Why ‘The Last of Us' Sent Joel to Therapy in Season 2
Note: This story contains spoilers from 'The Last of Us' Season 2, Episode 1.
As a hardened survivor in the fictional apocalypse of 'The Last of Us' over the last 25 years, Joel has been carrying a lot of emotional baggage, from the loss of his daughter Sarah and partner Tess to the rift in his relationship with Ellie, following the violence he inflicted on the Fireflies to pull her out of a surgery to make a vaccine.
While Season 2 finds him in therapy, opening up to Gail (Catherine O'Hara) about the latter proves to be a challenge. The therapy concept was actually a pitch from showrunner Craig Mazin that he and co-creator Neil Druckmann originally began discussing back in Season 1.
'I love asking annoying questions and some of them were about just the economy of the way the QZ worked in Boston. And we started exploring 'Well, what are jobs that are valuable in the post-apocalypse?' Because if you're, I don't know, a hedge fund guy, you're useless in the apocalypse. But if you can fix a shoe, you're doing all right,' Mazin said. 'It occurred to me that therapists would have a lot of work. Everybody has been traumatized, everybody has gone through the end of the world and a lot of people have lost people close to them. So it seemed like a very barterable skill.'
'I'm so glad that we saved it for this one, because we had a chance to situate this character inside of Jackson, which meant we could do more with her over more episodes, and give ourselves a chance to see what Joel thinks his problem is, or at least what he hopes his problem is, and to also see what he is willing to not even say to the person that is there to help him,' Mazin added. 'Digging into that scene was just a joy and having Pedro Pascal and Catherine O'Hara together at the top of their games was just a dream.'
During Joel's session in Episode 1, viewers learn that Joel killed Gail's husband, Eugene, a character mentioned in the games but who will be portrayed for the first time by Joe Pantoliana.
'One of the things that I like to do is go through the source material and find things that I remember evoking interest in me. And in this case, there was a character named Eugene in the second game that we never meet. He's not married to anybody, as far as we know. He's this kind of eccentric character that other characters kind of reminisce fondly about, and I thought it would be fun to figure out how to maybe bring him into this world,' Mazin said.
'We knew that we wanted Catherine O'Hara's character to have a complication. It shouldn't be as simple as I'm your therapist. This is a very small community and what happens when you as a doctor are here to help somebody that has hurt you?' He continued. 'And then we were like, 'Hey, what if that's Eugene? And how would that actually enhance what was there in the source material?'
When asked on the Unwrapped podcast about working with Pascal, O'Hara said he's 'just dreamy' and 'everything you want him to be.'
'[Pedro's] the kind of guy that makes you feel like, 'I could call him anytime I want!' He'll text pictures or whatever. He's just so loose and open and lovely. And Bella's amazing,' she added. 'Both of them are just — how they rise above their material. They keep their heads somehow separate from the dark, dark material they're in every day. This second season, from what I've seen is (gulps) all I can tell you. They keep their sense of humor between takes. They're just loose and open and playful. And then action is called, and they're just so deeply into it, then cut, 'Yeah, so anyway!' You know, just very, very cool. It's fun to go in. It's so well established and it's so well run, and everybody was very nice to me and everybody wants to hear about it, because it's such a hot show. It's such a great show.'
Druckmann said O'Hara was at the top of a very short list of people who they wanted to portray Gail.
'We were so ecstatic when she said yes, because we're such huge fans, and to put her in this, maybe more of a dramatic role than you usually see with her, there's some really juicy scenes,' he teased. 'You've seen one of them in Episode 1, but you haven't seen the last of Captain O'Hara.'
In addition to being 'intricately involved' in Joel's story in Season 2, Mazin and Druckmann teased more 'juicy scenes' for Gail, including a session with Ellie.
'All I'll say is this, does Ellie seem like the kind of person that would willingly go to therapy? No. But would you be interested in seeing how that person might interact with somebody like Gail? Maybe. So let's see how it goes,' Mazin said.
'The Last of Us' airs Sundays on HBO and Max.
The post Why 'The Last of Us' Sent Joel to Therapy in Season 2 appeared first on TheWrap.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
She Lost Her Wedding Ring in the Ocean. You Won't Believe How She Found It (Exclusive)
Sarah Maune had just finished breakfast with her kids, father and a few close friends when she decided to swim out to a coral reef about 100 yards offshore Though she clocked that her wedding ring was still on partway out, she realized after returning to the shore that she lost it in the ocean She then began the search for it — and shared the journey of finding her wedding ring on TikTokSarah Maune's recent snorkeling adventure in Florida didn't go quite as planned. The mom of two had just finished breakfast with her kids, father and a few close friends when she decided to swim out to a coral reef about 100 yards offshore — something she'd been doing each day of their vacation. With her GoPro in hand, she planned to film more footage for her annual snorkeling videos. But as she swam farther from shore, something suddenly clicked: her wedding ring was still on. 'I remember looking down and seeing my ring and thinking about how a barracuda had bitten someone wearing shiny jewelry in Florida just the day before,' Sarah tells PEOPLE exclusively. 'I completely forgot to take it off.' The ring holds deep sentimental value for the nurse from Washington, Mo. Her husband, Joel, started dating her when they were both freshmen in high school. Back then, he was working as a farmhand and saved up to buy the perfect ring — one he picked out himself after driving across the state. 'It's a halo diamond with diamonds down the sides of the band in white gold,' Maune says. 'It means everything to me.' At the time, she tried to brush off the thought, but by the time she reached the reef, her heart sank. The ring was gone. She began looking around her in the water, but had no luck. So she grabbed her pool noodle and GoPro and went back to shore with a plan to retrace her steps. 'I tried not to panic. I've had friends lose their rings at work at the hospital while taking off gloves, and I know panicking only makes it worse," she says. "So I stayed calm and started searching.' While all this unfolded, Maune says her husband and kids were back at the pool. Joel, she adds, is afraid of the ocean and for good reason. Earlier that morning, someone had spotted a shark in the water. That meant she was alone for the search. Luckily, she had a few things working in her favor. She knew she had lost the ring somewhere along the straight swim out to the reef, and since she could still see the spot on the beach where she'd left her belongings, she had a visual marker for the path she'd taken. The ocean conditions were also ideal. 'It was an extremely calm and clear day, and that helped immensely,' she says. 'If I had swum the whole reef parallel to shore and noticed it was missing when I got back, there would have been no way I could have ever found it.' 'I felt more confident because someone lost their room keys that morning while snorkeling and actually found them,' she adds. 'So I knew it was possible.' By that point, the ring had been missing for nearly 10 minutes. Despite the slim odds, Maune says she never considered giving up. "Emotionally I was bumming hard. I know how sentimental the ring is and I want my children to have it one day. Physically I was exhausted swimming that much. It's a far swim, especially when you're not only looking for a ring but looking around you for the shark someone spotted that morning." "But one thing about me is I don't give up easily," she says. "I was determined to find it and I think that helped me stay calm while searching." Eventually, she made it about halfway back out to the coral reef — just past the point where she could barely touch the ocean floor — when something caught her eye. 'It was partially buried but I saw the shimmer off the diamonds from the sun above,' she says. 'There were also a ton of seashells but those don't shimmer.' 'At first I thought, 'That can't be it,' ' she continues. 'Then while I swam down and moved some of the sand off it I was completely shocked. I was right, I had swum directly in front of where I laid my stuff down on the beach.' 'I screamed and jumped in the water,' she adds. 'There weren't many people around but I am sure someone heard me on the beach.' Maune originally brought her GoPro just to film her usual snorkeling videos, but after losing the ring, she quickly switched gears and started recording her search. She posted the first video explaining what happened, and it went viral — racking up 10 million views. After miraculously finding the ring, she captured her reaction and shared a follow-up TikTok that gained over 8.8 million views and more than 4,000 comments. She also revealed she hadn't even told her husband about losing the ring until after she posted the video. He later shared his own reaction to the whole ordeal on TikTok. 'I was shocked at the number of views. I still can't read all of the comments, as there are thousands! I received many messages from family and friends who watched the first video about me losing it before I uploaded the next video, finding it!' 'I did read a few comments telling me to go buy a lottery ticket because I am the luckiest person in the world," she adds. "I loved reading people's stories about how they have found their missing rings before. Many people shared similar stories.' As for advice to others in the same situation, she says: 'Don't panic and try to remain as calm as possible. Re-trace your steps, but safety always comes first. If the ocean was choppy that day, I am unsure if I would have made the same decision to go back out to look for it.' 'I am so thankful we found it back and I am excited to share the story with our kids one day.' Read the original article on People
New York Times
11 hours ago
- New York Times
The Best TV Shows of 2025, So Far
The first half of 2025 saw the return of strike-delayed hit shows, like 'Severance,' 'The White Lotus' and 'The Last of Us,' that took turns dominating the cultural conversation. But only one of them made our top TV list. Read on to find out which one and to see which other series, new and old, scripted and nonfiction, impressed our television critics the most (listed alphabetically). 'Andor' A prequel series to 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' (2016) — and arguably the most acclaimed 'Star Wars' story of any kind since that film — 'Andor' offered one of TV's deepest explorations of the political realities and human costs of rebellion. Its two-season run wrapped up in May. 'Prequels are often where dramatic tension goes to die,' James Poniewozik writes. 'How invested can you be in a story whose outcome you already know? The genius of 'Andor,' created by Tony Gilroy, is to make that knowledge an asset.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Yahoo
Threads Adds Spoiler Tags for Posts
This story was originally published on Social Media Today. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Social Media Today newsletter. After testing them out over the past few months, Threads has now launched its new spoiler tags in posts, which will enable users to hide words in their posts behind a tappable overlay. As you can see in this example, posted by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, now if you want to mention something without letting everyone see (like, for example, a TV show spoiler), you can highlight the relevant text within the composer, then select 'Mark spoiler' to blur it. Viewers will then have the choice as to whether they want to reveal that info or not, which will add another engagement element to your Threads posting options. As noted, Threads has been developing this for some time, with the first indicators of the feature spotted in testing back in January. The option is similar to the spoiler tags on Reddit, providing another consideration when sharing potentially disruptive info. The main target here is TV show discussion, which is still a major element of interaction on X, though Threads says that it's also seeing more chatter about trending shows, including 'The Last of Us' and 'The White Lotus.' Tapping into trending entertainment discussion could help Threads become a bigger competitor for X, and grow its evolving community, which is steadily rising to become a more important companion for live event discussion. Indeed, Threads is now up to 350 million monthly active users, and continues to see strong download momentum. X reported back in March that it's now serving 600 million monthly actives, though it is also losing users in some markets. By focusing on live event discussion, which also includes live sports, Threads is hoping to be able to dethrone X as the place to be for in-the-moment engagement. And if it can win over more of these communities, it could well be on track to become the next billion-user platform, as envisioned by Zuck and Co.
