The Price
Years of Ellie's birthdays in Jackson, and Joel's lie.
"The Price" is the sixth episode of the second season of HBO's The Last of Us, directed by Neil Druckmann, who wrote it with Halley Gross and Craig Mazin. It aired on May 18, 2025.
Quick Facts
- Series
- The Last of Us
- Season
- 2
- Episode
- 6
- Director
- Neil Druckmann
- Writer
- Neil Druckmann, Halley Gross and Craig Mazin
- Air date
- 18 May 2025
Lore & Background
In 1983, young Joel and Tommy live in fear of their father, Javier, who admits he was beaten worse by his own father and hopes Joel will do better. In Jackson the story moves through Ellie's birthdays: a cake and a handmade guitar for her fifteenth, with Joel singing "Future Days"; a trip to an abandoned museum for her sixteenth, where she sits in the Apollo 15 module; and a growing distance as she grows suspicious of Joel's lie, especially after they meet an infected Eugene Lynden.
It was Druckmann's second episode as director, after co-directing and co-writing The Last of Us Part II. Several scenes come from the game but in a different order, told as a run of flashbacks. Critics called it the season's best; Joe Pantoliano was Emmy-nominated as Eugene. It had 701,000 viewers on linear television.
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