When he changes his mind about leaving her, it’s a huge, vulnerable moment for Joel: Ellie needs him, and Joel realizes that he is capable of being needed again and that he can be there for someone. Ellie confronts Joel about his inability to move on after his daughter’s death and how his fear is affecting her. With a half-dozen episodes under its belt, The Last of Us has reached its emotional pinnacle so far (though one could argue that episode 3, which shifted its focus to the beautiful relationship between Bill and Frank, is the zenith of whatever theme this show is gonna go for). If any show was set to prove the opposite, that eventually mankind’s cruelest id will emerge again and again… and again in times of struggle, it was AMC’s long-running epic about Rick Grimes and a cast that consistently shuffled in and out because 90% of the time, they were on the menu. This is especially true in regard to The Walking Dead, another blockbuster apocalyptic show, which ended just before The Last of Us debuted.

It’s a message that comes close to feeling like a zombie world Sunday school lesson at times, but it’s also one of the parts of the show that feels the most genuinely refreshing. It gives the series an obvious place to go, even when the narrative goalposts change. As we wrap up the sixth episode, Joel comes to believe this as well, picking away at the scar tissue of his past trauma until he’s able to accept that he might have a purpose beyond the day-to-day struggle for survival. And so Joel is constantly reminded that his shepherding of Ellie (Bella Ramsey) westward across the United States is more than just shipping a particularly snarky biology experiment. After all, without it, one is left with nothing. Over the course of the first six episodes of The Last of Us, Joel (Pedro Pascal) is a man without hope.

Infested by Carol Gore