‘The Last Of Us’ Showrunner Shares The Season One Scene He’s Most Proud Of

Episode three of The Last of Us is arguably the most acclaimed episode of TV to air this year. “Long, Long Time,” a.k.a. the one with Bill and Frank (things would be easier if every show used the same episode titling as Friends) is up for multiple Emmys, including Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for Murray Bartlett and Nick Offerman, respectively.

It’s also the episode that made Steven Spielberg reach out to showrunner Craig Mazin. “He was so complimentary about the whole show, but that episode in particular,” he told the Hollywood Reporter. “It was so lovely, and I shared it with all the folks who worked on the show.”

But it’s another episode from season one that has the scene Mazin is most proud of.

“I have a certain place in my heart for a scene in the last episode that I ended up shooting because our director had gotten COVID. It’s the scene where Joel reveals to Ellie why he has that scar on his head. She says, ‘Time heals all wounds.’ And he says, ‘It wasn’t time that did it.’ I’m particularly proud of that scene because, first, it’s simple — it’s two people talking, which is my favorite.”

Mazin loves “the performance that Pedro [Pascal] and Bella [Ramsey] delivered in that moment.” To be fair, they’re great in every episode, but this scene was on “the third-to-last day of shooting, so it was the culmination of a calendar year of shooting and the culmination of the work that they had done with each other as professionals, but also as human beings.”

I would have gone with the scene with the fed-up older couple, but to each their own.