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The following story contains spoilers for The Last of Us season 2, episode 1 “Future Days.”

WE’RE ONLY ONE episode into The Last of Us season 2, and there are already a number of major changes from the video game the series is adapting from, 2020’s The Last of Us Part II. For one, Abby (Kaitlyn Dever, who is briefly introduced at the start of “Future Days”) is physically different from the way the same character is depicted; The creators decided to cast Dever, an Emmy nominee and a consistently fantastic actor, and allow her to fully dive into the character without worrying about any major body transformation.

For the purposes of this story, though, we’re focusing on some of the more specific, story and character-focused changes and additions from what the game depicted. Perhaps the biggest change to date is the fact that Joel (Pedro Pascal) is now in therapy sessions with Gail (Catherine O’Hara, doing some really great serious work in extreme contrast to her very funny work currently airing on The Studio). This wasn’t a part of the game at all, but it’s the kind of thing that makes sense; When we last saw this character, he was murdering tens of people for what, in his mind, was the just cause of saving the life of his new surrogate daughter. In a video game, it’s not totally the most exciting thing for the characters to sit around in therapy sessions, but in a TV show, it’s almost entirely necessary to see how our protagonists are wracking with such haunting guilt.

Gail is a character created entirely for the show. As a result, it allows the creators to add even more context and depth to the game; In “Future Days,” we hear Gail open up to Joel about how she hates him due to what he did to her husband, Eugene. “You shot and killed my husband,” Gail tells Joel during their session. “You killed Eugene. And I resent you for it. No, maybe a little more than that—I hate you for it.”

The show continues, referencing that Gail knows Joel had “no choice” when it comes to Eugene, but that the “how” of the situation is what makes it impossible for her to forgive him, despite their current set-up as doctor and patient. Gail is, one would assume, the only therapist in the post-apocalyptic Jackson, Wyoming, so it’s not like she or Joel have a ton of options.

Still—all that talk about a Eugene must make viewers everywhere (and even those who played The Last of Us Part II, because this doesn’t come from the game) curious what went down. And while we won’t find out until later in the season, we can gather some semblance of an idea.

Who is Eugene on The Last of Us (and in The Last of Us Part II video game)?

Much like Bill and Frank in The Last of Us season 1, Eugene is a character who is only briefly in The Last of Us Part II video game (he appears in a photo and is mentioned) but will have an increased character and importance in the HBO series version for season 2.

We know from the jump that Eugene is the late husband of Gail (Catherine O’Hara), and while we don’t know what, exactly went down—or how it played out—we do know from their interaction in season 2, episode 1, that Joel killed Eugene. Based on context (the “no choice” of it all) we can assume that Eugene, somehow, was infected and turned with the Cordyceps virus. But we don’t know much else.

We do know, though, that future episodes will flesh out Eugene’s story via flashback, and that the great Joe Pantoliano will play him.

Surely future episodes will flesh this out with more detail (and we know with certainty that this will happen, because the great Joe Pantoliano has been cast as Eugene). Interestingly, Pantoliano was cast as Eugene later in season 2, when production had already started—and Ellie has a poster for The Matrix (which Pantoliano appears in as Cypher) on her wall.

“We had to kind of shoot around it to not show Joey Pants in The Matrix poster when you’re seeing him there,” co-creator Neil Druckmann said during a pre-season interview at SXSW. “Those are the weird things you sometimes run into.”

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