Neil Druckmann, the inventive drive behind the Last of Us video video games, will get why viewers of the TV present would count on any episode he directs to be full of motion. He form of anticipated that too. But the episode of the sequence he simply helmed is comparatively mild on brutality—until you depend heavy-duty emotional violence.
“It felt like a very important and intimate episode,” Druckmann tells Vanity Fair in an interview about episode six, “The Price.” ”Unlike final season, after I directed a really action-heavy episode, I actually preferred the concept it has no motion. It’s all drama.”
There isn’t a lot in the way in which of characters operating from or destroying hordes of contaminated right here, as there was in different chapters from The Last of Us. There aren’t battles between warring factions of survivors preventing for dominance within the wasteland of what was America, both. But there’s nonetheless vital stress, battle, and revelation in Druckmann’s script, which he cowrote with fellow showrunner Craig Mazin and Halley Gross, a Westworld veteran who labored with him to craft the 2020 recreation The Last of Us Part II.
“The Price” additionally brings again Pedro Pascal’s Joel—who died in episode two of this season—by means of flashbacks centered on him and Bella Ramsey’s Ellie. The story culminates with Joel confessing to Ellie that he killed the hospital workers who have been attempting to extract a remedy from her. She reacts with grief—not solely as a result of he lied to her for thus lengthy about that rescue, but in addition as a result of she would slightly have given her life for one thing so significant. “We’re getting deep into Ellie and Joel’s relationship,” Druckmann says. “The stuff they’re talking about on that porch should resonate, going backwards and forwards with everything that the story has left to tell.”
Vanity Fair: Ellie and Joel lay all their secrets and techniques out in episode six. What made this one you needed to direct your self?
Neil Druckmann: Sometimes these dramatic sequences are extra partaking than any motion. I need folks to lean ahead and actually be invested: How is that this argument going to end up? Ultimately, this present is about these relationships. We have actually cool contaminated, and now we have cool set items, however these sequences can solely work in the event you care concerning the consequence for the folks concerned. Otherwise, you’re not going to be emotionally moved by it.
The opening sequence reveals Joel as an adolescent together with his brother, and we meet his cop father. His dad is performed by Better Call Saul’s Tony Dalton, who may be so intimidating.
He is the scariest charming particular person onscreen. He does a lot with so little, with simply the depth in his eyes. And then how that depth turns to ache as he’s recalling what he needed to expertise together with his father, and the way he’s attempting to perform a little bit higher. It was vital that you just imagine him.
I saved anticipating their dialog to blow up into violence.
In the writing course of, we had variations of the scene that you’re describing. It in the end felt extra attention-grabbing for this dad to search out some camaraderie together with his son. It’s like, “This time the wrong thing that you did was actually the correct thing. Because you did violence to protect your tribe, your family, your brother. And that’s what I have done. Sometimes I’ve even hit you to protect you. So maybe now you can understand who I am.” And then he admits he doesn’t know if even that’s the right factor. All he is aware of is that he didn’t beat them as badly as his dad did, so he is aware of he’s performed a little bit higher. And he’s hoping that when his son grows up, Joel would perform a little bit higher than him.
Joel says one thing much like Ellie within the remaining scene on the porch. We know from the earlier episode that Dina (Isabela Merced) is pregnant, and Ellie goes to assist her look after the kid. Joel didn’t know that will occur, however his phrases really feel very prophetic now.