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SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses main plot developments from Season 2, Episode 6 of “The Final of Us,” airing on HBO and streaming on Max (quickly to be HBO Max once more), in addition to the online game “The Final of Us Half II,” obtainable on Ps 4, Ps 5 and PC.

“The Final of Us” co-creator and government producer Neil Druckmann wasn’t certain which episode of the present’s second season that he wished to direct. For Season 1, he helmed the action-packed Episode 2, which was written by co-creator Craig Mazin, so he not less than knew that this time, it must be an episode he had a component in writing. That restricted Druckmann both to the season finale or the penultimate episode, each of which he co-wrote with Mazin and Halley Gross, his co-writer on Naughty Canine’s 2020 online game “The Final of Us Half II.” Every episode had robust promoting factors. The finale is, effectively, the finale, whereas Episode 6 is a flashback that covers how Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) turned so estranged from one another between the occasions of Season 1 and Season 2.

Finally, it was Pascal who form of made the choice for Druckmann. Since Episode 6 constitutes his closing full episode of the collection, the actor requested that Druckmann direct it. “It simply made sense,” Druckmann says. “I’m enthusiastic about doing an episode that had no motion, which is sort of the inverse of what I did final time. So I simply felt like, this shall be a superb problem.” Extra crucially for Druckmann, he realized that Episode 6 “is what the story is all about.” 

Going down on Ellie’s birthday over successive years, the episode depicts how she and Joel, now absolutely part of the tight-knit group of Jackson, Wyoming, have fallen into a brand new, uneasy rhythm as adoptive father and daughter. For her fifteenth birthday, Joel makes Ellie a cake and builds her a brand new guitar, solely to have his plans turned the wrong way up after Ellie intentionally burns her arm the place she’d been bitten by an contaminated, so she may lastly put on brief sleeve shirts once more. For her sixteenth birthday, Joel takes her to an extended forgotten pure historical past museum that also has lots of its reveals more-or-less intact, together with the house capsule from the Apollo 15 moon touchdown — nearly precisely just like the fan-favorite scene from the online game. 

Issues between them start to bitter, nonetheless, on Ellie’s seventeenth birthday, when Joel walks in on her smoking weed whereas getting a tattoo from one other lady, Kat (Noah Lamanna), over the burn scarring on her arm. Joel is livid.

“So all of the teenage shit all of sudden,” he says. “Medication and tattoos and intercourse and experimenting — with women?” 

“It wasn’t intercourse,” Ellie retorts, equally incensed. “And it wasn’t a fucking experiment.”

Joel is incredulous, which solely fuels Ellie’s anger additional. She calls for to maneuver into the storage, and finally he relents and tries to make amends.

Two years later, on her nineteenth birthday, Ellie tries to psych herself as much as confront Joel about what actually occurred 5 years earlier on the finish of Season 1, when Joel murdered nearly the entire Fireflies in a Salt Lake Metropolis hospital to maintain them from killing Ellie to search out the treatment for the cordyceps an infection — after which lied to Ellie about all of it. Earlier than Ellie can say something, nonetheless, Joel arrives and takes Ellie on her first patrol, the place they encounter Eugene (Joe Pantoliano), the weed-growing husband of Jackson’s resident therapist, Gail (Catherine O’Hara). Eugene has been bitten by an contaminated, and the foundations dictate that Joel should kill him on the spot, however Eugene pleads that he has sufficient time to make it again to city so he and Gail can say a correct goodbye to one another. Ellie forces Joel to conform to Eugene’s request, and when she leaves to get their horses, he guarantees her that he gained’t kill Eugene earlier than they get again.

As soon as once more, Joel’s lied. He knew there was little likelihood Eugene was going to make it again in time, so to guard Ellie, Gail, and the remainder of Jackson, he leads Eugene to an attractive lake and kills him.

After they deliver Eugene’s physique again to Gail, Joel lies to her as effectively. “He wished he may say goodbye to you in particular person,” he says. “He wasn’t scared — he was courageous, and he ended it himself.”

