If You’re Still Shook From The Last Of Us, Here’s The Cast Being Happy And Hugging

Last night’s episode of The Last of Us was pretty brutal, especially if you didn’t already know what was coming from playing the games. If you, like me, would like a palate cleanser for all this anguish and violence, perhaps I can interest you in lead actors Pedro Pascal, Kaitlyn Dever, and Bella Ramsey being chummy and cute while discussing the horrors of episode two?

Shortly after The Last of Us season two’s second episode aired on Max, Entertainment Weekly published a video interview with all three stars of HBO’s adaptation. The trio is on the magazine’s cover this month, talking about the series-changing events of season two. In last night’s episode, Abby tortures and kills Joel for killing her father in season one, which sends Ellie on her own revenge tour to Seattle that will unfold over the course of season two. There’s a lot of on-screen anger between these three characters, but you wouldn’t know it from how close the crew seems in this interview.

Pascal jokes that knowing Joel’s death was inevitable was a big part of why he took on the role in the first place. His previous big HBO role as Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones also reached a violent end, so it’s become a recurring theme for the actor. Dever was the one wielding the golf club that brought about Joel’s end, but she says that it was a “heartbreaking” scene to take part in after watching Pascal and Ramsey’s characters in season one. Pascal says that she shouldn’t feel bad because he killed her dad “like ‘that’” and snaps his fingers. It’s all love here in The Last of Us land.

Dever talks a little bit about whether she was worried about any controversy following this moment. Abby killing Joel was incredibly controversial in the game, and the worst people you know took their outrage so far as to threaten Abby actor Laura Bailey’s family over it. She says it was on her mind, but she wanted to do right by the character, even if it meant that she’d have to murder the shit out of Pascal.

“It is hard not to think about [the fan reaction],” Dever says. “I sort of went into this wanting to do my best, and I was thinking about the fans, but I think also there’s something about just really, seriously living in the moment. It’s obviously so heartbreaking. It’s so terrible. It’s gonna be so hard to take. [It’s] so sad, for me, because I love him so much.”

Pascal then hugs her and says the cast is “in love.” D’aw.

The Last of Us season two has five episodes left and airs on Sundays at 9 p.m. Eastern on Max. For more on the show, check out Kotaku’s review