The Last of Us Gives Pedro Pascal’s Joel the Eulogy He Deserves

[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for The Last of Us, Season 2 Episode 6.]

Four weeks after The Last of Us shocked viewers with the brutal death of Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal), he is reborn. Well, not really. But as teased at the end of the previous episode, the newest installment of HBO’s acclaimed zombie drama brought Pascal back for some flashbacks covering the years between the end of Season 1 and the beginning of Season 2. Over the course of the episode, Joel and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) navigate the difficulties of parenting an adolescent/being an adolescent during apocalyptic times.

Things actually begin with an even deeper flashback to Joel’s own days as a teenager in Austin, Texas, 1983: Joel and younger brother Tommy know they’re about to get in trouble with their father (a surprise cameo from Better Call Saul and Hawkeye star Tony Dalton), the kind that usually leads to getting hit with a belt. Yet Joel’s father doesn’t end up lashing out, instead giving Joel a beer and talking about his own abusive father, acknowledging the cycle of violence that’s been passed down from father to son. “I hope you do a little better than me,” he tells Joel, about his own future as a parent — words that clearly stick with him for the decades that follow.

From there, the episode tracks a string of Ellie’s birthdays, from 15 to 19, and the ways Joel finds to celebrate his adopted daughter while living in the relative safety of Jackson. Age 15 is relatively simple — he trades scavenged Legos for a misspelled birthday cake, and restores a guitar by hand as a gift. Age 16 involves a trip to a long-abandoned museum Ellie’s thrilled to explore, climbing on top of a dinosaur with glee before enjoying a simulated trip to space in a real space capsule.

Age 17 is less rosy, as Joel catches Ellie doing “all the teenage stuff at once” — drugs and fooling around with girls and getting a tattoo to cover up her scar. It’s also when the real tension between them starts erupting, as the honest conversation they’ve needed to have since Salt Lake City begins to fester Age 19 (skipping over 18) begins with Ellie rehearsing the questions she wants to ask Joel about what happened then; instead of getting answers, though, she gets confirmation that Joel is a talented liar.

It’s here we find out what happened to Eugene — the episode’s second big cameo, as Joe Pantoliano shows up as the soon-to-be-dead husband of Gail (Catherine O’Hara). While on patrol, Joel and Ellie find Eugene bitten but still alive and human enough to want exactly one thing: To talk to his wife one last time. Despite both their pleading, Joel doesn’t hesitate in lying to Ellie about his intentions for Eugene, sending her off on her own with the horses while he walks the doomed man to a very pretty execution point.

Ellie’s feelings of betrayal at Joel’s latest lie — rooted so deeply in the lies that have come before — push her to tell the truth about what happened when they bring Eugene’s body back to Gail. It’s the fracture point in their relationship, leading to the rift we saw at the beginning of the season, and the awkward New Year’s Eve that gets explored in more depth as the episode gets closer to catching up with the present.

This includes expanding on scenes previously seen in brief in the season premiere, including Joel finally, finally telling Ellie the full truth about what happened in Salt Lake City, actions he took because “I was selfish in a way you can’t understand.” And then he passes his father’s words onto her: “If you should ever have [a child] of your own… Well then, I hope you do a little better than me.”

In a season that started on such a grim note, it means a lot to know that while Joel and Ellie might not have ended their time together as closely as they began, they had at least begun to reconcile. “I don’t know if I can forgive you for this, but I would like to try,” she ultimately says, and one can only imagine how hard Joel has clung to the hope embedded in those words. A person can live for an awfully long time off hope.

Pascal is no longer the star of The Last of Us — Ramsey now owns that position — so this is a chance for him to give a performance that elegantly wraps up his time on the series, reminding us of who Joel is at his best and his worst. Joel was clearly not a great person before he met Ellie, but their bond transformed him, and we get to see every facet of that change reflected in his actions. Because what’s so affecting is the way in which his “worst” moments are all fueled by Joel’s need to protect those he loves, making mistakes along the way, but always well-intentioned.

What’s so striking about the episode is how it emphasizes how fully realized a character Joel is; not just a survivor, not just a parent, but a whole person. Pedro Pascal won’t be winning any Grammys for his Pearl Jam cover, but the loving way in which he performs “Future Days” after restoring that guitar — with the same hands that have killed so many people — speaks volumes about the multitudes we all contain, the endless possibility inherent in the mortal soul. He’s an artist and a murderer, a loving father and a liar. None of it in contradiction to the man we’ve come to know through this show. All of it so very human.

The Last of Us is streaming now on Max.