The following contains spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 1, «Future Days,» which premiered Sunday, April 13 on HBO.
HBO’s The Last of Us has been known to take different roads in the adaptation process to tell the original story of the games in a new way. It’s done this in many ways by restructuring the story, adding new characters or giving minor characters in the game new life in the show. The latter case has proven to be a surprise success for the show, given the first season’s most acclaimed episode redesigns the story of Bill and Frank.
Seeing how well-received Bill and Frank’s love story was, with the exception of the toxic homophobic reactions, it only makes sense that The Last of Us showrunners would want to experiment again for Season 2. In adapting The Last of Us Part II, the possibilities of expanding on minor characters are endless. Ellie, Abby, their companions and enemies have many years of history that the game only touches on through flashbacks, dialogue or notes. In the Season 2 premiere, The Last of Us gives a bigger role to a character who is already deceased at both the beginning of the season and in the game: Eugene.
Eugene's Role on HBO's The Last of Us, Explained
The Fate of Eugene Puts a Strain Between Joel and His Therapist
The Season 2 premiere shows something that the Joel many people previously knew would never be caught doing: going to therapy. But this is also five years after the Season 1 finale, in which Joel and Ellie have both settled down in a comfortable life in Jackson, where things seem to be relatively normal for most of its residents. Though Joel may have softened in those years, his session with his therapist, Gail, suggests that he still has the same ruthless fire in him that he’s had since the beginning.
Gail is noticeably irritable during their session. One can play it off as her being annoyed at Joel’s refusal to tell the truth about why Ellie refuses to speak to him. But she opens up, revealing that it’s her first birthday without her husband, Eugene. Joel observes that she’s been drinking all day to numb the pain and becomes wildly uncomfortable, not with her sadness, but with his part in her sadness. But Gail claims she’s not sad — she’s angry that Joel shot and killed Eugene. She recognizes that he had no choice, insinuating that he was probably infected, but it was the undisclosed way he killed Eugene that makes Gail hate Joel.
How The Last of Us Part II Portrays Eugene
The Game's Eugene Had a Much Sadder Outcome Than the Show's Version of Him
Eugene doesn’t have such a fleshed-out story in The Last of Us Part II, as he’s only mentioned in dialogue between Dina and Ellie. Eugene Linden was a former Firefly and a member of the Jackson community who died from a stroke at age 73 before the events of the game. Prior to his death, he and Dina went on patrol together, where he taught her how to fix electronics (a bond that Dina shares with Joel in the show) and grew marijuana together. Eugene’s hippiness translates to the show, as Gail nods to her husband’s growing weed for her, but most everything else has changed.
Although he was well-loved by his community, his past implied that he had things to make up for in his later life. Along with Tommy, he tortured a general and blew up a checkpoint that killed soldiers and civilians. His wife, Claire, had to give Eugene an ultimatum through a letter if he didn’t quit the Fireflies:
«Eugene- I’m begging you to come home! The Fireflies want to save the world — I say let them. Let them go after the military, the politicians. Let them develop a vaccine to save mankind. Maybe one day we’ll live to see the fruits of their fantasies. Until then, I have to put our daughter first. The Fireflies will be fine without you. Your daughter won’t. She keeps asking me when you’re coming home. I can’t lie to her anymore. I miss you. But I don’t know how much more of this I can take. Come home. Please. We love you.»
Despite leaving the Fireflies at some point, Dina once remarked that Eugene was «so lonely,» which hints he probably never made things right with his wife and daughter. In the show, Eugene acts as a parallel to the crumbling relationship between Joel and Ellie. Just as Ellie seems unable to forgive Joel for him hurting her (although it’s never explicitly said why she’s angry at him), Gail also finds herself hesitant to let Joel off the hook. Since Joe Pantoliano has been cast as Eugene, The Last of Us may be exploring how Joel treated Eugene in his final moments. In doing so, it could reveal that Joel hasn’t grown as much as he thinks he has in those five years, and has yet to break the bad habits that have destroyed his relationship with Ellie.
New episodes of The Last of Us premiere every Sunday at 9 PM ET on HBO.
