We all know that The Last of Us has given Game of Thrones alum Pedro Pascal a chance to truly shine as Joel Miller, the callous, hard-bitten smuggler from Boston. It’s also lent a generous amount of screen time to its leading lady, Bella Ramsey, who plays Joel’s traveling companion and pain in the backside, Ellie Williams. There’s never a dull moment with these two; if they aren’t wise-cracking or dishing out dad jokes, they’re surviving harsh winter nights by the campfire, spinning tall tales of a peaceful life post-pandemic. There’s no denying their chemistry, especially as Ellie manages to become both endearing and aggravating to Joel, who lost his biological daughter Sarah many years prior and secretly enjoys fathering Ellie through the trials and tribulations of a post-apocalyptic world.
In “Kin,” the sixth overall episode of HBO’s faithful adaptation, Joel and Ellie stumble upon a secluded cabin just outside of Jackson, Wyoming. In the bitter clutch of winter, they seek shelter inside the cozy wooden walls, happening across a rather distrait couple that seems unfazed by their break-in. While Joel holds the female at gunpoint, Ellie joins in on the fun and holds the male hostage. All of this doesn’t alarm the couple — who are known to IMDb as Marlon and Florence — and they’re quite content with bickering back and forth in a passive-aggressive way as long-time lovers tend to. It’s five minutes or so of absolute comedy gold, but it doesn’t last long enough for some viewers.
Marlon is portrayed by Graham Greene, who you might know as the voice of Rains Fall in Red Dead Redemption 2 or Arlen Bitterbuck in The Green Mile. On the other hand, Florence is played by Elaine Miles, who isn’t quite as well-known as her on-screen husband, but she appeared in the Netflix film Juanita as a character known as “Mountain.” Whatever magic spell Greene and Miles (ha-ha, The Greene Miles) put on The Last of Us fans, it worked. They’re absolutely head-over-heels with this no-nonsense couple, but more specifically Graham Greene, who’s established himself as something of an acting legend.
Greene might be 70 years old, but he’s not down and out yet. His cameo in The Last of Us only proves that fact. Although it wasn’t significant a role as say, Joel, it’s sometime the smaller sections of dialogue and the seemingly meaningless roles that happen to be the most impactful. Greene’s Marlon might not be winning an Oscar any time soon, but he’ll be living on in our hearts as “that guy from the cabin with the funny wife.” Well… that’s because not many people know his character’s name, but still. Let’s not even go into detail about how flawless his line delivery was throughout that scene, plus his spot-on chemistry with Miles, despite them only sharing the spotlight for a short period of time.
Fans are demanding for Green to return, and now, after seeing what Miles can do, they’re wanting more. Some theories were getting tossed around, such as Marlon and Florence eventually ditching their cabin and making haste to Jackson to dwell as one of the townsfolk we’ll likely run into again later down the line.
But there’s a small spanner in the works.
Either way, we’re excited to see more, and IMDb might be setting us up for disappointment, but we have a glimmer of hope to cling to.
TLDR; Greene and Miles (still thinking about that pun) absolutely knocked it out of the park. Dare we say, they might even have better banter than Joel and Ellie. Is that even possible?