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.

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.

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.”

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.”

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.

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