The Final Of Us Creators Break Down Season 2 Episode 2’s Surprising Loss of life

SPOILER ALERT! This publish comprises main particulars from Sunday’s episode of HBO‘s The Final of Us.

The second episode of The Final of Us Season 2 is certain to go away audiences reeling because it tackles one of the vital heartbreaking and pivotal moments from the video video games.

Episode 1 ended on an ominous word with a shot of Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) and her crew arriving in Wyoming and looming over Jackson 5 years after she made a promise that she’d go after Joel (Pedro Pascal) for killing the fireflies on the Salt Lake Metropolis hospital to avoid wasting Ellie (Bella Ramsey). In Episode 2, she makes good on that promise after she stumbles upon Joel and Dina (Isabela Merced) whereas she’s making an attempt to flee a horde of Contaminated on the mountain.

Joel and Dina had been on patrol collectively, and so they had been in search of shelter from not solely the Contaminated, but in addition from an impending snowstorm. Abby affords her crew’s lodge up the mountain and, as soon as they arrive, they drug Dina to provide Abby the chance to torture Joel.

In the meantime, Ellie and Jesse (Younger Mazino) are on patrol collectively after they get a radio name that Jackson’s base can’t get ahold of Joel and Dina, prompting them to go away their shelter from the storm to go looking. Ellie descends upon the lodge first, discovering Joel on the point of demise as she’s tackled to the bottom and subdued earlier than she will struggle again. She watches, helpless, as Abby delivers the ultimate blow.

As if Joel’s demise wasn’t nervousness inducing sufficient, creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann took a pretty big departure from the supply materials on this episode, because the horde of Contaminated ultimately breaches the partitions at Jackson, leaving town in shambles.

It raises questions on what’s to come back, now {that a} traumatized Ellie has vowed to kill Abby and her crew, and Tommy, Maria and the remainder of the survivors again in Jackson are trying to regroup. The episode is relentlessly brutal, which the creators acknowledge.

“This episode is upsetting to me, too. I simply need individuals to know that we’re not right here snickering. We’re with them. This hurts,” Mazin tells Deadline.

Within the interview under, Mazin and Druckmann went in depth with Deadline about this feat of an episode, the departures from The Final of Us Half II (the sport), and the implications for the remainder of the story.

DEADLINE: That is such a pivotal episode, and never solely that, however these scenes aren’t simple. I definitely thought I used to be ready, however I used to be not. Had been you nervous about it? Are you continue to nervous in any respect concerning the response?

CRAIG MAZIN: I imply, I used to be terrified. Neil most likely wasn’t. Mark Mylod and I had been simply panicking as a result of we knew the bar was excessive. I imply, this second from the sport is extraordinary, and we’re doing it nearly the identical means, however with some fascinating variations, and that’s at all times a bit of scary. I don’t know, making an attempt to hit that bar, we had been extremely nervous. Had been you nervous, Neil?

NEIL DRUCKMANN: I suppose I’m nervous anytime there’s an essential beat in our story and ensuring we get it proper, however not essentially due to the content material. I skilled the worst of the adverse response to it already 5 years in the past. So in that respect, I haven’t been nervous. Though I’ve been getting extra nervous recently as the times are turning into hours earlier than this factor airs. I’m very curious what the response goes to be.

DEADLINE: Sure, there’s two factions of viewers right here. Individuals who performed the sport and know what’s coming after which individuals whose solely affiliation to The Final of Us is the present, and I’m positive this will likely be stunning to quite a lot of them. Craig, what was your response to this story beat once you first came upon about it?

MAZIN: Effectively, I didn’t discover out. That’s the factor a couple of online game, you’re within it, which is especially terrifying.

DRUCKMANN: I believe additionally the primary time Craig and I met at this restaurant by Naughty Canine, former restaurant that doesn’t exist anymore, we talked loads about The Final of Us, however I used to be in the midst of making The Final of Us Half II, and Craig requested me what occurs in it. I sort of spelled the entire thing off for him. He’s like, ‘Oh yeah, that is smart.’

