In The Last of Us season 2, episode 2, "Through the Valley," we bid farewell to Pedro Pascal's Joel after Abby takes her revenge for what he did to her father in the season 1 finale. Remember the surgeon Joel gunned down in cold blood? That was him.
This was a moment that proved hugely divisive when it happened in The Last of Us Part II video game, and watching it on television proved to be every bit as difficult.
Entertainment Weekly spoke with Pascal about his on-screen death. "I'm in active denial," he admitted. "I realize this more and more as I get older, I find myself slipping into denial that anything is over."
"I know that I'm forever bonded to so many members of the experience and just have to see them under different circumstances, but never will under the circumstances of playing Joel on The Last of Us. And, no, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it because it makes me sad."
Pascal always knew it was coming, of course, and reflected on what it was like to step onto to set in full makeup and prosthetics to shoot Joel's last moments as Abby rains down blows on him (the last of which proves fatal).
"[I] killed the vibe completely as soon as anyone set their eyes on me," he said. "This kind of shock and heartbreak... it was weird to be on the receiving end of that. It's like the extreme version of, 'Is there something on my face?' I really could see this sort of grief take over everyone's look in their eyes."
Reflecting on what appeared to be one final look between Joel and Ellie before he dies, Pascal revealed, "I have no idea if it's captured on camera, but [there's] a subtle sense that Joel can hear her in the last breath of life that he has left in him. He can hear her calling for him and hear that she's in danger and wants to help her and is unable to lift even a finger to do so. I remember playing that, and that was really devastating."
And with that, the whole thing just became even more heartbreaking.
Trailers for the series have confirmed we haven't seen the last of Pascal as Joel, though the actor wasn't willing to give anything away about when and where we'll see him again.
"Something that I do feel like keeping secret is, how will those things play and where will they be placed," Pascal teased, "which I think is still a lovely thing to not know for people that watch the show."
Check out the promo for next week's episode of The Last of Us below.