ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 6 BREAKDOWN - Easter Eggs You Missed!

Episode Date: May 19, 2025

We breakdown all the Easter eggs, hidden details, and subtle moments you might have missed in Last of Us 206. We explore the complex relationship between Joel and Ellie, the themes of generational cycles, and the emotional weight of key scenes. From Joel's backstory in Austin to Ellie's journey in Jackson, we cover it all. Plus, get insights into character motivations, plot changes from the game, and the significance of musical cues. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You know, when it's your turn, I hope you do a little better than me. Hey, welcome back to Screen Crush. I'm Ryan Erie, and this is all of the Easter eggs references and little things that you might have missed in episode 6 of the Last of Us season 2. Once again, remember Screen Crush is available in all your favorite podcast platforms, and we have tons of Last of Us parody merch available at our merch store. Check out the links below. So this season has really leaned into the idea of cycles, particularly how the next generation ends up repeating the same cycles of violence as the one before it. This episode questions whether or not humans are really capable of moral evolution, or if we're just destined to repeat the sins of our fathers, which is fitting given where episode five left off. But instead of starting at the end of episode five,

HBO decides to take us back even further and give us a glimpse of Joel and Tommy's childhood back in Austin, ages before tech billionaires and cliche blue-haired hipsters invaded that city. Wait a minute, person, I thought Austin's always been weird. All right, Doug, fair point. Austin is a unique city even in 1983. Literally, Keep Austin Weird is the town's motto, and it's a city that it's been known for its creative, pop-friendly arts, and music festivals since the 60s. So no, it's no surprise that Joel and Tommy were getting dicey with the devil's lettuce during their teenage years.

Given that we know Joel is celebrating his 36th birthday during the outbreak in 2003, this would mean that he's about 16 years old here. We learned that his father is a cop played by none other than the swordsman himself, Tony Dalton. His father pulls up in the iconic powder blue police car that was a calling card for the Austin PD until the mid-1990. Even his uniform is stunningly accurate with the Austin City logo on his badge and the patch on his sleeve matching the uniforms the APD wore in the 80s. We then see Joel take the blame for Tommy Scuffle with the Stoners to try and spare his brother from getting beaten, showing us not only a glimpse at the early stages of Joel's hero complex, but also the darker side of his character that he inherited from his father. Like the responsible dad he is, he cracks open a Budweiser to drink with his son in the classic rigid 1980s can. Joel's dad then details where the cycle of abuse started with the story about his own father,

decking him so hard that he had to wire his jaw shut just for stealing candy. There was blood everywhere. Grandma thought I was dead. My mouth was wired shut for two months. He uses this clear example of abuse to justify how he is improving on his own father's sense, saying... You know, when it's your turn, I hope you do a little better than me. Which is clearly the core message of the evidence. episode. Joel wants to improve on the sense of his father, just as Ellie wants to improve on

the sense of hers. But in reality, they simply repeat or even intensify the same cycle of violence. We see this reinforced when he taps his shoulder, which shows us who Joel originally got his watch from. But I thought that his daughter Sarah gave him to watch in the first episode. Nope, she simply fixed his old watch. The original is clearly a hand-me-down from his dad, as we can see him rocking it here in pristine condition. It's actually one of the few times we've seen it in the show where it's not broken. Now, since this episode takes place exclusively in the past, the intro has reverted back as well, reuniting Joel's silhouette alongside Ellie's just before the title, instead of the somber solo act that we've seen

since Joel's death. After the intro, we cut to Seth behind the bar in 2006, four years before the present day. We see that all the liquor in the bar is homebrewed, given all their handmade labels, which makes sense since we are decades into the apocalypse. Behind him, we can spot the Red Hook beer sign that we saw in episode two, and Olympia beer, which are both beers brewed around the Seattle area, with the later actually being discontinued in 2003, as well as the sign for Strolight, another northern beer from Detroit, Michigan, that stopped brewing in 2000. Much like Ellie's love for the 90s Seattle grunge scene, the focus on these Seattle-based beers subtly reinforces the connection between Jackson and Seattle, or at least

