Season 2 of The Last of Us takes fans five years beyond the haunting Season 1 finale, revealing Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) have established themselves as integral members of the Jackson community, though in markedly different capacities. Joel has channeled his considerable skills into community development, overseeing the expansion of Jackson’s infrastructure and the construction of new shelters designed to accommodate a growing population of survivors. Meanwhile, Ellie has leveraged her survival instincts into a more active role, participating in scout runs to maintain the settlement’s security perimeter. On the surface, this evolution suggests Joel might be seeking redemption through creation rather than destruction — a stark contrast to his blood-soaked decision at the Salt Lake City hospital. However, the first episode of The Last of Us Season 2 shatters this illusion of peaceful transition, revealing that beneath Joel’s builder exterior beats the heart of a man still capable of ruthless violence.
WARNING: Spoilers below for The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 1
As Season 2 of The Last of Us reveals, Joel’s relationship with Ellie has deteriorated significantly. Now 19 years old, Ellie pushes against the constraints of Joel’s paternal oversight while Joel struggles to reconcile with her independence. The origins of their conflict remain shrouded, but the emotional toll has driven Joel to seek professional intervention.
In a surprising narrative development, we learn Joel has been attending therapy sessions with Gail (Catherine O’Hara), a counselor helping him process his complex emotions. The episode provides an intimate glimpse into their therapeutic relationship during Joel’s fifth session. Upon his arrival at Gail’s residence, she offers him a drink — an ethically questionable gesture that Joel challenges. Gail acknowledges the breach of professional protocol but proceeds anyway, explaining she’s drinking because it’s her birthday, the first in 41 years she’s celebrating without her husband.
[RELATED: The Last of Us Creators Address Season 2’s Biggest Continuity Error: “We Didn’t Give a Sh-t”]
Despite multiple sessions, Joel maintains significant emotional barriers. Frustrated by his reticence and under the influence of alcohol, Gail confronts Joel about his dishonesty. She pivots her strategy, emphasizing the fundamental importance of truth for healing. Leading by example, Gail confesses she, too, has been dishonest. She isn’t merely sad about her husband’s absence. In fact, she harbors profound anger and resentment toward Joel because he killed her husband, Eugene.
In a moment of raw vulnerability, Gail admits to understanding why Joel took such action but cannot forgive how he executed it. Still, she invites him into her home and continues attempting to help him. Acknowledging her hatred, Gail clears the air and allows herself and Joel to move beyond it. She presses Joel to reciprocate this transparency, questioning whether he harmed Ellie. Joel’s emphatic response — that he saved Ellie — before storming out speaks volumes about his unresolved guilt regarding the hospital massacre.
While the specific circumstances remain unclear, Gail’s conditional understanding suggests Joel acted with justifiable intent, if excessive means. This revelation indicates that despite his community-building efforts, Joel continues to access his darkest impulses when threatened. Plus, since Gail is celebrating her first birthday alone, Eugene was killed less than a year before the beginning of The Last of Us Season 2, meaning that Joel’s latest murderous event happened not too long ago. Interestingly, Eugene is a character in The Last of Us Part II game, though his fate differs significantly in the HBO adaptation.
Who Is Eugene in The Last of Us Part II?
In The Last of Us Part II, Eugene is a member of the Jackson community who is only alluded to through dialogue and interactive objects. A former Firefly member, Eugene specialized in marijuana cultivation and maintained a hidden grow operation within an abandoned ranger station outside Jackson. His character never directly interacts with Joel in the game, dying of natural causes before the game’s events begin. Dina and Ellie discover his secret facility during a patrol, and Dina explains Eugene’s history to both Ellie and the players. His character, while minor, represents an interesting connection to the Fireflies and demonstrates how former members of revolutionary organizations integrated into more stable communities after abandoning their cause.
The Last of Us show appears to be taking significant creative liberties with Eugene’s character while potentially maintaining his Firefly background. If Eugene retained his Firefly connections in the series adaptation, he might have endangered Jackson through continued loyalty to the organization’s mission. Furthermore, the Fireflies’ primary objective of finding a cure for the Cordyceps infection directly conflicts with Joel’s decision to rescue Ellie from their operating table. Eugene could have discovered the truth about what happened in Salt Lake City and threatened to expose Joel or even attempted to return Ellie to the remaining Firefly cells. Such a scenario would align with Joel’s protective instincts and explain why he would eliminate Eugene despite the potential community fallout.
Eugene in The Last of Us Season 2
When it comes to the TV series, we already know one thing about Eugene, he’ll be playing by The Matrix and The Sopranos star Joe Pantoliano. As Season 2 of The Last of Us unfolds, viewers will likely learn more about the specific circumstances surrounding Eugene’s death and how it connects to the growing rift between Joel and Ellie. By expanding on characters who received minimal development in the games, the show continues its tradition of enriching the source material rather than merely translating it to screen. These creative decisions ensure that even as the adaptation follows the game’s broader narrative arc, individual episodes deliver revelations that surprise and engage both new viewers and longtime fans of the franchise.
New episodes of The Last of Us Season 2 hit Max and HBO every Sunday.
What do you think happened to Eugene in The Last of Us? How this ghost of the past will return to haunt Joel? Let us know in the comments!
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