Spoilers for “Through the Valley,” The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 2, and the central premise of The Last of Us Part II. Joel’s past catches up with him in the episode’s brutal lodge confrontation: Abby kills him while Ellie watches, setting the season on a new course. The episode also threads that personal tragedy through an infected threat facing Jackson.
What happens in “Through the Valley”?
The episode opens with Abby’s connection to the hospital events at the end of Season 1, establishing why she is pursuing Joel. In Jackson, reports of infected prompt the community to prepare for danger. Joel leaves on patrol, where Abby and her companions rescue him from immediate peril before realizing who he is.
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Once they recognize Joel, the rescue becomes an ambush. Abby shoots him in the leg and her group restrains him. Ellie reaches the lodge and sees Abby kill Joel. Abby’s group leaves Ellie alive; the survivors later bring Joel’s body back to Jackson.
The sequence’s cause and effect runs back to the hospital: Joel killed Abby’s father, a Firefly surgeon, during the Season 1 finale. Abby’s revenge is rooted in that loss. The episode offers context for her choice, not an ethical defense of it; Ellie’s helpless witness remains the scene’s emotional center.
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Why does Abby kill Joel?
Abby wants revenge because Joel killed her father at the hospital. The episode makes that motive visible early, while leaving the fuller dimensions of Abby’s character for the story to develop. Understanding the source of her anger does not make the killing less horrifying, particularly as the episode frames it through Ellie’s arrival and inability to stop it.
How does the episode change the game’s setup?
“Through the Valley” adapts a pivotal event from The Last of Us Part II, but changes the circumstances around the patrol: the game’s setup pairs Joel with Tommy, while the series sends him out with Dina. The outcome remains a structural turning point in both versions, though the mediums shape how viewers experience it differently. The game can reveal character information through play; the series has to stage that discovery through scenes.
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Craig Mazin, the series’ co-showrunner, described the television challenge this way: “there’s less of a discover-through-gameplay mechanism that we have to work with.” TheWrap reports that Mazin and Neil Druckmann discussed moving Joel’s death later in the season, but that the conversations “didn’t last long.” The episode’s early placement therefore makes pacing and emotional preparation central questions for the adaptation.
Does Joel’s death work in the episode?
The episode’s most consequential choice is not simply that Joel dies, but when and how the series introduces that loss. It arrives in the second episode, after the previous installment established strain between Joel and Ellie. That gives the confrontation a painful personal context, though it also means the season has little time to settle into its new dynamic before the story pivots.
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Abby’s opening material provides viewers with context for her motive sooner and more directly than the game’s discovery-through-play structure. That clarity can make her actions legible, but it also risks reducing the mystery around her before the audience has spent time with her. The episode asks viewers to hold both facts at once: Abby has suffered a profound loss, and what she does to Joel is an act of revenge witnessed by the person closest to him.
The lodge scene is organized around Ellie arriving too late. Its violence matters because of the consequences it leaves behind, not simply because it shocks. Whether its staging feels emotionally earned or too explicit is a fair point of disagreement; the episode’s focus on Ellie’s helplessness gives the violence a clear dramatic purpose, even if viewers differ on how forcefully it needs to be shown.
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- Pedro Pascal, Gabriel Luna
How did critics respond?
Responses diverged. Forbes praised the episode’s faithfulness to the game, while Tom’s Guide objected to the early explicitness of Abby’s backstory and aspects of the staging. Rotten Tomatoes’ episode page gathers reviews, including a later review that called the episode masterful. Those examples show disagreement, not a dependable episode-specific consensus score.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Episode details
- Title: “Through the Valley”
- Season and episode: Season 2, Episode 2
- Original air date: April 20, 2025
- Written by: Craig Mazin
- Directed by: Mark Mylod
What to watch for in the next chapter
Joel’s death changes Ellie’s trajectory and shifts the series’ center of gravity. Jackson’s infected threat provides a second source of immediate danger in this episode, but the lodge confrontation is the hinge: the story now has to reckon with grief, the damage revenge causes, and what Ellie does with the loss she has just witnessed.
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