It’s been a difficult week for The Last of Us fans. Two episodes into the second season of HBO’s live-action series, fans are experiencing the traumatic events of The Last of Us Part II, the game on which this season is based. Those of us who played it dealt with this five years ago and are being retraumatized. Now, we also have to comfort new viewers who had no idea what was coming, are crashing out, and are angry at long-time fans who didn’t warn them about what was coming.
In episode two, Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) tortures and kills Joel (Pedro Pascal) for killing her father in season one. It was a brutal scene and a controversial choice in The Last of Us Part II, but a lot of people who watch the show never touched the games and aren’t tuned into online video game discussions enough to have caught wind of this moment. So even though Abby essentially voiced her intentions directly to the audience in episode one, newcomers may have had some hope that this would be a season-long conflict that Joel might survive, rather than one that would see him taken out just two episodes into the season.
Newcomers are in shambles and posting their reactions online. After sitting with this grief for five years, I eat this shit up. I love re-experiencing the crash-out vicariously through others. By the time The Last of Us Part II was over, I was at peace with it and understood why the story had put us through this. The TV show is extending the game’s story across multiple seasons, so it might take some time before viewers get that same closure, but for now, they get to sit with all this grief, and I’m lapping up their reactions.
If you or a loved one has been personally victimized by The Last of Us season two, there are steps you can take to mitigate any further harm. Please remove all golf paraphernalia from your home, keep your old acoustic guitars in their cases and out of sight, and hide all instances of Pearl Jam from your Spotify playlists.
