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Did You Know Therapy Scene Was Supposed to Be Part of The Last of Us Season 1? Know Why Creators Added It to S2
The Last of Us Season 2 creators reveal Pedro Pascal's therapy scene was meant for Season 1. Keep reading to know why.
The Last of Us has returned with a haunting new Season 2 premiere episode titled Future Days. It sets the tone for the gruesome action to come in the violent new season. Pedro Pascal's Joel wrestles with his own demons in an unflinching therapy session with Gail (Catherine O'Hara). However, the scene was planned for the previous season.
Therapy was not originally intended for Season 2. Showrunner Craig Mazin initially had the intention of bringing back Joel's therapy sessions in Season 1 but had them trimmed for time constraints. He brought the concept back this season to delve deeper into Joel's guilt and inner conflict.
The therapy session in the first episode of the latest season evokes Joel's guilt and pent-up emotions, exhibiting fissures in his otherwise taciturn outlook. "There was a scene, early in Season 1, where Joel met with a therapist in the QZ in Boston," Pascal revealed to Variety early on, adding, "I found it a beautiful way into the character and the walls that are guarding his traumas and losses."
However, the scene never made it to the first season but found its way to the second, as per the outlet. Mazin told the outlet, "Therapy is a fantastic mirror to say not just ‘What are you really thinking?’ but what people are refusing to talk about."
Mazin wanted the therapy scene to have the feel of an action sequence, with lots of emotional ups and downs. He's been to enough therapy sessions, he added, to realize how quickly laughter can turn to anger. He shared that it was one of his favorite scenes to write and edit in both seasons, especially because he got to watch the two acting legends "at the top of their game talk."
Interestingly, the dialogue is a mirror of the same lines from the video game, in which Joel talks with Tommy. But the show reserves that moment for Gail instead, with added layers and insight. Neil Druckmann mentioned, "We gave it to a different character to elicit a site that’s slightly different emotion."
Catch the latest episode of The Last of Us Season 2 on HBO and Max.
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