10 Best Joel Miller Scenes in ‘The Last of Us,’ Ranked

Spoiler Alert: This list contains spoilers for ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2.For many players and viewers, Joel (Pedro Pascal) is the heart of The Last of Us. He may not be the first playable character that gamers get to control, but he is the first one they build a connection to. Watching someone’s daughter die in their arms will do that to a person, it seems. From the moment he was introduced to players and viewers, Joel has held a special place in the hearts of fans all across the world. His motivations and decisions may not please everyone, but you just can’t help but love him as a character, which is why losing him in the first two hours of The Last of Us Part II infuriated and hurt as many people as it did.

The first game and season revolves around Joel and Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) gradually growing father-daughter relationship, and players get a good look into who Joel has become during the twenty years since losing his daughter at the start of the Cordyceps outbreak. Watching him grow from a hardened survivor in the midst of an apocalypse to a caring and kind man again is one of the best video game character developments ever told. Despite his story ending in one of the most brutal and heartbreaking ways imaginable, there’s never a bad time to revisit some of his best moments throughout The Last of Us story. Now more than ever, we need as much Joel time as possible.

The Last Of Us

Release Date

January 15, 2023

Network

HBO

10

Sarah Dies in Joel’s Arms

Season 1, Episode 1 “When You’re Lost in the Darkness”

What’s an effective way to get a viewer to connect to a primary character within the first ten minutes of their introduction? Kill their daughter and watch them die in their arms, of course. Yep, that’ll do it. When gamers first met Joel, it was as he came home from work to a house he shares with his daughter, but the show included extra moments between the two to build out their relationship a little more.

It gives people an idea of how normal a life he lived before the Cordyceps infection completely derailed the world and how much of a family man he really was. Sarah’s (Nico Parker) death was a heartbreaking way to set Joel on the path he ultimately embarked on, but it showed his protective side very early on and why he wasn’t about to let the same thing happen to Ellie. He’s a father who’s already lost one child.

Season 1, Episode 8 “When We Are in Need”

As the story of The Last of Us heads to its climax and Joel and Ellie discover where the Fireflies have gone, they are attacked by a group of unrelated individuals at the University of Eastern Colorado who are there to scavenge what they can. But instead of supplies, they are greeted by Joel’s wrath and a hailstorm of bullets as he and Ellie make their escape, when things turn nasty very quickly.

In the struggle, Joel is sent flying over the edge of a railing and falls to the ground, getting impaled by rebar as he lands, although this was altered in the show to a stab wound for better realism. This moment leads to a role reversal where Ellie must now care for Joel, but it’s the moment after he regains consciousness that remains one of his best scenes. It’s the first time audiences realize just how much Joel has come to care for Ellie and the lengths he’ll go to protect her from harm. It’s also an insight into what he’s capable of and some of the things he did to survive for twenty years after the outbreak. It’s a subtle yet brilliant look into his character development.

8

Joel Gives Ellie a Gun

Season 1, Episode 4 “Please Hold to My Hand”

Ellie and Joel’s relationship went from tolerable to inseparable over the course of the first season and game, but it took some time for Joel to learn to start trusting her. That moment finally came in Season 1, Episode 4, “Please Hold to My Hand,” when she saved his life after hunters chose them as their next target and almost killed him.

Up until this moment, Joel had been adamant that Ellie would not bear a gun, that her knife was her only weapon, and it was up to him to keep them both safe. He never let his guard down for a second. But following this encounter in Kansas City in which she saved his life, he started to open up to her more, as she did with him, and decided to finally give her a gun. It was such a simple moment, but it was the first time things between Joel and Ellie started heading towards a more balanced playing field, and it was lovely to see. Who would have thought a man giving a kid a gun in a post-apocalyptic world would have been as heartwarming as it was?

7

Joel’s Hospital Rampage

Season 1, Episode 9 “Look for the Light”

The debate around whether Joel did the right thing by saving Ellie has continued to be a frequent topic of conversation among players since the release of the game back in 2013. For more than a decade, Joel’s actions at that one moment split the fanbase down the middle, as it did once again when the HBO adaptation hit TV screens ten years later in 2023.

Regardless of whether it was the “right” thing to do, it was, without a doubt, a Joel thing to do. Having lost his daughter in such a devastating way on outbreak day and going two decades without allowing himself to love again, there was absolutely zero chance he was going to willingly allow someone he’d come to care about so deeply to die on his watch. Like his methods of tracking Ellie down after she was taken by David, Joel’s rampage through the hospital is a moment that showcases his refusal to lose another person he cares about, no matter what the consequences may be. She is the only one that matters in that moment.

6

Joel Finds Ellie After She Kills David

Season 1, Episode 8 “When We Are in Need”

David (Scott Shepherd) was a nasty piece of work. He’s first portrayed in the game as someone players don’t know whether to trust or not. He seems willing to trade and give Ellie the medicine after she goes out hunting for food while Joel’s laid up, and assists her in taking down a huge amount of infected as they fight through runners, clickers, and even a bloater (this was removed from the show), but there’s just something about him that gives people an uneasy feeling.

David’s death at the hands of Ellie was both satisfying and hard to watch on equal levels. Ellie fights to survive by any means possible and manages to overpower both James, played in the series by Joel’s voice actor Troy Baker, and David, who she ultimately hacks to death with a machete before stumbling out into the snow in shock at what just happened. This then leads to arguably the most memorable moment between her and Joel when he comes up behind and just holds her as she screams, reassuring her that it’s him and no one else is going to hurt her. Joel calls her “baby girl,” which is exactly what he used to call his daughter Sarah. There was no fight left, just two people whose father-daughter bond had finally reached breaking point in the most emotional way possible.

5

Joel Tells Ellie the Truth

Season 2, Episode 6 “The Price”

This moment was far more impactful in the game than it was in the show. That’s not to say how it was handled in the HBO series wasn’t absolutely heart-wrenching (many a tear was shed), but the way it was executed just didn’t have the same impact as its video game counterpart because of how quickly it happened.

However, that doesn’t take away from it being one of the best looks into how Joel felt after all the years that had passed since calling Jackson home. Joel and Ellie had been on an up-and-down path for a while before things came to a head in the show’s version of events for Season 2, Episode 6’s flashback sequence, but things reached boiling point during the New Year’s Eve party, and they finally had a talk. As mentioned, this conversation plays out slightly differently between the game and the show, but the premise is almost identical. Without saying a word and with some absolutely phenomenal acting from Pedro Pascal, Joel discloses the truth about what happened in Salt Lake City, finally admitting his reasoning for what he did with four simple words that didn’t appear in the game: “Because I love you.” It gives one final insight into how far he’s come since losing his daughter, serving as the final bittersweet moment with his newfound daughter as she chooses to try and forgive him.

4

Joel’s Space Shuttle Birthday Present to Ellie

Season 2, Episode 6 “The Price”

Probably one of the most iconic scenes from The Last of Us Part II is that of the flashback sequence with Joel and Ellie as he takes her on a camping trip for her birthday. There were many beloved moments from the museum sequence in the game that were unfortunately cut from the show. But the one they did choose to include was flawlessly recreated for the adaptation, nonetheless.

Ellie’s birthday was the only one Joel would have celebrated for a daughter-figure since losing Sarah prior to the outbreak, so he was going to do everything in his power to make it as special as he possibly could. That little cassette tape may have taken “a mighty effort to find,” but it was worth every second of tracking it down for the look it put on Ellie’s face. Joel was determined for Ellie to be a kid as long as she could, and this was one of the earliest steps he took to help prolong that childhood enjoyment she’d been denied up until this point. He really would do anything for her.

3

Joel and Ellie’s Big Argument

Season 1, Episode 6 “Kin”

In the first season, Joel and Ellie’s tolerance of one another gradually progressed into a father-daughter-style relationship. They went from being at each other’s throats upon first meeting to making each other laugh with a cheesy pun book and ultimately relying on each other for survival. But it wasn’t all smooth sailing.

When Ellie and Joel arrive in Jackson for the first time, it takes a bit of time for her to acclimate like Joel, who immediately runs over to his brother for a long-awaited reunion. Ellie struggled to interact with anybody else as the only other person she’d known for months was now off doing his own thing and trying to get his brother to take her off his hands, but not in the way she initially presumed. This lack of communication and Ellie’s presumption that Joel’s reason for doing so was because he didn’t want her around led to a big blowout between the two. “You have no idea what loss is” is one of the most iconic lines from the game, and it’s a first look into how much Joel refuses to allow himself to care for anyone again. Joel fears he’s getting old and is unable to protect her, but in reality, he’s the only person Ellie truly feels safe with in her corner.

2

The Giraffe Scene

Season 1, Episode 9 “Look for the Light”

Ah, the giraffe scene. This beautiful moment comes just shy of the final battle in the hospital as Joel, Ellie, and the audience are granted a brief moment of respite before the gut punch of an ending to Season 1 of The Last of Us. Following the aftermath of Ellie’s traumatic experience at the hands of cannibal David, she struggles to move past what he put her through back in the winter.

The roles reversed once again when Ellie became the quiet and reserved one of the two, and Joel was the one constantly trying to lift her spirits by engaging in conversation as they climaxed closer to the Firefly hospital. Ellie had truly seen the worst side of humanity in one interaction with someone outside of her comfort circle, and it was going to take a lot to help her see the good in things again. Cue a herd of giraffes roaming and grazing around the outside of an abandoned building. This was one of the most beautiful moments in the game, and it was emotional to see how incredibly it had been brought to life for the series. Joel isn’t watching the giraffe. He never takes his eyes off Ellie, smiling and giggling as the animal fed from her hand. Everything they had been through melts away for a moment, and they become a father and daughter enjoying the moment, each in their own way with completely different perspectives.

1

Joel Sings “Future Days” to Ellie

Season 2, Episode 6 “The Price”

The placement of this scene altered slightly between the show and the game, but the song and meaning behind it will never change. Joel sings “Future Days” by Pearl Jam to Ellie when they arrive in Jackson after the events at the Firefly hospital, and it becomes a moment Ellie carries with her into Seattle as a way to always keep Joel with her. But in the show, it is added in during a flashback sequence to Ellie’s first birthday in Jackson, still being used as a connection to Joel to remind her of her goal.

Joel promised Ellie he would teach her to play guitar when they were done with their mission, a promise that he kept, although this wasn’t shown until Season 2, Episode 6. This song holds a special place in Ellie’s heart, but it also holds a special place for the gamers who instantly recognize it anytime those guitar strings are plucked. The lyrics of the song are incredibly fitting to the story, depicting how losing someone you care so deeply about could completely alter who a person is. Joel was a dad who lost his daughter in Season 1, and Ellie was a daughter who lost her dad in Season 2, and the loss changed them completely. It couldn’t fit these characters more, and it teased the darkness that eventually overcame Ellie in the wake of Joel’s death. It’s a beautiful Joel moment that will always be one of the most meaningful.

NEXT: 5 Reasons Why Season 2 of ‘The Last of Us’ is Better Than Season 1 (And 5 Reasons It’s Not)