Joel’s Flashback Haunts The Last Of Us Fans Again
Here we go with more post-apocalyptic melodrama dressed up as character building—The Last Of Us just served another gut-punching episode and viewers are once again clutching imaginary pillows. In this installment, showrunners leaned hard into Joel’s backstory, whisking us back to pre-outbreak days when he and daughter Sarah played catch, and later, when he and Tess hunted feral kids in the ruins of Boston. Pedro Pascal’s performance is lauded across Twitter (per BuzzFeed’s Nora Dominick) and fans on Reddit (as spotted by Entertainment Weekly) are flooding timelines with heart-emoji reactions and watercooler memes. But let’s be real: if you dressed this up as a documentary about male grief, you’d have fewer tears streaming. The flashback crescendo—complete with a rain-soaked parking lot and Sarah’s final look—has spawned endless think-pieces (see People Magazine’s breakdown of Joel’s emotional arc) and even a fan-theory thread on IGN claiming this scene sets up Ellie’s future resilience. Critics on Metacritic are nodding along, praising the “meticulous period details” (bonus point: Pedro’s jacket still hasn’t changed color), yet I can’t help wondering how many viewers are genuinely moved versus how many are just flexing their newfound empathy badges. As expected, the episode’s pacing hit a few rough patches—those interminable cutaways to an old photo album could have used a hard trim—but the emotional payoff still lands, if you’re into that sort of cathartic sob-fest. Meanwhile, commenters on Twitter (source: @LastOfUsFansOfficial) are quoting every line Joel utters as if they’re reciting Shakespeare; I half-expect someone to frame “I lost everything” and hang it over their couch. Of course, major props to the writing team for weaving Ellie’s introduction into these flashbacks so seamlessly that even hardcore game purists are filing petitions for season-long flashback anthologies. Sure, it smells a bit like emotional manipulation—cue the swelling violin score—but it works. So yes, the Internet is ablaze with every combination of “beautifully devastating,” “Pascal’s best work yet,” and “I need therapy now.” Critics at Rotten Tomatoes had a field day, and the behind-the-scenes feature on HBO Max confirms the tears were real (cast interviews, July 2023 shoot). And there you have it—another scenic detour into Joel’s trauma landscape that’s got fans drafting funeral playlists. And that’s today’s dose of forced sentimentality. You’re welcome.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and BuzzFeed (Nora Dominick), People Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, IGN
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed
