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How That Shocking ‘The Last of Us’ Episode 2 Moment Is Different in the Game

Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 2 and “The Last of Us: Part II”

On Sunday evening, viewers witnessed the brutal murder of Joel (Pedro Pascal) at the hands of Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) in HBO’s “The Last of Us” Season 2.

But the pivotal scene, which is the inciting incident for the narrative of both Season 2 and 2020’s “The Last of Us: Part II,” has some key differences from the source material designed to enhance the storytelling for television and give more exposition up front.

Despite having the opportunity to play as Abby in early moments of the game, it does not reveal who she is or her motives until after several hours of gameplay, making his death all the more shocking as players are completely caught off guard by the scene, which happens within the first few hours.

What happens in the HBO adaptation?

After Joel saves Abby from nearly being killed by a horde of infected, he and Dina follow her back to a house up the mountain where they can wait out the snowstorm. The group of Fireflies initially appears friendly, with Mel (Ariela Barer) immediately tending to Dina to ensure she doesn’t get frostbite. But Dina quickly notices a patch on her backpack of a wolf and the letters WLF, questioning who they are.

Pedro Pascal and Kaitlyn Dever in “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 2. (Liane Hentscher/HBO)

Joel tells the group to grab ammo, weapons and blankets and says that they’re all going to head out shortly while trying to contact Tommy or one of the other patrols on his radio. But then Abby reveals Joel’s identity to Owen, Nora, Mel and Manny, who all stand in shock at the realization. Immediately, Manny puts a gun to Dina’s head. Mel reluctantly sedates Dina after Abby threatens to kill her.

As Joel is held at gunpoint, he initially believes they’re trying to rob him and Dina. But after making him guess, he realizes they are Fireflies. Abby quickly corrects him, saying “they used to be” Fireflies. They’re all gone now. She goes on to reveal that she and her group were all at St. Mary’s Hospital when Joel went on a rampage to save Ellie in Season 1.

Danny Ramirez and Isabela Merced in “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 2. (Liane Hentscher/HBO)

She then makes Joel confirm that he was at Salt Lake, which he does. He adds, “I saved your life,” to which she replies: “What life?” before shooting him in the leg with a shotgun. Abby orders Mel to tourniquet Joel’s leg to prevent him from bleeding out. She goes on to explain that Joel killed 18 soldiers and one unarmed doctor during his rampage. That doctor turns out to be Abby’s father. Following the five-year time jump, Abby is now 24 years old and says her crew has joined a new militia in Seattle.

“Our commander trained us to follow a code. We don’t kill people that can’t defend themselves. And right now that’s you,” she says. “But I am going to kill you. Because it doesn’t matter if you have a code like me or you’re a lawless piece of shit like you. There are just some things everyone agrees are just f–ing wrong.”

Pedro Pascal in “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 2. (Liane Hentscher/HBO)

She continues to talk before Joel interrupts her, telling her to “shut the f–k up and do it already” to which she responds, “You stupid old man, you don’t get to rush this” before hitting his leg wound with a golf club.

The episode then cuts between Abby continuously punching Joel in the face with blood all over her hand as Owen tries to get her to stop. Eventually, Ellie finds Joel and Dina’s horses and enters the house. She can hear muffled screams from upstairs and quickly runs up, opening the door to find Joel limp on the ground with a face covered in blood. Before she can shoot Abby, she’s stopped by Manny who she cuts with her knife. But she is overpowered by Owen and Nora and restrained on the ground. Owen stops Manny from killing Ellie and quickly tells Abby to “end it.”

Bella Ramsey in “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 2. (Liane Hentscher/HBO)

Ellie repeatedly tells Joel to get up as he’s barely still alive and tearfully begs Abby not to kill him. But she stands over him with a broken piece of the golf club and stabs him in the neck with it. Ellie is then released and vows to kill Abby and her friends as they leave. Manny is the last to exit and calls Joel a “pendejo” before walking out. Ellie proceeds to crawl over to Joel and pull the piece of golf club out of his neck before laying on top of him and hugging him as he dies. Eventually, Jesse finds Dina and Ellie and the trio return to Jackson dragging a bodybag behind them.

What’s different in the game?

While many of the beats are still the same, there’s a few major and minor changes.

The biggest change is who’s in the room when Joel’s death happens. In the game, Joel is actually on patrol with his brother Tommy, while Dina is on patrol with Ellie, who are off having a romantic moment in Eugene’s weed den. They are eventually found by Jesse, who tells them that Tommy and Joel never showed up to meet with another patrol. Ellie, Dina and Jesse proceed to split up and look for him.

Meanwhile, Joel and Tommy still rescue Abby and ride back to a house up the mountain, referred to as the Baldwins place, and the horde of infected chasing them is ultimately killed by Abby’s friends. Upon entering the house, Tommy says that they’ll restock and ride out the storm before heading back down the hill to town and invites Abby’s group to come back with them. Mel introduces herself to Tommy, who does the same to the rest of the group and Joel reveals his own name, resulting in silence.

