Episode Review: The Last of Us 2x6 - "The Price"

Welcome back to the blog readers. Contrary to what the public has been saying about this season of The Last of Us (2023-), I have been loving all of it. Everybody has been killing it on the performance side of things, the writing has been slick, the humor is where it needs to be, and the heart is always present. And last week's offering was a masterclass in rage and violence on all fronts. With this penultimate episode, titled "The Price," written by Neil Druckmann, Halley Gross, and Craig Mazin, and directed by Druckmann, we were promised emotion in spades. Did we wind up getting it? Stick around to find out.

NOTE: I will be using spoilers for my thoughts, so DO NOT read ahead if you have not seen the episode. I also will not be spoiling the events of the video game The Last of Us Part II (2020) on which the season is based.

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Yes, I am aware that the emotion in this episode centers fully around the deteriorating relationship between Joel and Ellie, but it was how we get there that I was curious to see since we have deviated from the game in a way. And it brings me no pleasure to mention that I was on the verge of tears twice in this episode (The Iron Claw (2023) is still the only project in which those tears were visible). This episode was fantastic, from the performances (especially from Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey) to the story and the deeper themes of sacrifice and love.

I will say it here and I will say it again at the end of this paragraph. Give Pedro Pascal his Emmy now. That's it, end of conversation. See ya next time. But for real though, we knew Pascal was going to be back as Joel in this season but we were not privy as to when. But when he showed up in the final 10 seconds of last week's episode we knew shit was about to get real. And it did because we got his most emotionally vulnerable performance in the show to date. Not only was he able to perfectly give us the vibes of a loving father (or father figure) when it comes to Ellie, he was able to use this episode as a vehicle to give us a tearjerking performance I will never forget from him. The final 15 minutes of this episode had me in a chokehold as the kids say nowadays, and the vulnerability and sadness on display absolutely bodied anything Troy Baker did with this character in the game (no knock on Baker because he is a gifted performer in his own right). And again, and I did say this at the beginning, get Pedro Pascal his Emmy now.

And now we talk about Bella Ramsey as Ellie. I know I talked about this last week, but the hate that they're getting for this character is despicable. Ramsey has more than proved themselves with their performance and this episode is no different. And you know why? Because they do such a great job at taking on all of the mannerisms from the first season and blending them together with the more aggressive side Ellie has in this second season. Getting to see them pull off Season 1's youthful, joyous Ellie was such a treat to see, especially with how much she loves Joel as a father figure to her. As the relationship between Joel and Ellie deteriorates, we get to see Ramsey dive in and take on the emotions we have seen from them so far in this second season. And despite what the knuckle-dragging, basement-dwelling, cousin-humpers have been saying about Ramsey, they have absolutely been killing it all season long, and I would expect them to get an Emmy nomination in the near future.

Now we have to talk about the story of this episode because not only does it inform us of past decisions characters have made, it informs current decisions the characters are making and will make in the future of this show. We start with a flashback to Austin, Texas in 1983. A teenage Joel and Tommy are fearful of their abusive cop father Javier (played by Tony Dalton). Tommy hides in his bedroom as Joel confronts his father and attempts to cover up for his brother. Javier reveals he spoke to the kid that Joel beat up: Tommy got ripped off buying marijuana and Joel beat on the kid when he discovered this. Joel tells his father he will not hurt Tommy, and Javier offers Joel a bear, seeming impressed. Javier opens up about the abuse he suffered from his father, but it was much worse that what he is doing to his boys, and hopes when Joel has a kid of his own that he will do a little better than he did. I will go into the details regarding this scene later on in the review, but what a brilliant idea to tie things together between father and son.

We flash forward to two months after Joel and Ellie arrive in Jackson after the events of the first season and Joel has traded Legos he found to Seth for something unknown at the time. What we find out is that the thing he traded for was wood to make a guitar for Ellie's fifteenth birthday. While preparing it, Tommy brings Ellie to Joel's given home to let him know Ellie burned her arm and her bite mark to, in her painkiller-induced words, be able to wear short sleeves again. Joel comforts her and tells her everything is okay. For her birthday, he presents her the guitar and offers to give her lessons. At her insistence, he reluctantly sings her a song as their bond continues to grow. When Ellie turns sixteen, Joel takes her to an abandoned museum with a T-Rex statue that she climbs on top of. He also takes her in the museum where they sit in an Apollo 15 space capsule and he gives her the Apollo 11 recording for her to imagine going into space. Joel sheds a tear at Ellie's happiness.

When Ellie turns seventeen, Joel leaves a patrol early to surprise her with a cake for her birthday. He stumbles on her being intimate with, smoking with, and getting a moth tattoo from Kat. Joel chastises her and comments on how "all the teenage stuff is happening all at once." She later tries to move into the garage to a protest from Joel, and they argue before he acquiesces and allows her to do so, citing her needing her own space. By this point, their relationship has begun to devolve. Joel also talks to Gail and she tells him the moth symbolizes death. When Ellie turns nineteen, Joel gifts her with her first patrol (something she had been asking for for a few years). While the two of them are on patrol, they respond to an infected attack where Eugene, Gail's husband, has been bit. He estimates that he has about an hour before he turns, so he requests to see his wife before he does. Joel flat out refuses due to Jackson's rule of killing anyone who has been bit. Ellie convinces Joel to allow him to see her after deducing he has time and he tells her to get their horses. Joel leads him to a lake where he reveals he is going to kill him anyway, and despite begging to see Gail, Joel kills him anyway much to the disgust of Ellie, who witnessed Eugene's dead body.

