‘The Last of Us' kills off major character in shocking season 2 episode

Originally appeared on .

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Sunday's "The Last of Us" episode “Through the Valley.”

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This is the last of time on "The Last of Us."

Just two episodes into the HBO show's second season, his character, Joel Miller, met his demise in the most brutal and heartbreaking way.

On Sunday's episode, titled "Through the Valley," former Fireflies member Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) beat him to death with a golf club as revenge for the death of her father, who Joel killed when he stopped the militia group from operating on Ellie () in their quest to find a cure for the cordyceps fungus during the season one finale.

What's more tragic, Ellie — who Joel always saw as a surrogate daughter following the death of his own child at the beginning of the cordyceps outbreak — helplessly witnessed the entire murder while being held hostage by Abby's henchmen.

Needless to say, the internet had thoughts.

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"How quick things escalated from episode 1 to 2, I’m flabbergasted," one viewer wrote on X (formerly Twitter), while another shared, "Ummm what the heck!!!!!!"

A third viewer added, "Holy f--- this episode is insane."

However, Joel's gruesome death was not a complete shock to some fans. After all, it was exactly how it went down in "The Last of Us Part II," the 2020 video game season two is based on. (HBO recently .)

As series co-creator Craig Mazin explained to in early April, "What we try to do is preserve the aspects of canon that I would call load-bearing walls."

"We just try and make the best show, but we do it with, I think, an enormous respect for the aspects of the game that work so well," he said. "Otherwise, honestly, what the f--- are we doing it for?"

And the showrunner is very well aware that viewers will compare Joel's death to other buzzy pop culture moments, such as ."

"I think we're used to television shows hurting the people we love," he recently told . "'Game of Thrones' knocked everyone on their ass when Sean Bean died and then two seasons later knocked everybody out on their ass again when they did the Red Wedding."

Mazin added, "If it's done correctly, if it's purposeful, if the deaths impact the story around them and change things permanently in with the characters we care about, then we understand why it happened."