Gail is a new addition to The Last of Us, and in Season 2 Episode 6, we finally see why she was introduced. She does more than just provide therapy as a context for Joel to share his feelings; she also is the wife of Eugene, the Jackson resident who was bitten and put down by Joel before he turned into an Infected.
Warning! Spoilers ahead for The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 6.
In Season 2 Episode 6’s flashback-a-rama, Gail helps Joel decipher one of Ellie’s fixations, but the scene contains an even bigger symbol: the book she’s reading.
When Joel approaches Gail to ask what psychologists think moths mean in dreams, she’s reading an old paperback novel. When he sits down at the table, we see the title: Earth Abides. This isn’t a made-up in-universe story like Curtis & Viper or Savage Starlight, it’s a real book. Earth Abides by George R. Stewart, published all the way back in 1949.
Earth Abides follows Isherwood “Ish” Williams, a geography graduate student who retreats to the woods to work on his thesis. While he’s isolated in the forest, he gets bitten by a snake and falls ill. When he eventually recovers and makes his way back to civilization, he sees everything abandoned, with everyone, including his family, falling victim to the disease and dying.
Ish sets out to find survivors, and eventually meets and falls in love with fellow survivor Emma. Together, they start a family and, eventually, a civilization. But over the decades, Ish realizes replicating the way life was before the apocalypse is now impossible. The title is taken from a Bible verse, Ecclesiastes 1:4, “Men go and come, but earth abides.”
Earth Abides has actually seen a bit of a resurgence recently: it was adapted into a miniseries on MGM+ starring Alexander Ludwig, Jessica Frances Dukes, and Aaron Tveit, covering the entire saga from start to finish.
It’s clear to see the parallels between this book and The Last of Us: the Jackson community is just like the scraped-together community Ish and his family start. But crucially, Gail hasn’t finished the books yet. She hasn’t reached the point where Ish accepts that he can’t go back to the way life was. It’s all foreshadowing the eventual fate of her husband, and her resentment of Joel for shooting him, even though he had time to say goodbye to her.
While Jackson may look like a thriving town from the Before Times, tragedy still strikes. We saw it in Episode 2 with Joel, and we see it here with Eugene. But both of those scenes are set far after this flashback with Gail: there’s plenty of time for her to finish Earth Abides and take its message to heart. It’s the post-apocalypse, and things are going to change despite our best efforts.
