The Last of Us (HBO series), Episode 6: A Killer’s Twilight

Joel is not a good man. At least not the Joel of the last 20 years since the outbreak by cordyceps it brought out the survivor in him. Doing the unthinkable to survive and protect his brother Tommy, after failing to do the same with his daughter Sarah, he unleashed a different Joel than his loving father and brother. In episode 6 of The Last of Usthe HBO series continues the story three months after the final meeting with Henry and Sam in Kansas City.

Getting a little ahead of the events of the game, where they were barely in the fall, the trip to Jackson, Wyoming, catches up with Joel and Ellie in winter. We see a hydroelectric plant in the distance and it is in this that Tommy receives them in the game. However, the series decided to go even further and introduce us to the town, as in the first section of The Last of Us Part II. In this we know the quiet community where Joel’s brother lives with his wife, Maria. All playable shooting sequences at the hydroelectric power station and a nearby house are completely nullified by the series.

Instead, the episode serves mostly as a reflection for Joel, who sees how his health has progressively deteriorated. From before he already suffered from a heart condition. Now he has a constant post-traumatic stress disorder due to the death of his daughter two decades ago. These attacks leave him paralyzed and that he somehow sees his daughter reflected in Ellie doesn’t help at all. In her eagerness to protect him from her, Joel has reacted slowly on previous occasions, putting both their lives at risk.

Tommy meets his brother and knows what he has become. What the post-apocalypse has turned him into. She now has a stable life in Jackson with Maria and they are expecting a child. He doesn’t want to risk the safety of his family or get dragged back into the Firefly group he was once a part of. On the other hand, Joel feels that he is no longer capable of taking care of Ellie anymore and he entrusts her brother with the job of taking her to the University of Eastern Colorado as was her plan.

Although no one asked Ellie if it was what she wanted.

Joel is seen by most as a mercenary and murderer of this new world, who cannot be trusted. We cannot say that it is a lie. In reality, Joel lives haunted by the biggest mistake of his life, which was not being able to take care of Sarah as her father.. For her part, Ellie knows very well that Joel is not her adoptive father or a good man, but she has managed to see in him not a father figure, but the one person who has not abandoned her or loved her. matter and is dead.

They both need each other more than they think and it’s fate that they ended up together. Even if they don’t have blood ties and recognize that they are neither a father nor a daughter. In this world dominated by mushrooms, being together is the only way to survive as long as possible. Ellie’s immunity and Joel’s killing weapon are not self-sufficient. Tommy wouldn’t trade his new family for his old brother either, but he’s willing to help him and provide a home for both of them when Ellie and the Fireflies happen.

Both Pedro Pascal and Gabriel Luna give a heartfelt performance to Joel and Tommy. They are actors who have been making notable leaps in their careers and, like the Miller brothers, they can aspire to as many. Of course, Bella Ramsey is not far behind and in each episode she proves to have been the ideal choice for Ellie. In episode 6 of The Last of Us in particular, he replicates some lines from the game when he argues with Joel, which impact and empathize like the same character of Ashley Johnson with that of Troy Baker.

Since there is no conflict at the hydroelectric plant and Ellie does not briefly run away from Jackson, the series skips directly to Eastern Colorado University. This section was cut in the HBO series of The Last of Usno infected in sight (runners, clickers, another fatty). While searching for the Fireflies who have apparently left the college campus, Joel and Ellie spot muggers and try to sneak out.

This led in the game to another firearms confrontation inside the university, where Joel falls from a second story and is seriously injured by a puncture in the abdomen. It’s a sequence that gets longer – and painful for Joel – in the game, whereas in the series they both manage to escape and get away until Joel falls unconscious from loss of blood. Now it’s Ellie’s turn to protect him if they don’t want to be “left behind” in the next episode… you know, like the DLC. 🍄

contents of The Last of Us