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#happy 48th birthday pedro pascal
madsmax13 · 1 year
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happiest of birthdays to my babygirl 💛 love you so much pedrito! I am so proud of you and all of your accomplishments thus far. I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for you. lots of love to my pedro 💛💛
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pedros-admirer · 1 year
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Pedro At The Amusement Park For His Birthday! 💜🧁🎉🎂
(Sorry I didn’t post for the few day’s, was busy!)
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animejunki5 · 1 year
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The weather was absolutely gorgeous today😍 Now that my old friend's and Pedro Pascal birthday is almost over I need to rest up for my son's birthday later this week 🥰😘😍 I'm going to get hit with a lot of birthdays from now until August 🥳 This is what I like to call my broke period 😅 I need a lay down before I get started on those cheesecake pies I'll be making. All the best to my Aries and Taurus peeps this month #birthday
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honeyedmiller · 1 year
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Birthday | Pedro Pascal
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pairing: pedro pascal x gn!reader
warnings: none
word count: < 200
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You wait for the clock to strike 12 a.m. before sticking a candle into a Hostess cupcake, lighting the candle swiftly before trudging into the living room where Pedro sat on the couch.
He was fixated on a random TV show, likely unaware of the time that it was. That is, until you came into his peripheral vision. The candlelight glowed softly against your face as you moved toward him carefully, starting to sing 'happy birthday' to him.
You sat next to him on the couch, a grin playing at your lips as you handed him the cupcake once you were finished serenading him.
"Happy birthday love, make a wish." You prompt him to close his eyes and make his wish. He opens his eyes a few seconds after, blowing out the candle gently. He grins at you and leans in, kissing your cheek.
"Thank you so much." He brings you into him to give him a hug, which you gladly reciprocate.
"What'd you wish for?" Your curiosity overcomes you, as you lean back and scan his facial features.
He quirks an eyebrow up at you and chuckles, "I can't tell you that, c'mon now," He teases, a giggle bubbling in your throat, "Besides, I have everything I've ever wanted now, and here with me." He smiles graciously, bringing you into his side again.
"I hope forty-eight treats you so well." You say, and Pedro humbly smiles at your well wishes.
Forty-eight was going to be a good year.
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kaminastrife · 1 year
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Feliz cumpleaños al amor de mi vida
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im-punk · 1 year
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Happy birthday Perdo! 🎉🎂
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pedro-pascal · 1 year
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HAPPY 48th BIRTHDAY PEDRO PASCAL 🎂 April 2, 1975 - Santiago, Chile️️
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pascallatte · 1 year
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Precious Gem
Pairing: Pedro Pascal x Actress!reader
Summary: It’s Pedro’s day, so why not post something for your man
Date: April 2019
Warnings: none really.
Taglist: @benonlinear, @t-stark35, @heyitsme-2, @elleeeee21, @holmesstrange, @tagakalat, @flyestvenustrap, @oldermenaremyreligion, @cherryred444, @avengersheart, @guacala, @pukka-latte, @hobiismyhopeu, @lilvampirina
A/n: This is in honour of Pedro’s 48th birthday, which I wasn’t able to celebrate. So here is a very late sweet fic for our precious Pedro!!! also some snippets of their everyday shenanigans. Surprise surprise. I also didn't want to keep this for too long so here you are. Will still be posting on schedule, don't worry. Happy reading everyone!!!
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Dedicating a photo or video for your loved one’s birthday isn’t new for you. And now that you were free to post whatever since your secret went out a year ago, nothing’s holding you back from letting the world know how much you appreciate your man.
Like your other posts, this one started with a photo. Something quite close to your heart because of the memories you made, along this trip, just after three years since you started dating. This is just you and him on your third trip to the Amalfi Coast, the place that started your story.
The photo was a two-part collage. Your camera was set on a timer on a tripod near the bed, as Pedro stood waiting near the door of the room’s balcony. You were wearing a matching set; a white dress for you and a button-up for him. Adjusting the settings a little, you quickly pulled Pedro to you. 
