The Last of Us Season 2, episode 6 broke our hearts in myriad methods each overt and subtle.
Noticed by Redditor Unwept_Skate_8829, there is a costume inclusion within the episode’s opening scene that features a deeply vital object to the collection: Joel’s watch. Nevertheless, it is initially not worn by Joel himself (Pedro Pascal), however by his father, a personality we have by no means met prior to now.
In episode 6, earlier than the credits, we see a flashback scene to 1983 in Austin, Texas, that includes a younger Joel (Andrew Diaz) and Tommy (David Miranda), scared of their violent, police officer father, Javier (Tony Dalton). There is a tense dialog on the kitchen desk between Joel and his dad, wherein Joel protectively takes the blame for Tommy’s troubles, realizing what hurt Javier is prone to inflict upon his youthful brother. Unexpectedly, Javier cracks two beers open and speaks to “doing higher” than his personal abusive father, trying to excuse his violence towards his sons. And through the scene, he is sporting a really acquainted watch.
The watch takes on a brand new significance for Joel as an grownup and, in distinction, a caring, loving father. Having inherited his father’s watch, Joel now embodies the kind of father he and Tommy deserved as a toddler. Within the very first episode of Season 1, Joel’s daughter Sarah (Nico Parker) will get the watch fastened for her dad’s birthday — whether or not Joel needed Javier’s watch fastened is ambiguous. Nevertheless, on the identical day, Sarah is tragically shot through the chaos of the outbreak of the cordyceps pandemic, and the watch is damaged throughout this horrific occasion. Subsequently, Joel by no means will get his watch fastened, his smashed timepiece remaining a testomony to his daughter.
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In episode 3, after Joel’s brutal murder by Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), the watch finds its way to its fitting new owner, Joel’s found daughter, Ellie (Bella Ramsey). Again within the settlement of Jackson, a now grown up Tommy (Gabriel Luna) removes Joel’s watch as he is cleansing his brother’s physique for burial. “Give Sarah my love,” Tommy says within the scene paying tribute to his late niece. Later, Ellie finds it in a crimson field on Joel’s mattress alongside along with his pistol, a shifting reward from Tommy to his discovered niece.
By together with this element within the HBO collection, we see Joel’s watch has handed via generations of trauma, opposing modes of fatherhood, and variations on what household means. It is a reminder of loss and previous trauma for Joel and for Ellie, and a literal illustration of time stolen, of future days gone in a world of violence and demise.
New episodes of The Last of Us Season 2 premiere on HBO and Max Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
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