This is a recap and review of the sixth episode of the second season of HBO’s The Last of Us. Expect spoilers for season 1 and game 1 (and the episode itself, of course), but also some references to and comments about the second game (though without spoilers).
In the sixth and penultimate episode of the second season — titled The Price — we get multiple flashbacks to various birthdays, as we see how the Joel (played by Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (played by Bella Ramsey) dynamic and relationship changed over the years in Jackson. The Price was written by Craig Mazin (Chernobyl), Halley Gross, and Neil Druckmann, and directed by Neil Druckmann, the co-creator of the games.
Cold open adds new layers to our understanding of Joel
There is a wide variety of opinions on this show adaptations of The Last of Us: Part II. Some are understandable fan or viewers’ criticisms, even if they are nitpicky, while others represent the worst corners of the internet, a toxic but vocal minority, with their reviewbombing and the like. However, one thing that I think game-first viewers will all agree on is that the showrunners have made some smart decisions in their additive cold opens this season. There’s the way the show tried to expand on the Isaac character, there’s the way the show introduced spores, and then there’s what happens this episode. In these instances, show inventions have greatly improved our understanding of the world or enhanced the experience of watching the show by adding a game element that was sorely missing.
This episode opens with Joel and Tommy as they are very young, and it sees Joel promise his brother that he will defend him and prevent him from getting beaten by their father, here played really well by Tony Dalton. Joel and Tommy’s relationship and shared history are things that longtime fans of the universe have long wanted to see more of, and here, in game co-creator Neil Druckmann’s episode, we get exactly that. Essentially, when Tommy tried to buy marijuana, he was ripped off, and Joel got into a fight as he was trying to help his younger brother. Knowing that they usually get beaten by their father when they act out, Joel insists he will take the fall for it, but when their father — who, we learn, is a cop — comes home, it becomes clear that he knows exactly what happens. Joel then grits his teeth and insists that he won’t let their father hurt Tommy, and, in the blink of an eye, Dalton plays this moment with such subtle heartbreak. His character, Javier Miller, goes over to grab two beers, sits down, and drinks with his eldest son as he explains how he, too, was a victim of beatings by his father, their grandfather. Javier sees a bit of himself in Joel and his insistence on speaking up, and it absolutely kills him, which is why he doesn’t punish him (at least not from what we see). Instead, he tries to tell his son that he doesn’t know what he is doing and that he is just trying to do “a little bit better” than what he got from his own father (something that comes back late in the episode, when Joel says it to Ellie). It’s a powerful moment that speaks to something quite relatable, which is this idea that you always think you will try to iron out the issues that you may or may not see with a certain individual’s parenting styles once you get the chance. But what Javier is saying here is that 1) maybe he didn’t accomplish that, and 2) if he did, then it’s only by a small amount, which is heartbreaking. He passed on his own hurt to Joel and Tommy. It’s one of the best moments this entire season, and it’s arguably the show’s best invention.
Future Days
On the other side of the title sequence, we see a number of flashbacks, almost all of which are set around Ellie’s birthday, and, from year to year, we see how their relationship gradually grew into something richer or, as is the case with some birthdays, started to deteriorate. The first of these is her 15th birthday. We get some strong setup with Joel buying a birthday cake and the tools necessary to build her birthday gift, and how does he buy this from Robert John Burke’s Seth? He hands him a big band of LEGOs, which, as I am Danish, put a huge smile on my face.
In and around this birthday, we also see the immediate aftermath of Ellie intentionally burning her arm to cover her bite mark, which leads to Joel really comforting her as if she were his own daughter, which is nice to see. We also finally get to see Joel play the guitar — “some people call this thing a gee-tar,” — and sing Pearl Jam’s “Future Days” to her. Pascal’s emotional, almost spoken word performance of the song is packed with emotion — he’s opening up to her. And it’s so nice to see Bella Ramsey react to it.
“Did I do OK?”
We then jump to her sixteenth birthday, and we see Joel and Ellie walking through the forest as the latter of the two is trying to guess what the reveal will be. She actually does guess “dinosaur,” which is fun, but the early scenes in this section also highlight how clueless Joel is about Ellie’s sexuality, as he thinks she’s got a thing for Jesse. No, Joel, you don’t have a good eye for that sort of thing, it turns out.
Anyway, eventually, you see Ellie’s face light up as, yes, he took her to see a giant dinosaur. This scene is such a terrific showcase for how good Bella Ramsey is at playing Ellie when she is younger and more excitable. Joel also clearly gets a lot of happiness out of this gift-giving, this act of love. After Ellie is done climbing on top of the giant T Rex statue, they go to a nearby museum where Joel’s real gift reveals itself. Joel has prepared the various instruments at the museum to work for Ellie to obsess over the space area of the museum. Previous episodes have highlighted her interest in space, and here Joel gives her a chance to put on an astronaut’s helmet and enter a real Apollo module. Once inside, Joel gives her a tape, which he asks Ellie to play as she keeps her eyes closed. Incredibly, Joel has found a tape of the Apollo 11 liftoff that he wants Ellie to listen to so that she can imagine herself going up. Kudos to the production crew on turning this moment of imagination into a full experience for her, like it is in the game. Indeed, this is all taken straight from the game, and it is one of the most iconic moments therein.
Yes, Joel, you, indeed, did more than merely an ‘OK’ job with this birthday. Again, Pascal is so good at playing his character’s reaction. His face is beaming with love for her, and you can even see a tear trickle down the side of his head. As they then exit the museum, Ellie stops for a moment to look at something. What is it? It’s fireflies. Not a logo, not people. It’s actual fireflies in the air. This moment is technically also in the game, but it is far less subtle (I think she sees a logo, among other things, in or around the museum, if I am remembering correctly). It’s an important moment that emphasizes that through all these years, Ellie is constantly thinking back to the fireflies, to what Joel swore happened, and the doubt that she carries over whether he was telling the truth or not.
