The Last of Us showrunner explains why the Joel flashbacks were all in episode 6 instead of spread out over season 2: "It was nice that the viewers could really miss this character"

The Last of Us season 2 has made a few structural changes from the video game, and one of these involves the show's use of flashbacks.

In episode 6, there are six flashbacks involving Joel: the first one takes us all the way back to 1983 when a teenage Joel is having a heavy conversation with his father, before we jump forward to Ellie's 15th birthday, followed by her 16th birthday, her 19th birthday, and, finally, the aftermath of the New Year's Eve party from the first episode of season 2.

In the video game, however, these scenes are more spread out, but showrunner Neil Druckmann (who also directed this episode) thinks concentrating the flashbacks was the right choice for the adaptation.

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"In the game, when you are experiencing one of those flashbacks that are spread out throughout much more, they’re not all consolidated like this – for example, the museum one, whereas in the show it’s a few minutes long, in the game, it could be close to an hour if you’re exploring every different nook and cranny," he explained to Deadline. "You are Ellie, and you’re there with Joel, and they have lots of conversations that you could get into that headspace. You get in the flow state, and you’re experiencing this thing with the two of them."

He continued, "I think if we were to take, let’s say, the scenes that we wrote for this episode, and spread them out over the season, a few things would happen that I think would have a negative effect. There’s one, I don’t know if they would land, because they’re relatively short. And two, you might not be missing Joel enough if we started spreading them throughout the episodes. We felt like for the show, we would get a lot more impact if we brought them all together and you could see them side by side and feel the deterioration of that relationship."

Of course, we haven't seen Joel since episode 2, when he was brutally murdered by Abby. His absence has been felt in the three episodes since, which have revolved around Ellie and Dina's quest for revenge against Abby and her group of fellow WLF members as the pair attempt to track them down in Seattle.

"I also had concerns that the episodes would turn into a bit of a template," Druckmann added. "It’d be like, 'Okay, what’s the Joel flashback this week?' So, it was nice that the characters and the viewers could really miss this character, and then we get in the whole bunch for one last time."

New episodes of The Last of Us season 2 are released weekly on HBO and Max in the US and Sky Atlantic and NOW in the UK. Stay up to date with our The Last of Us season 2 release schedule, or check out our The Last of Us season 2 review.