Who Is Eugene and How He Dies in The Last of Us, Explained
Eugene may seem like a minor character in The Last of Us, but the HBO series gives him a darker twist than fans of the game expected. Did Joel really kill him — and why?
The Last of Us’ second season has kicked it off with some major revelations, and a mysterious character’s backstory is yet to become one of those.
The ongoing instalment’s premiere episode made it clear that someone called Eugene was a pretty big deal in a relationship between Pedro Pascal’s Joel and Catherine O’Hara’s Gail, suggesting that he met his gruesome end from the former’s hands.
Eugene isn’t quite a new face though, as the original video game also brings him up a couple of times. Still, the show’s character doesn’t seem to follow the original storyline, which means things might turn out in a much more shocking way for him in the HBO adaptation.
Who Is Eugene in The Last of Us TV Series?
Eugene’s name is first brought up during Joel’s therapy session with Gail in the second season’s first episode, with the latter revealing Eugene was her husband of more than 40 years.
At the same time, she also hints at the fact that he has died just recently, saying that this was her first birthday spent without Eugene by her side. A much bigger revelation comes next when Gail confronts Joel for killing Eugene, though still admitting he had no other choice.
The series has yet to unravel more about Eugene’s life and what led to him meeting his death at Joel’s hands, but it’s so far safe to suggest Eugene could be infected and killing him was the only option Joel could ever come up with.
Later, in the second season’s episode 2, Jesse and Ellie have a brief conversation about Eugene after stumbling upon the latter’s weed spot, with Jesse speculating that Eugene was a war veteran and eventually quit the Fireflies because he didn’t want to kill people anymore.
What Happens to Eugene in The Last of Us Video Game, Explained
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The original game draws a pretty different portrait of Eugene, revealing that he was in fact a Firefly and served alongside Tommy Miller, even abandoning his wife Claire and their daughter to join the group.
Apart from the fact that Eugene has never been married to a woman named Gail in the game, he was also believed to live alone in Jackson until he died of a stroke at the age of 73, with many being astonished by the fact that he passed away of natural causes in the post-apocalyptic world.
Another major difference that the show makes is that Eugene’s passion for growing weed was never exposed in the game, though he was known for his unconditional love for books and frequent escapes to an abandoned library which he adjusted for himself.
