Does THAT Character Die In The Last Of Us Episode 6?

Warning! This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us episode 6, The Last of Us Part I, and The Last of Us Part II.The Last of Us episode 6 features a major cliffhanger of Joel falling off his horse after being stabbed, leaving the main character’s fate up in the air. Joel’s injury comes from a group of men attacking him and Ellie while searching the University of Eastern Colorado. Joel and Ellie are at the university because Tommy, Joel’s brother, told them that was where the Fireflies had a base last he heard.

Joel and Ellie seek out the university only to find it abandoned, with the Fireflies having moved to a different location. Before they can leave the university though, Joel and Ellie see a group of armed men searching around outside. Much like The Last of Us’ Hunters from episodes 4 and 5, the men quickly make it clear that they are hostile when one attacks Joel on sight. The attack leaves Joel gravely wounded after he is stabbed, causing him to fall off his horse and throwing his future in The Last of Us into doubt.

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No, Joel Does Not Die In The Last Of Us Episode 6

Despite the collapse, Joel does not die in The Last of Us episode 6. The cliffhanger ending makes this clear with a common TV rule of thumb; if a character is not officially confirmed dead, they will likely survive. This is the case with Joel who does not die in The Last of Us, despite his injury meaning big things for the coming episodes.

As is known from the original game, Joel’s wound will cause Ellie to look for medicine. This brings her into contact with the villainous characters of David and James, the latter played by Troy Baker of the original Last of Us game. This interaction, in turn, sparks several significant events in the remainder of The Last of Us game, as well as cementing key facets of Joel and Ellie’s relationship.

Is Joel Being Stabbed Part Of The Last Of Us Game?

Though Joel being stabbed is part of the original The Last of Us game, the means of it happening are changed slightly for HBO’s show. In The Last of Us episode 6, Joel and Ellie sneak past the intruders to their horse before one of the men rushes up behind them. Joel ducks out of the way of the attacker’s swing, causing his baseball bat to shatter off a tree. After a brief scuffle, Joel kills the man before Ellie points out the splintered shaft of the bat the man stabbed into Joel’s abdomen before the two escape on their horse.

In the original The Last of Us game, players fight their way through a lot more men than Joel does in The Last of Us episode 6. At the end of the sequence, Joel tries to enter a door before a survivor of the group tackles him. The two wrestle against a glass railing before the railing gives way, causing the two to fall to a courtyard below. Joel’s fall sees him land on an upright metal bar which impales his abdomen like the bat in The Last of Us episode 6. While the end result is the same, the means of Joel’s wound are slightly different.

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Will Joel Die In The Last Of Us?

Warning! This section contains major spoilers for The Last of Us Part I and The Last of Us Part II.While Joel does not die in The Last of Us episode 6, the burning question is whether he will eventually die at some point in the story. In terms of The Last of Us season 1, Joel will make it out alive. Should they follow the game as has been the case so far, the remaining three episodes of The Last of Us on HBO will center on Joel and Ellie’s fight with David and the cannibals, before Joel saves Ellie from the Fireflies rather than let them kill her to obtain a cure to the Cordyceps infection.

If the ending of HBO’s The Last of Us season 1 is the same, Joel and Ellie will then return to Tommy in Jackson to live as part of the community. Similarly though, if The Last of Us season 2 adapts the story from The Last of Us Part II, Joel will likely die early in the season. The beginning of The Last of Us Part II sees a group of people tied to the Fireflies Joel murders at the end of the first game return for revenge, killing Joel and kickstarting the events of the sequel.

With The Last of Us season 2 being confirmed shortly before the release of The Last of Us episode 3, it is safe to assume HBO’s show will follow these same events. Craig Mazin, one of the co-creators of The Last of Us for HBO, has spoken to IGN about how the second game would constitute more than one season of television. This hints that HBO’s TV video game adaptation of The Last of Us will indeed follow the second game’s story, which means Joel could meet his fate sooner rather than later in The Last of Us season 2.

New episodes of The Last of Us release every Sunday on HBO.

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