“Come on, it’s on a timer now,” you said quickly holding onto him as you both smile for the camera, he placed his hand on your lower back when you leaned your head on his chest. However, you stood in this position for far too long than expected, which made you tilt your head, eyebrow-raising as the both of you lean into the camera. And just as quickly, the camera flashed on your faces capturing your reactions. Your faces near the camera, confusion and a hint of annoyance in your expression, as you failed to take a proper on for the nth time. You looked funny if that would make the mood brighten up.
Staring at each other for a good minute, Pedro shakes his head as he pats your cheeks kissing your forehead— before going back to his original position near the balcony’s door. “Let’s just try again, hopefully, we can get this right. We’ve been at this for half an hour,” he said leaning on the door and watching your every move.
“Yeah well, I know you love it.”
Shrugging his shoulders, “Ha no I don’t, I love you though,” he said nonchalantly making you look at him. Chuckling softly, face warming a bit, “Smooth one Pedro, smooth one,” you said flattening your dress as you walk towards his waiting arms. 
Hugging him, you look up at him before pecking the tip of his nose, whispering a small “love you too.” Your smile was reciprocated just in time for the camera’s timer to end. Capturing a very candid photo of the two of you just looking at each other with the fondest looks on your faces.
•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅────────•───────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•
Now the video. The video is a goofy yet wholesome one. It was late at night when you decided to declutter some things from your vanity. And there in the deepest ends of your top drawer was an untouched box of fake lashes. So with both just not having anything to do, you decided to do what you normally do on this type of night… bother him.
It started with an “oof” coming from you as the phone face-planted to the carpet of your room. Setting it up, Pedro was seen sitting on the bed, being as patient as he can while he was laughing his ass off. A noticeable thing though was the lash already sticking to his left eye. 
Once the phone was steady, you turned back to your chuckling self, sitting in front of him as you glued up the next lash. Pedro placed his hands on your thighs as he laughed about having huge-ass caterpillars on his face.
“For some reason, I am loving your caterpillar things, it would make a good moustache don’t you think?” His laughs shook the bed making you hold unto his shoulder to steady him.
“Amor, just hold still for a second,” you said, trying to hold in your laughter as you slowly stick the other lash on him. Tilting his head up a bit to fix it, his hands moved from your thighs to your waist fisting the jacket you're wearing, to keep himself steady. 
He looks at you the best he can, “Will I look sexy, when you finish putting that on?” His genuine question made you burst out in laughter and you thank the gods that you’d finished putting the lashes on since you practically fell on him, hand placed on the juncture of his neck and shoulder. 
Calming yourself down a bit, you turned to look at him taking his jaws in your hands to make him look at you. “You’re already sexy, the lashes just added some oomph to you,” you joked before laughing again, this time falling on your back. He just stared at your laid out form on the bed, before saying that he wanted to see how he looks.
He takes the phone you’ve set up and focuses it on his face. “Damn,” he laughs,” don’t I look good, ducky.”
“These caterpillars do know how to make themselves known,” fluttering his eyelashes as he made kissy faces for the video. Your laughing in the background only heightened at his skit. 
“What?” He teased you, “ what’s so funny? I thought I was sexy?” Walking back to the bed, throwing himself on top of your form, which was now out of breath, hand holding your stomach to ease the pain caused by your intense laughter.
“I haven’t seen you wearing this though?”
Looking at him, still letting out small laughs, “It’s because I don’t wear it, it was given as a gift and yeah.”
“Yeah well, it’s mine now. Thank you very much,” making his iconic eyebrows raise look as he moved the camera closer to his face.
You just stayed silent watching as he blabbered on things bout how it wasn’t that heavy and how he doesn’t get why people would wear caterpillars on their eyes. Explaining it to him was not easy for a person as curious as Pedro, so you just told him it was for when you wanted to look more fashionable but it depended on the event.
“I see, well now that I’m fashionable. It’s time to-” He rests his head on your stomach as the video blacks out, giggling still heard.
•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅────────•───────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•
The post and the short caption that came with it is something that really made people, mostly those not-so-fans of yours, see how genuine your relationship is to him and not a fad like how some would describe it. This is sort of a slap on the bum to those who had doubted you guys in the first place, Something that made the longtime fans' strengthen their support and made the not-so's have second thoughts.
