The Last of Us season 2 episode 2 surprised series-only viewers with an unforgettable moment those who had played Naughty Dog’s video game had been mentally preparing to see. Pedro Pascal’s Joel is dead, beaten to death by a vengeful Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), who revealed to him in his final moments that the man he had killed to save Ellie’s life was her father. While the moment caused uproar among players of The Last of Us Part II in 2020, it is the epitome of the series’ morally complicated and gritty post-apocalyptic world.
In the show, Joel’s death played out similarly to how it did in the game, except for the fact that an increased focus on Abby in the series has made her story in The Last of Us season 2 episode 2 more relatable. Abby’s perspective, and the fears of the residents of Jackson–who spent the episode fighting off a massive horde of Infected–were made visceral to viewers in large part thanks to the work of Emmy-winning composer David Fleming. Fleming, known for his work on Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Jim Henson Idea Man, co-composed the series’ score alongside original game composer Gustavo Santaolalla, with Fleming focusing largely on the biggest action moments.
ScreenRant interviewed David Fleming about his work on The Last of Us’ most controversial scene and the series at large. Fleming discussed building up to the episode’s biggest moment and serving the emotional needs of that story while also creating a bombastic action score for the Jackson sequence. Plus, the composer weighed in on how his work on The Last of Us season 2 compares to what he did on the first season.
Joel’s Death Had David Fleming… Pleasantly Surprised?
“I Really Appreciate That They Fully Committed To That”
When The Last of Us Part II hit consoles in 2020, players had a very strong reaction to the early-game death of Joel. That reaction, paired with the pure star power of Pedro Pascal, made it easy to imagine that Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin may try to find a way to keep Joel alive, if not forever, for longer in the series. Even composer David Fleming was curious as to what would happen, saying, “I was wondering if they were going to go there on the TV show, because Pedro’s so popular and Joel’s so popular.”
“I half-expected them to pull their punch, even though they didn’t really pull punches in season one, and I'm so glad they didn't in season two either,” Fleming continued. “Obviously, it's devastating. I've gotten more texts in the past 24 hours about people being upset about Joel… but even though it's devastating, I think it's important for what's to come for Ellie and for the story. Also, it lets you know what kind of world we're in.”
“This is a world where things happen, and there are consequences.”
“I really appreciate that they fully committed to that,” Fleming said. “I think it would've been easy to make excuses and find a way not to kill your main star, but Neil created the games and Craig is such a fan of the game, so I don't think they would do anything to betray the spirit and the story of their source material.”
The Mad Musical Marathon Of Episode 2, Explained
“It’s Just Getting Worse And Worse … It’s Unraveling”
The Last of Us season 2 episode 2 was essentially a long build to the emotional climax that was Abby’s cold-blooded killing of Joel, but there were still plenty of moments which required aggressive musical accompaniment. “So much of it was managing the arc of the episode and that feeling that it’s constantly escalating,” said Fleming, “and the moment you think you are relieved of this onslaught of the infected onto Jackson, you have the most emotionally devastating–arguably–scene in the whole story.”
“Craig told me that episode two was going to be a big one, and a big one for me, specifically.”
Fleming’s work began in earnest when Abby found herself in the middle of a half-frozen horde of Infected, only to wake them up and inadvertently cause a massive assault. For that scene, Fleming worked closely with showrunner Craig Mazin, saying, “We did lots of versions [and] tried lots of different things. The thing about this show is the Infected keep coming up, but there are different ways and different levels at which [they do], so you have to make each one of these encounters feel special and feel visceral.”
Once the horde had awakened, the episode became a true rollercoaster. The Infected’s assault on Jackson was, by the sound of it, the biggest and boldest stretch of music The Last of Us had seen. “The closest thing in scope,” Fleming said, was season 1 episode 6 in which a large group of Infected wiped out a militia of armed survivors, and even that was “so small compared to this battle sequence.”
To achieve the emotional highs required by the sequence, Fleming utilized brass calls and bigger drums, saying, “There was a reason to go bigger in some moments than we typically would. For the siege of Jackson, it was really this combination of telling two stories.” Fleming broke down the sequence, saying, “It starts out as one story of, ‘This is what they’ve prepared for.’ They have a plan, so as soon as they see this giant horde coming, it’s all about the preparation. There’s something militaristic.”