All the teenage stuff at once
On her seventeenth birthday, we start to see some issues with their relationship. The start of the deterioration occurs when Joel overhears things occurring in her room, barges in (birthday cake in hand), and sees that Ellie has been ‘fooling around’ with a girl (Kat), is doing drugs, and has gotten a tattoo. As he says, yes, it’s all the teenage stuff at once, which is very convenient for the show, but I think it works even though he points it out. It’s hard to explain, but this development and the surprise that he shows feels both genuine and authentic.
When Joel is insensitive about sexuality, he crosses a line and shows that he isn’t perfect. He’s still a product of the world he grew up in, and he still needs to grow. To his credit, it appears he did work on himself and grow. When Ellie later tries to force her way out, he bargains with her, and she accepts that he will make the garage habitable for her to have as her own new room apart from him.
Lies
When we then jump two years later, on her nineteenth birthday, we see Ellie on her first patrol with Joel. It doesn’t quite go as planned, though, as they encounter Eugene, Gail’s husband, having been bitten by an infected. Eugene pleads with them to bring him back to Jackson so that he can say goodbye to Gail in person, and Ellie seems to think that he has time. I, however, need to call bullshit on that and have to side with Joel, who sends Ellie away so that he can put Eugene down gently. Look, they are in the woods and now would have to guide Eugene all the way back to Jackson while, it must be said, he would have to walk. That would almost definitely take more than an hour, or, at the very least, put them, or Jackson, at unnecessary risk. What I don’t understand, though, is why they don’t just use a walkie-talkie to have Eugene say goodbye to Gail.
Anyway, there are two important moments here. One is that Joel lies to Ellie. He promises that he won’t kill Eugene, which he does. To Ellie, this proves that he is willing to lie to her face if he feels the need, meaning that he might’ve lied to her about Salt Lake City. The second notable moment here is when Joel tells Eugene that you can always picture the face of someone you truly love. Joel is clearly thinking of Sarah, and I’m assuming this is a moment that will come back later, if Ellie tries to picture Joel’s face.
Anyhow, later, when Joel lies to Gail about what happened, Ellie can’t stand it. So she blurts out that he is lying and what really happened from her perspective. She even says, angrily, that Joel “swore,” thus directly referring to him swearing to her that his account of what happened in Salt Lake City happened. She knows he lied. Frankly, while I can understand that Ellie is an emotional young adult, this is a very selfish moment. Gail doesn’t need to suffer for Joel’s decisions, and he was giving her a version of events that she could cling to and be happy with. Ellie takes that from her.
It should be said that all of this is a show invention, and I have to say that I’m not fully on board. I think the way it happens in the game is much more impactful, as she, in the game, runs away to find out on her own what happened, only for Joel to follow in her footsteps and explain it directly to her. Instead, they’ve changed this around so that he explains himself in a different scene, which, well, let’s get to that scene.
“But I would like to try.”
We then jump nine months ahead to the dance, where Joel shoved Seth to the ground for the homophobic slur that had been used. In an earlier episode, Ellie had claimed that she didn’t go and talk to him on Joel’s porch, but here we see that she actually did approach him. This is another scene lifted straight from the game, though, in the game, we don’t see it until much later (as the flashbacks in this episode are spread out through the game’s narrative). Joel tells Ellie that Dina would be lucky to have her, thus seemingly warmly approving of the relationship, and he agrees to tell her what happened. Yes, Ellie, Joel did take out the entire hospital because they suddenly revealed that the operation would kill you, and Joel wasn’t okay with them doing that or springing it on the two of you like that. Joel even says that he thinks they could’ve gotten a cure from the operation. Importantly, that is an assumption on Joel’s part, as he couldn’t possibly know that. But given that he believes it would’ve worked, it makes his ultimate decision much stronger.
Pedro Pascal’s take on the scene is so well-acted and very emotional. He is practically falling apart in front of her as he, with a lump in his throat and tears in his eyes, says that he would willingly do it all over again if he had the chance, because he loves her. In a line taken straight from the game, Ellie says that: “I’m not sure I can ever forgive you… But I would like to try.” Ellie is showing us that she wanted to forgive Joel, she was working her way towards forgiveness, and she was actively seeking out a strengthening of their relationship again. But Abby took that from her, thus making his ultimate demise even more difficult to face.
Nitpicking tweaks
I’ve already nitpicked some things, like the Eugene lie and the changes inherent therein. Following along with that tweak, I have to say that I think it is a mistake to have Joel’s explanation be a part of the porch scene. I say this because it makes Ellie’s willingness to forgive him much less impactful. She literally just learned the truth and is immediately close to accepting it. That’s way too fast a development in character, and it works much better in the game because of how it is structured and paced. I also think it is a shame that these flashbacks weren’t spread out over the course of the season, so that it would’ve been closer to what the game does. This would’ve also made it easier for show-first viewers to let go of the Joel character.
All of that having been said, I loved this episode. I think the cold open is a terrific show invention, and I think that, despite the tweaks, Druckmann’s love and respect for his own narrative shine through. You can tell that he hasn’t been a credited writer or director on the earlier episodes this season. Druckmann also just gets the best performances this season out of both Bella Ramsey and, especially, Pedro Pascal. It’s a brilliant episode despite the questionable tweaks. That said, I do think the placement of the episode is tricky. A flashback episode as the penultimate episode, when I, as a game-first viewer, know the show has a lot to get to on ‘Seattle day three’ in the finale, it just feels like the finale will inevitably have rushed pacing.
A
– Recap and review written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
I'm Jeffrey Rex 