Ellie, seething, can’t take it anymore. “That’s not what occurred,” she pronounces, and tells the reality to a devastated Gail, who slaps Joel and begs him to go away.

Joel appears to be like at Ellie, shocked by what she’s achieved. She stares daggers at him: “You swore.”

9 months later, the present returns to Joel’s porch on the night time earlier than he died, after Ellie kisses Dina (Isabela Merced) at Jackson’s New Yr’s Eve celebration and, to Ellie’s dismay, Joel defends them from the city’s resident homophobe, as seen within the season premiere. On this episode, after Ellie arrives dwelling from the celebration, the 2 lastly have it out about what actually occurred at that hospital in Salt Lake Metropolis.

“I’m going to offer you as soon as final likelihood,” Ellie says. “Should you misinform me once more, we’re achieved.” Joel can barely converse at first, however he confesses his crimes.

“Making a treatment would have killed you,” he says in tears.

“Then I used to be alleged to die!” Ellie says, crying too. “That was my objective! My life would have fucking mattered, however you took that from me!”

Joel, sobbing now, is resigned to the results of his decisions, however he doesn’t remorse them. “If by some means I had a second likelihood at that second, I’d do it once more,” he says. “As a result of I really like you. In a manner you possibly can’t perceive.”

There’s an extended silence. “I don’t assume I can forgive you for this,” Ellie says. “However I want to attempt.” 

For anybody who has performed “The Final of Us Half II,” the timing of this breathtaking scene between Joel and Ellie is stunning, because it comes on the very finish of the sport, after way more has transpired for the entire characters. Druckmann defined to Selection why he, Mazin and Gross selected to maneuver that scene to date up for the present. He additionally mentioned what guided their eager about the brand new scenes between Joel and Ellie on her birthdays, his emotional response to seeing places from the sport created in actual life — and what occurred when O’Hara disagreed together with his course for the scene wherein Gail slaps Joel.

How did you resolve on what new scenes you wished to incorporate within the development of Joel and Ellie’s relationship, like Ellie burning her arm or Joel truly constructing the guitar?

We wished this episode for Ellie to search out out definitively that Joel lied. Within the recreation, we did in a really totally different manner, the place she traveled all the best way again to the hospital and located documentation. It felt like we might be stretching the truth of the world and the way harmful it’s on the present in comparison with the sport. But in addition, paperwork and exploring that house, I don’t know if that makes as compelling of a drama for a TV present. The engine for the present is a bit of totally different than the engine for an interactive expertise. In order that in the end led to the entire Eugene sequence.

As a result of we have been spending extra time in Jackson than we have been within the recreation, we got here up with far more concepts than what ended up within the present. However every a kind of was vetted by this lens of the arc we wished, the place they begin out on this a lot better place. They know there’s a lie, however they’re attempting to maneuver previous it, after which this factor simply weighs on them and their relationship. Every step you are feeling prefer it’s pushing them aside. That was crucial factor that we would have liked out each sequence, to drill that dwelling.

How did you arrive at Joel having a tough time accepting that Ellie is homosexual at first?

It began with dialog within the recreation, which was, Joel is oblivious, and errors Ellie’s friendship with Jesse for one thing extra. I consider that’s one thing Halley wrote — it’s so way back now, I overlook. We actually wished to maintain that right here, after which take it a step additional. He finds out [Ellie is gay] within the recreation when she kisses Dina on the dance ground. Right here, it felt like there’s a chance to indicate extra of Ellie’s evolution of changing into an adolescent in Jackson, and for that misunderstanding to create extra of a rift between them. But in addition present evolution, forgiveness, motion — you may really feel how a lot Joel is attempting. 

