The Price, a flashback-heavy episode of The Last of Us, ranks alongside Season 1’s standout, Long, Long Time, as one of the series’ finest. Exploring Joel and Ellie’s evolving bond during their time in Jackson delivers an emotional and narratively rich experience that elevates the show’s already high bar.
The Price Overview
Following Ellie’s brutal torture of Nora in the previous episode, The Last of Us shifts gears, stepping away from the tension in Seattle for something more introspective. The Price takes viewers back to Jackson through a series of flashbacks that explore the evolving bond between Joel and Ellie, while also peeling back layers of Joel’s troubled upbringing.
Writers Neil Druckmann, Halley Gross, and Craig Mazin craft a poignant, emotionally layered narrative. Despite this being only his second time directing television, Druckmann handles the material with remarkable confidence and restraint.
Rather than centering on a single memory, The Price comprises five flashbacks—each tied to Ellie’s birthday during her years in Jackson. The first three follow annual time jumps, offering glimpses of warmth, tension and growth. A fourth flashback leaps ahead two years, showing the beginning of a painful rift. Just nine months later, the final jump delivers a raw, decisive moment that revisits the porch scene from the season premiere. It’s brief but hits like a gut punch, capturing the fallout of Joel’s long-held lie, his selfish love for Ellie and the depth of Ellie’s pain.
Pedro Pascal gives a career-best performance here, his expressions conveying volumes. Bella Ramsey is equally compelling, delivering a layered, emotionally charged turn that matches Pascal beat for beat. Their chemistry grounds the episode’s emotional highs and lows.
If The Price has a flaw, it raises the bar so high that it may be difficult for the current-day storyline to meet it. Still, as a standalone chapter, it’s a masterclass in character-driven storytelling—and one of the series’ most unforgettable hours.
A Little Better
The Price opens with a pre-credits flashback that sheds light on Joel and Tommy’s turbulent childhood.
A teenage Joel and a younger Tommy wait at home for their father, Javier Miller (played with quiet intensity by Tony Dalton), a no-nonsense cop. When Javier arrives, Joel sends Tommy to his room and prepares to take the fall for his brother’s botched attempt to buy weed—an early glimpse into Joel’s instinct to protect those he loves, even if it means lying.
But Javier sees through the lie almost instantly. Joel isn’t a convincing liar, but his loyalty is unmistakable. Joel steps in when their father threatens punishment, not with defiance, but with resolve. He calmly tells Javier he won’t let him touch Tommy.
Instead of escalating, Javier surprises Joel. He cracks open a couple of beers and begins a surprisingly vulnerable conversation about the cycles of parenting. He shares how his father beat him, how he tried—but failed—to break that cycle altogether, and how he hopes Joel might do better when it’s his turn.
It’s a short scene, but a powerful one. Dalton brings nuance and restraint to the role, painting a portrait of a flawed man aware of the damage he’s done, yet still hoping for something better. It’s a quietly devastating moment that lays the groundwork for Joel’s moral compass—and his deepest contradictions.
Happy Birthday, Kiddo
The flashback sequences start with so much love and warmth that it’s almost impossible not to be touched in some manner. The third sequence slightly changes the dynamic and represents the typical teenage years.
After the credits, The Price begins five years in the past. Ellie’s 15th birthday starts with a fright. Ellie intentionally burns her arm because she wants to cover up her bite mark and wear sleeveless shirts again. Tommy brings her to Joel. Ellie receives a guitar, a cake and a performance of Pearl Jam‘s “Future Days” as birthday gifts. The look of love that Ramsey slowly allows to creep across her face as she understands the song’s meaning and delivery of the line “that didn’t suck” is perfection.
The episode continues with Ellie’s 16th birthday. Joel takes Ellie on a field trip. They find a T Rex statue in the forest, but that’s only step one on this trip to the past. They continue to a museum, where Joel has set up a rocket ship for Ellie to experience flying a shuttle. He even procures a tape of the Apollo 15 mission recording. The warmth in these scenes is incredible. In many ways, it measures up to the beauty of Frank’s wish for Bill to love him the way he wants in Long, Long, Time.
Ellie’s 17th birthday isn’t quite as warm. Joel, cake in hand, hears commotion inside Ellie’s room. He barges in and finds Ellie getting intimate with Kat and a tattoo on her arm. Joel doesn’t react well. He calls the intimacy an experiment, which Ellie takes exception to. She makes it clear Joel doesn’t own her or anything, really.
Ellie begins moving her mattress so she can stay in the garage. Joel stops her. He clumsily tries to connect with Ellie over her moth drawings before promising to fix the garage up so she can have her own space.
The Price of Love and Lies
The next set of flashbacks changes up the yearly time jump format.
For Ellie’s 19th birthday, Joel gives her the gift of joining the patrol team. Her first patrol will be with him. These scenes start like old-school Joel and Ellie. Joel is trying to get Ellie to listen to his rule and Ellie is playfully paying these lessons no mind.
They hear on Joel’s radio about a couple of patrol members encountering the infected. Joel wants Ellie to head back, but Ellie insists she’s Joel’s partner, and they move forward.
The Price finally introduces Gail’s husband Eugene, played by Joe Pantoliano. Eugene was bitten but hasn’t turned yet. Eugene has one request: He wants to say goodbye to his wife. Ellie pleads with Joel to let Eugene say goodbye, and Joel promises Ellie he will take him to Jackson. Joel lies. He takes Eugene to a beautiful play and tells Eugene to picture Gail before killing him. Ellie catches Joel in a lie and then tells Gail about his actions at the camp.
The next time jump is nine months later on their porch. In the season premiere, Ellie gets angry at Joel for shoving Seth, and when she sees him on the porch, guitar in hand, she walks away from Joel. Turns out that’s not what happened. Ellie returns and confronts Joel about what happened in Salt Lake City.
Joel comes clean without actually saying the word. Ellie proceeds to ask details about the lie Joel constructed. Joel tearfully relays the truth. Ellie believes Joel took away her purpose and thinks his actions were selfish. Joel doesn’t regret his actions and admits out loud that he loves Ellie. He also passes along his father’s message, “I hope you do a little better than I did.” Ellie’s not sure if she can forgive him, but promises Joel she’ll try.
The porch scene is my favorite of the series. Pascal and Ramsey deliver their series’ best performances.
The Price Final Thoughts
The Price cements itself as one of the most emotionally rich episodes of The Last of Us, not just because of what it reveals but also how it reveals it.
Through layered flashbacks, it explores love, guilt, and the irreversible nature of choice, especially the kind Joel makes in Salt Lake City. The emotional payoff in the porch scene is devastating yet cathartic, offering no easy answers but leaving the door open for healing. It’s a slow, patient unraveling of trust and forgiveness.
The Price
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Masterpiece - 10/1010/10
