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MAJOR spoilers for The Last of us season 2, episode 6 follow.

So that's what happened to Eugene.

Ever since the introduction of Gail in The Last of Us season 2, viewers have been wondering what happened to her late husband. Since neither of the characters are in the Last of Us Part II game (save for a brief mention), it's one mystery fans couldn't explain just by watching a playthough on YouTube. Now, though, we know the devastating truth of what happened to poor Eugene, and according to The Last of Us Co-creator Neil Druckmann, a huge part of that devastation came down to the beloved actor playing Gail, Catherine O'Hara.

We'll explain how in just a sec, but first, let's review. In The Last of Us season 2, episode 6, the penultimate of this series, we get to experience a flashback to Ellie's first patrol in Jackson. Joel is still alive at this point in the story, and during the outing, the pair are summoned to an infected attack outside the town walls. There, we meet Eugene for the first time (played by The Sopranos' Joe Pantoliano), but not under happy circumstances. Eugene has been bit by a clicker; he only has hours to live.

Eugene pleads to be taken back to the walls outside Jackson so that he can say goodbye to Gail. Ellie is sympathetic and Joel sends her away, swearing that he won't kill the man before they bring him back. But this turns out to be a lie. Joel takes Eugene to a beautiful spot by a large lake and shoots him in the back of the head. 

Joel reunites with a shocked and enraged Ellie to bring Eugene's body back to the settlement. There, Joel tells Gail a lovely lie of Eugene's bravery in the face of death, and that it was her husband that ended his own life. Furious, Ellie tells Gail that Joel is lying, that it was Joel that killed Eugene after promising to let him live. What follows is a subtle, heartwrenching performance from Catherine O'Hara, one that absolutely floored the episode's director, Neil Druckmann.

"It was one of my favorite directing moments," Druckmann told Variety in an interview published May 18, "In the scene, [Gail] slaps Joel, and then in his shame, he’s supposed to take a few steps back. We were struggling with it. It just felt artificial. It felt rehearsed."

Part of what wasn't working about the scene was that, in the original plans, there was no dialogue between Gail and Joel after Ellie reveals the latter's lie. Feeling that the moment needed something, Druckmann came to O'Hara with an idea.

"I went to Catherine," he continues, "and said, 'I think we need to do something else here. I don’t know what. What if, like, his proximity to this body is somehow desecrating it now that you know the truth, and if you want, you could yell at him to get away?' "

O'Hara didn't love the idea, finding there to be a "beauty of there being no dialogue." Ever the professional, though, O'Hara decided to give Druckmann's idea a go, albeit with her own spin. 

"I asked her to yell to get away," Druckmann says, "I thought that would motivate Pedro [to step back]. Instead, she almost did the opposite. It was so beautiful. She goes inside [herself] and starts sobbing, and begs him to please get away in this very soft spoken voice. I’m like, Oh, my God, that’s so much better than what I asked for."

And as you already know if you've seen the episode, that "oh my God" take was the one that ended up being in the show, driving home not only the tragedy of Gail's character but, after this interview, reminding us that the give-and-take relationship between seasoned directors and actors can make for incredible television. Even if neither of them quite got to pull off their original idea.

"It’s one of those beautiful moments of collaboration," Druckmann concludes, "where I asked for something, she internalized it, made it something else, and it’s better because of it."

The Last of Us season 2 finale airs May 25 on HBO and Max.

Learn what's in store for Ellie, Dina, and Abby with Popverse's The Last of Us Part II ending explained.