“Then,” Fleming reflected, “It slowly just devolves into chaos as they’re totally overwhelmed. So, most of it, from a story perspective, was about [how we play] this thing of, ‘Here we go, we’re ready for this,’ and then it’s just, ‘No, no, no, no, we’re not.’”
How Craig Mazin & David Fleming Shaped The Sound Of Joel’s Last Moments
“I Think It Really Adds To The Shock”
Image via Max
“He’s very intentional to a really specific degree with some of the sonics,” David Fleming said about collaborating with The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin. “We’ll really talk about, sonically, what’s appropriate for each group–what’s appropriate for the Infected and Abby’s group, and Ellie, so he gets really deep in the weeds, which is great.”
That collaboration was especially key for Joel’s death scene, the music for which went through a number of changes. “The first version played all the way through and was a lot more active,” Fleming shared, continuing, “There was more treating it a little bit more like any scene from The Last of Us. I think Craig’s instinct was [to] create more silence [and] create more moments, and at the very end, we found a piece of Gustavo’s that really worked at a crucial part when Abby’s talking about the hospital. [But] it was a process of getting there.”
Fleming dove deeper into his experience collaborating with Mazin: “A lot of times, Craig’s notes have to do with subtraction. Since TV is a passive medium and this is coming from a source material where you’re playing a video game [and] you feel like you are the character, I think they didn’t want to lose. [In] transferring to a TV show, you don’t want to feel like you’re [just] watching characters.”
“In terms of translating [that] to the music, [it] means play less–be a little less distracting, in a way, especially moments like that, when it’s very quiet,” Fleming continued, saying, “So, Craig’s push usually is, in big moments, ‘Let’s get bigger and bigger,’ and in small moments, ‘Let’s get smaller and smaller.’ And I think it really adds to the shock and the emotional dynamics of the episode.”
Different Instruments Were Used To Introduce Different Infected
The Premiere’s Smart Infected Got Its Own Signature Sound
Image via Max
Before the show’s latest episode, The Last of Us season 2 premiere introduced a particularly terrifying, smarter Infected–a creature that gave David Fleming opportunity to bring a new instrument into his The Last of Us collection. “We were building on a palette we’ve already established, but finding new sounds to make that special,” the composer said of the scene.
The specific sound that Fleming chose to associate with the devious yet animalistic villain was an Appalachian dulcimer, which the composer clarified he had never used. “I don’t think I had it on season one. And I don’t know what prompted it–I just got out my iPhone and I bowed it in a really weird way. It was like the first thing I did, and it became this almost vocal moan. I don’t know how to describe it, but I was like, ‘Oh. That’s the sound of this smart stalker.’”
Fleming Explains How His Work Fits With Gustavo Santaolalla’s
They Pull From “The Same Post-Apocalyptic Pawn Shop”
Image via Max
The Last of Us TV show benefits from the work of two composers–one being David Fleming, who handles the show’s less melodic, more action-packed moments, and the other being original game composer Gustavo Santaolalla, whose thematic material from the games carries over to the series. Fleming explained how their music fits together to make one cohesive project, beginning with the fact that “There are definitely new things I add, but I still try to maintain that same feeling. I don’t want … our sides of the score [to] start to divert wildly.”
The composer continued, saying, “It’s still important to me that there is a relation.” In his mind, at least lately, his music and Santaolalla’s music could be represented as two different characters, who found their instruments–”A bunch of old guitars and old banjos and beat-up string instruments”--at the same place:
“It’s almost like our characters stumbled upon the same post-apocalyptic pawn shop.”
“His character, maybe, is a guitar player who’s so emotional, finding these instruments [after] not having them,” Fleming posited, “and my character is more like an electronic musician who has maybe never played a guitar, but finds this stuff and is like, ‘Okay, well, I’ll make music with this.’” In Fleming’s words, “It’s the same source … it’s just [that] our approaches to these things are different. And I think that works for the different parts of the show that we attack.”
