With its shocking death, “Through the Valley” sets the plot of the second season in motion for Ellie and Abby.

Editor’s note: This story contains spoilers for “The Last of Us” Season 2, streaming now on Max.

I’ve played The Last of Us Part II, and even though I knew it was coming — of course it was coming — what happens in “Through the Valley,” the second episode in HBO’s “The Last of Us” Season 2, still carved right through me. 

I’ve been dreading this particular scene since HBO first announced it would be adapting the sequel game, because there would be no getting around it: If Part II became Season 2, then Joel had to die. That act of violent retribution sets up the entire premise of the sequel; it’s the impetus for every death, every ounce of grief, every tragedy that follows. Now Joel’s dead in the show, and it only means that more death is on the way. 

‘The Last of Us’ Season 2, Episode 1 recap: A revenge tour kicks off in style

The salt in the wound, if you’ll pardon the phrase? The sheer morbid anticipation of waiting for that final blow. The end result is still the same, but the path taken is distinctly remixed from the series’ source material — including a sequence created wholly for the show that makes me wish I had easy access to a flamethrower. 

At the end of the last episode, we knew Abby’s (Kaitlyn Dever) crew was within sight of Jackson, Wyo. — home to Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Joel (Pedro Pascal) — and that the cordyceps fungus that’s brought humanity to its knees was within city limits. Those developments form the two-prong focus of Episode 2, the latter of which was wholly created for the show.

Opening ominously, “Through the Valley” is a stark reminder of the all-consuming nature of revenge, as Abby shows a crueler side of herself to her friends. She wants Joel dead for killing her father in Season 1, and she has no intention of making it a painless death. But in Jackson, just down the mountain from the cabin where Abby and Co. are staying (and plotting), it’s all the mundanity of living in the apocalypse: petty drama, patrols, safety drills, explaining to children the best way to kill the infected.

It doesn’t stay so “normal” for long. Three storms — only one literal — descend on Jackson and its inhabitants over the course of the episode’s hour run time.

As a blinding snowstorm moves in, everything dissolves into chaos. The disturbance of the fungus earlier alerts an enormous horde of infected, causing them to attack the city. Of the main cast, only Tommy (Gabriel Luna) and Maria (Rutina Wesley) are around to help. (This action-heavy sequence, which shows off a terrifying scuffle between Tommy and a massive bloater, wasn’t in the game.) The scene is a bit of a distraction from the “highlight” of the episode, but it showcases the series’ focus on character development during a tense and thrilling sequence.

The rest of the main crew — Joel, Ellie, Dina (Isabela Merced) and Jesse (Young Mazino) — were sent out on patrol earlier in the day. But the same storm is affecting them, causing them to have problems reaching out via radio and having to bunker down to avoid dying amid freezing temperatures. (In another remix, it’s Ellie and Jesse who are paired up when they discover a building that’s been nonsensically converted into a weed farm, rather than Ellie and Dina; the latter has been pair with Joel.) 

Even Abby is blindsided by the weather, as she finds herself on the run from a separate group of infected. But in a cruel twist of fate, who should arrive to save her from being bitten? The man she’s been hunting for five years, of course. 

And at long last, what we’ve been anxiously waiting for all is here. Abby gets her revenge, delivering a truly disturbing dialogue — “You don’t get to rush this,” she sneers, as her friends look on in increasing worry — before she beats Joel bloody with a golf club. (Somehow, the scene is even more graphic than the one in the game.) 

And still it gets worse: Ellie has made her way to the same cabin where Joel and Abby are, and she’s forced to watch her father figure die right in front of her. Once Abby’s walked away, Ellie, sobbing and pleading, crawls to Joel, the camera pulling high and showing just the two of them, battered and bloodied on the cabin floor. It’s captivating, and so, so sad. 

Joel’s death, Abby’s rage, Ellie’s grief: They all leave scars. And we know they won’t be the last marks left on these souls (or on the viewers). The question is, how deep will the next one go? With Ellie’s anguished scream of “I’m going to kill you” still ringing in my ears, I’m not sure I want to know.