The camera slowly pans around Abby’s group, which includes three additional WLF members not mentioned in the first two episodes of the show: Jordan, Leah and Nick. Joel says, “Y’all act like you’ve heard of us or something?” to which Abby responds, “Because they have” before shooting him with the shotgun.

Jordan, Nick and Nora grab Tommy and the latter knocks him out. Nick then joins Manny in dragging Joel and restraining him against a wall. Abby proceeds to kneel down to Joel’s level and address him by his full name to which he responds “who are you?” She tells him to guess who she is and he responds “why don’t you say whatever speech you got prepared and get this over with.” She then has Mel tourniquet his leg before grabbing a golf club. She calls him a “stupid old man” telling him he “doesn’t get to rush this” before swinging the golf club into his face.

Ellie eventually finds him after hearing his muffled screams in the basement of the Baldwins’ place and opens the door to see Joel limp on the ground before being attacked by Jordan, as opposed to Manny in the show. She is similarly restrained by Nora and Nick after cutting Jordan with her knife and threatens to kill the group. Owen reprimands the rest of group for not guarding the upstairs, warns that more people from Jackson will be coming after them and tells Abby to end it.

Ellie tells Joel to get up and begs Abby not to kill him, but she ends up cracking his head open with the golf club. Manny then stands over Joels body and spits on him before saying “burn in hell, pendejo.” Owen, Manny, Mel and Jordan argue about whether to kill Ellie, but the latter ultimately walks over and kicks Ellie in the face, knocking her out. She wakes up to Dina finding her, who runs to get Jesse as she stares at Joel’s dead body from a distance.

New episodes of “The Last of Us” premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and stream on Max.

The post How That Shocking ‘The Last of Us’ Episode 2 Moment Is Different in the Game appeared first on TheWrap.

‘The Last of Us’ Creators Unpack That Huge Season 2 Twist: Timing, Execution and Showing Restraint

Note: The following contains “The Last of Us” Season 2 Episode 2 spoilers.

HBO’s “The Last of Us” left its newest fans stunned on Sunday evening as series protagonist Joel (Pedro Pascal) was brutally murdered by Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) and her crew of ex-Fireflies, who were seeking revenge for the events of the Season 1 finale.

The scene, which is the inciting incident of the game on which it’s based, “The Last of Us: Part II,” finds Abby telling Joel that her father was the doctor who was set to perform surgery on Ellie to make a vaccine for the Cordyceps infection. And Joel murdered him during his violent rampage at St. Mary’s Hospital.

In addition to introducing that revelation earlier than in the game, the HBO adaptation notably swaps Joel’s patrol partner to Dina (Isabela Merced) instead of Tommy (Gabriel Luna), who stays back to help Jackson fend off a horde of infected in an epic battle.

The decision to kill off Joel in the second episode of the season may come as a shock to viewers, with five more episodes left in the season. During a wide-ranging conversation with executive producers Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann about Episode 2, they revealed that they considered moving Joel’s death to later in the season, but “those conversations didn’t last long.”

“I think some people felt that maybe we would start with it out of shock value,” Mazin said. “We’re not interested in shock value. That’s not what we do. And I think some people thought we would put it at the end of the season, because HBO is going to make us keep Pedro Pascal every episode.”

Mazin said they never talked about keeping Joel alive. He was always going to die, just like in the game.

“We love Pedro, but I told him the very first time I ever Zoomed with him, ‘So here’s the thing, you’re playing this guy, Joel. In Season 2, he’s gonna die.’ There was never a question. It was always understood that was built into this,” he said.

Read on for our full conversation with Mazin and Druckmann below.

What prompted the decision in Episode 2 to change up the patrol pairings from the game, swapping out Tommy with Dina as Joel’s partner and putting Ellie and Jesse together?

Druckmann: There’s a bunch of reasons. When you engineer the structure, we have hundreds and hundreds of conversations around these things. One, we wanted to show what’s at stake for Jackson, because that will come into play later in the season as well. And we wanted one of our familiar characters to be [at the battle with the infected horde] and Tommy felt very natural for that. 

Two, we wanted to demonstrate and show more of Dina’s relationship with Joel. We only talk about in the game, here you get to see it and it goes back to Episode 1 and continues through here. And specifically, we wanted to build up to that moment where she is there when he is tortured and eventually killed, because that will come into play later. 

And then the other thing is we’re building Jesse up more than we did in the game. We wanted to show more of his dynamic with Ellie, and the relationship between Ellie and Dina takes a few different turns throughout the whole season. So if you’re familiar with the game, in that weed grow house, that relationship goes somewhere else that has not happened in the show. 

Bella Ramsey in “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 2. (Liane Hentscher/HBO)

When it came to that specific scene that you mentioned in the game of Ellie and Dina in Eugene’s weed den, what was the decision-making behind scrapping that? Was it just something that you felt didn’t fit pacing-wise?

Mazin: Maybe we scrapped the location, but we didn’t necessarily scrap the scene. I can see see people getting very angry and saying, ‘Oh, these guys aren’t going to do it.’ If you watch Season 1, we pretty much get around to everything we need to get around to. We just don’t necessarily do it exactly where it was in the game because the experience is different the way we divide episodes up. For instance, in Episode 1, Ellie and Dina’s kiss at the dance happens like 90% of the way in on the game. So all I’d say to people is Neil made the game, I’m a fan of the game.

Druckmann: One last thing I’ll touch on this is pacing in the game is very different from pacing in the show. There are just different kind of engines that are keeping you engaged and switching things up. And because we don’t have the interactive element, there’s certain other techniques that we have to do to keep the pacing going.

I also want to ask you about Episode 2’s elephant in the room which you touched upon earlier, which is Joel’s death. How did you decide on the scene’s changes, most notably who was in the room in the show versus the game? Also, what was your advice to Kaitlyn and Pedro in terms of how to approach the scene?

Mazin: Some of the smaller changes were scripted because we introduce Abby in a slightly more complete way, because there’s less of a discover-through-gameplay mechanism that we have to work with, which actually leads to a really interesting conversation between the two of them that’s quite intimate and sort of beautiful in its own way. But some of those small things just happen. For instance, Mel is crying and that’s because Ariela [Barer] was crying. I mean it was an upsetting thing to watch and experience and we leave room for those things. Mark Mylod was amazing about giving everybody a chance to feel it, but we really did want, more than anything, to deliver the experience that we all felt when we played the game, which is a difficult one. 

For Kaitlyn and Pedro, I don’t have to tell either one of them anything. And Mark [Mylod] and I would sort of look at each other and other than telling Kaitlyn to look a little bit more to her left just for an eye line or saying ‘let’s just do another take and see what happens,’ you don’t really need to say anything. They got it. They understood it inherently. And it was pretty incredible to watch them have that connection in a strange way, even as she was preparing him for his own death.

Kaitlyn Dever in “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 2. (Liane Hentscher/HBO)

Joel’s death is obviously very violent both in the game and the show, but how did you figure out the balance of how much of it to show on screen? Was there ever a feeling that you needed to dial it back or wanted to go farther?

Mazin: Some of the balancing happens in editing. You have choices. Where should I linger and how long should I linger? For me, I didn’t want to necessarily see a fist connecting over and over to Joel’s face because to me that would have been gratuitous and sort of action movie-ish. And the truth is that’s not what’s going on here. What’s going on here is something much, much sadder and reprehensible to the point that you can see how angry Ellie is and how sad Mel is. But when we do show Joel, it’s because Ellie needs to see it, because it’s not enough to lose somebody like that.

There is heartbreak and loss, but there’s anger and humiliation, and she’s looking at a humiliated man who’s been brought low. And watching Bella go from tears and begging him to get up to then ‘I’m gonna kill you all. You’re all gonna f–king die,’ that rage needs to be motivated by more than just death. It is a humiliation. And when Ellie says it, I believe her.

Druckmann: The entire premise of the story, even going back to the game, is this further exploration of love. If you watched someone experience this, a random stranger, you would be disgusted. You would be angry at whoever committed this act. Now, imagine it’s done to the person you love the most. What happens to you and what choices you make after that? That is the story.

You guys chose to put Joel’s death in Episode 2. How did you land on that decision as opposed to killing him off in episode 1 or later in the season?

Druckmann: We interrogate everything. So I can’t remember the exact conversation, but I know there were conversations of what happens if we push it all the way down? And those conversations didn’t last very long, because then we’re just lingering in act one for a really long time.

This is the act one break, the incident that then carries the rest of the season that we needed to move it as early as possible. And as early as possible turned out to be Episode 2, because we needed to reestablish Jackson and our characters, set up some of the relationships and dynamics that now are all interrupted and thrown into disarray because of what Abby did to Joel.

Mazin: The decision making process came down to ‘OK, where does this belong narratively to us? What was our instinct? How will this impact the story in the best possible way?’ Even though it is a horrible, horrible thing where does it belong?’ I think some people felt that maybe we would start with it out of shock value. We’re not interested in shock value. That’s not what we do. And I think some people thought we would put it at the end of the season, because HBO is going to make us keep Pedro Pascal every episode.

We love Pedro, but I told him the very first time I ever Zoomed with him, ‘So here’s the thing, you’re playing this guy, Joel. In Season 2, he’s gonna die.’ There was never a question. It was always understood that was built into this. And we didn’t want to torment people necessarily. There’s a sense that maybe you’re just burning time and dangling this fate that a lot of people are aware is inherent to the storyline, and the people who aren’t aware will become aware, and it will start to feel like we’re toying with everybody in a way.

Even though I think [Joel’s death is] exactly where it belongs narratively, it feels early, because you don’t want it to happen. That’s the best way I can describe it. It’s too soon, because he has gone too soon.

Bella Ramsey in “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 2. (Liane Hentscher/HBO)

I know you both have been previously asked about Joel’s decision at the end of Season 1 and whether you would do the same as him if put in his shoes. If you were put in Abby’s situation where Joel has killed her father, would you have reacted similarly?

