The Last of Us – The Price

By: Kelly Kearney

Pedro Pascal returns to pull at your heartstrings in the penultimate episode of Season Two’s “The Last of Us,” reminding viewers why his portrayal of Joel Miller became a cultural touchstone. In an emotionally charged hour told entirely through flashback, we finally learn the truth behind the rift between Joel and Ellie—one rooted not just in lies, but in love, loss, and the unbearable weight of survival.

Written and directed by “The Last of Us” co-creators Neil Druckmann, Halley Gross, and Craig Mazin, the episode offers a devastating look into Joel’s past and Ellie’s evolution—from a joke-cracking teenager into a hardened vigilante haunted by betrayal. It paints a portrait of what could have been—a future cruelly stolen from her by Abby, a young woman she won’t stop until she finds it.

Following last week’s brutal cliffhanger, where Ellie beat Nora half to death demanding Abby’s location, Episode 6 shifts gears. The narrative dives into the past, peeling back the layers of Joel’s psychology, tracing the roots of his fatherhood, and showing exactly when—and how—his relationship with Ellie began to fray.

Breaking the Cycle of Abuse

We open 20 years before the outbreak, in Austin, Texas. A teenage Joel Miller (Andrew Diaz) just got into a fight thanks to his younger brother Tommy (David Miranda) who was ripped off in a drug deal. Joel doesn’t hesitate to protect his brother–a trait that never left him no matter the state of the world they’re living in. After the police were called about the fight, Joel and Tommy head home to await the punishment their cop father (Tony Dalton)is known to dole out.. From the moment the elder Miller walks through the door, we understand what they’re afraid of.

Immediately Joel offers to take the blame, trying to shield Tommy from punishment. He is the older brother and doesn’t think Tommy can’t take what their father is going to give him. When their father opens a beer and sits down at the kitchen table, he lays it all out for Joel and what he learned from the humiliating experience with his fellow cops. He knows Tommy was the one buying the drugs—he’s already spoken to the dealer and knows Joel was the one delivering the violent blows. Both boys are at fault but their father also recognizes Joel’s loyalty in trying to protect his brother.

Then, instead of exploding in anger, their father does something unexpected: he shares his beer with his son and a story.

When he was a boy, he stole a candy bar and his own father beat him so badly he fractured his jaw. He spent two months with his mouth wired shut, his shame on display for the whole town to see. “You think I’m rough?” Joel’s father asks, staring down at his son. In comparison to the abuse he survived from Joel’s grandfather, he says, “I’ve never done to either of you what he did to me. And God willing, when it’s your turn, you’ll do a little better than my father did.”

It’s the closest thing to a recognition Joel will ever hear from his father about how he and Tommy were treated—and the earliest glimpse we get of the protector he would become. A man determined to end the cycle of abuse, no matter what it costs him.

The Birthday Girl in Jackson

Flashforward to those early days in Jackson, where we find Joel (Pedro Pascal) in his workshop, sanding down a handmade guitar. He carves one of Ellie’s drawings into the neck—a dinosaur, etched with the same precision he once reserved for survival. He traded salvaged Legos with the conservative bartender, Seth (Robert John Burke) for the guitar supplies and a cake he is decorating for the teenager’s 15th birthday. Before Joel can finish the guitar, Tommy (Gabriel Luna) bursts in, supporting Ellie (Bella Ramsey), who is high on painkillers thanks to an injury to her arm..

“I just wanted to wear short sleeves again,” she mumbles, her head lolling against Joel’s chest.

Joel’s panic and anger casting blame turns to sad acceptance when he sees the burn masking her season one bite mark. While on cooking duty in the kitchen, Ellie pressed her arm against a scalding pot. In a haze of youthful desperation to find some normalcy in a world that is anything but normal, she tried to erase the past with fire. The skin bubbled and burned, and now, all Joel can do is hold her like any caring father would. “It smelled like pork,” she slurs, laughing, because even when she is in pain, Ellie can’t help but crack a joke.

After the drugs wear off, Ellie stirs, groggy but ready to face the day. She wanders downstairs to find Joel in the kitchen, standing over a birthday cake he made himself. It’s crooked and imperfect—frosting uneven, the “15” and “Ellie” scrawled in shaky icing—but it’s full of love. The look on the birthday girl’s face says she knows it too. Before Joel can even cut a slice, Ellie rushes forward and grabs a massive handful, shoving it into her mouth with a triumphant grin. “Jesus,” Joel mutters with a smirk. “You ever heard of a fork?” She licks frosting off her fingers as he tells her to close her eyes and then reaches behind his back. Reluctantly, her eyes close and when she opens them back up, Joel is holding out a guitar. She is amazed he built the instrument with his own hands– wood sanded and stained smooth, the strings gleaming, and just waiting for her to ask for a lesson.

