What is Ellie screaming at in The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 3 promo? Speculations explored

HBO released a promo for the upcoming third episode of The Last of Us Season 2. This upcoming episode is expected to follow in the heels of the devastating end of the second episode, which saw the death of Pedro Pascal's Joel. The promo for The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 3 was released after the airing and streaming of the second episode, "Through the Valley".

In this 53-second promo, we see Ellie wake up in a hospital bed. She begins to scream at a human figure who is holding her hand at the 10-second mark. We don't see the face of the person holding Ellie's hands, but given the ending of the second episode of The Last of Us Season 2, the figure is probably Ellie's vision of a scarred Joel. This might probably be the opening scene of The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 3.

What will The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 3 be about? Exploring speculations:

The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 3 will surely follow Tommy, Ellie, and Dina dealing with this devastating loss. Tommy especially had a hard time in the second episode of The Last of Us Season 2 because he was on the frontlines of fighting off the invasion of the infected at Jackson. After killing off all the infected, Tommy also had to watch the citizens who got bitten shot.

So, the death of Joel is only going to add more to the loss. Meanwhile, Ellie will have to live with the regret that she and Joel never got to repair their broken relationship. We will get some flashbacks featuring her and Pedro Pascal as Joel. Dina also reveals the identities of all those who killed Joel, and this may motivate Ellie to train for a confrontation with Abby in the future.

Showrunners talk about Joel's death in the second episode of The Last of Us Season 2:

Deadline published an interview with Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann on April 20, 2025. The showrunners spoke about the ending of the episode and how they shot this scene when The Last of Us Season 2 was filming. While talking about how he and director Mark Mylod were worried about shooting this scene, Craig Mazin said:

"I mean, I was terrified. Neil probably wasn’t. Mark Mylod and I were just panicking because we knew the bar was high. I mean, this moment from the game is extraordinary, and we’re doing it almost the same way, but with some interesting differences, and that’s always a little scary. I don’t know, trying to hit that bar, we were incredibly nervous. Were you nervous, Neil?"

To this, Neil Druckmann responded:

"I guess I’m nervous anytime there’s an important beat in our story and making sure we get it right, but not necessarily because of the content. I experienced the worst of the negative reaction to it already five years ago. So in that respect, I haven’t been nervous. Although I’ve been getting more nervous lately as the days are turning into hours before this thing airs. I’m very curious what the reaction is going to be."

After speaking about feeling curious about the reactions to the latest episode, the showrunners were asked about Jackson being invaded by the infected, something that did not happen in the game. Craig Mazin justified the addition, saying:

"Well, one of the things we talked about was the idea of breaking everything. When you feel like you’ve finally reached stability, sometimes everything falls apart. All the things that made you safe are gone. Joel made Ellie feel safe. He’s gone. That impenetrable wall made Jackson feel safe, and it got broken. Creating that threat from inside and out at the same time, we just felt that it was the right way to show how dangerous the world is and how fragile everything is and how precious everything is. So the relationships going forward have to be taken very seriously, and the decisions that we make have to be taken very seriously, because there is no safety."

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