‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 Episode 6 Ending Explained: Why Did Joel Kill Eugene?

The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 6 takes us back in time, capturing key moments for Joel (Pedro Pascal), Ellie (Bella Ramsey), and the evolution of their relationship. While most of The Last of Us Season 2 has moved in a straight line, showing us the brutal chain reaction of vengeance that Joel’s actions in Salt Lake City last season sparked, this week the HBO show goes out of its way to remind sus what exactly Ellie has lost. Most of the episode revisits the teen’s various birthdays in Jackson, but the biggest reveal is what exactly went down between Joel and Eugene (Joe Pantoliano), aka the beloved husband of Jackson’s sole therapist Gail (Catherine O’Hara).

**Spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 6, now streaming on MAX**

All the way back in The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 1 “Five Years Later,” we learned that Catherine O’Hara’s Gail was nursing a grudge against Joel because it fell to him to kill her infected husband Eugene. What’s interesting about this particular situation is that Gail makes it clear that she doesn’t blame Joel for having to kill Eugene before he turned. No, there’s something deeper going on. Now, in The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 6, we finally understand the source of Gail’s ire.

Furthermore, this week’s episode of The Last of Us also explains why Joel and Ellie’s relationship was so frosty in the first place. The final sequence of the episode reveals how Ellie discovered that Joel lied to her about the events of Salt Lake City. We learn exactly when she learned that he massacred countless people just to save her life. We even get some insight as to why she weirdly seemed game to patrol with Joel all the way back in Episode 2. (She overslept, though, and Isabela Merced’s Dina took her place.)

So how did The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 6 change everything? Why did Joel really kill Eugene? Why are Gail and Ellie initially pissed at him at the start of Season 2? And when did Ellie learn that Joel murdered the Fireflies? Here’s everything you need to know about the revelations of The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 6…

Photo: HBO

The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 6 Ending Explained: Why Did Joel Kill Eugene?

In The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 6, we learn that for Ellie’s 19th birthday, Joel takes her out on her first patrol. Everything is relatively chill until they stumble upon an Infected fighting with their pal Eugene, played, yes, by the great Joe Pantoliano (aka Joey Pants). The problem is Eugene is bitten. The rules are that he’s got to be put down, obviously. However, Eugene makes an impassioned plea: Can they please walk him to the walls of Jackson so he can say farewell to his wife, Gail, before he dies. If he starts to turn before then, sure, kill him, but he’s simply got to say goodbye to Gail.

Joel doesn’t like this plan, but Ellie argues they’ve got time. (After all, it’s not like she’s actually in any danger of being bitten if Eugene turns — not that Eugene knows that.) Joel swears to Ellie that, yes, they will try to get Eugene to Gail in time. The problem is that as soon as Joel dispatches Ellie to grab their horses, he leads Eugene to a gorgeous lake view where he kills him.

Ellie is horrified when she arrives at the scene and sees Eugene’s corpse. Joel apologizes with a taciturn, “Sorry,” and attempts to convince her that he had “no choice” as they return home. When Joel breaks the news to Gail, he lies about Eugene’s frame of mind and last wishes, prompting Ellie to call him out. She reveals what really happened, betraying Joel, and turning Gail against him. “You swore,” Ellie repeats in fury before loping off.

As it happens, when we caught up with Joel and Ellie at New Year’s in Episode 1, Eugene’s death was the source of the friction between them.

Photo: HBO

When Did Ellie Learn What Joel Did to the Fireflies in Salt Lake City? How The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 6 is Different From the Video Game:

In The Last of Us II video game, Ellie pieces together what really happened at Salt Lake City through a series of clues and flashbacks. The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 6, on the other hand, features a scene where Joel and Ellie discuss what happened before his death. It’s a departure from the game and explains why Ellie was unfazed when Nora (Tati Gabrielle) asked her if she knew what he did.

In The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 6, we discover that after the New Years party, Ellie did speak to Joel on the porch. She explains that she knows he lied about what happened to the Fireflies because he had the same look on his face when he lied about Eugene. She tells him he has to give her the truth or they’re done.

Ellie plies Joel with questions and he silently confirms, with tears in his eyes, that she was the only immune people and there were no raiders at the hospital. He killed all the Fireflies, preventing them from making a cure, all for her.

“Making a cure would’ve killed you,” he says.

“Then I was supposed to die!” she retorts, explaining that he took her chance to have a purpose in saving others.

Joel says even though she’s turned away from him, he’d do it all again, because he loves her in a way she can’t yet understand. He echoes his father, played by Tony Dalton in the episode’s cold open, hoping that one day, if Ellie has her own family, she can “do a little better than me.”

In a final twist, Ellie says that even though she doesn’t think she can forgive him, she would like to try. Thus revealing, why the coldness between them had defrosted in Episode 2.

The episode ends back in Seattle, where Ellie is returning to the theater she and Dina have been camping.