how connected they were before the outbreak, of course. This takes us to our long overdue return of Pedro Pascal as Joel, where Seth identifies him as the new guy, prompting him to respond with... Been here two months, Seth. Now, given that the show puts New Year's Eve nine months after Ellie's birthday, we can deduce that her birthday is probably in late March, so this would mean that they joined the Jackson community in January. Joel offers Seth Legos as a payment for a birthday cake to which Seth replies with...

My grandkids are going to love these. Which is yet another example of the show humanizing a character that they initially portrayed as a homophote, showing us the moral ambiguity and complexity. that situations like the apocalypse can create. They get even more complex when Seth adds, I was a cop, Milwaukee PD, which we can see Joel visibly react to. After growing up with his father, he knows exactly the kind of person cops can be, which is likely another reason why he's so quick to square up with him on New Year's Eve four years later. After convincing Seth to make him an impromptu birthday cake, Joel asked him for a piece of bone to make a saddle for Ellie's guitar.

Guitars have saddles? How are you supposed to ride that then? No, Doug. A saddle, is the part of the acoustic guitar that sits on the bridge and lifts the strings to their correct height. Joel's guitar is a completely new detail added in the show. In the game, we see Joel Gift Ellie, the Custom Tather 314 CE, and we assume that he either found it or restored it himself. But this takes the intimacy of the gift one step further. The choice to show him carving and crafting the bone into the guitar saddle holds some significance as well. As we said last time we were in Joel's room, Joel's hobbies in Jackson show a pivot from the person he used to be. He was once someone who used to take life, and now he uses tools to bring life

to the lifeless. First, through the wood carvings that we saw earlier this season, and now again, by bringing life to these dead remains through music. We also see him carve her iconic moth onto the neck of the guitar, looking like what looks like an early drawing of Ellie's idea for her arm tattoo. Now, of course, Joel's crafting session is interrupted by Tommy and Ellie, giving us the origin of Ellie's short-sleeved libertarian story, just like she told Dina about in episode four. This moment, yet again shows her need for independence since Joel was the one making her hide her arm in the first place. But her apologetic reaction shows just how much closer she was to Joel just four years earlier. On her desk, we see her knife stabbed into the desk just like it is in game. Now,

this, of course, is the same knife given to her by her mother and one of the few last things that she has to remember her mother by. We also see an aha cassette tape, the same one that features Ellie's favorite serenade song, Take On Me, as well as another tape for a dance party. Now, when she comes downstairs, we see that Seth's spelling skills are not as good. as his baking. And I love how Ellie just digs in with her hands here because she grew up in the apocalypse without any cutlery or any sense of civility. This is when Joel finally gives her the guitar and Ellie forces him to play, giving us a peek at the first time we hear the iconic Future Days by Pearl Jam. This is the iconic song heard not only in the trailer leading up to

Season 2's debut, but constantly throughout the season thus far. But this is the moment it becomes their song. However, watching this through a flashback makes the lyrics hit even harder. The first lines. If I ever were to lose you, I surely lose myself. Seem like a polite way of describing both Joel's horrible actions in Utah and Ellie's brutal torture of Nora in the last episode. The song itself is about days of peace in the distant future, but the tragic thing this episode shows is that not only did those future days never come, but these moments here

were likely the closest they ever got to them. Ellie follows the performance with the same response she gives in the game. As she straddles the guitar, we see the scar from the injury on her arm, which causes Joel to respond with... I understand. But does he really? Well, no, not at all, but he thinks he does. Given the episode's introduction, Joel likely relates Ellie's self-inflicted wound to the beatings that he used to take for Tommy, since they both required trading pain for peace in the long run.

But in reality, Joel is the only thing preventing her from that piece, just like his father was for him. Or it's possible that Joel sees this as her just wanting to be a kid and relax. She's had to be responsible for so long, which would explain why Joel continues to indulge her and her child as we see next. Now, I know we're all excited for the last of us to return, but we should also take a moment to remember the fallen with these new designs that we just made for our merch store. We have this Firefly look for the like graffiti shirt and this broken watch to commemorate Outbreak Day 2003. Where were you when that happened? Or you can choose your faction in the war between Ellie and Abbey. You can become a member of the Alpine Clicker Patrol or a member of the WLF.

Links for all of these are below, and now you can also become a store member, to earn rewards and get free stuff. We then pick up one year later on Ellie's 16th birthday, three years before the current time, and one of the most iconic scenes from the game that we've seen heavily teased in the trailers. So in the game, this moment was presented as a flashback, just like it is in the show.

But it is certainly one of the most memorable flashbacks, and it's arguably the happiest we ever see Joel and Ellie. It's a grounding moment for the game that reminds players what it was like having the two of them together. And we see the same thing here. Ellie is guessing what the surprise will be, saying, Is it water guns? No.

Is it a dinosaur? You're not going to guess. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Because, of course, when she finally does get it right, Joel still tries to cover it up, just like he does in game. Is it a dinosaur? You're not going to guess. Stop trying to guess.

I ain't telling you. The beginning of the level in the game forced Joel and Ellie to swim through a river, but they opted to keep Pedro and Bella a bit drier in this show. This moment gives us the first glimpse of Ellie growing up and wanting to gain a bit more independence as she tries to. to get Joel to allow her to go on patrol. She tells him that Jesse will train her, and Joel goes,

Is there something going on between you two? Because he's completely clueless about Ellie's sexuality at this point in the story, which is pulled directly from conversations they have in the game. I've got a keen eye for these sort of things. Not so keen with this one. And this is when we finally get to see

Ellie Surprise, a trip to the abandoned natural science museum. Every aspect of the museum scenes is incredibly loyal to the way they're presented in the game, but a bridge to give us enough time to cram in the rest of the flashbacks. Hey, person, isn't 16 a little old to be excited about dinosaurs and space stuff? Well, yeah, but Ellie grew up in a world where she couldn't be a kid. So any chance she gets to catch up on that lost childhood, she does,

which is why Ellie can have seemingly childlike fascinations, but still take down full-grown adults twice her size. Now, one of the parts of the museum they skip in the show is Joel and Ellie touring the other dinosaur fossils, which is where they discovered this Indiana Jones hat. However, we know she grabs it because we can see it in her room in episode 3. We can see just how much Joel is going. through to bring this place back to life as they toured through the space museum where he's

restored parts of the museum just so Ellie can have her fun. They finally have their real magic moment when he asked Ellie to take a look inside the original Apollo 15, which is a dream come true for Ellie, who has always dreamed of being an astronaut and is obsessed with space travel. It's your first time in the car. It's like a spaceship. He tells her to grab a helmet and she chooses one from the Gemini space suit. Now, this is the same suit that was used in Apollo 1, which unfortunately perished on its mission, just as Ellie reminded us of in the last episode. Three burnt skeletons like Apollo 1. Gemini is also the zodiac sign that represents duality, which of course is a major theme in the last of us.

Not only do we have characters like Abby and Ellie who seem to mirror each other despite conflicting motivations, but there's also a duality of the polarizing memories that we see in this episode. The five-year gap between seasons clearly contain some of their happiest moments, as we see here, but also some of their lowest moments which forever break them as we're going to see later. That's when Joel pulls out something that took a mighty effort to find, a cassette tape recording of the launch of Apollo 15 and allows her to live her dreams just for a moment. Now, the show goes a step further than the game did by adding shadows and visuals to the scenes to really transform it, even having the light change as she would be entering space.

But as always, the score is on point, exactly with the game. Listening to the tape takes Ellie to another world in more ways than one. It's a rare moment where we get to really imagine a world where space travel would even be possible again. Ellie's love for space is really a form of escapism. And for her to truly achieve that through Joel's gift as she does here, truly is the best gift he could have given her. Nevertheless, he still asks for reassurance when she comes back and Joel responds with, I do okay. Are you kidding me?

Which is an important question for Joel, as this is the peak of their relationship. We see the beginning cracks of this as they return home, and Ellie lingers on a group of fireflies, subtly signaling how she's starting to have second thoughts about what happened to them in Utah. So this takes us a year later to her 17th, and it looks like three times a charm when it comes to Seth's cake baking, as it looks much nicer and is even spelled correctly. Joel even went extra fancy with a chocolate cake, which is more difficult to make, as Seth explained earlier in the episode. Vanilla or chocolate. Sweet vanilla, it's easier.

But of course, this is interrupted when Joel walks in on Ellie and Cat. Now, they are speed running through the many ways to disappoint a conservative father figure with some closet of queer hookups, tattoos, and smoke and reefer, causing Joel to say... So all the teenage shit all at once, huh? It shows how far Joel has really stepped into his role as a father. I mean, at this point, he's outright scolding Ellie for moral decisions that have nothing to do with her safety or well-being. They're just lifestyle decisions.

However, what Joel doesn't realize is that, as mad as he is here, this issue is in a way. a small taste of normalcy in the post-apocalyptic life. Now, we did see Joel smoking when he was Ellie's age a little bit earlier in the episode, so you might think he's a little bit of a hypocrite for getting angry. But like I said earlier, this episode is all about cycles and doing things better than the generation that came before them. He's impressing a certain way of life onto Ellie, almost wholly, but in doing so, he does it much better than his father did before him.

As much as Ellie disappointed Joel here, he isn't beating her with a belt like his father did to him. So in that way, his hypocrisy is still an improvement. improvements, this scene also gave us a more complete picture of Ellie's room before she moves out. We saw several of her posters that were eventually moved into the garage, like the fake band poster for Thoughts 20, her Savage Starlight poster, and her Seattle Grunge Scene posters for Nirvana, Radiohead, Weezer, and of course, Pearl Jam. She is, of course, being tattooed by Kat, which coincides with what we know about their relationship, both from the game and earlier this season. Now, the game mentions Kat and Ellie's journal, which is how we know that she is both one of

the first girls Ellie hooked up with here in Jackson, and the one that originally gave Ellie her tattoo. But Ellie broke up with her because Dina seemed distant when they were dating, which is the same jealousy that Dina alludes to at the beginning of the season when they're on patrol with Kat. Oh my God. What? You used to with her? Ellie takes major offense to Joel labeling her sexuality as an experiment as it's something she's known about herself for years. Still, the reaction contextualizes where Joel is mentally and gives him a point to grow from, as we see later in the episode. That night, Ellie finally calls him out on his bullshit, saying, You may not like the rules, but this is my house.

No, it isn't. You don't own it. They gave it to you. But she doesn't go as far as saying the quiet part out loud just yet. This is where Joel finally agrees to give Ellie her own space and even suggests... Just give me a few days and let me fix things up a little out there. Which shows Joel will do whatever it takes to keep Ellie close, including outfitting the entire garage after Ellie has been nothing but disrespectful to him. Yeah, but isn't she like, right? Oh, 100%.

Joel isn't really Ellie's father. doesn't owe him the same respect after everything he's kept from her. We see signs of this in the game, but it isn't explored this intimately, which really goes to show what Craig Mazen and HBO can bring to this story. As he's trying to make nice with Ellie, he asked her about her moth tattoo. Typically, moths, especially when they appear in dreams, are supposed to symbolize following your inner light, which is essentially the meaning that Ellie has attached to it, as we see later. Moths are drawn to the light, just as Ellie is drawn to find her purpose. Its symbolism also connects it to the fireflies, who chose their insect mascot as a

metaphor for shining a light in the darkness, or being the light. Tell me to look for the light and I'll break your jaw. At this point of the flashback, Ellie doesn't know that the fireflies have been completely wiped out. So the moth could represent her desire to find them, or just her broader place in the world in general, given her unique situation. But Joel misinterprets it as... Yeah, like change and growing and such. However, the moth's relationship with the fireflies could be why Gail assigns a completely different meaning to it, as we see in the next scene. This scene seems to be one of the first real,

conversations between Gail and Joel. As he sits down, we can see that she's reading, The Earth Abides by George R. Stewart. The book probably feels a little bit more like fact than fiction when it was first published in 1949, as it's one of the earliest stories about life after a deadly global pandemic. The book's themes could also foreshadow Jackson's dark future. The story is about society slowly devolving after intelligence, and it's about how the importance of individuality slowly fades in a dwindling post-apocalyptic population. A prominent moment in the story is when the last man who can read dies, which makes every generation after him illiterate. Given that Gail is the town's last therapist when she goes, so does the town's sanity

validating her importance. Gail gives her best geth as Ellie's moth symbolism, ending with... Death, if you believe in that... Which Joel apparently does, judging by his reaction. We then go back to Ellie, packing up a stack of records in her room, including Romanian pan-flutist Gorhe Zamphir, the Lonely Shepherd, an instrumental piece featuring prominently in many movies, including Kill Bill, Volume 1, which they unfortunately would have never been able to see,

given its release date was one month after Outbreak Day in 2003. We then take another time jump, skipping Ellie's 18th birthday and landing us about a year away from present day. Right, doesn't that mean she's about to have another birthday in Seattle? Well, actually, yeah, we know New Year's Eve is nine months after her birthday from later in the episode, and she spent three months in recovery after New Year's Day. So that is a full year. That said, as we can tell from this episode, the only one who ever really celebrated her birthday was Joel. So it makes sense that she's keeping that to herself for now. We see her rehearsing her speech to Joel going through her many narrative-breaking questions about what happened at Salt Lake. Now, in the game, Ellie confronts Joel about this after going to Utah in the middle of the night, only to find the evidence for herself. It seemed like Ellie was going to end up making that trip, given the mass graves that HBO added in Salt Lake in the first episode. But HBO continues to surprise us, just like Joel surprises her for her birthday with her first patrol here, which puts her questions on the back burner.

When they're walking through the woods, she says, There's a little squirrel fucking a big squirrel. Which is yet another reference in the series to your mom. Hey, speaking of that, isn't there something you missed from last week's episode? Yes, thank you for pointing that out. Somehow we miss the fact that when Ellie and Dina jump into the abandoned office building, the card on the desk says, happy Mother's Day, which is, of course, fitting that last week's episode did air on Mother's Day.

Thanks to all you noble commenters down below who filled us in on that oversight. When they run into trouble, Joel immediately wants to send Ellie back when she responds with, I'm not your fucking kid, Joel. Now, where she may have been scared to say the quiet part out loud two years ago, she's clearly grown more distance in the past few years. But when the shit hits the fan, they get their priority straight quick, as Joel reiterates here, saying, Remember what I taught you? I'm your back? You're mine.

As they search through the forest, we hear a trap go off and see a horse run by with its rider hanging from its feet. And this is where we finally get to figure out what happened to Eugene, who apparently took an unfortunate clicker bite to the chest. He tries to bluff Joel with a gun, but of course, he's empty. Ellie tries to hear him out and even takes him through a test to see how far the infection has progressed, the same test that Marlene used on her in season one to see if she was infected to test her immunity. Joel promises not to kill Eugene as Ellie fetches the horses, which is a promise he immediately

starts to break as he takes him to a safe spot to execute him. What's even wilder about this whole situation is that Joel is really the only one at risk of getting infected here. This means that Eugene's request was even more reasonable than he ever knew, and they could easily have let Eugene see his wife one last time. But in doing so, they could further risk the town finding out about Ellie's immunity, which Joel sees as a big enough secret to deny someone the final words with their wife. This scene really starts to put Joel in perspective and classic Last ofus tradition. The entire episode builds him up as a nice guy who just wants to do everything right by his daughter, but in the end, he is a cruel person who will go to extreme ends to guarantee their safety. You also have to love how we don't actually hear the gunshots.

We just see the birds flying up from the trees, signaling that the shot has been fired. Then they drag Eugene's body behind them to bring him back to Gail and Jackson, the same way we saw Joel return to Jackson in episode two, which is a sobering reminder for the audience as to why he had it coming. And we see that as he lies to her saying, He wished he could say goodbye to you in person, but he didn't want to put you in danger. He wasn't scared, and he ended it himself. Now, this moment is the straw that broke the camels back for Ellie and opens up the floodgates for their conversations later.

If he was lying about this, then what else is he lying about? This becomes Ellie's breaking point, which is when she bursts out with... Joel promised it taken to you. He promised us both. And then Joel shot him in the head. And this is not only the reason why Gail hates Joel so much in their therapy session, even nine months later, but it also uses Eugene's death to deliver the most critical line from Ellie's trip to Utah in the game. Swear to me that everything you said about the fireflies is true.

You swore. Then we pick up at the New Year's Eve Ball, which gives us our second look at this iconic scene from the game, but from Joel's perspective on that night. As brutal and cold as Joel can be with outsiders, he's just the opposite with the people he considers family, as he sits with Maria and Tommy making goofy dad jokes and convenient moral revelations about their importance to one another

the night before he happens to die. Seeing the events from this perspective is especially insightful given Mazen's changes to Joel and Deena's relationship. He sees her almost as much of a daughter as he sees Ellie. So, seeing the two of them together on the dance floor must be warmly reassuring without getting to Game of Thronesie. Maria ends her serendipitous goodbye with... What I'm trying to say is Uncle Grumpy is family. Family helps each other out. Which transitions oh so well into Seth the homophobe making his case against Ellie. It's a family event. Just as we said the first time around, this event takes away

Ellie's autonomy, but the context Maria gives here shows how Joel sees it as nothing more than defending his family, and he shows that he has no problem using whatever means necessary to defend them. The first time we saw these events play out, Ellie walks past Joel and goes to the garage, which is what she told Gail during her exit interview when she was trying to leave the hospital. However, here, we see how the true events played out. She returns to chat with him and is having a cup of coffee on the porch with his guitar, using the same signature owl cup that he uses in the game, and that you can interact with when visiting his house after his death. The cup has an owl on it, which is a particular favorite for him, given his wood carvings as well.

In a way, owls could also hold a similar kind of symbolism for Joel as the moth does for Ellie. While owls are symbolically seen as wise and noble, they're actually vicious, stealthy hunters with deadly precision. Joel sees himself as wise and noble too, but his violent protective tendencies make him far from it. And that's not something that everyone sees coming. Ellie asks him, Where did she get it? People that came through last week. I'm a little embarrassed for what I traded to get it, but it's not bad.

Which not only matches his dialogue in the game. Those people that came through last week. I'm a little embarrassed as to what I had to trade to get it, but it's not bad. But also explains why she left coffee beans on his grave in episode 3. This time, Ellie says the quiet part out loud and finally establishes some reasonable boundaries with Joel. And I don't want to ever hear about you take. me off patrol again. He can't take her off patrol or act like he's her father when he is not, which of course,

