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The Last of Us season two episode three aired on Sunday (29 April) and it wasn’t so much the content of the episode that left fans upset but a tiny change in the opening credits.
Warning: This article contains major spoilers for The Last of Us season two
To explain the change, we need to go back to episode two, which featured one of the most shocking deaths in recent TV history.
In the episode, titled “Through the Valley”, Pedro Pascal’s character, Joel Miller, is brutally murdered by Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) as an act of revenge for killing her father at the end of the first season. While the moment had been anticipated by fans of the video game on which the series is based, many viewers were left devastated by the twist.
This now means that the show’s primary focus will be Ellie, played by Bella Ramsey, as she attempts to navigate the post-apocalyptic landscape without the father figure who had been with her since the beginning of the story.
Before Joel’s death, both he and Ellie were featured in the show’s stylish credits, which follow fungal plants sprouting through city landscapes alongside the names of the cast and crew. Predictably, Pascal’s name now no longer appears in the credits.
The credits had also previously ended on an image of two distant silhouettes, which represent Joel and Ellie. Now that Joel is gone, however, only one smaller silhouette remains, emphasising that Ellie is on her own again in a dangerous world.
Observant fans quickly noticed the changes, and were left feeling emotional.
“That solo shot of Ellie at the end of the opening credits damn near murdered me, wtf?” said one devastated fan.
“Not even passed the opening credits and The Last Of Us already has me in my feels,” added a second viewer.
A third person simply wrote: “Ouch, opening credits of The Last Of Us season two episode three”.
Speaking of the death, Pascal admitted to Entertainment Weekly that he had known his character would be killed off when he first signed on to star.
“It’s not like they said, ‘Hey, we kill you at the beginning of season two,'” he said. “But it was always an understanding that it would stay true to the source material in a specific way and that the, let’s say, practical and exclusive obligation would be for season one. It was just a matter of how and when.
“I’m in active denial,” he continued. “I realise this more and more as I get older, I find myself slipping into denial that anything is over.
“I know that I’m forever bonded to so many members of the experience and just have to see them under different circumstances, but never will under the circumstances of playing Joel on The Last of Us. And, no, I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it because it makes me sad.”
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