in 1983. We meet a teenage Joel and Tommy. Joel was caught beating up a kid Tommy bought pot from, and Tommy is scared his strict father will be laying the smackdown on him. Joel, a protector from childhood, decides to take the fall and talk to their father. When Officer Miller comes home (Hi, Tony Dalton!), he confronts Joel and knows automatically that he’s lying, knowing it was Tommy that was in trouble. In a very emotional moment, he admits that he does go hard on the kids, but has tried to do better than his own father did on him. He asks Joel to do better than him someday with his own child. It’s a very emotional performance, with Dalton proving once more to Better Call Saul fans and beyond how incredible he is as an actor.

We flash to Ellie’s 15th birthday. Joel and Ellie have only been at Jackson for two months. He’s worked hard with Seth to procure a few things in exchange for some Legos he scavenged. Ellie comes home, with her arm burnt (we of course come to know that as the scar she procured to cover up her healed bite). He freaks out like a dad would. The relationship between Joel and Ellie is still innocently sweet. It’s a perfect father/daughter dynamic. He surprised her with a cake, and restored a gorgeous guitar for her, offering to teach her to play. This is where he performs “Future Days” by Pearl Jam (which I know will set our editor Keith on edge from anachronistic inconsistencies). We just have to assume Pearl Jam released the song in 2003 in this universe. The moment is bittersweet for The Last of Us fans because we know how meaningful it is to Joel and Ellie, but also how ironic the lyrics are knowing what happens between them, both physically and emotionally.

We cut to a year later, and we are presented with an *iconic* chapter of The Last of Us Part II, perfectly adapted. It’s Ellie’s 16th birthday, and Joel has surprised her by taking her to a museum. Just like the game, where you can climb the giant T-Rex statue at the front, and play with the dioramas, Ellie is like a kid in a candy store. It’s a stark reminder that she’s never seen anything like this due to the tragedy of growing up in a post-apocalyptic hell hole. Everything Joel has planned for her is incredibly, ridiculously sweet, and they’ve managed to bring to life my favorite moment from the game. Ellie, who is obsessed with space travel, gets to go into an actual space capsule. He lets her bust through an exhibit to pick out and wear a helmet and presents her with (by far the sweetest touch) a cassette tape of an actual space launch. She listens to it, and closes her eyes, imagining she’s the one taking off. It’s definitely the closest she’ll ever get to doing so now.

“Did I do okay?” Joel asks innocently. “Are you kidding me?” Ellie responds. Joel made it all happen. However, just as things couldn’t be happier, Ellie looks off and sees some actual fireflies in the distance, reminding her of some of the unresolved feelings and questions she has about the day they left Salt Lake City. Just like the game, Ellie is ecstatic and Bella Ramsey performs the scene with a bright eyed innocence that, when coupled alongside Pascal’s loving glances and tenderness, gives the episode the most heart and sweetness we’ve ever seen in this entire series. All of it just breaks your heart knowing what’s about to happen in just a few short years time. It’s an important scene to set up and they didn’t mess a single moment of it up.

One year later, we get another original moment. Joel walks in on Ellie, while she’s with another girl, who is giving her a tattoo. He freaks out, as any father would at a 17 year old with a visitor in her room. But we can start to see the cracks of teenage rebellion coming to life. The shock of finding out Ellie is gay should feel very familiar to those who have had to come out to more conservative families. It’s an interesting and terrific choice for Joel to assume she’s just “experimenting,” but Ellie knows who she is. As soon as the angst builds up, that’s when she makes the decision to move to the garage, as we saw in the opening episodes of Season 2. While it entices a conflict between the two, Joel loves her so much he agrees to help her move. However, the interesting thing is truthfully, Joel is living in a fantasy in which Ellie is his daughter, when the reality is she’s actually not. He even says the whole “this is my house” bit, when Ellie has to remind him “no it isn’t. You don’t own it. They gave it to you. Sorry. To *us.* You don’t own anything!” It might sound like teenage rebellion, but it’s also honesty, and a reminder to Joel about what their real situation is, including the fact that she isn’t his daughter.

The episode makes great use of Catherine O’Hara’s Gail. Joel goes up to her and asks about Ellie’s tattoo; a moth (“Is there a ‘Doctor is in’ sign on me like in f**king Peanuts?”). Gail says it symbolizes death, and we see Ellie’s been fantasizing about moths and drawing them wondering about her greater purpose. Again, as she grows up, the fantasy of them playing Daddy/Daughter is starting to shatter given the truth behind the real scenario about how they wound up together after what Joel did to the Fireflies.

This leads us to two years later. Ellie is now 19. This is not long before the events of the first two episodes of the season. Like in the game, Ellie is wondering about Salt Lake City and has questions for Joel. This is quite a departure from the game, in which she actually goes there by herself to find out the truth. In a way, it’s a bit more realistic than the game because, as Dina would be quick to remind you, Ellie going out on a cross-country adventure by herself would be a stretch. Instead, they give us Joel letting her go on her first patrol. It reminds Joel of the old days, and he insists for a second time, they should do this more often. However, unlike on her 16th birthday, Ellie’s less excited about that. She reminds him she’s not his kid, but his partner; a hard pill for him to swallow.

They get a distress call about a party that was attacked by infected. Among its members is Eugene (Joe Pantoliano) — Gail’s husband who we have only previously heard about, in regards to Joel having killed him. We finally get the story behind this. They find Eugene and, in addition to being the only survivor of the attack, he was also bitten. Joel is about to execute him on sight, but he begs to be able to say goodbye to Gail. Ellie, sympathetic to his cause insists Joel tie him up and take him back to do this, compassionately feeling they have time. She makes Joel promise to agree to this, and he does. She runs off, but Joel, much like the last promise he made to her, lies. He takes Eugene to a beautiful mountain view, before shooting him in the head. It is a beautifully acted moment for Pantoliano and Pascal, and beautifully shot with the gunshot never being heard, and the visual of a flock of birds flying being the only indicator of the deed being done, and the promise and a relationship being broken.

On the way back, Ellie silently cries (a brilliantly strong and silent moment from Ramsey). They arrive in Jackson, and Gail of course is devastated. Joel lies about the circumstances behind the shot, insisting that he ended it himself, but wanted Joel to tell her he loved her. It comforts Gail, but it’s all a lie, and Ellie knows it. Right in front of Joel, she tells Gail what really happened. How Joel promised, and how Eugene had time, but Joel killed him right then and there. The look on Pascal’s face at the betrayal is so earnest and sincere. You feel hurt for him, but you can’t say he doesn’t deserve it. All the lies Joel’s accumulated over the years, and the things he did while breaking promises to Ellie, would make anyone angry, and would destroy any relationship.

They flash forward to nine months later. Joel and Ellie’s relationship has not been the same, and it leads to the altercation at New Years, where Joel pushed down Seth, and Ellie yells at him, humiliating him in front of everyone. Seth was out of line in calling Ellie and Dina the “d” word, and Joel acted accordingly. However, it was humiliating for both of them, and leads to a moment which we only got half a scene originally. Joel’s on the porch playing the guitar and we think Ellie just ignores him, but that night she actually came back. This leads to, again, one of the best scenes in the game, but also one of the final ones. So it’s interesting that the show moves it up here, implying that they’re going to end Ellie’s half of the game’s story this season, and something different next.

The scene is as sweet on the show as it was in the game, and brilliantly performed by Ramsey and Pascal; truly a testament to the chemistry these two had, and the beauty of how this relationship was written. She finally confronts Joel about the lies regarding The Fireflies, and how he gave her the same look as the one on his face with Eugene. She tells him to confess, or they’re done. Pascal gives Joel a look of so much regret for the lie and the sins he committed, and they both start sobbing. It’s at this point I did too, and my heart was breaking. She yells that her life could have meant something, but Joel says that if he had to do it all over again, he would, because of how much he loves her. I don’t think the game even got as emotional as Pascal and Ramsey are performing it here. From this, given how Ellie commits to trying to forgive Joel, it really adds to how heartbreaking the scene is, considering what happens the following day.

We cut to the present day in Seattle, with Ellie, having committed one of the most horrifying acts she’s ever done with Nora in the previous episode. The juxtaposition between the darkness of that scene, and the beauty and strength of the love between Ellie and Joel is brilliant. It serves as a stark reminder that the strength that can be found in love can lift you up, but sometimes it can also destroy you. And for characters that know violence as well as Joel and Ellie, that reckoning was always bound to happen.

Overall Score for 2×06: A+

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We have decided to move forward with recaps for The Last of Us Season 2 on a week by week basis. Check out our recap of Episode 2×03 here, 2×04 here, and 2×05 here.

As someone who is passionate about the game and the series, I feel it’s our responsibility to do what we can to combat the often cacophonous sounds of online trolls review bombing a show that features beautiful themes and incredible representation for POC leads like Merced, Luna, Pedro Pascal, and more, as well as brilliant LGBTQ+ representation. It simply does not make sense for petty individuals to get away with trying to destroy a work of art just because they don’t love what it represents and the messages it’s trying to convey. So if you’re not a fan of what we’re trying to do here, you can simply ignore this. However, for those of you who feel as strongly as we do, about continuing to promote diversity and amazing story telling within the nerd community, I encourage you to buckle up. Because we’re going to go through this harrowing journey together over the next few weeks.

Stay tuned fans!