“Hello Pedro, shocking to see that it’s already been a year since we last did this, time really does fly when you’re having fun. You have been a very important person in my life for the past years now and I hope to give back every piece of the best memories you’ve given me so far. And to not make this too complicated, I just want to wish you the Happiest Birthday again, and that you achieve everything you want and need in the years to come. Read my surprise for the rest.😉
Once again, Happiest Birthday mi Pedrito, my precious gem and amor. Mi cielo te amo!! xxx”
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callmebrycelee · 1 year
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HAPPY 48TH BIRTHDAY, PEDRO PASCAL!!!
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shikin83 · 1 year
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Happy 48th Birthday José Pedro Balmaceda💕 Pascal
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mastercontrol123 · 1 year
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Happy 48th Birthday Pedro Pascal! ❤️
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animejunki5 · 1 year
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So, I did another #playlist for Pedro's birthday. I've wanted him to play a film noir detective for a while. When I heard him mention it in a interview, I knew I had to make this. Hope you enjoy it 🥰😁🥳
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6HxoR1vetIeGLhDmcxiuLa?si=ZKCRuMs0TlS8L-CV7uO_jQ
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Happy 48th birthday to Pedro Pascal ♥
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Gif not mine!
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agiroflee98 · 1 year
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Happy 48th Birthday Pedro Pascal!!!!! ☀️💜🎂
2 April 1975 ✨☀️
To Our Sunshine Pedro - Wishing you the happiest of birthdays & I'm so incredibly proud to see all of the success & recognition that you've gained in the last year. Your kindness, humility, & your passion for what you do & for what/who you love will always be an inspiration to me. I'm so happy that someone like you exists & I'll always be thankful for all of the light & laughter that you bring into our lives. Raising a glass to you PP - Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!! 💜☀️💜
(Made with Picsart Editor - All images are from Google).
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vadinaleme · 1 year
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Pedro Pascal birthday!! ❣️
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happy 48th birthday, father. ❤️
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dsneybuf91 · 1 year
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Top Five The Last of Us S1 Episodes
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Today marks Pedro Pascal's 48th birthday, and three weeks since HBO finished airing The Last of Us Season One. Now that I've let it sink in, I would like to gather together my reviews for my five favorites, arranged by the subjects' airdates. Unlike my review of the first episode, I didn't post any of these on Tumblr before.
Yes, this list does include some episodes that shift focus away from Joel. They might make this page less relevant to Pedro Pascal's birthday, but I do admire how strongly their stories directly and thematically connect to Joel's.
Honorable Mentions
If an episode you like didn't make the main list, you can find my review by clicking its title below:
When You're Lost in the Darkness (1)
Infected (2)
Please Hold to My Hand (4)
Endure and Survive (5)
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Long Long Time
Airdate: January 29, 2023 (#3) Director: Peter Hoar Writer: Craig Mazin
I used to hate the world, and I was happy when everyone died. But I was wrong, because there was one person worth saving…
-Written by Bill, spoken by Ellie Williams
Joel and Ellie hike to the home of Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett), with whom he and Tess often exchanged supplies.  Before they arrive, the viewer witnesses romantic flashbacks to Bill’s and Frank’s efforts to survive together in Lincoln, Massachusetts, outside of any government-controlled and crowded quarantine zones.  Their formation of a personal sanctuary enriches their lives, and eventually allows Joel some necessary support to continue protecting Ellie.
This practically-new elaboration of Bill and Frank’s past expands the world of The Last of Us in multiple ways. As in the game, Bill proves that some people could survive the apocalypse without help from the corrupt Federal Disaster Response Agency (FEDRA). By tracing his 20-year romance with Frank, the show also demonstrates how close such people could come to achieving a full life. The episode realistically depicts not only the catharsis of their relationship, but also their efforts to overcome disagreements and potential discouragement. Offerman and real-life homosexual Bartlett contribute very impressive performances, especially when the former supplements his usual “tough to the point of comic exaggeration” persona with depictions of Bill learning to both acknowledge and overcome his loneliness.  Similarly, artistic and extroverted Frank proves his toughness when saving Bill from bandits’ gunfire, or when stubbornly defying Bill’s objections against welcoming friends from outside of Lincoln.
