SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains some major spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2. You can get caught up with a Max subscription if you haven't already.
Let me just get this out of the way: being a parent is tough. More times than not, we’re forced to choose between making a bad decision or an even worse call. We try to do the right thing, even if everyone (including our conscience) tells us it’s wrong. I say all of this because Pedro Pascal’s Joel Miller made a tough call in the penultimate episode of The Last of Us Season 2, and I can’t really justify his actions.
Don’t get me wrong, I know the popular 2025 TV show, much like the first season and the video games on which they are based, is about making terrible decisions that no one wants to face, coming to terms with our actions, and then being strong enough to face any and all consequences. I have been defending Joel since first playing the popular PlayStation game more than a decade ago, but he crossed a line in “The Price,” and I can’t quite justify what he did or how he did it.
I Understand And Justify Joel's Decision To Save Ellie From The Fireflies
Ever since I first played “The Firefly Lab,” the final mission in The Last of Us, which was later revisited in the show’s Season 1 finale, I’ve been able to understand and justify Joel’s decision to save Ellie from the Fireflies and prevent them from using her to make a cure (one that may or may not have worked).
Years after losing his own child at the start of the outbreak and then finding himself again after being hired to transport Ellie across the country, he didn’t want to grieve another child. He was blinded by his emotions and selfishness (totally justified, by the way), which led to him making a terrible decision in the grand scheme of things.
Despite that, and despite the work by the Fireflies possibly leading to society turning around and starting a better tomorrow without fear of being infected by cordyceps, I can honestly say that the broken-down smuggler and morally ambiguous father figure did what he thought was right. While some may not be able to side with him in this instance, I did, even before I had children of my own.
Do I agree with him lying to Ellie about it in an attempt to protect the young girl from carrying the weight of knowing she was humanity’s one shot at redemption and that society is pretty much screwed? No, but again, I understand why he made that call before returning to Jackson, even if I don’t totally agree with him.
However, Joel Killing Eugene Like That Crossed The Line
It was a completely different story near the end of The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 6, where Joel shot and killed Eugene (Joe Pantoliano) after he and Ellie stumbled upon the injured Jackson resident while out on patrol. One of the many flashbacks featured throughout the highly emotional episode, this sequence further explored the tense relationship between Joel and Ellie, and how events like this led to them growing more and more distant, and not just in a “my daughter is growing up and I don’t know how to relate” kind of way.
Begging, not for his life, but to see his wife one last time before the infection took hold and he was shot, Eugene knew his time was up. He just wanted to have one last good moment before crossing over to the Great Beyond. A simple request was made, but Joel denied it. Instead, he took a different and darker path.
But, Joel killing Eugene is only part of it. Where he really crossed the line was telling Ellie he wouldn’t kill the man before he saw his wife, which was a lie. If that wasn’t bad enough, Joel proceeded to lie to her again on their way to town, attempted to get her to hide the truth from Gail and others, and then lied to Gail (Catherine O’Hara) anyway. If not for Ellie, enraged by the deception and Joel’s poor judgment, spilling the beans, no one would have known, and Eugene’s final moments would have been unknown to everyone else.
I Have Been Trying To Rationalize Joel's Decision, But I Can't
In the minutes, hours, and days since watching Joel kill Eugene, I’ve tried time and time again to make sense of his actions, but I just cannot rationalize his thought process. Someone as experienced with the infected (and watching loved ones slowly turn into ravaged monsters) as Joel should know that his fellow Jackson resident had enough time to make it back to town and see his wife before turning. So, I’m left wondering why. Why did Joel do this? I really don’t know.
You can say he didn’t want to risk Eugene turning right when they made it to town, but even then, Joel, and everyone at the gate could handle one infected. I mean, the big battle in this season’s second episode showed that people are more than capable of handling a massive horde of infected, so one shouldn’t be a problem. You can say he was sticking with protocol. That does make some sense, but Joel has to be more compassionate.
It Did Provide A Lot Of Context For Two Key Relationships, Though
Though I don’t agree with Joel’s decision, the gut-wrenching flashback did provide a great deal of context for two key relationships featured in The Last of Us Season 2. First, we finally got to see why Gail hated Joel so much and was so mean to him in the season’s first episode back in April. In the weeks between the two episodes, we were forced to fill in the blanks and guess what happened to Eugene. I thought it was going to be something bad, but nothing prepared me for what actually happened.
Second, and more importantly, the incident provided another clue to the disintegration of Joel and Ellie’s relationship, and further set up the emotional interaction the two had after the chaos of the New Year’s Eve dance and his shocking and tragic death shortly after. Again, I can’t justify Joel’s choice, but watching it unfold gave me a greater appreciation for the rest of the show.
By the time you’re reading this, The Last of Us Season 2 will have concluded, and the waiting for the show’s third (and possible fourth) season has begun. In the meantime, though, there are still plenty of promising upcoming video game adaptations to hold us over.
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