Ellie glances at her frosting-covered hands and the fresh scar on her injured arm knowing it might be a while, and asks him to play her something first. He sits down and strums a few quiet chords, then begins to sing a cover of Pearl Jam’s Future Days. Each line sounds like a quiet confession of gratitude, pride, and the kind of love that turns a man into a father. When he finishes, Ellie wipes her eyes and says, “Well… that didn’t suck.”

Ellie’s Sweet Sixteen

The following year we find Ellie riding horseback beside Joel. It’s the perfect day for a birthday adventure. The sky above the trees is open and wide, sunlight filtering down on them as Ellie tries to guess where they are headed for her big day that could beat the previous year’s gifts. “Is it a lotter of kittens?” she asks playfully. “Litter,” Joel corrects, and laughs out “And no, it’s not.”

They continue riding, bantering back and forth until Joel brings up Jesse (Young Mazino), assuming there might be something romantic between him and Ellie since the two friends are always together. “I got a keen eye for these kinds of things,” he says and Ellie can’t help but laugh because he is very blind to teen romances and budding sexualities. He doesn’t push further but shifts the conversation with awkward hesitation to the birds and the bees, and Ellie almost chokes him with a vulgar response that says she knows enough. That catches Joel off guard, and as he fumbles for the right words to include in “the talk” every parent dreads, she cuts him off with a promise to not get pregnant if he lets her join the patrols. Apparently he promised she could when she turned 16 and she hasn’t forgotten. Joel sighs, as he knows she is right but he isn’t ready to let her put herself in danger.

Eventually, they reach the surprise and when Ellie sees it, she gasps in awe. Standing high above the brush is a massive T-Rex statue—weathered, covered in winding weeds but towering over the dense brush of the woods. It’s a  relic from another time, and one that has always fascinated Ellie, just like her love of space exploration she read about in books. Before Joel can stop her, she bolts toward it, scaling the dinosaur like a little kid on a jungle gym until she reaches the head, arms raised in triumph. From up there, she can see the next surprise in the distance: a museum. Joel follows her gaze knowing the question that will follow and beats her to the punch with,“If you don’t break your neck coming down, I’ll take you there.”

Once inside their flashlights cut through the darkness as they explore room after room of history, fossil exhibits, and plaques caked in dust. The magic is undeniable, and Ellie– wide-eyed with wonder, soaks it all in. Eventually they reach the main hall for the ultimate birthday gift. It’s a real-life Apollo space capsule from the 1972 moon landing. Ellie’s breath catches in her throat, as she cannot believe what she is seeing. Joel watches her, moved by her awe as she opens the capsule’s hatch to climb in. Joel hands her a small rock and points to the helmets on display because she can’t go to space without the proper gear.

Fitted in her astronaut helmet, Ellie plays along, strapping herself into the seat trying to imagine what lift off must’ve been like. That’s when Joel hands her the last part of her gift– a cassette tape he admits he had to really search for. Always with her Walkman, Ellie pops the tape in and wiggles her headphones under the helmet and presses play.  A moment later, her ears fill with the crackle of static… and then the countdown… it’s Apollo 11’s liftoff!

In her mind, the roaring engines shake the capsule and she and Joel are soaring into the stars. He watches her with a gentle smile hoping he outdid himself this birthday. The joy on her face and tears in her eyes say he did.

Another Year Later – Everything Changes

Another year goes by and Joel’s baking has improved. This cake is taller, the writing clearer, and he is excited to show Ellie what he made for her. That is until he knocks and then opens her bedroom door to find her half-dressed, smoking weed, and mid-way through getting a tattoo from Kat (Noah Lamanna)—the only other openly queer person in Jackson. Music’s playing and their laughter acts like a record scratch, halting from panic and embarrassment as Joel freezes. She might be seventeen years old but maybe hit the breaks before you crash Daddy Joel through all the barricades of rebellious youth! The two fight and both assume things that aren’t true. Joel seems more shocked by the tattoo and maybe being left in the dark about Ellie’s queer awakening, but she takes his outrage as judgement for being with Kat. Their communication is misfiring and not landing how either of them hoped it would.

Later that night Joel is awakened by Ellie packing her things and dragging her mattress out of her bedroom. She is moving into the garage and while Joel hates the idea, he promises to get it ready for her if that’s what she wants.