Even though Joel and Ellie don’t interact with Bill and Frank in the present-day scenes, their stories boast strong connections.  Joel personally appears in a flashback from 2010, showing how he and Tess joined the couple’s network.  This look at the friendship between Tess and Frank depicts both romantic and platonic love as essential to survival; a point emphasized when Bill’s refusal to open up to Joel and Tess reminds the viewer that the beneficial connection wouldn’t have formed without Frank. The episode also draws some transparent parallels between Bill and Joel: Both gruff introverts just wanting to persist through demoralizing conditions, until fate delivers an innocent to take in and protect. However, since Joel and Ellie still won’t completely open up to each other as of yet, I think these parallels would only resonate with genre savvy viewers and former players.
The TV show drastically deviates from the video game, when neither Bill nor Frank live long enough to meet Ellie. In the game, she and Joel find Bill living alone; his emotional distance from Frank having apparently convinced the latter – whose infected remains turn up hanging elsewhere in the town – to move out without ever meeting Joel. In the show, Bill and Frank serenely die together, for reasons seemingly unrelated to cordyceps. This de-emphasizes the game’s exploration of the miserable consequences of rejecting love, in order to maintain a strong focus on the benefits of embracing love.  The latter perspective does feel more necessary for Joel and Ellie at this point, due to Tess’ sacrifice requiring them to settle disagreements themselves.
For better or worse, I can’t imagine the point coming across as effectively if Bill had survived into the present.  Joel and Ellie would likely find him in a state of intense grief over Frank, which could raise the question of, “Why pursue love if mortality will eventually leave half of the group depressed?”  The deaths of both Sarah and Tess already put the question onto Joel’s mind, but Bill’s posthumous mementos of a time his household remained open to romantic and platonic love help bring Joel and Ellie closer to finding answers.  Additionally, having Joel and Bill discuss their grief in person would seem out of character for them – if not for The Last of Us as a whole – and undermine Ellie’s importance to Joel’s character development.  Overall, “Long Long Time” provides a beautiful, and not completely unimportant, diversion from Joel’s travels.
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Kin
Airdate: February 19, 2023 (#6) Director: Jasmila Žbanić Writer: Craig Mazin
I just know that when I wake up… I’ve lost somethin’.  I’m failin’ in my sleep.  That’s all I do.  It’s all I’ve ever done is fail her again and again.
-Joel Miller
Joel and Ellie finally find Tommy, after his pregnant wife Maria (Rutina Wesley) leads the duo to their securely bustling commune in Jackson, Wyoming.  Joel confides in Tommy the panic-inducing stress of protecting Ellie, while still haunted by his failure to protect Sarah.  The brothers discuss having Tommy deliver Ellie to a Firefly base at the University of Eastern Colorado, only for her to insist that Joel deliver her instead.
By this point, the show invalidates or weakens most of the initial motivations for Joel and Ellie to journey together. On Ellie’s side, her inability to cure Sam results in her sharing skeptical viewers’ doubts in the effectiveness of a cordyceps vaccine. On Joel’s side, he and Ellie learn that Jackson’s “communists” cutting off radio communication didn’t actually mean that Tommy needed saving.  When they see that the townspeople’s cooperation flourished Jackson into the safest and liveliest place they would visit after Outbreak, the show again demonstrates both the destruction of totalitarianism, and the importance of companionship.  By weakening what once seemed like the main reasons for this journey this far ahead of the first season finale, Craig Mazin allows the viewers, and possibly also the travelers, ample time to dwell upon the actual importance of the trek.
Joel and Ellie visit Wyoming near Christmas, despite this episode airing several months before the holiday.  Given the association of Christmas with family gatherings – reinforced when Joel and Tommy catch up with each other – the time period seems to result in some heartbreaking looks at potential alternate lives for Joel. Early on, he and Ellie receive directions from a happily married couple (Graham Greene and Elaine Miles) much older than Joel and Tess were before the latter’s self-sacrifice.  In Jackson, Joel finds an unnamed woman and her daughter to bear some resemblance to how he would imagine an older Sarah and his un-conceived granddaughter.  Fortunately, Joel ultimately makes steps towards developing a larger family when Ellie refuses to leave him behind in Jackson.
