The teaser trailer for The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 6 has dropped. It’s likely to be an intense episode with scenes that include the return of Pedro Pascal. Warning: if you aren’t caught up on Season 2 through Episode 5, don’t read ahead. We’d hate to spoil things for you.
The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 6
The trailer starts with Joel on screen. And he’s smiling. That alone would be rare if we think back to the first season. Then the rest of the trailer shows us we’re getting the flashback scenes we’ve been waiting for since the first episode of Season 2. Let’s recap what we saw and heard.
We first see Joel and Ellie lying down, maybe on cots. He’s smiling and says, “Close your eyes. It’ll be worth it.” Then we cut to another scene of the two of them in the forest. They’re happy. We hear the beginning of a countdown like you would expect before a rocket or space shuttle launch. The countdown continues through the following scenes. Next, Ellie is standing on top of an outcropping. She’s looking around in wonder, and Joel is on the ground nearby, smiling like a father watching his child’s joy.
Next, Joel and Ellie are in the kitchen. They’re laughing and talking, but we don’t hear the conversation. That’s where the joy ends because in the next scene, Joel has grabbed Ellie’s right arm, and he’s clearly angry about the tattoo. They’re arguing, but we aren’t hearing what is being said. Then we see the two of them facing off in another argument, but Ellie has an angry expression and tears in her eyes while Joel looks sad and defeated. We can guess this is after she’s learned the truth of what happened in the hospital. Ellie walks away, and the countdown ends with one.
In the last scene of the trailer, they’re walking in the forest while holding rifles and looking around for danger. Joel says, “Remember what I taught you.”
Unpacking the Trailer
The trailer definitely points to seeing what happened between Joel and Ellie after they returned to Jackson. Season 1 ended with Joel swearing he had told the truth about what happened in the hospital when he rescued Ellie. But Ellie’s face showed doubt. She’s probably found it hard to believe there were others who were immune and that the Fireflies were giving up on a cure.
Season 2 skipped five years, and we see that there’s a rift between Ellie and Joel. He keeps trying to mend it, so we know it’s Ellie who’s angry, and we can guess that she learned the truth of what he did to the Fireflies. But we don’t know how she found out. That’s a big question mark. The trailer for The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 6 is promising that we’re going to get the answer to that question. But we’ll also be able to see some of the happy times between them. That makes the loss of Joel even more difficult to bear.
The countdown, being reminiscent of a shuttle launch, refers back to Ellie’s love of space and astronauts. It’s a clever device counting down through the happy moments to just after Ellie has learned the truth and the rift has formed. None of that is terribly surprising, but the last scene, in the forest, is a curious one. What was happening there? Was this before the falling out? Or after?
The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 6 trailer makes it seem like we’ll get answers to some of our questions while putting a pause on the current events of the show. Will we see what’s happened to Dina and Jesse? Or are we going to be waiting another whole week for that? In any case, we’re looking forward to seeing Joel again. We missed him.
