This week's episode of HBO's The Last of Us killed off one of the main characters

Joel, one of the two protagonists of HBO ’s adaptation of the hit video game The Last of Us , is dead.

He was murdered by a band of ex-Fireflies in the second episode of Season 2 , which aired this Sunday .

In the video game, the violence is cruel and unusual, but in the TV show, all of the exposition is provided up front.

The Last of Us is a sequel to the popular video game series The Game of Unknown Unknowns .

The game was built on a steadfast belief that with enough care and attention, a PlayStation can be capable of matching the hallowed echelons of the Hollywood canon.

Naughty Dog wanted to make the game industry’s first big-screen tragedy—on the mythic scale of John Ford —and actually pulled it off.

Even good-faith critics took issue with the overwhelming darkness of the twist, especially given how it’s set up as a pretense for—without a doubt—the most ruthless revenge saga ever rendered on a graphics card.

Her retribution will be wide, uncompromising, and absolutely suffused with gore , but it all belies the thinness of the fiction.

Perhaps the TV show will manage to refine what was achieved in the video game.