Even if potentially sounds selfish of Joel to consider separating from Ellie, Pedro Pascal and the creatives continue to portray him sympathetically.  Joel’s first panic attack suggests the journey taking a toll on his physical health.  However, as he suffers these attacks more frequently, they visually and audibly conceptualize the conceit of his heart breaking at the thought of failing to protect Tommy or Ellie.  When Joel recounts his and Ellie’s struggles to Tommy, he brings up his feelings on the matters before the need to protect Ellie, but Pascal’s progressive and realistic whimpering when describing Joel’s shortcomings make it clear that Joel values her safety over his.  Across Joel’s debates with both Tommy and Ellie over Joel’s worth as her guardian, Jasmila Žbanić’s direction and the potent performances from Pascal, Bella Ramsey, and Gabriel Luna add necessary intensity to a story that possibly lacked tension on paper – no enemies invade Jackson, and the majority of viewers likely don’t expect Ellie to finish her journey without Joel.
Even after Joel and Ellie leave Jackson, the episode takes about another eight minutes before delivering any action.  Their ride to Colorado allows for some satisfying looks at the pair opening up further to each other, and to Joel lightening up with assurance of both Tommy’s safety, and of Ellie’s sense of security in Joel.  On the downside, their tour of the University ends up feeling rushed, even counting their exploration before the fight.  It at least achieves the necessary minimum of giving Joel and Ellie an idea for their next destination, and of increasing the stakes before the next stop.  “Kin” captivatingly explores both the pain and catharsis that Joel experiences during his second chance at fatherhood.
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Left Behind
Airdate: February 26, 2023 (#7) Director: Liza Johnson Writer: Neil Druckmann
It ends this way for everyone sooner or later, right? Some of us just get there faster than others. But we don’t quit. Whether it’s two minutes or two days, we don’t give that up.
-Riley Abel
As Ellie determines what to do while Joel suffers from the stabbing he received at the University of Eastern Colorado, she flashes back to events that resulted in a previously-alluded instance of someone she cared about dying. After her very good friend Riley Abel (Storm Reid) joined the Fireflies, she and Ellie shared a date at an abandoned mall. They both realized they loved each other as more than friends, but an attack at the mall ultimately prevented them from sharing a future together.
As a DLC pack, Left Behind delivered welcome elaboration of Ellie’s past in a cute and bittersweet manner. All of that also applies to the faithful TV version. Non-binary Bella Ramsey expectedly finds a balance between an innocent, pre-bite Ellie, and the spunky, defiant Ellie of the present day. Across interactions both lighthearted and angst-ridden, Ellie and Riley depict a believable transition from old friends to star-crossed lovers, strengthening the tragedy when fate forces Riley to leave Ellie behind. Riley demonstrates the importance of finding levity and companionship in dismal situations through not just her motivational speeches, but also by facilitating Ellie’s recreational interests. Riley’s ability to guide Ellie towards discovering joy in the mall’s seemingly-gloomy environment seems to eventually help inspire Ellie to turn her immunity against Infected bites into a sign of hope after the apocalypse; for a cure to the disease, and for Joel’s emotional recovery.
This episode’s largest deviations from the DLC occur in the framing device. The game intercuts Ellie’s and Riley’s date with present-day sequences of Ellie searching another abandoned mall for medicine for Joel, occasionally having to fend off more enemies. Relatively speaking, the TV adaptation’s bookends seem less contrived, with Ellie searching an abandoned house for supplies. The smaller environment allows the philosophical parallels to the flashbacks to overshadow the physical parallels, while the less-frequent cuts to the present remove the question of how Joel survived Ellie running multiple memories through her head. “Left Behind” hits all of the necessary heartwarming and heartbreaking notes of its source material.
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When We Are in Need
Airdate: March 5, 2023 (#8) Director: Ali Abbasi Writer: Craig Mazin
Tell them that Ellie is the little girl who broke your fucking finger!
-Ellie Williams
Ellie obtains penicillin for Joel by trading some venison with David (Scott Shepherd), a preacher and leader for residents of the Silver Lake resort. Unfortunately, David and his followers seek vengeance against Joel for killing one of their members at the University.  When they invade the travelers’ shelter, David’s desires to advance sinister purposes through Ellie result in her kidnapping.