When the two return to Jackson with Eugene's body, Joel lies to Gail by telling her that Eugene was not scared and took his own life. Ellie, who has become more suspicious of the events in Salt Lake City and Joel's lie to her, realizes she was lied to as well and immediately exposes Joel by telling the truth, much to the disgust of Gail and Tommy. Nine months later, at the New Year's Eve dance in the first episode, Joel discusses his shortcomings with Tommy and Maria and watches as Seth chastises Ellie and Dina for kissing. He shoves Seth and gets yelled at by Ellie, leading to him leaving after being embarrassed again. While he is sitting on the porch, Ellie walks past him but walks back to join him on the porch. She tells him to leave her alone in regards to patrols and he obliges, and convinces Ellie to explore her feelings for Dina. Ellie rebukes by finally asking about Salt Lake, threatening to be done with him if he lies to her again. He tearfully tells her the truth and she calls him selfish for robbing her of her life's purpose. He tells her that he would do it all over again if given a second chance at that moment, and that he loves her in a way she may never understand. He also hopes she will do a little better than he did with his kids. Ellie tells him she may never forgive him for this but is willing to try. In the present, Ellie walks back to the theater with conviction after torturing and killing Nora.

First off, I do want to mention that this probably is the second best episode of the season behind the masterpiece that was the second episode. And I want to start analysis avenue by talking about the cold open of the episode with the conversation between Joel and his father. Apparently the idea for this scene was Craig Mazin's and I think it is absolutely brilliant. Not only is it used as a device we can tie both ends of the episode with, it is a way to talk about generational trauma and family bonds. We learn that Javier's father violently abused him, and he has unwillingly passed that on to Joel and Tommy. I think it does a fantastic job of giving more weight to the decisions Joel winds up making later in his life. I also think, like Mazin said in the post-show, it highlights a bit of his savior complex. And I mean this in the sense that he feels a desire to save people. Whether it is out of love, selflessness, or some other quality, Joel was molded into a compassionate person affected by the horrors of the world by his father.

Next, I have to talk about the fact that THESE FUCKERS ACTUALLY DID IT. I never thought Pearl Jam's "Future Days" (2013) would actually appear in this series because Outbreak Day was changed from 2013 to 2003. "Future Days" (which is also the title of this second season's first episode) is a very influential song in the second game because it describes love at all costs and sacrifice. These are themes that are extremely prevalent in this second season as well. When Ramsey began singing it in last week's episode, my jaw was on the floor. But I almost came close to crying when Joel sang it because it was going to stay in the series rather than being changed for something else. Therefore, in this series, the use of the song is an anachronism. Hey listen, I am nowhere near the point of complaining. I love the song and would hope for it to be a song in consideration for my wedding song.

I next want to talk about the fact that Joel really tried to be a good father to Ellie before the relationship completely fell apart. These sequences are in the game but not happening all at once, but they still have the same effect. Based on Joel's upbringing, we can assume he would be a bit hard on his kids because of the cycle of abuse present in the Miller family. And we obviously know from the first season that he failed with his biological daughter Sarah. I think getting the chance 20 years later to be a father again made it tantamount to him to do his best to protect this one and keep her safe. It may not make what he did in that hospital right, but it still was a decision completely in line with the Joel that Troy Baker perfected. And in the immortal words of Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010), I wouldn't change a thing.

I next need to talk about the events that happen when Ellie turns nineteen. The first few episodes had alluded to the character of Eugene and how Joel had to kill him, but I did not expect for the actual events to be so cruel and emotionally brutal. In the game, Eugene is only ever mentioned in a photograph and his story is basically brushed over. In the show, his story is changed a bit and expanded to be Gail's husband, only creating more of a past and a pain for Joel. But the fan theory that Eugene had already been infected and Joel had to kill him before he turned turned out to be true. But the fact that Joel lied about allowing Eugene to see his wife before he turned tells me two things. The first thing it tells me is that Joel made another sacrifice for Ellie that she may not understand. And the second thing is that it allowed Ellie to realize that Joel lied to her about what happened in Salt Lake City as well, hence why when she confronted him after exposing him she told him that he swore instead of he promised.

And the final thing I want to talk about this week has to do with the final conversation between Joel and Ellie. In the game, this is the very end when Ellie has made her decisions and is finally reflecting on all she has done. We get this conversation now because I believe this is the final time we are going to see Pascal as Joel in this series and the creators wanted to give this closure now. What I do find to be interesting is how the scene in which Joel tells Ellie the truth is melded into this scene. Ellie is obviously hurt and hearing the truth does nothing to help her. But Joel needed to tell Ellie the truth and Ellie needed to hear the truth so they could both begin on the path of forgiveness. Knowing that was the final conversation Ellie would ever have with Joel not only proves that she lied to Gail in the third episode, but she feels whatever is about to happen to Mel, Owen, Manny, and Abby will be justified because they took her chance at forgiveness with her father figure away. And that is the real driving force behind why she is doing what she is doing. And both people nearly left me in a crying heap.

The Last of Us' penultimate episode draws on the past to inform the present and future in such an emotional way, and was done flawlessly. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.