Warning: Contains spoilers!
When a blockbusting television series drops a bombshell for the ages, people tend to pay attention – and the internet inevitably goes up in flames. That was the case two years ago when Succession abruptly bumped off boardroom bully Logan Roy and further back when Game of Thrones gave its audience a scarlet letter day with the Red Wedding. And now here we are again with another “Did that just happen?” moment courtesy of zombie apocalypse melodrama, The Last Of Us (Sky Atlantic).
The answer to that question is yes ... it very much did just happen. As fans of the original video game have known since 2020, Joel and Ellie’s adventures in the post-apocalyptic fungoid future have always been hurtling toward a life-changing event. Finally, it has come about, handled with the same brutality as in the game. In fact, the scene played out almost exactly as it did when the Last Of Us Part 2 was released five years ago – and is likely to be every bit as controversial second time around.
This all occurs at the conclusion of a tumultuous instalment in which our heroes’ home of Jackson, Wyoming, is overrun by a horde of Infected – walking dead whose nervous systems had been colonised by necrotic fungi. In the power ranking of epic TV episodes, the storming of Jackson is up there with the best of Game of Thrones – Hardhome and the Battle of the Bastards are the comparisons that come to mind.
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But that is merely the gory appetite-whetter for the real shock (or not, if you’re au fait with the game). As Jackson puts up a desperate defence, Joel (Pedro Pascal) meets newcomer Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) and returns with her to her lookout HQ high above the settlement, seeking shelter from the storm and the infected horde. Things take a turn for the horrific as Abby reveals – and this is where the spoilers begin, so please do look away if you don’t want to know what’s coming – that she is the daughter of the surgeon whom Joel shot when rescuing Ellie from the Fireflies in Salt Lake City at the end of series one.
Joel gunned down the doctor after discovering that the procedure to extract from Ellie the zombie-resistant compound that would have ended the Infected plague would have cost his surrogate daughter her life. He saved her – at the cost of dooming humanity and has seemingly lied about it to her ever since. He spared Ellie her life but robbed her of her agency – after all, given the choice, perhaps she would have willingly sacrificed herself. We will never know for sure.
But none of this matters to Abby, who simply wants revenge for her dad. With Dina (Isabela Merced) unconscious and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) forced to observe, Abby beats Joel to death with a golf club. It’s shocking – particularly for anyone who has watched The Last Of Us for Pascal’s grippingly taciturn performance as Joel.
Now he’s gone, and everything we took for granted about The Last Of Us is off the table. What next for Ellie and Dinah? And what about that “Wolf” symbol worn by Abby’s crew? Who are they, and where are they going? All will be revealed – or at least it will be as soon as viewers get over their disbelief as the “Us” in The Last Of Us is reduced just to Ellie – now locked in a cycle of revenge against Abby. Until then, fans will be busy processing the shock as the show takes its leave of Joel – an anti-hero who could survive everything except the consequences of his own bad decisions.
