The Last of Us season 2 showrunner Craig Mazin says he and Neil Druckmann are happy they got to include that formerly scrapped therapy scene – which gets to the true "heart" of the show.
"It was something that we had talked about for season 1 because I kept thinking, who has utility in the apocalypse? Obviously tough guys like Joel do, smugglers, doctors, you would imagine, would be very important," Mazin tells GamesRadar+. "And then I was like… wouldn't everyone need a therapist? If you've made it through, you have lost family members, you've watched the world fall apart, you are under terrible stress. There are monsters. Yeah, therapy would be an incredibly valuable thing."
Mazin told Variety earlier this month that they had planned to include a scene in season 1 where Joel has a therapy session – and that Pedro Pascal loved the scene so much it's part of what made him sign on to the role. The scene was ultimately scrapped, but luckily was rewritten and reworked for season 2.
"And if you are a therapist, that's a great thing to barter, but there's also a chance for us to watch Joel talk about himself in a way that he rarely does, but also to lie. The interesting thing about therapy is not everybody walks in there and tells the truth. I think therapists know that better than anyone. So what does he choose to say? What, how does he define his problem?"
After the events of The Last of Us season 1, Joel has quite a bit to talk about. We won't include finale spoilers if you aren't caught up yet, but we will say that Joel makes a decision on Ellie's behalf without her consent that more or less takes away her autonomy – though he did it out of love. We imagine this event in particular will be what he talks about when he sits down with Gail (Catherine O'Hara)... but we also imagine that Joel, who doesn't exactly love to open up and talk about his feelings, might not be entirely truthful.
Continues Mazin, "Is that really his problem? Is there something he can't talk about or won't talk about? And from there, we also found this interesting complication with his own relationship with Gail.
"And the scene, I think is pretty beautiful. It kind of gets to the heart of what's going on and serves a similar purpose to a scene in the game between Joel and Tommy, but has a different kind of spin and, I would say conflict involved in it. So we were just thrilled that we finally got it in, let's put it that way."
The Last of Us season 2 is set to hit Max on Sunday, April 13. For more, check out our list of the best Max shows and the best Max movies to watch right now.
