Episode 2 of The Last of Us Season 2 aired Sunday night, recreating a plot point that had long divided the game’s fanbase. Joel Miller, played by Pedro Pascal, was killed by Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) in a sequence that closely follows the early events of The Last of Us Part II. Joel is ambushed in a mountain lodge outside Jackson, Wyoming, where Abby attacks him with a golf club and drives a spike into his neck.
The moment reflects a controversial turn in the source material. Joel had previously killed Abby’s father, a Firefly surgeon, at the end of the first season during Ellie’s rescue. His actions led Abby to pursue him, continuing the cycle of retaliation that drives the sequel’s narrative.
Pascal said there was no point when he was explicitly told Joel would be killed early in Season 2, but the idea was always present. “It was always an understanding that it would stay true to the source material in a specific way,” he told Entertainment Weekly. He described his emotional response as “active denial” and said he doesn’t spend time reflecting on the character’s end. “I know that I’m forever bonded to so many members of the experience… but never will under the circumstances of playing Joel.”
Ellie’s actor, Bella Ramsey, said the weight of the moment hit while reading the script. “I sobbed my little heart out. It’s the first time I’ve cried from reading a piece of writing,” she said in HBO’s after-show interview.
The broadcast of the episode marks a return to a controversy that began in 2020, two months before the release of The Last of Us Part II. Scenes from the game were leaked online after a fan in the Netherlands accessed Naughty Dog’s internal servers. The footage, including Joel’s death, spread quickly and stirred widespread backlash.
Neil Druckmann, the game’s co-creator, recalled the impact in the 2024 documentary Grounded II: The Making of The Last of Us Part II. “This person put out everything,” he said. The early clips appeared out of order and seemed harmless, but once Joel’s death was revealed, the response became volatile.
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Naughty Dog received threats, and members of the cast and development team experienced sustained harassment. Druckmann said he was targeted with hundreds of hateful messages, including antisemitic abuse. “It was the lowest point of my life,” he said. Ashley Johnson, who voiced Ellie, said she often cried after seeing the online reaction. Laura Bailey, who voiced Abby, said she received threats against her child.
Troy Baker, who portrayed Joel in the games, said he struggled with the backlash. “I was livid. I was real angry,” he said in the documentary.
The leak followed the indefinite delay of the game during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Druckmann said the individual responsible for the breach later claimed they wanted to pressure the studio to release the game. “They live with their parents, and it’s a fan,” Druckmann said. “They said, ‘I wanted to force Naughty Dog’s hand.’”
The Last of Us Part II was eventually released in June 2020. The game won hundreds of awards and sold over 10 million copies by 2022. By early 2023, the franchise had surpassed 37 million total units sold.
Pascal will return to screens soon in other projects, including Fantastic Four: First Steps and Materialists, both slated for release this summer.