MAZIN: It does damage tremendously when it occurs. It hurts, in fact it does, as a result of we love Joel, and extra importantly, as a result of Ellie loves Joel, and we’re experiencing her heartbreak, and we’re all going to grieve the lack of this individual that we’ve come to like. However when it comes to the narrative, sure, it felt like an inevitability, as a result of this isn’t a present that goes on and on. It is a present that has an ending. We’re a present that confronts individuals coping with the toughest feelings. Watching Bella in that second was coronary heart wrenching. It actually was. There have been quite a lot of tears that day from all of us. It was robust.

DEADLINE: How lengthy did it take to shoot?

MAZIN: Effectively, there’s a couple of scenes earlier than that one. So we block shot all the pieces in that room, within the ski lodge. However I consider we had been there for 4 very lengthy days, and I believe two of the times had been spent on that, and actually we reserved that day for the precise ultimate stuff. So Ellie on the bottom and Joel and him her, after which the aftermath. That was one brutal day.

DEADLINE: What had been the conversations like when it comes to how graphic and violent to make this scene? It’s clearly very graphic within the recreation, however it truthfully felt much more visceral and horrifying within the present.

DRUCKMANN: We did speak about how a lot violence you’re seeing. It’s fascinating that you just’re saying it’s extra graphic, as a result of it’s really much less. Within the recreation, the lacerations he has on his face and stuff are way more intense. However reside motion simply can hit more durable with regards to violence, so we really reel it again and it may nonetheless really feel like extra. So I bear in mind these being the conversations. However for the sake of the story, it’s essential to see the brutality of this second, as a result of it motivates a lot of what comes after.

DEADLINE: What did Mark carry to the desk because the director for this episode?

MAZIN: How a lot time you’ve gotten? Mark Mylod is each, I believe, probably the most humble particular person I’ve ever labored with in present enterprise and one of the vital brilliantly considerate administrators. He’s a dream for the actors. He’s the sort of director who, when he’s working, I’m watching rigorously to try to decide up suggestions, as a result of he’s such knowledgeable, and he’s performed it for therefore lengthy. He’s clearly excellent at killing foremost characters. He was the director on Recreation of Thrones for Bella Ramsey’s first scene. He was their first tv director. Right here we had been full circle, and he creates this unbelievable sphere of consolation for everyone, at the same time as he’s masterminding all of the angles and getting an infinite quantity of protection and eye traces and all the remainder of it. He was simply an absolute pleasure to work with, and I miss him. I do know he’s off doing Harry Potter. I miss him, however I can’t think about anyone higher for that. For Kaitlin, for everyone, he was simply the precise proper alternative.

DRUCKMANN: I imply, we’re additionally speaking about ‘the occasion’ as articles are referring to it, however there’s a lot extra on this episode that, once more, simply from only a technical, logistical standpoint of pulling that off, it’s such a feat. I bear in mind once I talked to Mark earlier than he began directing, when he was in prep, I used to be actually interested by how he’s going to deal with the assault on Jackson, all of the intricacies of it. He instructed me, ‘Neil, as scary as that’s, I’m far more scared for getting Joel’s demise proper.’ I, personally, respect that. That’s the place his thoughts was at. That was his prime precedence.

DEADLINE: I actually wish to speak concerning the assault on Jackson, too. As you say, there’s a lot on this episode and Joel’s demise is so monumental already. What made you determine to include this horde of Contaminated descending on Jackson?

MAZIN: Effectively, one of many issues we talked about was the concept of breaking all the pieces. While you really feel such as you’ve lastly reached stability, generally all the pieces falls aside. All of the issues that made you protected are gone. Joel made Ellie really feel protected. He’s gone. That impenetrable wall made Jackson really feel protected, and it acquired damaged. Creating that menace from in and out on the identical time, we simply felt that it was the appropriate option to present how harmful the world is and the way fragile all the pieces is and the way treasured all the pieces is. So the relationships going ahead must be taken very significantly, and the choices that we make must be taken very significantly, as a result of there isn’t any security.

DEADLINE: I’m interested by why you selected to have Dina on patrol with Joel, as an alternative of Tommy. How is that going to affect these character dynamics? What would possibly that do to Ellie and Dina’s relationship?