Mazin: No, this is a different thing. Joel committed a pretty massive crime, but he did it out of love to save somebody. Abby is torturing and murdering somebody out of anger and a sense of justice. And I believe in civil society. This argument, by the way, this debate will occur on the show, because it is a debate. Neil and I love these unresolved things, because I think Neil can make a pretty good argument, maybe on behalf of Abby. But I think what’s interesting to me is when Abby walks away from this at the end of the episode, we can’t necessarily know what’s in her mind. All we know is she’s not happy. She thought it was going to happen and it didn’t happen.

Druckmann: Yeah, Craig is right in that this is kind of a conversation of does the punishment fit the crime? And it’s like the worse the crime is the worse the punishment needs to be so it goes back to the biblical eye for an eye concept. So while I don’t agree with Abby, I understand that mindset that I think is pretty universal for many of us. It wouldn’t take much to tip us into that mindset and you could look around the world right now and see how people react in the same way, or worse, to each other, because they feel just.

Mazin: And that brings me to an interesting point, which is, when we meet Abby for the first time, this is something that we did that was different in the game. What we’re seeing is somebody that is good. She’s not a bad person. She’s grieving the loss of her father and her friends and her life and she’s heartbroken. She’s angry, but she’s heartbroken. This is not somebody who murders people regularly.

When good people do bad things, it is fascinating to see what it does to them, and I’m way more interested in that than watching bad people do bad things. Abby is a good person who’s done a bad thing. Joel was a good person who did a bad thing. Ellie is a good person and what she says to them is, ‘you’re all going to f–king die.’ So good people are promising each other to do very bad things. And the big question is, how will this all end?

Lastly, I want to ask you about the massive battle scene between the people of Jackson and the infected horde. Talk to me about the challenges of filming that sequence because it’s clear there were a lot of people involved.

(Liane Hentscher/HBO)

Mazin: One of the things that we really try and do is create as much in camera as we can. We know that we’re going to expand things with visual effects. And in this instance, both WETA and ILP, two fantastic visual effects companies, did an extraordinary job. But when you look at the screen, you will often, I think almost always, not know. Sometimes people are like, ‘Is that digital or is that a person?’ 

We do put a lot of people in there, which means Barry Gower, our prosthetics wizard and his team have to put a lot of people in prosthetics. We are lighting people on fire. We are exploding things. We have people shooting a gazillion blanks from guns. We have people falling off of roofs. The amount of stunt people that we were using and to get it all done in a way that would mesh fluidly with post production and not have any accidents, not have anybody get hurt. That was a massive undertaking that required an enormous amount of planning by our production team, Jack Lesco and Cecil O’Connor led this army of people to do this and Mark Mylod ultimately was the best possible field commander we could have asked for.

Druckmann: It was just important to show what happened to Jackson. It’s important to show what’s at stake. It’s important to now raise this dilemma of what do you do. These people got away with worse than murder, a fate worse than death, to one of the most important people in Jackson and Jackson is in ruins. Where do you go from here?

New episodes of “The Last of Us” air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and stream on Max.

The post ‘The Last of Us’ Creators Unpack That Huge Season 2 Twist: Timing, Execution and Showing Restraint appeared first on TheWrap.

‘The Last of Us’: Here’s the Significance of the Song at the End of That Heartbreaking Episode

Note: The following contains “The Last of Us” Season 2 Episode 2 spoilers.

“The Last of Us” Season 2 Episode 2 featured the big moment many fans of the game were waiting for/dreading – Joel’s (Pedro Pascal) death. But the song at the end of the episode has special meaning for fans of the game.

The moment plays out similarly to the game. Joel stumbles across Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) while out on a run and trying to avoid a herd of infected. Abby convinces Joel to come shelter with her and her people at a nearby ski lodge. Once he’s there they pull guns on him, and Abby explains that the doctor Joel killed at the Firefly base to break Ellie (Bella Ramsey) out was her dad – and she wants revenge.

Abby spends undetermined minutes beating and kicking Joel to the sickening dismay of her friends who agreed to help her. Eventually Ellie stumbles into the lodge and finds Joel laying bloody on the ground. She’s brought to the ground and is forced to watch as Abby slams the shaft of a broken golf club into his throat.

The episode ends with Ellie and Dina (Isabella Merced) heading back to Jackson – which suffered its own brutal attack by an infected horde – pulling Joel’s body behind them.

The credits following feature a song, and singer, that have special relevance to fans of “The Last of Us.” Here’s why the choice is an important one.

What is the song that plays during the credits?

The song is called “Through the Valley” which is also the title of the episode. It’s a cover of a song originally written and performed by Shawn James.

Who is singing the song?

The song used in the episode is performed by Ashley Johnson. Johnson was the voice actor and motion capture performer for Ellie throughout both “The Last of Us” video games. She also appeared in the HBO adaptation in Season 1 in a flashback as Ellie’s mom.

Why is the song relevant?

“Through the Valley” was not only sung by the lead voice actor from the video game series but the performance was also used to announce “The Last of Us Part II” before its release. Johnson sang the song for the trailer as well when the trailer dropped way back in 2016.

