Key Takeaways
- The Last of Us Season 2 will feature new cast members, including Catherine O'Hara, who doesn't have a direct video game counterpart.
- O'Hara's character is speculated to be a therapist named Gail.
- O'Hara will appear in three episodes, with a time jump allowing for exploration of her character and potentially filling gaps in the story.
The Last of Us Season 2 is set to return in 2025, but it will do so with a crop of new faces. The HBO show has cast an ensemble of new actors to play characters from Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Part 2, but Catherine O'Hara's character doesn't have an obvious counterpart from the game.
Season 2 of the popular HBO series will pick things up five years after the end of Season 1, sticking closely to how things are set up in its source material. After their cross-country journey, Ellie and Joel have settled in Jackson, until their collective pasts catch up with them. Many of The Last of Us cast members from Season 1 will return for Season 2 including Pedro Pascal (Joel), Bella Ramsey (Ellie) and Gabriel Luna (Tommy). The series has also cast several actors to play new parts including Kaitlyn Dever as Abby and Jeffrey Wright as Isaac. The teasers for The Last of Us Season 2 show a story that looks accurate to that of the games, but mystery still surrounds certain elements, particularly Catherine O'Hara's character.
Catherine O’Hara Cast as Mystery Character in TLOU S2
Many casting announcements emerged during the production and filming of The Last of Us Season 2, but a surprising one was that of Beetlejuice and Schitt's Creek's Catherine O'Hara. O'Hara was announced to be joining TLOU S2 in February 2024, but she joined in an undisclosed role. Speculation has been rife as to who O'Hara may be playing in the new season, as she seemingly has no obvious counterpart in the game. The series is known for inventing new roles for actors that aren't in the original game, such as expanding Bill and Frank's roles in Episode 3 of Season 1, or introducing Melanie Lynskey as a militia leader in Episodes 4 and 5. These changes have been largely welcomed by fans, so TLOU S2 may do a similar thing with Catherine O'Hara's character.
Catherine O'Hara's Character Name
While HBO has remained tight-lipped about the identity of O'Hara's character, some teases have emerged about her over the months. Before O'Hara's official casting, it was rumored (via Daniel RPK/Reddit) that she had been offered a part to play a new character named Gail. This rumor seems to have some truth to it as cast and character labels spotted on the set of The Last of Us Season 2 included the name "Gail" alongside that of Joel, Ellie and Tommy, which seems to suggest O'Hara will be playing someone named Gail. But who is Gail?
Jackson's Resident Therapist
A prominent theory is that Gail will be some kind of therapist in The Last of Us. During the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice press tour, O'Hara dropped a hint about her character during an Extra TV interview saying she may be a villain "to a certain character" and that she kicks ass "psychologically". Trailer footage for The Last of Us Season 2 went on to reveal O'Hara's character sitting opposite Pedro Pascal's Joel in Jackson, where she asks him "What did you do?". A similar scene plays out in the opening of The Last of Us Part 2, which sees Joel confess to Tommy what happened at the Salt Lake City hospital.
It appears that the HBO series may substitute Tommy here for Catherine O'Hara's character, which suggests she may be something of a resident therapist for the people of Jackson. This makes sense given that The Last of Us is set in a nightmarish post-apocalyptic world, so many characters could probably do with a therapist to help them through their trauma. As Jackson is a pretty established settlement, it's fair to think it may have the resources to have a resident therapist like Gail. A therapist character would also be useful to The Last of Us as it can help to expose deep character moments more naturally.
A Love Interest For Joel?
During the events of The Last of Us Part 1 and Part 2, Joel doesn't have much of an opportunity for romance. Joel is introduced in the first game as the father of a pre-teen daughter, but her mother is no longer in the picture. The HBO series also hinted at a romantic relationship between Joel and Tess (Anna Torv), but it's short-lived given Tess dies in Episode 2. The five years between the events of Season 1 and 2 would be an opportunity for Joel to develop a romantic relationship with someone in Jackson, which could potentially be Catherine O'Hara's character.
In the wider The Last of Us canon, there is precedent for Joel to have a love interest. During the one-off stage performance of The Last of Us in 2014, known as The Last of Us: One Night Live, a brand new epilogue scene is included in which Joel reveals that Tommy has paired him up with a woman named Esther. At the time of TLOU: One Night Live a sequel to the first game had not been confirmed, so some of these scenes never made it into the game. However, Halley Grosse, co-writer of The Last of Us Part 2 did confirm to the Washington Post that Joel's girlfriend, Esther, was real, but ultimately cut from the game. However, The Last of Us series could be a place to revive that character, perhaps in the form of Catherine O'Hara's character.
"We wrote so many scenes that did not make it into this game. Joel had a girlfriend in the original concept of this game. Her name was Esther."
Will TLOU S2 Fill in the Gaps?
The only other notable information about Catherine O'Hara's mystery The Last of Us character is that she will appear in three episodes. O'Hara confirmed the episode count in an interview with Premiere, adding that she shares scenes with Joel and Ellie, which lines up with the evidence that she will be a character in Jackson. A three-episode arc also suggests that O'Hara may appear in the first three episodes of Season 2, as chronologically, these would be the episodes most likely to be spent in Jackson.
That being said, there is a five-year time jump between the events of The Last of Us Season 1 and 2, and in the medium of television, nothing is stopping the HBO series from filling in some of the time in that gap. If the series goes down that route, it would allow for more expansion on O'Hara's character, perhaps in a similar way to Bill and Frank in Season 1.
The Last of Us Season 2 will premiere in 2025.
