The Last of Us Season 2 could kick off with a major plot point from the game, especially if it wants to completely shift focus to Bella Ramsey’s Ellie Williams. The finale of HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation saw Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal) massacre an entire hospital wing to rescue Ellie from a lethal surgery that would extract her immunity gene for the mass distribution of vaccines to cure the cordyceps virus. After fleeing the Fireflies’ secret lab in Salt Lake City, Utah, Joel fabricates a story that the resistance group had found new immune people but could not develop a cure, leaving Ellie with immense survivor’s guilt.

In The Last of Us: Part 2, Ellie and Joel have relocated to Jackson, Wyoming, and Ellie is now 18. Their relationship has become strained, as Joel laments his involvement in dooming humanity, while Ellie still struggles with crippling guilt. Meanwhile, Abby Anderson leads a group of former Fireflies who now associate themselves with the Washington Liberation Front (WLF). As players progress through The Last of Us: Part 2, it becomes evident that an inexcusable tension surrounds Joel and Abby’s interactions, but the reason isn’t made immediately clear. It is later revealed that Abby’s father, Jerry Anderson, was the lead doctor in charge of Ellie’s surgery. When Joel stormed the hospital, he not only gunned down every Firefly in sight, but also took Jerry’s life.

But there’s one particular scene that sends The Last of Us fans into a frenzy. When a stranded Joel and Tommy stumble across Abby’s group, she takes them hostage and savagely beats Joel to death. This sequence happens fairly early on in The Last of Us: Part 2 as it sets the stage for the rivalry between Ellie and Abby, which plays out for the remainder of the game. Joel’s death would make a compelling finale for HBO’s The Last of Us, but with Ellie and Abby’s story all but wrapped up in the game’s final moments, it wouldn’t make sense to drag on their feud for a whole other season. Especially with The Last of Us: Part 3 still a consideration for Naughty Dog, Ellie and Abby’s story realistically needs to end.

Pedro Pascal Believes Killing Off Joel in Season 2 Makes Sense

HBO

Even Pedro Pascal himself is vouching for Joel to be killed off. He toldEsquirethat because the first season followed the game’s plot so closely, it wouldn’t make much sense for the second season to not follow suit. Neil Druckmann, co-president of Naughty Dog, has proven that he isn’t afraid to kill off characters. But neither is showrunner Craig Mazin, he revealed to the publication. “This should be fairly obvious to anyone by now, but I don’t fear killing characters. But the important thing to note is that neither Neil nor I feel constrained by the source material.” ForThe Last of UsSeason 2 to not start with Joel’s death would certainly be an interesting choice, although if nothing else, it would only be delaying the inevitable for long-time fans who know exactly how Joel and Abby’s encounter plays out.

That isn’t to say, however, that Joel’s death couldn’t occur as early as the first episode. Naughty Dog faced a lot of backlash for killing Joel off four years ago, while Abby’s actress Laura Bailey received numerous death threats for her involvement in bringing the scene to life. Needless to say, HBO will no doubt receive the same treatment regardless of how early Joel’s death occurs. Either way, the outcome will most likely be the same. That being said, there isn’t a lot of substance between The Last of Us: Part 2’s opening scene and Joel’s eventual demise. Especially for a whole nine-episode season, there simply isn’t enough content to drag it out. At the same time, The Last of Us does have a tendency to lean on Joel and Ellie’s dynamic a little too much.

HBO Should Make Joel’s Death As Painless As Possible

HBO’s best approach would be to rip the band-aid off early — so to speak — and give fans the time to grieve before shifting focus to Ellie and Abby. In its entirety, The Last of Us: Part 2 simply isn’t a story about Joel and Ellie’s relationship as much as it teaches the devastating cycle of violence. The first game explored much of Joel and Ellie’s budding father-daughter relationship, so if HBO plans to move forward with the story, it will have to execute the most pivotal moment to set the tone for the remainder of the season. It has become common knowledge that The Last of Us: Part 2 is infamously more gritty than its predecessor, so if the show’s second season doesn’t honor that, fans may be more disappointed in Mazin straying from the source material than if he followed through with Joel’s death.

The Last of Us Season 2 is still a long ways away, but images have surfaced of Pedro Pascal’s Joel and Bella Ramsey’s Ellie, who is joined by Isabela Merced as Ellie’s girlfriend Dina. The images have sparked some wild fan theories, while many people have already pointed out that Pascal’s hairstyle resembles that of Joel’s before his final moments. If that isn’t unsettling enough, no other images of Joel have been released, which potentially suggests that there aren’t any. Kaitlyn Dever was cast as Abby earlier this year, but no images have surfaced of her character either. For whatever reason, HBO is choosing to remain tight-lipped about Pascal and Dever’s involvement in the show. But it isn’t hard to guess what that reason may be.