He will get issues flawed. It’s the primary time he’s [parenting] an adolescent at this age, however he’s attempting to accommodate all of the issues that Ellie needs. She needs to maneuver to the storage, and despite the fact that he doesn’t need her to, he offers it to her. She will get this tattoo, and he or she does medication, and it infuriates him. After which he’s her tattoo, and he says, This appears to be like higher than the one I’ve achieved on the guitar. He’s attempting. She needs to go on patrols, and finally he yields on that. Nearly every thing she needs, he offers it to her, and it’s by no means sufficient, as a result of in the end their friction shouldn’t be about any a kind of issues.

When Joel offers Ellie her guitar, he sings the Pearl Jam track “Future Days,” which he additionally does within the recreation. That track was launched in 2013, when the pandemic begins within the recreation, however on the present, it begins in 2003. So I’ve to ask how Joel may know that track if it was by no means written?

Properly, I’m unsure when it was written. You’d need to ask Eddie Vedder that. Nonetheless, it did come out to the general public in 2013, and it’s anachronistic in that it mustn’t exist in our timeline. Initially, once we have been making this episode, there would have been a unique track. As we have been exploring it, simply felt like we have been prioritizing the flawed factor, this timeline of occasions and when issues could be obtainable. Clearly, we’re not in the identical timeline as our universe, so now we have some leeway. And that track felt so vital. As a result of it was within the recreation, as a result of it has a lot affiliation, not just for followers, however even for myself, we modified course. The factor that we thought we cared about, we in the end didn’t care about, and the emotional reality of the track was extra vital than the timeline reality of the world that we dwell in.

I used to be actually stunned that you just included Ellie and Joel’s closing dialog on this episode, as a result of it’s the closing scene within the recreation — it’s just like the emotional reward you get for ending. Was {that a} laborious determination to make?

No. After we have been making the sport, I knew that scene ought to exist. I didn’t know the place it goes. That was true for all of the flashbacks. Even fairly late in manufacturing of the sport, we have been transferring these flashbacks round. In speaking about it with Craig, it’s the primary time I actually thought in regards to the time between seasons. A lot of writing is about ups and payoffs, and we might have set sure issues up that receives a commission off years later. That felt too lengthy, particularly as a result of this season focuses a lot on Ellie’s journey and this emotional reality of what did she know? What didn’t she know? To attend extra years till Season 3 will come out — or perhaps even Season 4, it relies upon the place all of the occasions land and what number of seasons now we have — I used to be simply satisfied by Craig that that will be too lengthy. 

It was a day’s value of dialog of us wrestling with it. The way in which I work is, when a suggestion like that’s made, I say, “Let’s play it by.” I simply assume that it’s right, after which we play it by and never solely speak about this season, however speak in regards to the future seasons, after which say, does it make sense? If the reply is sure, we go along with it. If the reply isn’t any, we both hold wrestling with it till we discover one other resolution, or we simply return to the way it was within the recreation.

I think about now this impacts how your eager about how the present goes to finish?

[Long pause] That’s proper.

How did you strategy directing the scene the place Joel lies to Gail, which crystallizes for Ellie that he lied about what occurred within the hospital?

We knew we had this Eugene thriller, and we had so many iterations on it of simply what that sequence must be about. There have been variations that had all this motion and preventing and taking pictures contaminated, and far smaller variations. It went from me to Hallie to Craig, from me to Hallie to Craig. It simply didn’t really feel proper for a very long time, till we landed on him mendacity to her about killing Eugene. after which every thing simply fell into place, so far as, like, Oh, this is how she’ll know. It felt like such a dramatic manner for her to determine issues out.

