The first episode of The Last of Us season two introduced a new character in the form of Catherine O’Hara’s Gail, who acts as a therapist for Joel (Pedro Pascal).
Warning: This article contains major spoilers for The Last of Us season two
Although he has yet to be seen on screen, another new character mentioned in the series is Gail’s husband, Eugene.
During a scene between Joel and Gail, the therapist mentions her late husband after Joel pays her with a bag of cannabis.
She complains that the bag is mostly “shake and stems,” and when Joel points out that it’s winter, she says: “That never stopped Eugene. January, February. That man would grow buds the size of pine cones.”
She goes on to explain that it’s her “first birthday without my husband in 41 years”, and later reveals that Joel was responsible for his death.
“You shot and killed my husband,” she says. “You killed Eugene. And I resent you for it. No. Maybe a little more than that. I hate you for it. I hate you for it. And yes, I know you had no choice. I know that. I know I should forgive you. Well, I’ve tried, and I can’t. Because of how you did it. And looking at your face, sitting in our home, makes me so f***ing angry.”
While it’s unclear exactly why Joel killed Eugene, it seems reasonable to assume that he was likely infected due to Gail saying, “I know you had no choice.” Plus the fact that Joel hasn’t been expelled from the community for committing murder.
Eugene was a minor character in the video game, but in a recent interview with Variety, the show’s co-creator and executive producer Craig Mazin explained that he will feature more heavily in the series, shown in flashback and played by The Matrix and The Sopranos star Joe Pantoliano.
“Without getting too much into the spoiler territory, I’m particularly fond of picking out these little things from the game that stuck in my brain that maybe weren’t fully fleshed out,” said Mazin.
“We talked a little bit about how Eugene could connect back to a brand new character, but more importantly, the way that their story directly impacts Joel and Ellie’s story. That’s the part that got exciting to us. We really try, when we do things like this, to not simply go, ‘Oh, here’s an Easter egg to the fans.’ No, let’s integrate this and use it to our advantage.”
The new series has been praised by critics. In a four-star review, The Independent’s Nick Hilton wrote: “Is The Last of Us a great TV show or just a great adaptation of a video game? In truth, it sits somewhere between these positions.
“Its origins are an unspoken constraint but showrunner Craig Mazin (and Neil Druckmann, the architect of the game, who co-creates this adaptation) have done a fine job translating for the screen. The world has ended over and over, on screens big and small, but it has rarely been as plausible – or compelling – as the barbaric wasteland in the second season of Last of Us.”