Ellie and Joel achieve plausible success at surviving Colorado.  After Joel regains enough consciousness to stab one of David’s followers, the impressiveness of his awakening becomes appropriately undercut by symptoms of lingering exhaustion from his own injuries.  During his tortuous interrogation of others for Ellie’s location, his determination to protect unleashes his brutal strength and intimidation.  Following several instances of Ellie defensively refusing to tell the people of Silver Lake her name, she ends up choosing a poignant time at which to fiercely reveal it to David.  Despite his attempts to compare her “violent heart” to his own, she declares her own identity after injuring him, out of disagreement with his belief in the benefits of cults.
David’s speech about finding a spiritual awakening from Cordyceps draws a corruptive parallel between religion and fungi.  Religion appears to have infected the minds at Silver Lake when they believe their local preacher knows everything they need to survive, even if he can’t meet their pristine expectations.  The cannibalism at the resort reveals a community built on elitist practices, dehumanizing the unfortunate in order to benefit others.  Everyone who benefits from this system practices it out of either ignorance towards its cruelty, or a desperation to survive.  Ellie’s resistance towards sustaining Silver Lake ends up literally destroying the establishment with the cannibals’ own tools, when she burns down the steakhouse with fire from their stove, then slaughters sexually abusive David with a meat cleaver.
Joel indirectly admits, finally, that he and Ellie have developed a familial bond.  When he retrieves her from Silver Lake, he affectionately calls her, “baby girl;” a nickname he previously used for Sarah.  Considering Ellie could’ve taken his advice to return to Tommy in the previous episode, her efforts to instead do whatever she can to heal his stab wounds solidify her worth beyond “cargo.”  
Tragically, “baby girl” also hints at Joel feeling ashamed, again, at failing to save his daughter.  We previously saw him call Sarah by that name during her dying moments, while here he couldn’t prevent Ellie from experiencing abduction or attempted rape.  When Joel and Ellie reunite, Ellie doesn’t explicitly express regret for never leaving him behind in Jackson or Colorado.  This illustrates that even if they can’t always keep each other out of danger, their love comes through in their continuous refusal to abandon each other.  “When We Are in Need” subjects the show’s main duo and viewers to moments both disturbing and triumphant.
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Look for the Light
Airdate: March 12, 2023 (#9) Director: Ali Abbasi Writers: Craig Mazin & Neil Druckmann
Look, sometimes things don’t work out the way we hope.  You can feel like… like you’ve come to an end, and you don’t know what to do next.  But if you just keep goin’, you find something new to fight for.
-Joel Miller
A flashback to 2009 reveals that Ellie’s mother, Anna (Ashley Johnson, who plays Ellie in the Last of Us games), gave birth to her shortly after receiving an Infected bite. As spring 2024 arrives, Joel and Ellie approach a Firefly-owned hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. Ellie remains traumatized by her experiences in Silver Lake, but she and Joel cheer up during a serene interaction with some of Salt Lake’s gentle wildlife. After the Fireflies capture and sedate Ellie, their leader, Marlene (part-Japanese Merle Dandridge, reprising her role from the first game and “When You’re Lost in the Darkness“), informs Joel that in order to concoct a vaccine against cordyceps infections, they must extract some fungus from inside Ellie’s brain. Unable to comprehend a future without Ellie, Joel races to free her from the deadly operation.
With both “When We Are in Need” and this episode, Ali Abbasi directed Joel’s most definite expressions of paternal love for Ellie.  His earliest attempts to cheer her up depict a role reversal between them; as Joel chats up jokes and things that could interest them both, while Ellie adopts a quiet and gloomy demeanor.  The stilted delivery of some of the dialogue emphasizes the awkwardness of this reversal, but Bella Ramsey convincingly conveys the gradual return of Ellie’s spunk.  Joel further weakens the emotional barrier he set up against Ellie at the beginning of the journey, when he confides in her the truth behind the gunshot that scarred his head.  In terms of both writing and delivery, his confession that the love between him and Ellie healed wounds that time could not provides one of the most emotionally-beautiful lines of dialogue I’ve found in any of Pedro Pascal’s screen performances. (Although, since it doesn’t make sense out of context, I couldn’t paste into this article.)
The writers, Abbasi, and Pascal also depict darker effects of Joel emotionally bonding to Ellie, by presenting merciless displays of hatred towards anyone who could directly or indirectly kill her.  When Joel swiftly and quietly slaughters all the Fireflies blocking him from the pediatric ward, the montage feels more shocking than it does tense or triumphant.  Even when he has Ellie back in his arms, he looks more stunned than proud at preventing essentially his second daughter’s demise.  Before Marlene confronts him, the viewer has ample time to let sink in how much blood Joel has on his hands due to reclaiming Ellie – not just from killing obedient or well-intentioned Fireflies, but also from prolonging the cordyceps pandemic.  As the video game’s only cast member to portray their character in live-action as well, Merle Dandridge fascinatingly exudes Marlene’s philosophy that even if it sounds difficult to sacrifice someone for the potential good of the world, she must do it.  This philosophy does reflect Joel’s, except his world at this point revolves around Ellie.
Whether or not they sound relevant, I have some practical reasons to consider ensuring Ellie’s future more important than letting the Fireflies produce their vaccine. The tribulations of Joel and Ellie leave me doubting the need or effectiveness of a cordyceps immunization manufactured by Fireflies. After the duo began their travels, we only saw Infected attack them twice outside of flashbacks, with the last encounter apparently occurring before Christmas. Ellie’s failure to cure Sam’s infections suggests that a vaccine extracted from her DNA would either work only on those not bitten, or not work at all. The Fireflies don’t seem widespread enough to vaccinate those not yet bitten, considering how Joel and Ellie didn’t find any in between Boston and Salt Lake. I also doubt that if the Fireflies asked for Ellie’s permission to sacrifice her, she would have granted it, judging by how strongly she resisted providing sustenance to Silver Lake’s cannibals.
Whether or not Joel has any of that on his mind in the hospital, I don’t blame him for not telling Marlene any of it. The Fireflies don’t give him a chance, before they knock him and Ellie out. Since Joel failed almost 21 years earlier to talk that one soldier out of shooting Sarah, he also likely figures that in this situation, he couldn’t waste too much time before helping Ellie escape.  Regarding Silver Lake, it doesn’t help that Joel didn’t actually witness any attempts to chop up Ellie.  However, I trust him to have deduced from the freezer of human corpses what the kidnappers did to scare her so badly.
I’ve struggled at forgiving Joel for lying to Ellie about why he liberates her from the hospital. In his defense, the show depicts the occasional lie as necessary for protection. The beginning of this episode suggests that Marlene would have executed Ellie as an infant, if not for Anna denying any chance that her infection transferred cordyceps into the baby. In the present, Joel’s fabrication comes off as an attempt to protect both himself and Ellie from something less tangible, and more inevitable. When he claims that someone unambiguously evil interrupted the experiment, she presumably remains oblivious to a disillusioning nuance: That love can destroy if expressed recklessly. Meanwhile, he doesn’t find out if she would have agreed to literally losing her mind for the sake of fortunate strangers.
Regardless of what exactly happens in The Last of Us Part II – I haven’t played it myself yet, but I do know some of the plot – I don’t expect Ellie to forever remain ignorant of how she and Joel truly escaped the operation.  Various instances of her quickly uncovering someone’s secret demonstrate that if one wants to withhold information from her, they must very thoroughly hide the evidence. Ramsey confirms through both their skeptical performance, and in the “Inside the Episode” segment, that Ellie doubts the accuracy of Joel’s account.  He has also demonstrated a tendency to eventually retract lies that he tells his family; exhibited during the aforementioned conversation regarding his scar.  I’ll leave it to her and her writers to decide whether or not to forgive Joel’s attempted deception.  “Look for the Light” ends The Last of Us Season One with a dramatic capper on the themes of both the healing and corruptive powers of love, as well as intriguing setup for Season Two.
This list is dedicated to Pedro Pascal's mother, Veronica Pascal Uerta (1950-something-2000), for facilitating his loves for storytelling and art from an early age.
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