Joel is more than willing to accept because he doesn't want Ellie to leave him. Now, to his credit, he makes a great effort to do so as he tries to get a little better understanding of Ellie and Deena's relationship. Joel then says, well, she'd be lucky to have you. Now, this is a pretty quick turnaround in regards to queer acceptance from somebody who grew up in Texas, but as the conversation progresses, we can actually see the selfishness in Joel that Ellie calls out. Because you're selfish. Now I know Joel doesn't seem selfish. He stands up for his daughter, but you have to understand why. Joel certainly tries his best, but in reality,

it's not for Ellie. It's for himself. In Salt Lake, when Joel and Ellie are talking about his daughter, Ellie says, so time heals all wounds, I guess. Which seemed like a sweet way of saying that Ellie has helped Joel heal from the loss of his daughter. However, his daughter's death left him with abandonment trauma, which is why he's willing to do everything to keep Ellie safe. and close. He's not necessarily doing it to do what's best for her, but rather selfishly to heal himself. Ellie eventually connects this as she unravels everything that happened with the fireflies. In the game, Joel is also bold enough to say it himself, but HBO's Joel can't even muster the courage to say it out loud, so Ellie has to ask all the questions for him.

Now, in the end, Joel does finally muster up the ability to say, Making a cure, would have killed you. And Ellie responds with, Then I was supposed to die. That was my purpose. My life would have fucking mattered, but you took that from me. Joel sums up his selfishness perfectly when he explains what he understands to be the real consequences of his actions, saying... Yes. And I'll pay the price because you're going to turn away from me.

Which is not only wildly off when it comes to the term of the real price that he's going to pay, but it also shows how egotistical Joel is. This also moves this revelation to the night before Joel died, which is a change from the game that makes this moment all the more impactful for Ellie. This means that when she confessed this to Nora in the last episode, it was likely the first time she had talked about what Joel did out loud. Ellie is clearly showing him how he took a choice away from not just her, but from everyone. Yet Joel's only concern is whether he can use Ellie to heal from his own trauma,

and he doesn't care if she ever achieves her purpose, if it could potentially risk him getting to be with her. He has no concern about the price everybody else has paid for what he did. He even doubles down in the end, same. But if somehow I had a second chance at that moment, I would do it all over again. And then they hammer home the main theme of this episode, when Joel says,

But if that day should come, if you should ever have one of your own, I hope you do a little better than me. Which is not only a line that he stole from his father, but also a question that holds a lot of weight given the future family that Ellie has on her horizon. The questions of whether or not she's really been doing better than Joel is up for debate.

I mean, the last episode, saw her returning not just to the same cycle of violence that Joel committed, but also taking a few pointers from Abby's golf swing as well. If anything, Ellie has become Joel 2.0, but not in the direction that Joel was clearly hoping for. Each of these generations are asking the next to be better, but instead of truly being better than the ones that came before them, they instead passed down a legacy of violence, snowballing in scale, as time goes on.

Ellie finishes with, I don't think I can forgive you for this. I would like to try. which is along the same lines as her response in game, but a little bit more forgiving. I don't think I can never forgive you for that, but I would like to try. However, everything we see here has so much more impact since this is the last conversation they ever have together. The fact that Ellie repeats this cycle with just as much conviction as Joel, despite him lying to her until his final moments, shows how Ellie's descent is uniquely her own,

just like Gail said in episode 3. If she's on a path, it's not one that Joel put her on. We see this in the final shot, which shows Ellie. returning to the theater after torturing Nora, taking us immediately back to where we left her last episode. In the game, she came back traumatized and covered in blood. But here, it seems that only the trauma remains. This brings the story back full circle.

And in a way, it asked the audience to apply Joel's last request with where we are now and everything so far as we head into the finale. Judging from the teasers for the finale, there seems to be plenty to be excited about. Well, guys, that's all the Easter eggs and details that we found. But if you found any, let us know in the comments below or at me on Twitter, Blue Sky, or threads, or on our free to join Discord server.

You can also shout out Mr. Dodd Sites, the writer of this video. You can find his links down below. And if it's your first time here, please subscribe and smash that bell for alerts. For Screen Crush, I'm Ryan Erie.