‘The Last of Us’ Episode 6 Recap: Does Joel Die?

Spoilers for episode 6 of The Final of Us.

Joel Miller needed to be indestructible; he additionally usually needed to die. There are greater than 50 animations that may be performed when Joel, the protagonist of the 2013 PlayStation recreation The final of us, passes from our terrestrial airplane: his jaw is torn from his temples; his pores and skin is scorched to ashes; blood spurts from the faucet of his throat as an contaminated zombie burrows in for dinner. Seconds later, he reappears – alive, entire, healed, and able to endure the various bullets it can take to make sure the protection of his payload, the precocious (and immune) Ellie Williams.

This has all the time been the central paradox of the The final of us hero, making the sport not solely among the finest PlayStation releases of all time, however – relying on who you ask – among the finest tales ever instructed. It is a level the critic Andrea Lengthy Chu made suave about in a current essay Vulture: Gamers of the sport noticed Joel die so many instances that these deaths ‘outlined’ [players’] relationship with each Joel and the sport as a complete.” And but, inside The final of us Half I, Joel doesn’t die canonically. He lives lengthy sufficient to finish his mission and permit Ellie to outlive. Chu subsequently states that Joel is cut up. There are usually not one however two Joels as skilled by gamers: one who’s “propelled to heroic heights” by his safety of Ellie, and one other, weaker model with a “dangerously excessive dying charge”.

The now profitable HBO adaptation of The final of us, essentially essential to reconcile these variations. Via Pedro Pascal’s avatar, the regenerative Joel and the fallible Joel had been to turn out to be one. The Joel from the TV present could not ever die — he has what some followers and critics name “plot armor” — however he additionally could not lose the desperation that drives him to make what finally ends up being the story’s most controversial selection. The participant’s desperation and their repeated failures needed to turn out to be his and his alone. An invincible man isn’t determined. So Pascal’s Joel might by no means appear invincible, and even absolutely able to therapeutic.

Episode 6, the final of the present’s 9 episodes, offers the perfect instance but of why eradicating Joel’s invulnerability was not solely a needed however a sensible selection. Till now, the general public had been given a number of small previews of Joel’s declining situation. He struggles to sleep and, when he can, mumbles by way of nightmares; he’s 56, with weak knees; he’s laborious of listening to in a single ear as a consequence of years of firing undisturbed gunshots. (In-game, we do not get practically as many causes to suspect that Joel is previous his prime.) However these discomforts come to a head in Episode 6, when Joel begins to point out the indicators of panic assaults.

“Only a reminder, for those who’re lifeless, I am fucked,” a nervous Ellie (Bella Ramsey) informs him because the body charge slows and Joel’s coronary heart kilos to the beat of her voice. Immobilized, he leans towards a fence submit to get to his ft, blaming his short-term paralysis on the “chilly air.” He is simply realized that his brother, Tommy (Gabriel Luna), could also be inconceivable to find within the inhospitable wilderness of Wyoming, and that is provided that the youthful Miller has managed to maintain himself alive. Joel would not want Ellie’s bullying to recollect what occurs when he falls aside. Even his footwear give approach to him.

His monitor report solely worsens because the episode progresses. At evening, he sleeps by way of his watch and wakes up alarmed to find that his 14-year-old companion is the one guarding their camp with a rifle. Later, when Tommy’s crew surrounds them on horseback, a canine is given the duty of sniffing when the vacationers are teased. (Which, as we all know, Ellie definitely is.) The world is fading away; the audio whines; Joel cannot even bend his fingers to his gun. Fortunate for him, the pup cannot inform the distinction between uninfected and infected-but-immune. Nonetheless, Joel should stay with the data that, had the animal revealed Ellie’s situation, he would have been powerless to cease the ensuing carnage.

Quickly, Joel’s bodily weaknesses give approach to emotional ones. As he and Ellie are welcomed into the Jackson commune, he sees his long-lost little brother for the primary time. Within the recreation, their reunion is affectionate however charged, the show of affection between them dampened by the burden of previous trauma. As an alternative, on the present, they storm into one another’s arms, their chuckles as shocked because the tears of their eyes. “I got here right here to avoid wasting you,” Joel tells Tommy. The irony of his phrases is misplaced on neither of them, nor on Ellie, who watches warily from a distance.

The remainder of the brothers’ scenes weigh by way of this transparency. Joel is suspicious of Maria (Rutina Wesley), Tommy’s new spouse, and the political make-up of the Jackson neighborhood, whom Tommy is ashamed of calling “communism.” (Keep in mind, he is a Bush-era army veteran.) Joel disputes Ellie’s declare that they’ve had a tough time on the street, apparently feeling insecure within the shadows of Tommy’s twinkling (actually, take a look at the string lights) new residence .