DRUCKMANN: This was a part of conversations we had very, very early on of displaying the connection between Dina and Joel that you just’ve seen in Episode 1, and that is the extension of that call that we’ve made…which may have a huge impact going ahead as effectively. It’s one thing that within the recreation, we speak about Dina having a relationship with Joel. You by no means get to see it. Right here, we felt like this was a good selection for this present to see that and to have her particularly be current at that second of confrontation.

MAZIN: It definitely makes their voyage ahead — ought to that happen, you perceive Dina’s motivations, as a result of there’s a mechanical profit to Dina within the recreation. We don’t have that mechanical profit. So the query actually was, how can we join Dina to this tragedy in a means that’s deeper than simply ‘I’m Ellie’s buddy.’

DEADLINE: Within the first episode, there’s a second within the grocery store the place Ellie picks up a bottle. It felt a lot just like the gameplay. Then on this episode, Tommy combating the Bloater felt a lot like a boss struggle you’d encounter within the recreation. How do you pinpoint moments like that to pay homage to the precise mechanics and gameplay?

MAZIN: I’m trying to incorporate it on a regular basis. The query is, the place will it match? Proper? As a result of there have been quite a lot of online game variations which have gone astray, as a result of they tried to duplicate gameplay. The issue is, quite a lot of gameplay doesn’t work on this medium. It doesn’t work as a kind of passive expertise. However in these moments the place I’m going ‘Really, this could be actually helpful to have Ellie toss something to get a Clicker’s consideration. It ought to be a brick or a bottle.’ Then the talk is brick or bottle, which is a good debate [that will] rage on endlessly. For Tommy, that second was, to me, all about worry, as a result of I skilled a sure sort of worry utilizing a flamethrower on a Bloater, and the Bloater retains coming, and the fuel burns so shortly on these issues. That worry really did really feel very transportable to the tv medium. So I’m at all times searching for methods to, by no means cram issues in, however to weave them in, I suppose.

DEADLINE: You’ve already addressed the reasoning for bringing Abby’s backstory and motivations to the start of the story, however you’ve needed to dance round it a bit of to keep away from the spoiler of Joel’s demise. Now that it’s all out within the open, are you able to converse a bit extra in depth about it? I’ll say, I used to be stunned at how offended I nonetheless felt for Ellie in that second — even having performed the sport and seeing Abby’s personal ache within the present as she explains herself to Joel.

DRUCKMANN: I suppose for us, one we’re not as treasured about spoilers, possibly, as I used to be within the recreation initially, however I like this commerce off that we’ve made, which is, we traded shock for suspense. In case you see the construction of the primary episode, we sort of reveal what Abby’s about in order that we may have this ultimate shot the place she’s arrived at Jackson. As a viewer, you’re like, ‘Oh my god, one thing’s about to go down.’ I’ve been studying each response I may discover, simply because I like that stuff, and it’s fascinating that quite a lot of the individuals which might be bumping in opposition to it, they’re saying, ‘Oh, I want the viewers that didn’t know would nonetheless be stunned.’

However then you definitely learn people who do not know, and so they haven’t any clue what’s coming, as a result of what number of occasions have you ever seen in a present or a narrative the place some menace that’s coming in the direction of our hero, you’re like, ‘Effectively, our hero goes to cope with it.’ Joel’s handled threats earlier than. They nonetheless don’t know what’s coming. It’s simply the viewers from the sport that’s intimately acquainted with it, I believe, that’s questioning it in a means that I believe will likely be resolved by the point they end watching this episode.

MAZIN: In case you watch that scene, what you see, as a result of I get offended too, however so does Owen. Mel is crying. [Abby’s] gone too far. It’s clear. Owen’s the one who loves her probably the most, and he’s offended, and he’s asking her, after which he instructions her, to finish it. When Abby walks away, when that is all mentioned and performed — I believed Mark did a good looking job there, and Kaitlin did such a good looking job — you don’t know if she’s regretful or if she’s in some state of, I don’t know, existential confusion. All you already know is, she is unhappy. No matter she thought she was going to get from this, she didn’t get it. So now what?

The Final of Us Season 2 airs Sundays on HBO at 9 p.m. ET/PT and is offered to stream on Max at 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET.