Joe Pantoliano And Pedro Pascal Worked Together Years Before The Last Of Us

End your patrol early and head back to home base if you haven't seen "The Price," the sixth and penultimate episode of "The Last of Us" season 2. Spoilers ahead.

There's only one episode left in the (very good!) sophomore season of "The Last of Us," and we finally know precisely what happened to Eugene, the previously unseen late husband of Catherine O'Hara's Gail. According to a feature about the episode in Entertainment Weekly, Joe Pantoliano, who played Eugene, had an unexpected reunion while he filmed this episode because he'd worked with one of his scene partners, Pedro Pascal, years prior.

Apparently, both Pantoliano and Pascal participated in a play reading "about 25 years ago," but because Pascal was so young at the time, Pantoliano didn't recognize him at first. Pascal's approach cleared some things up, though. "I didn't even remember him," Pantoliano said. "I was introduced on the set [of 'The Last of Us'], and they said this is Bella [Ramsey, who plays series lead Ellie] and Pedro. Pedro started hugging and kissing me, and I'm like, 'Oh my God. I don't know who this guy is.' Then he said two words that opened up the floodgates to the memory." 

What those two words were, Pantoliano didn't share, nor did he say what play the two read from when they met over two decades ago. So what happened between the two actors and their characters on "The Last of Us?"

It's remarkable to see Pedro Pascal's Joel back in action in "The Price," considering that Joel dies in particularly brutal fashion at the hands of Abby Anderson (Kaitlyn Dever) in the season's second episode, but it also makes sense, considering that much of episode 6 is told in flashbacks. As we learn, before a chasm opened up in Joel and Ellie's father-daughter relationship, he agrees to take Ellie out on patrol outside of the protected walls of Jackson, Wyoming, thinking it'll be a simple mission. Unfortunately, things get very, very complicated when they stumble upon Eugene, who was just bitten by an infected cordyceps zombie during a random attack. 

Eugene, knowing he has some time before he turns into an infected zombie himself, begs both Ellie and Joel to temporarily spare him, bring him to the gates of the Jackson settlement, and let him say goodbye to his beloved Gail. Ellie wants to honor this request right away, but Joel seems torn; ultimately, he tells Ellie to backtrack and get their horses so that they can all go back to Jackson together. While she's gone, Joel shoots and kills Eugene, unwilling to let anyone who's infected near his loved ones in Jackson ... and breaking a promise to Ellie in the process. When they return to Jackson with Eugene's body, Joel lies to Gail and says that Eugene died by suicide because of his bite, but Ellie, knowing full well that Eugene begged for his life, tells Gail the truth and deepens the divide between her and Joel. Considering "The Price" culminates in a long-awaited scene in which Joel admits that he possibly prevented a cure for the cordyceps virus by saving Ellie's life in the season 1 finale, this is yet another time Ellie feels betrayed by Joel. 

So what was it like for Joe Pantoliano, an actor sometimes jokingly referred to as "Joey Pants," to pop in and out of the world of "The Last of Us?" According to Pantoliano himself, it was really difficult to portray a dying man whose only wish is to see his wife one last time, and is cruelly denied that opportunity. "The truth is, it was the most challenging work I've had in a long time as an actor," Pantoliano told Entertainment Weekly. "I used to have a teacher that would say, under any circumstances that a human is put into, anything is possible. So the desperation of the immediacy — the limited time that my character has and the urgency in which I need to tell my wife how I feel — knowing that I'm going to the gallows, it was really interesting."

It's gut-wrenching to watch Eugene fall apart in front of Joel ... especially when you consider that he's not even asking for that much. "I need her last words — for me!" Eugene says to Joel while he begs for the little life he has left as Joel shepherds him towards an expansive mountain view — a secluded spot where Joel will shoot him only moments later. "I'm dying. I'm terrified. I don't need a view. I need Gail. To see her face. Please. Please let that be the last thing I see," he says. Because of how genuinely horrifying this scene is, co-showrunner Neil Druckmann, who created the original Naughty Dog game and helms the HBO adaptation with Craig Mazin, said that the show steered away from some of the dark humor Eugene displays in "The Last of Us Part II."

"On the days when we were shooting, that humor just felt wrong," the showrunner mused, focusing on Pantoliano's instinct to simply plead. "Joey made this really beautiful choice none of us expected. As he's getting closer and closer to his death, he starts regressing and becoming like a child. He's just crying for help, and he needs Gail to protect him. I just love where he took it. It was very surprising. And now, I can't imagine it being any other way."

"The Last of Us," including this heartbreaking sequence, is streaming on Max now, and the season 2 finale airs on May 25, 2025 at 9 P.M. EST on HBO and the soon-to-be rechristened HBO Max.