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In HBO's The Last of Us S02E06: "The Price," Pedro Pascal offers an intense, Emmy-worthy return in what is presumably his final episode.
Posted in: HBO, Review, TV | Tagged: the last of us
The Last of Us S02E06: "The Price" Review: Heartbreak & No Regrets
In HBO's The Last of Us S02E06: "The Price," Pedro Pascal offers an intense, Emmy-worthy return in what is presumably his final episode.
It's safe to say that if Pedro Pascal should return to The Last of Us from here on out, it will never be as involved as this flashback-driven episode, "The Price," which finally provides that much-needed exposition that caused the tension between his Joel Miller and Bella Ramsey's Ellie Williams. When we start the episode, we see a much younger incarnation of him (Andrew Diaz) at home talking to his father, Javier Miller (Tony Dalton), who is a police officer. The following contains minor spoilers.
The Last of Us: A Trip Back to Happier Times
As fans of the PlayStation games are well aware of, the events that play out in "The Price" aren't so much a spoiler, but as consistent with the series, we get so much more exposition as we get a deeper look at the happier times of the season one main protagonists as Joel was finding various ways to celebrate Ellie's birthday each year from the time when he was a new resident of Jackson, Wyoming, town run by his brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) and his wife Maria (Rutina Wesley). We saw him asking the town cook, Seth (Robert John Burke), to help him bake a cake as we journey through his all-too-familiar ineptitude as a "father" of a growing teenager.
While seeing the ignorant side of Joel is nothing new, his blunt and well-intentioned ways showed us the extent how much that's gotten him in trouble. We steadily see the erosion of trust between Joel and Ellie, because of how comfortable Joel is lying around his "adopted" daughter, who constantly reminds him how much he ISN'T her father. As much as we're used to seeing a moment of time and mood dominate their contentious season two relationship, "The Price" offers that rare look at all facets of that relationship taking place given how much the pacing comes in the series, not to mention, there's literally only seven episodes to get to a decent enough stopping point for the series before season three.
Directed by co-creator Neil Druckmann, who also navigated the narrative in the Naughty Dog games (and co-written by Halley Gross and Craig Mazin), "The Price" stands out not only because it offers that more fulfilled experience offering that much-needed levity when Joel takes Ellie to a museum and lets her escape away from the horrific world they live in, but it also takes the audience to a place of brief euphoria and sense of wonder along the way since gamers and intuitive viewers know, it's only going to get much more nihilistic and cathartic from here.
Pascal pours it all out here that if he's not at least nominated for an Emmy, it would be a travesty. Also, the same can be said of his co-star, Ramsey, who perhaps puts in one of their greatest performances of the series. It's a full range of emotions here, from the two that don't have to get spread out to the other characters. We also get a bit more context into Eugene (Joe Pantoliano) and Gail's (Catherine O'Hara's) relationship, with Pantoliano making the best of his brief time on screen, which also provides the kind of extra exposition for Joel that Part II didn't touch on. It also reminds us how flawed Joel is as a person, so blunted by his trauma that he forgets how much Ellie needs his empathy as she is growing up, from her coming out to desperately seeking honesty amidst his evasive nature.
Mazin and Druckmann do such a wonderful job making magic with what they have to work with, and if it's truly the final time we see Pascal in The Last of Us, then it's worthy of a definitive final bow, not to mention helping to bring the best out of Ramsey. While Pascal is off to his Marvel ventures, The Last of Us will only grow under Ramsey, and hopefully, also Kaitlyn Dever for when the series takes a harder focus on her Abby, which likely starts with the upcoming season two finale, which airs May 25th on HBO and will stream on HBO Max, the same day.
The Last of Us: Season 2 Episode 6: "The Price"
9.5/10
Considering The Last of Us episode "The Price" comes directly from the source in Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann, the co-creator of the HBO series has taken all the necessary creative liberties to expand on the narrative of Joel and Ellie that gamers didn't see in 2020's Part II. That's okay, because through the magic of television, we see Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey put on a clinic that makes us feel a wide range of emotions that finally gives us the context of their fracture relationship we felt since the beginning of season two. It adds that final piece of the puzzle that made the second episode that much more heartbreaking considering how "The Price" ends. A remarkably different tone from the general narrative and cathartic nature of the main arc, we get a fitting ending for one of the series' most endearing characters.
Credits
Director
Neil Druckmann
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