Joel's "Future Days" Scene In The Last Of Us Season 2 Solves An Ellie Mystery In Seattle
Posted October 10, 2025
The Last of Us season 2, episode 5 set up a major mystery surrounding Ellie in Seattle, and Joel's "Future Days" scene in episode 6 finally resolved it. The Last of Us
season 2, episode 6 is an interesting one, with it taking a break from the season's main story in favor of focusing on several flashbacks from throughout Joel and Ellie's life. The episode helped to flesh out what the characters got up to between
The Last of Us seasons 1 and 2, with it also explaining some lingering questions from season 2 episodes.
The Last of Us season 2, episode 2 killed off Joel, sending Ellie off on her quest for revenge without one of season 1's main protagonists. However, the trailers for
The Last of Us season 2 clearly showed new footage of Joel, meaning that many fans expected flashback sequences to come. The Last of Us Part II is full of flashbacks of Joel and Ellie
, and while scenes like Joel and Ellie's museum trip are ripped straight from the game, episode 6 of The Last of Us season 2 also features some original scenes.
"Future Days" Was The First Song Joel Performed For Ellie In The Last Of Us
After He Gifted Her The Guitar
While there are a few exceptions, most of the flashbacks in
The Last of Us season 2, episode 6 take place on Ellie's various birthdays between seasons 1 and 2. One of these scenes sees Joel gift Ellie a guitar, kicking off the love for music that she has shown in
The Last of Us season 2. After she receives the guitar, she asks Joel to perform a song for her. Joel decides to play and sing the Pearl Jam song "Future Days," with Ellie listening as he performs the emotional song.
Interestingly, this ties into a scene from The Last of Us season 2, episode 5. After arriving at the abandoned theater, Ellie goes into the auditorium with a guitar. While there, she begins to play to herself. She performs the opening of "Future Days" before stopping for an unknown reason. Having Joel play "Future Days" in episode 6 retroactively sets up Ellie's performance of "Future Days" in episode 5, finally explaining this mysterious moment from the previous episode.
The use of Pearl Jam's "Future Days" comes from The Last of Us Part II, although it does require an interesting retcon. HBO's The Last of Us uses a different timeline than the video game, with the outbreak occurring in 2003 in the HBO series and in 2013 in the source material. Pearl Jam's "Future Days" was released in 2013, so while it makes sense for Joel and Ellie to know the song in the game's timeline, it shouldn't exist in the HBO series.
The Last Of Us Season 2's Guitar Flashback Explains Why Ellie Couldn't Play "Future Days" In Seattle
It Was Too Painful For Her
Now that we have been provided context for why "Future Days" is significant, Ellie's performance of the song in episode 5 makes a lot more sense. Joel performing the song when Ellie got her guitar is probably a key memory for her. It would be hard for her to not think of Joel when hearing the song or even when playing guitar. Thus, it was probably too painful for her to sing "Future Days," explaining why she quit so quickly.
Joel's performance of "Future Days" also adds an interesting subtext to Ellie's revenge story. Ellie's choice to perform the song highlights how Joel's death has taken over every aspect of her life. She can't even do things she enjoys, like play guitar, without thinking about him. This motivates Ellie's quest for revenge even further, highlighting how obsessed she is with finding Abby. This theme will probably be explored further in future episodes of
The Last of Us, making this one of the show's most significant flashbacks.
Task Actor Joins The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 3 as Series Regular
The Walking Dead: Dead City
isn't done filling out its Season 3 cast. A recognizable actor who was just seen in the HBO limited series Task has joined the ensemble in a series regular role.
According to Deadline, Raúl Castillo will appear in The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 3 in the series regular role of Luis. Unfortunately, that's all that fans know about the new character, as AMC shared no further details about Luis or how his path will cross that of Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and/or Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Castillo's casting comes almost three weeks after Jimmy Simpson boarded
The Walking Dead sequel spinoff as Dillard. Lucifer alum Aimee Garcia has also joined the main cast as Renata, a charming woman and natural leader whose charisma and overwhelming optimism make it easy for her to win people over.
Created by Eli Jorné, Dead City follows fan-favorite characters Maggie and Negan as they travel into a post-apocalyptic Manhattan, which has been cut off from the mainland for a long time. In the recently concluded Season 2, Maggie and Negan find themselves trapped on opposite sides in the growing war for control of Manhattan. As their paths intertwine, they come to see that the way out for both is more complicated and harrowing than they ever imagined.
Filming on the third season began in September 2025 in Boston, Massachusetts, with Seth Hoffman at the helm as showrunner. Dead City is one of two Walking Dead series currently in production for AMC, with the other being
Daryl Dixon. The latter, currently airing its third season, is filming its fourth and final season, which will consist of eight episodes and conclude the story of Norman Reedus' titular fan-favorite
The Walking Dead character. While unconfirmed at this time, with both shows already in production on their next seasons, Dead City and Daryl Dixon will likely return on AMC in 2026.
Where Have You Seen Raúl Castillo Before?
Castillo currently stars in Brad Ingelsby's new HBO limited series, Task, as Cliff Broward, who joins his friend/co-worker Robbie Prendergrast (Tom Pelphrey) in robbing "trap houses" operated by drug gangs in the Philadelphia area. They are pursued by Mark Ruffalo's FBI agent, Tom Brandis. However, Castillo is perhaps best known for his role as Richie Donado Ventura in the HBO series
Looking and its series finale television film, Looking: The Movie. His other notable credits on the small screen include Atypical on Netflix, Vida on Starz, and American Horror Stories
on FX.
On the film side, Castillo recently appeared in Smile 2 and The Inspection and will next be seen in 20th Century Studios' The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
remake, which arrives on Hulu and Disney+ on Oct. 22. Moviegoers may also recognize him from his performances in Cha Cha Real Smooth, Cassandro, Army of the Dead
