SPOILER WARNING for The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 2.
HBO has dropped a detailed behind-the-scenes video exploring the making of The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 2 — and you can watch it above. The featurette offers a fascinating look at the enormous effort behind the Siege of Jackson, a brand-new action sequence created especially for the series, culminating in one of the show’s most shocking episodes yet.
Expanding the World with a Brutal New Battle
The massive siege wasn’t part of The Last of Us Part II game — it was a creative addition for the series. Co-creator Craig Mazin explains in the video, “We thought we had an opportunity to create even more of a sense of vulnerability. It wasn’t simply Joel or Ellie who was in trouble. Everyone was in trouble.”
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Director Mark Mylod, brought on board after his acclaimed work on Game of Thrones and Succession, describes how “the Battle of Jackson took place over a number of weeks” and calls it “one of the highlights” of his career. Each day, he said, felt like waking up “in fear of messing something up or underachieving.”
Jackson itself was expanded with a newly built town set, giving the team a massive playground for chaos. “I didn’t actually get the memo that they were building an entire town for season two,” Mylod laughed.
Filming the Battle: Flamethrowers, Bloaters, and Practical Chaos
The battle was broken into three escalating parts: an initial defense using flamethrowers and rolling petroleum bombs, a full-blown street fight, and a final desperate confrontation between Tommy and a bloater.
Production pulled out all the stops, combining practical effects and digital wizardry. Real flamethrowers, snow machines, and dozens of prosthetic-covered stunt performers filled the set. “Real flamethrowers, dozens of stunt people falling off rooftops, being lit on fire, jumping around, fighting each other — it was the set piece to end all set pieces for our show,” says co-creator Neil Druckmann.
Gabriel Luna, who plays Tommy, found himself on the frontlines wielding a flamethrower in one of the sequence’s most harrowing moments. In our Screen Realm interview, Luna admitted the experience left a mark: “I would close my eyes and I would see a human on fire running at me,” he said. “My wife was like, ‘Yeah baby, I think you might be traumatised.’”
The VFX team, led by supervisor Alex Wang, layered in hundreds more infected digitally. “The expectations with this kind of scope is that it’s seamless,” Wang says. “You’re immersed in a way where our visual effects are invisible.”
One standout moment involved the team constructing a fireproof rig — almost like a “fireproof rickshaw” — to safely film right alongside the real flames. Mylod describes the shot where flamethrowers battle the horde as “really scary in the best way.”
A Devastating Fallout
The Siege of Jackson wasn’t the only momentous, heartbreaking turn of events delivered this episode. While the chaos unfolded, Joel (Pedro Pascal) met his tragic fate, murdered by Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) — a pivotal moment that forever changes Ellie’s journey.
As Mazin points out, the episode isn’t just about physical survival: “This episode is really about loss. It’s obviously the loss of Joel that means so much to the characters and to viewers, but it’s also the loss of a big part of Jackson.”
Even in a world struggling to rebuild, The Last of Us never lets its characters — or its audience — forget just how fragile hope can be.