Watch the reveal trailer

The post ‘The Last of Us’: Here’s the Significance of the Song at the End of That Heartbreaking Episode appeared first on TheWrap.

‘The Last of Us’ Season 2, Episode 2 Recap: Zombies, Golf Clubs and Tears

Every character in “The Last of Us” is haunted by death, including Abby (Kaitlyn Dever). It comes with the post-apocalyptic territory. Abby’s biggest losses have not been the result of the HBO drama’s infected zombie outbreak, though. They’re because of Joel (Pedro Pascal), whom viewers learned in the “Last of Us” Season 2 premiere killed nearly all of her Firefly friends during his rampage to save Ellie (Bella Ramsey). In the opening moments of “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 2, Abby finds herself back in that Salt Lake City hospital where Joel decided a brighter future for humanity was not worth losing Ellie.

“Through the Valley” opens with Abby walking slowly down the same, dark hospital hallway Joel did at the end of “The Last of Us” Season 1. Her journey is interrupted, however, by her future self, who warns her not to go into the operating room waiting at the end of the hall. “His brains are on the floor,” she says, but her past self does not listen, and the mere memory of the trauma awaiting inside is enough to wake Abby from her nightmare. Those who played “The Last of Us Part II” have known for five years that the man Abby mentions in her dream is her father, the doctor Joel killed without hesitation before he could cut open Ellie’s brain. (Rather than making viewers wait hours for that info drop like “The Last of Us Part II,” the episode reveals it during its traumatic finale.)

It is this loss that first propels Abby to go on a patrol near Jackson, despite the danger of a forthcoming snowstorm, and then drives her to trick Joel and Dina (Isabela Merced) into walking straight into a trap even after he’s saved her life from an infected horde. And it is the rage she feels over the crime she believes Joel committed against her that leads her to shoot him in the leg and then beat him to death in the final minutes of “Through the Valley.” This scene, while not quite as brutal or gory as the same sequence from “The Last of Us Part II,” packs the same sickening punch. Much like its video game counterpart, Joel’s death also marks both an end and a beginning — the conclusion of one cycle of violence and the start of another.

Gabriel Luna in “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 2. (Liane Hentscher/HBO)Infected at the Gates

Before “Through the Valley” gets to its bone-crunching conclusion, it returns to Ellie, who is awoken in the morning by Jesse (Young Mazino). He razzes her about kissing Dina just a week after their breakup, and Ellie reveals as they make their way through Jackson that she was actually planning on going on her morning patrol with Joel. Jesse tells her that the older man left earlier with Dina, prompting Ellie to say that she knows her and Joel’s relationship is “complicated” but that the two have patched things up — a confession that only makes the latter’s death all the more shattering (for her and us).

Ellie and Jesse’s patrol is cut short by a snowstorm they escape only when Jesse leads them into an abandoned 7Eleven that Ellie discovers was secretly a weed farm tended to by Gail’s (Catherine O’Hara) late husband, Eugene (Joe Pantoliano). While there, Ellie finds a Firefly pendant that once belonged to Eugene and Jesse remarks that it’s a shame Eugene survived so much only to still (presumably) get infected. He “couldn’t be saved,” Jesse says, and his words only make Ellie’s survivor’s guilt over her immunity rise to the surface again. He and everyone else could have potentially been saved, after all, had the Fireflies’ plan to use Ellie’s immunity to mass-produce a cure been successful.

In one of “The Last of Us” Season 2’s largest deviations from its source material yet, “Through the Valley” cuts from Ellie and Jesse to a blockbuster-sized infected attack on Jackson. An army of mushroom-ified zombies charge through the falling snow and pile onto the community’s walls. Tommy (Gabriel Luna) does a fine job leading Jackson’s defense, but he ends up cornered alone behind a trio of buildings with a bloater. He survives the encounter only after torching the zombie long enough with his flamethrower that it eventually dies. This sequence, as silly and video-game-y as it sometimes feels, is pulled off with thrilling style by director Mark Mylod, whose experience helming episodes of “Game of Thrones” likely prepared him well for this week’s “Last of Us” installment.

Danny Ramirez, Tati Gabrielle, Ariela Barer, Kaitlyn Dever and Spencer Lord in “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 2. (Liane Hentscher/HBO)A Pack of Wolves

As technically impressive as it is, the infected attack on Jackson is nothing more than a distraction in terms of what follows it. Everything in “Through the Valley” is leading to Abby’s showdown with Joel. Along the way, “Last of Us” showrunner Craig Mazin makes a few key changes, including pairing Joel up on his patrol with Dina instead of Tommy (who gets beaten and knocked out by Abby’s friends in “The Last of Us Part II”). As she is being held by Manny (Danny Ramirez), Dina notices W.L.F. wolf patches on the former Fireflies’ bags before she is sedated and put into a drug-induced sleep by a reluctant Mel (Ariela Barer). Joel pleads for his and Dina’s lives by reminding Abby that he saved hers — a remark that only prompts her to ask, “What life?” before shooting him in the leg with a shotgun.