When he and Tommy lastly have a second alone, the episode throws one other fighter into the ring with Joel. Tommy reveals that Maria is pregnant, and when Joel responds with lower than the best quantity of brotherly enthusiasm, Tommy whirls at him, “Simply because life stopped for you doesn’t suggest it has to cease for me.” Joel storms out, solely to see somebody in Jackson’s crowd of revelers who seems like an grownup model of his lifeless daughter, Sarah. Once more the digital camera tilts on its axis. Joel’s weathered traces burst with hope, till the second the girl’s face is revealed, and he can now not maintain the likelihood that he truly saved Sarah. When the stranger walks away holding palms together with her personal daughter, he should tighten his coat and proceed.

Tommy confronts him, a number of scenes later, in the neighborhood workshop. There he apologizes: “I do know you’re completely happy for me; it is simply sophisticated for you. I am sorry.’ – and it is as if such a show of humility snatches away Joel’s remaining defenses. He reveals Ellie’s immunity, however extra importantly, he confesses the extent of his personal ineptitude.

Within the recreation, Joel’s explanations for foisting Ellie on Tommy had been all the time condescending. “Tommy is aware of this space higher.” “I belief him higher than myself.” None of them felt actual, and Ellie rightly labeled them “bullshit.” However on the present, not solely is Joel so candid it is nearly laborious to digest, however Ellie additionally hears his entire soul-carrying monologue. First, he shares the story of the boy he and Ellie killed in Kansas Metropolis, and the way Ellie saved his life within the course of. “5 years in the past I’d have destroyed it,” Joel tells Tommy. “However she needed to shoot him to avoid wasting me. Fourteen years previous. As a result of I used to be too gradual and deaf to listen to him cum.”

Nonetheless, maybe the scene’s most surprising second comes when Joel mentions his goals. He cannot bear in mind precisely what these goals imply, solely that ‘once I get up, I’ve misplaced one thing. I fail in my sleep. It is all I do. It is all I’ve ever achieved – let her down, again and again. We do not have to marvel what “hair” he is referring to.

Joel begs Tommy to ship Ellie to the College of Japanese Colorado, the place the fireflies had been final seen, as a result of he “is aware of” hell Have Ellie killed. Tommy is youthful and stronger, and Tommy feels beholden to a “higher future” for his personal unborn baby. Joel makes use of these (authentic, if dishonest) causes to persuade the father-to-be to go away his household in Jackson.

Lastly, we attain probably the most extremely anticipated moments of the complete collection. It is the scene broadly thought to be among the finest in online game historical past. Present co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann replicate it with reverent constancy, leaving simply sufficient to determine how Joel loved the present. is totally different from the sport.

At this level within the story, the sport’s Joel justifies abandoning Ellie as a result of he cannot even acknowledge his worry: that he might lose her the way in which he misplaced Sarah. The Joel of the present justifies abandoning her as a result of he is solely scared can acknowledge. The distinction is delicate, however within the context of efficiency, it signifies a big shift. Joel, as performed by Troy Baker within the recreation, is extra gruff, fierce, and arguably extra violent. Even his argument with Ellie is fraught with barely contained frustration. Pascal’s Joel is softer, quieter, extra clearly conflicted. Neither are misrepresentations of Joel, they usually all work higher of their respective mediums. One makes extra sense for the Joel of the sport – the Joel who, by way of the need of gameplay, is absolutely two Joels, one susceptible and the opposite indestructible. The opposite makes extra sense for the Joel of the present – the Joel compelled to try to be each.

It will be depressingly short-sighted to dismiss Pascal’s Joel as too tender. Admittedly, we do not see Baker’s Joel crying, and even confessing the extent to which he is scared. However that does not make the Joel of the present weak. It makes him extra clear in his shortcomings, in a method that may turn out to be all of the extra important as his journey with Ellie reaches its climax.

Close to the top of the episode, after Pascal’s Joel agrees to proceed touring with Ellie (and softens even additional for her), a College of Japanese Colorado bandit stabs him within the abdomen. (Within the recreation, Joel is as an alternative impaled on a steel rod.) We all know from trailers – and from the unique PlayStation story – that he won’t, the truth is, perish. However Episode 6’s cliffhanger ending offers the viewers time to marvel what would possibly occur if he did. What would it not be prefer to witness the hero’s dying and fail to recuperate seconds later? Who would Ellie be with out him? Some followers will already know the reply. However for many who are new The final of usunderstanding begins to crystallize: Joel’s vulnerability is maybe his most necessary high quality.