Why was Joel killed off in The Last of Us? Pedro Pascal was told on his very first Zoom call
Pedro Pascal's Joel Miller survived a fungal apocalypse, a cross-country journey with a teenager he didn't want, and a massacre at a Firefly hospital. He did not survive episode 2 of season 2.
In "Through the Valley," which aired on 21 April 2025, Joel is beaten to death with a golf club by Abby Anderson (Kaitlyn Dever) — the daughter of the surgeon he shot in the head during the season 1 finale. It is exactly as brutal as that sounds.
He knew from the start
Co-creator Craig Mazin was blunt about this in an interview with The Wrap:
"We love Pedro, but I told him the very first time I ever Zoomed with him, 'So here's the thing, you're playing this guy, Joel. In Season 2, he's gonna die.' There was never a question."
Pascal confirmed as much to Entertainment Weekly, though with slightly softer edges. He said it wasn't presented as a specific timeline — more an understanding that the show would stay faithful to the source material and that his "exclusive obligation" was for season 1. Still, the destination was clear from the jump.
Why the death had to happen
Joel's death isn't a creative curveball — it's the engine of The Last of Us Part II, the 2020 video game the second season adapts. Neil Druckmann, the game's co-creator and the show's other showrunner, has always described it as the "inciting incident" that drives everything that follows. Without Joel's death, there's no revenge quest for Ellie. There's no Abby. There's no story.
"There's a danger of tormenting people," Mazin told Variety. "If people know it's coming, they will start to feel tormented. Our instinct was to make sure that when we did it, that it felt natural in the story."
They placed it in episode 2 — early, sudden, and without the cushion of a slow buildup. In the game, it hits in roughly the same place.
How it plays out on screen
After Joel saves Abby from a horde of infected during a snowstorm, she leads him and Dina into a trap at a remote ski lodge. She shoots him in the leg with a shotgun, then beats him with a golf club while her crew holds the room. Ellie arrives and is forced to watch. She screams at Joel to get up. He can't.
Mazin cried while discussing the moment with Variety. Druckmann admitted that even as writers, they wanted Joel to stand back up.
Is Pascal done with the show?
Not entirely. Joel appeared in flashbacks throughout season 2, and Pascal has said he expects to appear in season 3 in some form — likely more flashback material. But as a living, breathing character in the present timeline, Joel is finished.
Pascal told Entertainment Weekly he's in "active denial" about it. Fair enough. So is everyone else.