Before this article gets started, there will be spoilers for season 2, epsiode 2 of HBO's The Last of Us!
The moment that made every video game fan lose their minds happened on its show. One of the greatest video game protagonists of all time, Joel Miller, was murdered similar to how it happened in the source material, The Last of Us video game. It wasn’t one of the various infected people, something calamitous, or old age. The consequences of his actions came back to bite him. Joel was killed by the daughter of the doctor he murdered at the end of season 1, Abby.
Fans of the video game knew it was coming, but maybe some hoped this would be one of the changes the creative team made. This could be the universe where Joel and Ellie live a long life in a world that has essentially ended. Sadly, it wasn’t the case. During HBO’s official podcast for The Last of Us, co-creator Neil Druckmann, director Craig Mazin, and Troy Baker (voice of Joel on the game) pointed out that this had to happen.
Why kill Joel?
Yes, believe it or not, killing off Joel wasn’t an impulsive move from the creative team of the source material. There was a method to what people may have called madness. But it was perfectly put by Craig Mazin, who isn't just part of the creative team. He's also a fan of the game. He goes on to explain why killing Joel was the right thing to do, saying, "Well, the easy part is the source material was correct." In terms of the game itself, Troy Baker talks about the moment they (he and Neil Druckmann) discussed killing Joel in the game. Neil says he told Troy, “So, Joel dies.”
"Because in the end, at some point, you have to take plot armor at some point. And if you’re going to tell a story about consequences, and if you’re going to tell a story about a man who does a terrible, terrible thing, for the best possible reason there is, then you need the world to provide feedback. And the feedback here is brutality."Craig Mazin
Troy recalls this moment, saying that he had to take a moment to process what he was just told and what he read in the script. As I'm writing this, it dawns on me that, in some ways, the game was killing Troy, too. Joel is a part of Troy's life, and he was just informed that part of him would die. After talking about that moment, Neil explains why it had to happen. "...it felt like there's somewhere further to still go, which is the idea of justice." He ended his talk about this with a profound point, "It wasn’t chasing some shock value. It’s what the story needed.”
"I remember playing it and experiencing it and feeling awful. But there is that difference between experiencing something, and feeling horrible because you loved somebody, and you're grieving for the loss of that person."Craig Mazin
And then there's Abby
People are either furious about what Abby did to Joel, or they understand. It's just like Joel’s decision to save Ellie. There’s rarely anyone in between on their decisions. Abby saw her father’s brains on the floor, and she knows who did it. How else was she going to react? She was going to get the means to find the person who ruined her life and make them pay. Neil Druckmann elaborates, saying, “Well, there’s something about grief plus injustice that is driving her a little mad, where it’s like, right, it’s infecting even her dreams. It’s a sort of infection.”
"Abby is torn apart by grief. And grief is a very specific thing. Grief is not justice. Grief is not vengeance. Grief is pain that is left when something that is entwined with you is ripped away."Craig Mazin
The upcoming episodes are the result of Joeil saving Ellie and Abby’s decision to be ruthless. As they point out on The Last of Us Season 2 Podcast, if Abby just shot Joel and left, Ellie may not embark on her revenge tour. Because of that, he rest of season 2 shows that love can make anyone do things that turn into hate and change who you are. Strap in because things get bad, bloody, and brutal.
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