So far as taking pictures that scene, if nobody knew the lie, what I like about that scene is he’s being very thoughtful. Would you need to inform Gail that he wished to see her, nearly on this pitiful manner, and I nonetheless needed to put him down, as a result of these are the foundations, and that’s the best way to maintain you secure? Generally you may purchase the argument that the lie is healthier than the reality, proper? However for Ellie, it wasn’t, due to every thing else that has come earlier than, as a result of she noticed that he betrayed her belief. That meant extra than simply this second, it meant that every thing that Ellie was apprehensive about, the survival guilt that she’s felt all the best way again to Season 1 of needing to justify Riley’s demise and Tessa’s demise and Henry and Sam and all these individuals who died alongside the best way in order that one thing good can come of it on the finish. It’s nearly in that second she realizes nothing good got here out of it. That’s not completely true, however that’s how she feels about it. So it was simply vital that every one the actors knew the reality they’re going into it, and for it to be genuinely stunning. 

If I could, I simply need to sing Catherine O’Hara’s praises.

Please do!

It was one in all my favourite directing moments. Within the scene, she slaps Joel, after which in his disgrace, he’s alleged to take a number of steps again. We have been scuffling with it. It simply felt synthetic. It felt rehearsed. Initially, there have been no strains of dialogue for that little second. I went to Catherine, and stated, “I believe we have to do one thing else right here. I don’t know what. What if, like, his proximity to this physique is by some means desecrating it now that the reality, and if you would like, you may yell at him to get away?” And he or she’s like, “Oh, I’m not so certain. I like the great thing about there being no dialogue.” And I’m like, “Please, simply attempt it. If it doesn’t work, we’ll return to the opposite model. However I all the time like experimenting, simply shaking it up ultimately.” So I requested her to yell to get away. I assumed that will inspire Pedro [to step back]. As an alternative, she nearly did the alternative. It was so stunning. She goes inside [herself] and begins sobbing, and begs him to please get away on this very smooth spoken voice. I’m like, Oh, my God, that’s so a lot better than what I requested for. It’s a kind of stunning moments of collaboration, the place I requested for one thing, she internalized it, made it one thing else, and it’s higher due to it. That’s the take you see within the episode.

Talking of Gail, we by no means truly get to see her along with Eugene. Did you discover depicting their relationship in any respect?

We didn’t. Fairly early on, we talked in regards to the tragedy of that. We had a dialog about Episode 1 the place, like, “Ought to there be an image of the 2 of them of their dwelling?” “No, simply the sneakers.” That’s the one sense you see, his sneakers subsequent to her sneakers. Generally these are my favourite moments in storytelling, these gaps the place we belief you as a viewer to fill in that relationship. You possibly can image them smoking weed collectively and doing all these things, however we felt like for this story, we didn’t want to indicate.

Lastly, the entire sequence on the museum so intently resembles the way it appears to be like within the recreation, all the way down to the standard of the mist within the air. What was it like so that you can step into an actual, tactile house that you just’d spent a lot of your life eager about as solely pixels?

I haven’t discovered the phrases to explain this sense. It’s so surreal. I can’t even inform you why I get so emotional once I’m on these units. The primary time I walked on set, I used to be in Joel’s home with Hallie, my co-writer on the sport and was the opposite co-writer on the present on this episode as effectively. We’re like, have a look at this eating room! That is the place within the recreation, Maria talks to Ellie and Dina, and it appears to be like precisely the identical. Each set felt like that. 

This [museum] set particularly, the day we’re taking pictures this, I had two guests from Naughty Canine, Arne Meyer, who’s our heads of communication, and Alison Mori, who’s my associate in working the studio. They obtained to see a component that we find yourself slicing from the episode, extra within the dinosaur museum. I’m like, include me, and we stroll by this darkish hallway with stars, and we obtained to the house capsule, and I’m like, “Look at this.” I’m emotional, however I’ve been seeing it because it’s been constructed. I have a look at them, and so they each have tears of their eyes. This factor that we labored so laborious to good in digital varieties with pixels on a flat display screen, now you may stand in it, you may go into it, you may contact it. All of the buttons are working. The seats are actual. They creak whenever you sit in them. It felt like we went into the sport. It’s this actually fantastic feeling to know that this unimaginable crew that I labored with handled the supply materials with such reverence. It actually moved us to tears.

This interview has been edited and condensed.