The Last of Us TV show has filled in some of the blanks on Joel’s life. The Last of Us is a show that is incredibly faithful to the games, but when it does break away from the video games, it’s not doing it to be insulting. It’s typically doing it to expand on ideas or characters, allowing the medium of television to tell parts of this story that a game feasibly can’t. Although The Last of Us is a very cinematic, cutscene-heavy game, there’s still a desire to keep the player actively moving and engaged in the gameplay. A TV show has the ability to focus on more talk-y scenes.
The Last of Us Season 2 has been a bit divisive, however, as some game fans think it has butchered certain parts of the story with slight changes. It seems there’s a method to all of the madness, but it’s still up to fans to determine if they agree with all of that. The Last of Us is an incredibly beloved video game franchise, so any change is going to be met with some level of skepticism. With that said, the show has still been well received overall and HBO feels confident in the show enough to have already greenlit a third season. With the sixth episode of Season 2 having just aired, it’s clear why they have that confidence.
The Last of Us Season 2 Reveals Joel’s Dad
The Last of Us Season 2’s sixth episode is fairly similar to the Bill and Frank episode from the first season due to its structure. It’s yet another episode that strays away from the game’s story while still retaining key moments that are important for Ellie and Joel’s respective arcs. It’s a beautiful episode that chronicles the two’s relationship throughout their time in Jackson, particularly how they fell out, but also most importantly, how they were starting to resolve things as well.
However, if you’re a fan of a game, you know a lot of these beats. The show also shines in a lot of its more original moments. As last week’s episode teased, The Last of Us has brought Joel back for a big flashback episode that largely revolves around him, further emphasizing the theme of perspective in Season 2. The episode begins in Austin, Texas in 1983, we see a young Joel and Tommy. It’s clear they have gotten into some trouble and Joel is going to take the fall for it as the older bother. In walks their dad, a cop played by Tony Dalton, and he tries to squeeze the truth out of Joel. It’s clear the father is abusive, maybe even regretfully, in pursuit of trying to discipline his kids.
After a long conversation about this cycle of violence that gets passed down through generations and how each parent tries to do better than their own, we get a good look at a watch worn by Joel’s dad. It’s the same watch Joel that his daughter gets fixed up and he wears throughout the apocalypse. We don’t see any other scenes with Joel’s dad, so we aren’t sure exactly what came of this relationship as Joel got older nor are we privy to what the watch means to him. Obviously it’s his father’s, but he has some sort of complicated relationship to him, which may not mean it’s the typical family heirloom.
Nevertheless, it’s a great piece of backstory that builds on Joel’s character both for fans of The Last of Us TV series, but also the game as well. We don’t hear much about Joel’s past in the game, so this was an interesting scene to see. It’s also a refreshing change of pace from the apocalyptic world we see in the rest of the show, while still retaining the themes from the main story. Whether or not we’ll get any more flashbacks like this in future episodes or seasons remains to be seen, but it’s probably not very likely since Joel’s place in this story has largely concluded. It was still great to get a bit more Joel after his death in The Last of Us Season 2, though!
It’s also worth noting that this episode was written and directed by Neil Druckmann, the creator of the games. It’s unclear if this has always been part of his vision for Joel or if he invented it purely for the TV series. Druckmann has also cast Dalton to star in his next video game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.
What did you think of Joel’s dad in The Last of Us? Let me know in the comments.
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