‘The Last of Us’: Who Was Eugene & Why Did Joel Kill Him?

As viewers will recall, in the Season 2 opener, Joel attended a therapy session with Gail — a character created for the series — to discuss his strained relationship with Ellie, as the professional combated her own anger against her patient. Gail had told Joel at the time that she was celebrating her birthday without her husband Eugene for the first time in 41 years.

She told Joel she was angry at him for having killed her husband, and comments made later on in the season hinted that Joel had shot the man without choice.

Following Episode 1’s debut, Neil Druckmann said, “The idea of Gail as this therapist came before we tied her back to Eugene… Eugene is this character that we feel his presence, but he’s already dead by the time we hear about him in the video game. So it felt like that was a character ripe to exploit in some way on this show.”

Similar to the game in a sense, Eugene was dead when Season 2 picked up, but Episode 6 flashed back to his tragic end. It turned out that Eugene was bitten while outside Jackson’s borders, and during a patrol, Ellie and Joel encountered the man who wished to bid his wife adieu from beyond the Jackson gate before being killed himself.

While Joel had initially agreed in front of Ellie to help Eugene get back to Jackson, he led the man down a separate path and insisted that this was the best way to go, as returning was unsafe. Joel shot Eugene, and Ellie could hear it, but when they got back to Jackson with the man’s body, Joel didn’t relay the true story to Gail.

Joel told the therapist that Eugene had chosen to end things to keep her safe, and, after years of feeling she’s been lied to about the Fireflies, Ellie couldn’t hold her tongue. The girl told Gail the truth that Eugene had begged to come back so he could say goodbye to her, but that Joel had killed him instead.

Now that the truth is out, it makes much more sense that Gail would be so hostile toward Joel, who took Eugene’s choice of seeing her away. It was ultimately the breaking point in Ellie and Joel’s relationship before they eventually reconciled, a bit too late.

As for those unfamiliar with the game The Last of Us Part II, upon which Season 2 of the show is based, Eugene is a patrolman who formerly worked with the Fireflies and died of old age. This storyline in the series was tweaked to fit a new character like Gail, but also adds an extra layer of emotion to it all.

What did you think of the Eugene reveal in the latest episode? Let us know in the comments below, and don’t miss The Last of Us as it continues on HBO.

The Last of Us, Season 2, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO and Max

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