The next morning Joel visits Gail (Catherine O’Hara) at the diner who is ironically reading Earth Abides– a story which shares a lot of similarities with Jackson and Joel. He talks about Ellie—about her dreams, her strength, and her stubbornness, and about how raising a teenager means learning to let go while still holding on. Gail points out the obvious–she is growing up,but Joel isn’t ready to lose her, even if he knows it’s part of what it means to be a parent.Gail leaves him with good advice to not block her path but always let Ellie know she can rely on him. Joel looks out the window toward the garage, where Ellie now lives and hopes it’s not too late.

Eugene

Two years later, Ellie is 19 and finally ready to face Joel about Salt Lake City–a story that never made sense to her. Joel’s excuses about the cure and raiders killing the Fireflies never sat right with her and now she can’t shake the feeling he has been lying. Her morning pondering her trust in Joel is interrupted when he knocks on her door with good news: Her birthday gift is her first patrol. On horseback, he teaches Ellie the ropes, but during their ride, they get a call for an emergency involving Gail’s husband Eugene (Joe Pantoliano). Joel orders Ellie to return home, but she breaks his heart with, “I’m not your kid. I’m your partner,” and there is no telling her no.

Abandoning their horses and leaving their supplies behind, they make their way through the dense woods until they hear screams. A horse bursts through the brush, dragging a body, and the further they walk the more corpses they find. Then they find Eugene, and he is obviously suffering from a bite wound to the side. Joel is ready to put him down–which is protocol, but the man begs him to give him time to say goodbye to his beloved Gail. Crying and pleading, he begs Joel to give him time but he refuses. Even when Eugene threatens him with a gun, Joel doesn’t change his mind. Not until Ellie asks Eugene to hold his arm out. There are no visible signs of the infection yet, so Ellie assumes the man has an hour or two before he turns. That’s plenty of time to say goodbye to Gail. Joel reluctantly agrees and tells Ellie to go get the horses and he will watch Eugene. It wound up being a ruse to get Ellie’s eyes off of his execution. Soon Eugene starts documenting what his body is feeling as the Cordyceps begin to take over. When they reach a lake surrounded by mountains, Eugene realizes it’s the end. His last words are for Gail, hoping to see her face in the last moments of his life, “If you love someone, you can always see their face,” he says, and then Joel kills him.

When Ellie arrives with the horses, all she hears is Joel’s familiar excuse: “I had no choice.” It breaks something in her and the walk back to Jackson is a silent one–the only noise coming from Eugene’s body being dragged home behind a horse. When Gail meets them at the front gate, Joel tells her that her husband wanted to say goodbye but was too far gone. He ended up taking his life rather than risk her’s. After hearing that, Gail hugs Joel but Ellie cannot believe what she is hearing. She interrupts their moment to tell the truth: Eugene wanted to see her but Joel killed him before their final goodbye.

Joel looks at her betrayed as Gail slaps him in trauma and disgust. He didn’t just break his promise to Eugene, he broke his promise to Ellie—for the second time—and it shattered their relationship.

Stolen Chances

Nine months later, it’s New Year’s Eve and Joel watches as Ellie dances with Dina. Maria (Rutina Wesley) notices the sorrow in his face and apologizes for calling him a refugee earlier that day. He is family,and she is grateful for his presence in Jackson.

Then he jumps up—to defend Ellie from Seth and winds up leaving the dance humiliated and feeling ashamed.

Later, on the porch, on the final night of his life, Joel drinks coffee and strums the guitar he made for Ellie. She approaches, ready to talk. She wants him to know she can take care of herself—especially when it comes to guys like Seth. This prompts Joel to ask if Dina is her girlfriend. The answer is no, but she admits she does have a crush on the girl.

“She’d be lucky to have you,” Joel says, but Ellie can’t accept his kindness–not when he’s still lying. So, she gives him one last chance to tell her the truth about what happened in Utah. If he lies again, they’re done, and this time she means for good.

With tears in his eyes, Joel confesses: there were no other immune people at the Salt Lake hospital. They might have been able to make a cure, but he killed them all before they got the chance, because to save them all he would have to lose her, and he could not lose another child. Angry she tries to get him to see he took that choice from her–from everyone, and maybe being the cure was her purpose. He understands but he admits he would do it again because he loves her. It was a selfish choice he made, and while she might never understand it, she is willing to try. She wants to forgive him, and Abby, not even twelve hours later, took that from her.

And as we return to the present, we see Ellie making her way back to the theater to meet Dina (Isabela Merced), Tommy, and Jesse—after brutally interrogating Nora for Abby’s location. This mission she is on isn’t only about the father she lost, but it’s about the lost opportunity to make amends with the only person in the world who would curse humanity just to see her smile. Abby has a lot to answer for.