Abby forces Mel to tourniquet Joel’s leg so he doesn’t bleed out before she gets the chance to torture him. Before she begins, though, she kneels down and tells Joel exactly why she is going to kill him, asking him if he even remembers the doctor he killed in the “Last of Us” Season 1 finale. (He does, as Pascal’s look of recognition and a quick flash of the moment inform viewers). “The nurses* said you didn’t even look at him when you shot him,” Abby bitterly remarks. “It doesn’t matter if you have a code like me, or you’re a lawless piece of s—t like you. There are just some things, everyone agrees, are just f—king wrong.”

There was some concern among certain “Last of Us” fans that Dever was too small to play Abby, who has a purposefully muscular, broad physique in the game. Dever’s performance at the end of “Through the Valley” — the arrogance, rage, self-satisfaction and conviction she communicates as she kneels in front of Pascal — leaves no question why she was the right actress for the role. In a moment that will send a chill of recognition down “Last of Us Part II” players’ spines, Abby ultimately finds her weapon of choice in a nearby bag of golf clubs. She grabs one and proceeds to ruthlessly beat Joel to death while her friends look on.

*One of those nurses was played by Laura Bailey, the actress who portrayed Abby in “The Last of Us Part II”

Bella Ramsey in “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 2. (Liane Hentscher/HBO)The Shadow of Death

Abby’s beatdown is interrupted by Ellie, who only manages to cut Manny across the cheek before she is pinned to the ground. Ellie is then forced to watch through her sobs, screams and vows of vengeance as Abby kills Joel once and for all by plunging the broken half of her golf club through his neck. (As stomach-churning as this scene is, I still find the game’s version worse. That’s partly due to the sheer brutality of Abby caving Joel’s head in with her golf club in the game, as well as the hysteria and earth-shaking anger and sadness of Ashley Johnson’s performance* as Ellie. Ramsey takes a quieter, more devastated approach in “Through the Valley.”)

With Joel dead, Abby and her friends depart, and Ellie is left with nothing to do but crawl over to his body and press her face against his. The episode ends moments later on a shot of a shell-shocked Dina, Jesse and Ellie riding on horseback toward Jackson as they drag Joel’s wrapped body behind them through the snow. Over this image, “Through the Valley” plays its titular song. “I walk through the valley, of the shadow of death,” Ashley Johnson sings, just like she did in the original 2016 announcement trailer for “The Last of Us Part II.”

*Now seems like as good a time as any to note: For those curious about playing “The Last of Us Part II,” Johnson’s performance in it is, in this writer’s opinion, the greatest in any narrative video game.

That trailer, notably, ends with Johnson’s bloodied Ellie promising Troy Baker’s Joel, “I’m gonna find — and I’m gonna kill — every last one of them.” The inclusion of “Through the Valley” in “The Last of Us” Season 2 obviously carries a different weight and meaning than it did nine years ago, and there is something truly haunting about how Johnson’s Ellie gets to sing the thoughts and feelings of Ramsey’s this time. But the implication is the same. The shadow of death has covered the world of “The Last of Us” again, and thoughts of revenge are not far from the mind of Ramsey’s Ellie. As one cycle ends, another begins.

“The Last of Us” airs Sundays on HBO and Max.

The post ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2, Episode 2 Recap: Zombies, Golf Clubs and Tears appeared first on TheWrap.

‘The Rehearsal’ Season 2 Release Guide: When Are New Episodes Out?

“The Rehearsal” is back and Nathan Fielder is ready to wield his many simulations to help and change lives.

The HBO series went viral in 2022 as Fielder used overly expensive simulations to help real people tackle upcoming problems they were facing. Season 2 seems to be upping the ante as the comedian takes on the aviation industry among others.

Here’s everything you need to know about where and when to tune in for the second season of HBO’s “The Rehearsal.”

When does “The Rehearsal” Season 2 premiere?

“The Rehearsal” Season 2 premiere on Sunday, April 20 at 7:30 p.m. PT.

How can I watch “The Rehearsal” Season 2?

“The Rehearsal” releases on HBO and streams simultaneously on Max.

Are episodes released weekly or all at once?

“The Rehearsal” will be a weekly release show on Sunday nights. Episodes will be available to stream exclusively on Max as they air on HBO. There will again be six episodes in Season 2 – here is the full rundown:

Episode 1 – April 20Episode 2 – April 27Episode 3 – May 4Episode 4 – May 11Episode 5 – May 18Episode 6 – May 25What is “The Rehearsal” Season 2 about?

The second season of Fielder’s odd series will find him working to help people prepare for moments they’re either dreading or looking forward to via elaborate, and often expensive, simulations. This season looks to find him taking on the aviation industry.

The synopsis claims in Season 2 “the urgency of Fielder’s project grows as he decides to put his resources toward an issue that affects us all.”

Who is in “The Rehearsal” Season2?

Most of the people in “The Rehearsal” are real aside from the working actors Fielder hires to fill out his simulation. Fielder himself is the constant of the HBO series.

