In The Last of Us season 2, Joel finally goes to therapy

Joel is a troubled guy. Throughout the first Last of Us game (and subsequent TV adaptation on HBO, where heâs played by Pedro Pascal), he sees and does a lot of things heâd rather forget. He certainly doesnât seem to want to talk about them much. Which is why itâs nice to see that, in […]

Apr 14, 2025 - 15:41

In The Last of Us season 2, Joel finally goes to therapy

Pedro Pascal and Catherine O’Hara in The Last of Us.

Joel is a troubled guy. Throughout the first Last of Us game (and subsequent TV adaptation on HBO, where heâs played by Pedro Pascal), he sees and does a lot of things heâd rather forget. He certainly doesnât seem to want to talk about them much. Which is why itâs nice to see that, in the showâs second season, heâs finally seeing a therapist named Gail.

Unlike most of the showâs cast, Gail (played by Catherine OâHara) isnât based on a character from the games but instead is a new creation specifically for the HBO series. And although she makes her debut in season 2, co-creator Craig Mazin says that introducing a therapist was actually something he wanted to do early on.

âIn a world where everyone has been traumatized â¦ therapy would probably be usefulâ

âWe have opportunities to do things only we can do that the game canât,â he tells The Verge. âI donât think the game couldâve supported a very long cutscene between a therapist and Joel. But it was something that we had talked about all the way back in season 1, because it seemed to us that in a world where everyone has been traumatized, and you have to barter some skill as part of the new econ …

Read the full story at The Verge.