Pedro Pascal After ‘The Last of Us’ Twist: ‘I’m in Active Denial’; Bella Ramsey ‘Sobbed’ Reading It
SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for Season 2, Episode 2 of HBO now streaming on Max.
Pedro Pascal is speaking out about the The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 2, in which his beloved Joel is killed off after being beaten to death by the vengeful Abby (Kaitlyn Dever).
The shocking twist is straight out of the “The Last of Us Part II” video game, which means Pascal knew when he signed on to play Joel in the HBO series that his time on the show would not last forever.
“It’s not like they said, ‘Hey, we kill you at the beginning of season 2,’” Pascal said about the death. “But it was always an understanding that it would stay true to the source material in a specific way and that the, let’s say, practical and exclusive obligation would be for season 1. It was just a matter of how and when.”
Speaking to HBO during the official “Last of Us” after show, Pascal added: “I have nothing but respect for the level of investment that people have in a video game or a TV show or movie or book. I experience that myself. I’ve flung books across the room because its impact is so profound on me and experiencing the story. I think it is incredibly painful for people and that’s obviously a brilliant achievement of the storytelling.”
As for showing up on set with all of his bloody makeup, the actor said: “It was interesting to step into the room and see the reactions in people’s faces. It wasn’t one of revulsion but of heartbreak.”
“I’m in active denial,” Pascal added about Joel’s fate. “I realize this more and more as I get older, I find myself slipping into denial that anything is over. I know that I’m forever bonded to many members of the experience and just have to see them under different circumstances, but never will under the circumstances of playing Joel on ‘The Last of Us.’ I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it because it makes me sad.”
Series co-creator Craig Mazin explained why the creative team decided Season 2 Episode 2 was the right time to show the “fucking horrible” moment of Joel’s death.
Mark Mylod on That Death Scene With ‘Tears Running Down My Face’
Director Mylod was brought to tears filming the final moments of Sunday night’s episode of “The Last of Us.”
Gamers who have played “The Last of Us Part II” have long known Joel’s (Pedro Pascal) fate, but that didn’t make easier watching his torture and death at the hands of Abby (Kaitlyn Dever).
Abby bludgeons Joel to death with a golf club as Ellie (Bella Ramsey) is forced to watch helplessly. Mylod expands the moment by giving Dever’s Abby a bone-chilling monologue about her five-year quest for revenge after Joel killed her dad in the Season 1 finale’s hospital shootout. The episode also shows Ramsey’s Ellie weeping and embracing Joel’s dead body before she rides back to the Jackson settlement, which barely survived an attack from a clicker horde.