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Pete Hegseth Shared Yemen Attack Plans With Wife, Brother in Second Signal Chat

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth apparently shared “detailed information” about the bombings in Yemen with a second group chat on Signal that included his wife, brother, and lawyer, the New York Times reported Sunday. The outlet spoke with four people with knowledge of the chat whom it did not identify.

The information shared included “the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen” — more or less the same information that was also accidentally shared with the Atlantic’s editor Jeffrey Goldberg.

Hegseth’s wife Jennifer is a former Fox News producer who has been criticized for attending sensitive meetings alongside her husband. His brother Phil Hegseth and lawyer Tim Parlatore work at the Pentagon.

The newspaper also noted that unlike the first group chat, this second chat was created by Hegseth. “It included his wife and about a dozen other people from his personal and professional inner circle in January, before his confirmation as defense secretary, and was named ‘Defense | Team Huddle,’ the people familiar with the chat said. He used his private phone, rather than his government one, to access the Signal chat.”

The first group chat was created by national security adviser Mike Waltz, who also said he was responsible for adding Goldberg to the group. On March 30 Goldberg told Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press” he was “not worried” about being bullied by the group.

“There’s a playbook that — and you know this as a journalist, I’m not the only journalist to be the target of these kind of attacks — when they do something wrong, they go on the attack and they attack the messenger.”

The strange part of the story, the editor noted, is that “I didn’t really actually do anything. I’d like to claim that I was some bold investigative reporter here. All I did was answer a message request from Mike Waltz on Signal, and then the rest of it just came on my phone.”

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Sen. Van Hollen Accuses Trump Border Czar of Lying About Deportations: ‘Respect This Person’s Constitutional Rights’ | Video

Trump border czar Tom Homan is “lying through his teeth” about the administration’s deportation of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an American citizen who was sent to El Salvador in what has since been described as “an administrative error,” Sen. Van Hollen told ABC’s Jon Karl Sunday.

Van Hollen joined Karl to discuss his trip to El Salvador to meet with Abrego Garcia, something the senator said was initially refused but became possible in part because “the president of El Salvador realized it was looking really bad to have this person who had been absconded from America, from the streets of Maryland, in one of their prisons and not able to communicate.”

Salvadorian authorities “tried to make it look like he was in paradise” Van Hollen added, and the country’s President Nayib Bukele and Donald Trump are aiding in that attempt at deception.

Homan was especially critical of Van Hollen’s visit. In his own interview with Karl he said that “what bothers me … is that a U.S. Senator traveled to El Salvador on taxpayer dime to meet with a MS-13 gang member, public safety threat terrorist” and “Van Hollen never went to the border last four years under Joe Biden, when he had a 600 percent increase in sex trafficking women and children. You have a record number of non-suspected terrorists cross that border.”

“What shocks me is he has remained silent on the travesty that happened in our southern border,” Homan also said. “Many people died, thousands of people died. I met with hundreds of angel moms and dads who buried their children that were murdered by illegal alien. How many angel moms and dads has he met in the state of Maryland? That’s what concerns me.”

“I don’t have time to go through it all,” Van Hollen said of the transcript of Homan’s conversation. “He is lying through his teeth on many places in that — in that record. And I have been actually fighting MS-13, probably longer than Donald Trump ever uttered the name MS-13. For 20 years in this region, I helped stand up the anti — you know, gang — anti-gang task force.”

“But the idea that you can’t defend people’s rights under the Constitution and fight MS-13 and gang violence is a very dangerous idea,” Van Hollen continued. “That’s the idea the president wants to put out. That’s why they’re spreading all these lies.”

Homan and his colleagues need to “take your information to the court” he also said, “because you clearly have not done that, and respect this person’s constitutional rights and follow the order of the Supreme Court, which they’re defying as we speak.”

Watch the interview with Sen. Van Hollen in the video above.

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Bill O’Reilly Says He Has Evidence Democratic Activists Were ‘Piped In’ to Disrupt GOP Town Halls | Video

Bill O’Reilly says he’s discovered that disruptive outbursts and confrontations at separate Republican congressional town halls this week was not “the regular folks coming out” as intended, but activists who were organized – and in three cases, bailed out from jail – by the Democratic party.

“So now Congress is on a break, all right?” the former Fox News host said on his No Spin News channel Friday. “The senators and representatives go back to their districts, and many of them hold town hall meetings … they go in, and locals express their concerns to their elected representatives the way it was designed to be by the Founding Fathers. Well, now it’s being corrupted.”

O’Reilly played clips from two examples of upended town halls from last week: Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who was jeered in Lee County over his answer to heated questions about deported El Salvadorian Kilmar Abrego Garcia; and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose rowdy Georgia town hall led to three arrests before getting underway.

In Grassley’s case, the Iowa gathering went the other kind of wild when he answered a question about the status of the alleged MS-13 gang member by saying: “The president of that country is not subject to our U.S. Supreme Court.”

“Those people didn’t want to hear what Grassley had to say,” O’Reilly said. “They were all activists. They were organized. That wasn’t organic. That wasn’t the regular folks coming out. … So we investigated. That was organized by the Lee County Democratic machine. They seeded that audience with all these activists who were going to yell at Grassley. Now, the media didn’t report that. I don’t even think the local media in Iowa reported it. It was, ‘Oh yeah, everybody’s mad.’ No, not everybody’s mad. The Democratic activists — the far-left people — are mad.”

