The Last of Us Season 2 introduces a new character into the TV show that has yet to appear in the video games: Joel’s therapist.
Played by Schitt’s Creek star Catherine O’Hara, the character Gail is a therapist living in Jackson.
Warning! Potential spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2 follow:
Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann has confirmed that Gail is in fact Eugene’s wife, which marks a departure from the games. Eugene, who is mentioned in The Last of Us 2 but doesn’t appear in person, is played by The Sopranos and The Matrix star Joe Pantoliano.
But why does Joel need therapy in the first place?
Speaking to IGN on the red carpet ahead of The Last of Us Season 2 premiere, Druckmann offered an explanation.
“The reason he goes to therapy is because he’s trying to figure out why Ellie is icing him out,” Druckmann said. “And he’s quite a bit in denial about the real reason what’s happening there.”
IGN had asked Druckmann if he thought Joel went to therapy “off screen” in the video games, and Druckmann agreed he certainly would have done so if he thought it would have helped reconnect with Ellie.
“Well, I think if he had the opportunity, not for himself,” Druckmann said. “I think if he had the opportunity and if there was a way for him to reconnect with Ellie — because that’s his biggest motivation, everything that drives him is Ellie — then he would.”
There’s an additional reason for having a therapist character in The Last of Us Season 2: because the showrunners wanted to expand on Jackson.
Here’s Druckmann again:
“Someone like Eugene, we had a take on that character to say, ‘okay, well how does that expand Joel and Ellie’s relationship? How does it expand the town of Jackson? How does that expand what the story’s about, which is this idea of love and the extremes that love can take you to?’
“And then likewise, we also wanted to introduce this idea of a therapist that exists within Jackson, also to allow us to expand on Jackson to try to get into characters’ minds. But it was such a compelling character. Like, ‘hey, how do we ground this new character? Oh, let’s tie her to someone that’s really associated with the lore of The Last of Us: Eugene.’ And now these two characters are tied to Joel. If you’ve watched the first episode, they talk about Eugene and why that’s important. And you’ll see even more of why that’s important as the season goes on.”
Meanwhile, we asked Druckmann if he’s willing to keep the TV show going past the games if there’s no The Last of Us 3, and for a tease on Naughty Dog’s Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
