Pedro Pascal Is “In Active Denial” Over Joel’s The Last Of Us Twist
The series finally pulled off the video game’s most controversial scene.
Spoiler alert: This post discusses events from The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 2.
HBO actually did it. Though fans of The Last of Us video game series have long known that Joel’s death was a major part of the source material, even the biggest enthusiasts doubted if the TV adaptation would really go through with killing off Pedro Pascal’s main character. Well, it happened, and nobody is more crushed by it than Pascal himself.
“I’m in active denial,” Pascal told Entertainment Weekly after the April 20 episode ended in Joel’s brutal killing. Similar to the popular zombie games, the second episode of Season 2 showed Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) exacting her vengeance on Joel after he killed her father in Season 1. Although he knew the death was coming, Pascal is still avoiding processing the finality of it.
“I realize this more and more as I get older, I find myself slipping into denial that anything is over,” Pascal said. “I know that I’m forever bonded to so many members of the experience and just have to see them under different circumstances, but never will under the circumstances of playing Joel on The Last of Us. And, no, I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it because it makes me sad.”
Thankfully, Pascal still has a few more precious moments with Joel coming up. He will show up in some flashback scenes later in Season 2. The actor is also holding onto one positive aspect of his character’s death: It means that he gets to watch his screen partner Bella Ramsey take over the series even more.
“Bella was never my child, but there’s an obvious parental dynamic between the characters of Joel and Ellie,” Pascal said. “I did feel this sort of pride that I had nothing to do with but was able to observe how effortlessly they stepped into a position of leadership.”
