Why is Joel having panic attacks on The Last of Us?

In the latest episode of The Last of Us, Joel and Ellie finally make it to something resembling safety when they arrive in the functional settlement of Jackson, Wyoming. Joel reunites with his brother Tommy and gets information on how to get Ellie to the Fireflies. So it all worked out, right?

Not exactly. Joel has three panic attacks in this episode: once after Joel and Ellie hear about the dangers beyond the river from the reclusive married couple, once when the Jackson outriders question him and Ellie away from town, and again after the two are safely within the walls of the community, when he sees a young girl who looks a little like his deceased daughter Sarah. What’s going on, exactly?

Series co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann broke it down on HBO’s The Last of Us Podcast. “What’s happening is Joel is having a panic attack and he doesn’t know why…It’s your body telling you that you’re in terrible danger but you don’t understand why. And so much of what this episode is about is Joel coming to terms with how terrified he is suddenly that she’s going to die and it’s going to be his fault,” Mazin said.

"And if you’ve been paying attention along the way, what you’ll see is as many times Joel has helped her, he’s also failed her. And those are the things he dwells on. Like a lot of us, if you have core shame or core trauma the way Joel does, the things you do well are discounted. Your failures, anything that reminds you of the tragedy of your past, you will magnify in your mind and your heart until it threatens to subsume you."

Joel talks about some of those failures to Tommy: they include the time Ellie saved him from a raider in Kansas City and when Henry had to shoot his brother Sam to stop the infected Sam from killing Ellie. As in the original video game, he asks Tommy to take Ellie the rest of the way to the Fireflies. Joel figures that this is what’s best for her, but as Druckmann points out on the podcast, “it’s really to protect himself.”

"And when you’re playing the game…the camera is quite far back. You swing it around the character, so there’s no way to see a lot of what’s going on with the character’s faces so a lot of it has to be conveyed with dialogue. So the way we did it in the game…We just made him that much more distant, it’s almost like their relationship has gone backwards. Here, again because we can have these intimate moments where the camera’s right up in your face, we can do this in much more subtle ways."

The Last of Us fans turn Joel’s panic attacks into a meme

Joel’s panic attacks have struck a chord with viewers, who appreciate inclusion:

That said, the internet has also had some fun and turned the moment into a meme:

It’s true: there are three more episodes left in The Last of Us season 1. The next episode, “Left Behind,” airs this Sunday night at 9:00 p.m. EST/8 p.m. CST.

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