The Last Of Us Season 2 Episode 6 Changes The Video Game Story To Deliver An Emotional Gut Punch

This article contains spoilers for "The Last of Us" season 2, episode 6.

"The Last of Us" is dark, complex, and generally an antithesis to the infamous 1990s video game movies that barely bothered to replicate the characters' looks, let alone the general plot of the games. Granted, it helps that the HBO post-apocalyptic drama is based on Naughty Dog's impossibly atmospheric and cinematic video games, but the show still often finds a way to be far more faithful than anyone should have any right to expect. In fact, some of its scenes are such accurate replications of their game equivalents that the viewer might find themselves instinctively reaching for the controller.

The truly impressive thing is that the changes HBO's "The Last of Us" makes to the source material are rarely detrimental. On the contrary, they often end up elevating the already stellar material to unprecedented heights. From the bold choice of waiting to introduce the games' famous Cordyceps spores until the fifth episode of season 2, to completely reinventing the love story of survivor couple Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) in the season 1 standout episode "Long, Long Time," this is a show that can generally be counted on when it comes to creative decisions. 

"The Last of Us" season 2, episode 6 once again brings us to a segment of the story that the show has radically altered from the games. While the episode doesn't quite reach the heights of the frankly untouchable "Long, Long Time," it does explore a similar territory by adding a heartwarming twist to Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie's (Bella Ramsey) relationship just before the former's death — thus delivering the most touching episode yet of the sophomore season.       

"The Last of Us" season 2, episode 6 focuses on flashbacks that depict the years Joel and Ellie spent in the Jackson settlement after the events of season 1. During this time, the pair's relationship steadily deteriorates for many reasons. Part of it has to do with Ellie's puberty, but her increasing awareness of Joel's morally dubious survivor side — represented here by his untimely mercy killing of the bitten Eugene (Joe Pantoliano) — plays a major part. Many scenes are original additions, especially the ones with Eugene, who was a peripheral, never-seen character in "The Last of Us Part II" game. Otherwise, much of the Jackson era plays out like it does in the game, right down to the pair's heartwarming trip to the Wyoming Museum of Science and History, framed here as the last truly precious moment they have together. 

The flashbacks take us to places far beyond Jackson, too. In the beginning of the episode, an original scene takes us to a flashback to Joel's own youth. Here, we get another unexpected "The Last of Us" season 2 cameo when Joel's stern but insightful father (Tony Dalton) admits to his own failings as a parent and tasks his son to become a better one. This moment gets a surprise callback in a scene set after the disastrous party that was depicted in the season 2 premiere. When Ellie returns home and sees Joel on the porch, we find out that she doesn't storm in her garage home as previously implied. Instead, she joins Joel, and the two have a conversation during which Joel relies his father's message of parenthood to Ellie, and the two hesitantly agree to start patching things up.  

The episode's careful additions enable it to radically reframe Joel and Ellie's relationship as it stood right before the former's untimely death. For those familiar with the game, this also doubles as a major plot twist. 

In "The Last of Us Part II," Ellie personally travels to Salt Lake City and finds out that Joel killed the Fireflies, and fully severs ties with him. On the show, she has merely suspected it, and doesn't fully confront Joel about the issue until the porch scene. There, Joel readily admits what he did, adding that he did so out of fatherly love. In what turns out to be the last conversation ever between the two, they begin to make peace with each other — and, as mentioned, Joel gives the same speech to Ellie as his father once did to him, asking her to one day become a better parent than he has been.

Knowing that the two were starting to reconcile when Joel died and that Joel tasked Ellie with responsible parenthood during the pair's last meeting before Ellie has to watch Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) club Joel to death gives a whole new layer of believability to Ellie's motivations. Joel may have deserved to die for what he did, but this episode makes clear that losing him hurts Ellie so much more now that she was finally on the brink of fully reconciling with her father figure. What's more, the revelation that Dina (Isabela Merced) is pregnant and Ellie's determination to keep her safe from harm comes off in a whole new light now that we know Joel passed his father's message of trying your best as a parent to her.

New episodes of "The Last of Us" hit HBO and Max on Sunday nights.