O’Reilly did not name his sources or suggest how he would have known that organized activists were in the crowd. Meanwhile, police were called to Greene’s town hall in Acworth, Georgia, and O’Reilly played footage of one man being tased as he’s dragged from the event by officers.

“So again, same thing. These were activists,” O’Reilly said. “They were piped in there to attack Marjorie Taylor Greene, which they did.”

O’Reilly lamented that the people in both places were deprived of their chance to meet with representatives because of the disruptions – and the lack of media coverage in both cases.

“Now, a final kicker on the Georgia thing: the three arrested were bailed out by the Cobb County Democratic Committee,” O’Reilly said, again without attribution. “Jeez.”

“Now, if Republicans had done that, it would have been ‘fascist, Nazis, racist,’ you know,” he concluded. “But the Democrats can get away with it because the press won’t cover it. So, so terrible.”

Watch the monologue in the video clip above.

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John Lithgow Reminds Critics of ‘Harry Potter’ Casting American Dumbledore: ‘I Did Play Winston Churchill’

John Lithgow understands he might not be everyone’s first choice to play Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore in the upcoming Max “Harry Potter” series, but he’s committed to delivering a performance that will satisfy.

As he told the BBC’s “The One Show” April 16, “It’s an enormous thrill. But I know there were plenty of people appalled that an American should be hired to play the ultimate English wizard. But, I will do my best.”

Lithgow noted he is “following the great Michael Gambon” before he also said, “I’m not an Englishman, although I’ve played one on TV. I remind everyone that I did play Winston Churchill on ‘The Crown’ and did just fine.”

The actor was markedly more relaxed when discussing the role with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett on the “SmartLess” podcast in March. “You know, Dumbledore, he’s kind of this nuclear weapon,” Lithgow said. “He only goes off very, very occasionally. And I don’t think it’s gonna be that hard a job.”

The actor also said the “logistics” of the role “are scary” but ultimately the role seems like a great way to wind down his career. “If this is indeed a seven or eight-year long job, it’s a wonderful way to grow old as an actor. I mean, the alternative is to just be hauled out once a year to play an Alzheimer’s patient [with] an awful lot of weeping middle-aged children, you know.”

The actor also revealed he hasn’t yet finished the “Harry Potter” book series. “I seem to be behind everybody,” he explained, “I’m halfway through the second of these seven novels.”

HBO announced the first round of casting for the series on April 14. Lithgow will be joined by Janet McTeer, Paapa Essiedu and Nick Frost as well as by Luke Thallon and Paul Whitehouse.

“We are happy to announce the casting of John Lithgow, Janet McTeer, Paapa Essiedu, Nick Frost, Luke Thallon and Paul Whitehouse to play Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Hagrid, Quirrell and Filch,” said Francesca Gardiner, showrunner and executive producer and Mark Mylod, director of multiple episodes and executive producer. “We’re delighted to have such extraordinary talent onboard, and we can’t wait to see them bring these beloved characters to new life.”

The series is described as a “faithful adaptation” of J.K. Rowling’s books and will explore “every corner of the wizarding world” through several seasons. The series will stream exclusively on Max.

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Hayden Christensen Enjoys ‘Heroic Side’ of Anakin Skywalker in ‘Ahsoka’ | Video

“Star Wars” star Hayden Christensen appreciates the “Ahsoka” series for allowing him to explore the “more heroic” side of his character Anakin Skywalker. While speaking to Complex at Star Wars Celebration on April 19, Christensen explained the opportunity the new series has given him as an actor.

“I think my understanding of the character is just continuing to grow. We’re getting to sort of explore different sides of Anakin, which I’m really enjoying,” he said.

Hayden Christensen is loving life as Anakin in ‘AHSOKA’

“I’m really loving getting to play the more heroic side.” pic.twitter.com/Fgci02023r

— Complex Pop Culture (@ComplexPop) April 19, 2025

“And I’m just enjoying the journey, you know. It’s a very complex character and there’s a lot going on. But I’m really loving getting to sort of play the more heroic side of the character in the Ahsoka show. I’m very excited for season two.”

The second season of “Ahsoka” went into development in January. The first season of the series concluded in October 2023.

The series, which takes place several decades before the events of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” stars Rosario Dawson as former Jedi Ahsoka, and also features other characters from “The Clone Wars” and its sequel series “Star Wars: Rebels,” including Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Huyang (David Tennant).

Christensen first reprised his role as Skywalker in the Disney+ series “Obi-Wan Kenobi” before joining the “Ahsoka” cast.

“I’ve really enjoyed it. And certainly that was a part of the appeal for me was that, you know, we were going to sort of show a different side of this character,” Christensen told TheWrap in October 2022 of filming “Kenobi.”

“He’s always been a very intimidating character, but there’s a sort of brutality that’s present now. And I think it’s great. You know, some terrifying stuff!”

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