The Last Of Us Fans Have A Lot Of Feelings About Season 2's Heartbreaking Death

Hey, you! Stop reading this if you haven't watched "Through the Valley," the second episode of season 2 of "The Last of Us," because we're about to spoil some really big stuff! Seriously! I warned you!

Well, it happened. Fans of the Naughty Dog game "The Last of Us Part II," the widely acclaimed 2020 sequel to 2013's "The Last of Us," have known this was coming for a while, but that didn't make watching it any easier. Joel Miller, the story's protagonist up until this point played in the HBO adaptation by Pedro Pascal, is dead, killed by a girl named Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) after he killed Abby's father years earlier. This unfolds in front of Joel's surrogate daughter Ellie, played in the show by Bella Ramsey, and watching her scream at Joel to "get up" — and crawl to his bloodied, dead body after Abby drives the sharp shaft of a golf club into his neck — is just unbelievably brutal.

Over on the social media platform Twitter (or X, if you're a nerd), people made their feelings known, like user @urbluestdays who paired pictures of Joel with Abby, Ellie, Dina (Isabela Merced), and his own daughter Sarah (Nico Parker) with a stark thought: "[Joel] couldn't save his daughter, so he protected every godd*mn teenage girl until it killed him." Critic @zoerosebryant added a picture of Kieran Culkin's Roman Roy at his father's funeral on "Succession" begging people to get his father's body "out" of his coffin with the caption "seeing [Joel's] body in that bag at the end of the episode.

Meanwhile, @JarettSays was simply incensed that nobody gave them a heads up: "#TheLastOfUs game players knew this WHOLE TIME that Joel was gonna die and you didn't warn me?!?" @lec16rcz realized that Ellie missed out on time with her surrogate father, simply noting, "[Ellie] wanted to go on patrol with [Joel] and he said to let her sleep in and he died." Utilizing caps lock to express their utter anguish, @kiescleo opined, "THE WAY YOU CAN ACTUALLY SEE JOEL TRY TO LIFT HIS BODY UP OFF THE GROUND ... FOR HER. EVEN IN THE END." Then you have @sunflwrpascal, who took special note of something Abby says to Joel before killing him: "at least [Joel] knew people thought he was handsome before he died.

Obviously, there's always going to be a divide between longtime fans of the video games and the HBO series, and when it comes to Joel's death onscreen on "The Last of Us," some of the former took to social media to discuss how they think the show handled it. Some, like @elliesbagpin, prefer the game version: "I think [Joel's] death was well executed, but I personally don't think it tops or competes with the game cutscene and people who have never played the game will never feel what players felt." 

On the flip side, @giannaispunk mentioned a specific choice performed by Bella Ramsey and said it was rougher than the game, saying, "[Ellie] crawling to [Joel's] body and cuddling up next to it ... that was way worse than the game." (Smack in the middle, @shivmcavoy posted a compilation of people screaming in horror with the succinct caption, "Me watching Joel die even though I played the game.")

Then there's @HuinGuillaume, who penned an ode to the show's version of this scene and began by praising the sequence for being just as heartbreaking as the one in the game (and also saying, "Kaitlyn Dever is exceptional," which is absolutely correct). He did continue, though:

"But if you love the show, I beg you to also play the game, whether you are a gamer or not. While the show is fantastic, playing the character of Ellie, and then playing as Abby, gives a depth and perspective you can't feel without "being" the character. It will make you explore dimensions of your soul you may not even be even aware are a part of you. It is probably one of the greatest teacher of "perspective" and what it means, literally, to put yourself in someone else's shoes. If you think the show is a masterpiece, you're right and I could not agree more with you. If you think it equals a tenth of the density and magnificence of the game, not even close. Both statements can be valid."

The point here is that showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann — the latter of whom helped create the original Naughty Dog games to boot — worked alongside the episode's director Mark Mylod and its stars Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, and Kaitlyn Dever to create something unbelievably unforgettable. In fact, it's so unforgettable that some fans, like People Magazine digital news writer @raventbrunner, appear to just be in denial: "It's all okay [because] he's gonna wake up right? He's gonna recover, and everything will be fine. Joel and Ellie forever right?" @pascalcoded had two devastating takes, starting with a sobering realization: "The way Joel tried to move when Ellie said 'get up,' like he wanted to, like he would if he could ... that shattered me. Forever ruined." Their other post was still somber and sad, but furious; as they wrote, "[Joel] literally saved the life of his own killer and the more I think about it, the angrier I get."

Another fan, @elliespundit, referenced the fact that "Through the Valley" adds a huge battle sequence back in the stronghold of Jackson, leaving Joel's brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) fighting for his life amongst an infected horde. "The image of Jackson burning was one of the last things Joel saw before his death," they wrote. "He died not knowing if Tommy was safe." In the game, Tommy is with Joel when they meet Abby and her friends, and Abby gets her revenge; in the show, Joel is with Ellie's best friend and another surrogate daughter figure, Dina, instead. At least one viewer loved this choice; as @noradominick wrote, "the [Joel] and [Dina] dynamic in the show is my favorite addition so far and it's absolutely SOUL CRUSHING. The fact that [Dina] was in the room now, unable to do anything." At the end of the day, we can all agree on one sentiment, expressed beautifully by @madinthemoon: "No one could have played Joel Miller the way Pedro Pascal did." That is, without a doubt, true. 

"The Last of Us" airs new episodes on Sundays on Max and HBO at 9 P.M. EST.