This article contains spoilers For “The Last of Us” on HBO, in particular season 2 episode 2, “through the valley”, and the 2020 video game “The Last of Us Part II”. If you don’t want to read game spoilers, stop reading now!
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In “Through the Valley”, the second episode of the second season of the HBO adaptation of “The Last of Us”, fans of the original series of Naughty dog games obtained the moment they were waiting (and probably dreading). Joel Miller, the protagonist of the story played by Pedro Pascal, meets a bloody and grotesque ending in the hands of Abby Anderson (Kaitlyn Dever), the daughter of a man Joel once killed to save her own daughter (substitution), Ellie (Bella Ramsey). I’m not saying that anyone should be happy On this subject. The scene is, to say it lightly, to avoid it to look. Ramsey’s performance as an ellie, which is pinned to the ground and begging for Joel’s life, is absolutely heartbreaking. And then there is to be, who takes Abby – the character made the infamous in “The Last of Us Part II” from 2020 – to an extreme psychopathic, rumbled and spinning Joel in his last moments and taking an apparent pleasure in beating him so strong that she takes the stem of a golf club, whose end of employment is so strong to finish work.
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The actress of Abby of the game, Laura Bailey, who played the role in the game using her voice and with a motion capture, faced extreme The backlash after the people who played this scene, to the point where some “fans” of “The Last of Us Part II” threatened its security. I really worry that Dever, an actress who has worked regularly since 2011, will end up finding herself in an equally cruel reticle. She shouldn’t. Dever is Perfect As Abby, the lack of a too torn body is damned. (Which is funny, however, is that the incredibly constructed physical of Abby in the game Also Make people crazy, so seeing complaints about this in the wilderness of the Internet is really frustrating.)
Here is what Dever does to make Abby so captivating, helped by certain smart writing choices by the Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann showrunners. We get a scene (it is not in the game) where, in a dream, Abby acts at the time crosses the Firefly hospital where Joel killed his father, to be advised by his old self, establishing authentic pain and sadness in the heart of Abby. Then, in the major scene where Abby kills Joel, Dever permeates Abby with a rage that feels completely consumed with a clearly discernible shade of real sorrow, both for her father and on what she is about to do. She is brilliant. Whoever doubted this casting choice should eat his words.
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Kaitlyn Dever brought real anger and grief to her performance on the last of us
In interviews published after “Through the Valley”, Kaitlyn Dever revealed something particularly heartbreaking: a few days before filming her big scene with Joel De Pedro Pascal in February 2024, the mother of Dever, Kathy, died of breast cancer. In a Vulture profile, Dever said about this experience: “Abby is a mourning person; this is what feeds his anger. I could identify myself with her, and it was a surprise for me because I did not expect to do these scenes while living through sorrow.”
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Dever also spoke to Entertainment Weekly – just like Craig Mazin, Neil Druckmann, Pascal, and the director of the episode Mark Mylod, to name only a few – for a coverage on “Through the Valley” and said to the point of sale that it was “in a fog” during the shooting, given that the commemorative service of his mother was just “in a fog Considering that the commemorative service of his mother was just “in a fog”, during the shooting, considering that the commemorative service of his mother was just “in a fog”, during the shooting, considering that the commemorative service of his mother was just “in a fog”, during the shooting, since the commemorative service of his mother was just “in a fog”. three days Before production begins to film the Abby-Joel sequence. I really can’t imagine what Dever has experienced while working on this scene. It is devastating beyond the belief that she worked on such an intense moment just after having suffered a real loss.
The actress also shared that she was not preparing for filming as she would normally. “Because of my life circumstances, I couldn’t really do my normal routine as an actor, which was really interesting because I was a little worried about it,” said Dever. “Usually, if I have a monologue like that, I memorize it three weeks before doing it. I had a different approach, and I think it really served the character in many ways. I have been able to somehow … I don’t know, I don’t really let it go and don’t think about it too much because the words on the page are so powerful anyway.”
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I bring it all to say that the artistic talent of Dever is extraordinary, and knowing the circumstances in which she filmed her most loaded scene at that time that Abby makes the scene in a way even more punchy. Mazin spoke to this in the profile of Vulture to Dever, saying that the interpretation of Dever of Abby carries a real and real sadness … which is not present in the game. “She turns to (Joel), and the most true tear that I have never seen immediately,” said Mazin. “And you understand at that time how deeply she is, even if she is cruel. That there is something she kills in herself while it happens.”
The last of us is already renewed for a third season … and Abby de Kaitlyn Dever will then occupy the front of the stage
Anyone who has played “The Last of Us Part II” knows that the gameplay is divided between Ellie and Abby, and on the basis of the fact that the series has already been renewed for season 3, it seems that Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann will take their time to tell the stories of these two girls – who were injured by the violence of the world and the two conducts by La Furole and vengeance. With only two episodes of season 2 of “The Last of Us” to our credit, we do not know when we will have the same change of perspective that we see in the game (without getting Also Specific if you have ignored Spoiler’s warning for any reason, three special days in Seattle are important for Ellie and Abby in the end). All the signs, however, indicate that Kaitlyn Dever occupies the front of the stage at a given time. So, how will it manage the whole offgence presents itself?
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“I take all this as it comes,” said James Hibberd for EW. “Honestly, I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to plan it. I don’t know how people will react. I hope people will appreciate what I have done with the role, and that’s all I can really do. The best way I could.
She should be proud, and if there is justice in the world, it could win her first Emmy. “The Last of Us” broadcasts new episodes on Sunday on Max and HBO at 9 p.m. HNE.
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