*Warning - contains major spoilers for The Last of Us season 2 episode 2, Through the Valley*
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Fans are still reeling from the devastating second episode of The Last of Us season 2, which saw a major game moment brought to life.
The moment in question, which formed the final sequence of the episode, saw Kaitlyn Dever's Abby brutally torturing and then murdering Pedro Pascal's Joel.
Joel's adoptive daughter of sorts, Ellie – played by Bella Ramsey – attempted to save him, but was left watching as his life was extinguished.
Now, the show's co-creator Craig Mazin has revealed an addition to the sequence which, for him, made it even more heartbreaking.
Speaking on HBO's The Last of Us Podcast, Mazin said that the detail he found the most emotional was Joel – while bloodied, bruised and dying – still trying to move as Ellie shouts at him to get up.
Bella Ramsey as Ellie in The Last of Us. Liane Hentscher/HBO
"That is heartbreaking to me," Mazin said. "Heartbreaking. Because that's where you see how pure a parent’s love is for a child. And this is something that children don’t know. It’s not their fault, they just don’t know, because they haven’t experienced it.
"People say, 'Oh, you know, when you have a kid, you experience this yourself,' and a lot of people are like, 'I think I can extrapolate.' You can't. You just can't. I couldn't. I didn’t know, until I knew. And that is pure, parental, desperate, love.
"He’s trying to pick himself up for her even though he can’t even move. And what Bella does here, I mean... it’s the full range of things and it is all brutally heartfelt."
Pascal recently revealed how the cast and crew reacted to seeing him in his final "bloody pulp" as Joel, saying he had "never experienced anything like" it.
"I stepped onto set in full make-up and then killed the vibe completely as soon as anyone set their eyes on me," he said. "This kind of shock and heartbreak… it was weird to be on the receiving end of that.
"It's like the extreme version of, 'Is there something on my face?' I really could see this sort of grief take over everyone's look in their eyes."
The Last of Us season 2 airs on Sky Atlantic and NOW in the UK and HBO in the US.
James Hibbs is a Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering programmes across both streaming platforms and linear channels. He previously worked in PR, first for a B2B agency and subsequently for international TV production company Fremantle. He possesses a BA in English and Theatre Studies and an NCTJ Level 5 Diploma in Journalism.
