Warning! Spoilers ahead for The Last of Us season 2, episode 6.
I think Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey nailed the emotions of The Last of Us season 2, episode 6, “The Price,” takes a break from Ellie’s quest for revenge in Seattle to go back and show how her rift with Joel formed over the past few years. Although they were happy when they first arrived in Jackson, as time went on, Joel’s lie gnawed away at Ellie, and her teenage angst started to get on his nerves.
The episode makes a few key Joel and Ellie’s iconic porch scene. In the game, this scene doesn’t appear until the very end, where it recontextualizes the entire story that came before it. But the TV show slotted it in at the end of its flashback episode — and a crucial decision in the writing significantly weakened the scene.
The Last Of Us Season 2, Episode 6 Puts Joel's Confession & Ellie's Forgiveness In The Same Scene
Right After Joel Tells Ellie The Truth, She's Ready To Start Forgiving Him
In the game, all of Ellie’s flashbacks are isolated in between her Seattle gameplay. But the TV show stacks them all up and knocks them out one by one, structured through Ellie’s annual birthday celebrations. But one of The Last of Us season 2, episode 6’s flashbacks is a composite sequence combining two scenes from the game into a single scene. The game reveals that, two years before Joel’s death, as he continued to refuse to tell Ellie the truth, she ran away and rode all the way back to Salt Lake City to get some answers for herself.
All the Fireflies have long since abandoned the base, but Ellie finds boxes of files, an ominous blood stain, and a tape recorder. On the recorder, a Firefly doctor (presumably Abby’s friend Mel) explains that Jerry Anderson’s death means that, even if they find another immune person “by some miracle,” it will be impossible to create a cure. Ellie keeps replaying that “by some miracle” comment over and over again, because it contradicts Joel’s claim that there were dozens of other immune people. When Joel finds Ellie at St. Mary’s Hospital, she forces him to tell her the truth.
The Last of Us season 2 is available to stream on Max.
After Joel’s confession, Ellie is devastated. She tells Joel that she’ll go back to Jackson with him, but their friendship is “done.” The game’s final flashback reveals that, on the night of the fateful Jackson dance — the night before Joel’s death — Ellie stopped by his porch and told him she “would like to try” to forgive him. The TV show combines these flashbacks into the same scene. Joel confesses to Ellie, then she’s instantly ready to forgive him, and, in my opinion, that weakens the drama of the scene.
Ellie's Forgiveness Feels Rushed Because It Happens Seconds After She Learns The Truth
In The Game, She Has Years To Reflect On It
In the game, Ellie has had two full years to reflect on the horrifying truth before she’s ready to even start forgiving Joel for what he did. Right after his confession, she refuses to even speak to him. He tries to give her a hug, but she pushes him away and storms off. Then, when she speaks to him on his porch, she’s had time to process it. She’s gotten over the initial shock and understands why he did what he did. His ission that he “would do it all over again” hammers it home: she means everything to him.
By putting Joel’s confession and Ellie’s extension of an olive branch in the same scene, the TV show makes it feel too quick that Ellie forgives him (or at least starts to).
Having spent two years processing it, she’s finally ready to start to rebuild, so she tells Joel that she would like to try to forgive him and reconcile that relationship. By putting Joel’s confession and Ellie’s extension of an olive branch in the same scene, the TV show makes it feel too quick that Ellie forgives him (or at least starts to). She already suspected that Joel was lying, but having it confirmed hurt so much more than those suspicions. In the game, she needed years to process it. But in the TV show, it only takes a few seconds.
Moving Joel's Confession To His Porch Removes The Powerful Visual Of Doing It At The Scene Of The Crime
In The Game, Joel Confesses In Front Of The Hospital Where It Happened
In the game, it was a really powerful visual to have Joel confess at the scene of the crime. He tells Ellie that he slaughtered the Fireflies to prevent the creation of a cure in front of the hospital where it happened. By moving Joel’s confession to his porch, the TV show removed that emotional cinematic touch. In a visual medium, the setting of a scene is crucial to creating the right mood and atmosphere. The warm, cozy setting of the porch feels like the wrong place for Joel to confess that he doomed humanity.
In a visual medium, the setting of a scene is crucial to creating the right mood and atmosphere. The warm, cozy setting of the porch feels like the wrong place for Joel to confess that he doomed humanity.
On the official Last of Us podcast, Neil Druckmann mentioned that they removed the plot point of Ellie running away to go back to the hospital and find out the truth for herself, because it didn’t seem realistic that she would make the journey from Wyoming to Utah alone. But it’s a much shorter trip than Wyoming to Washington, and I think it’s worth stretching the audience’s suspension of disbelief for that poignant visual connection. It’s less likely that Jesse would arrive to save Ellie and Dina at the perfect moment than Ellie making her own way to Salt Lake.
The Last Of Us' Flashback Episode Was Almost Perfect, But It Struggled To Stick The Landing
Every Other Flashback Was Pitch-Perfect
On the whole, “The Price” is one of The Last of Us season 2’s strongest episodes to date. Joel and Ellie’s trip to the museum, complete with Ellie’s imagined journey to the stars, was a perfect recreation of the most beloved moment from the game. The whole Eugene sequence with Joe Pantoliano presented a classic dramatic dilemma, and it was an ingenious way to dredge up Ellie’s distrust of Joel.
The Last Of Us Season 2 Just Left Out One Of The Game's Best Joel & Ellie Flashbacks
The Last of Us season 2, episode 6 adapts most of Joel and Ellie's flashbacks from the video game, but it left out one of the very best.
Pascal and Ramsey played each scene beautifully, from heartwarming moments like Ellie climbing the T. rex to heartbreaking moments like the bitter argument that ensues when Joel catches Ellie with a tattoo, a lit t, and a sexual partner. Directed by Druckmann himself, the episode is almost perfect. But it struggles to stick the landing in its climactic porch scene. By cramming Joel’s confession and Ellie’s forgiveness into the same scene, The Last of Us season 2, episode 6 diluted two of the game’s most powerful moments.
The Last Of Us
- Release Date
- January 15, 2023
- Network
- HBO
- Showrunner
- Craig Mazin
Cast
Joel Miller
Ellie Williams
WHERE TO WATCH
- Directors
- Craig Mazin, Peter Hoar, Jeremy Webb, Ali Abbasi, Mark Mylod, Stephen Williams, Jasmila Žbanić, Liza Johnson, Nina Lopez-Corrado
- Writers
- Neil Druckmann, Craig Mazin
- Franchise(s)
- The Last of Us
- Creator(s)
- Craig Mazin, Neil Druckmann
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