Warning! This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us episode 1 and the original game.The Last of Us episode 1 features a significant object in Joel's broken watch, that still is not fixed after the show's initial 20-year time jump. In 2003, Joel is shown living with his brother Tommy and daughter Sarah in Austin, Texas. The series picks up on Joel's 36th birthday, with Sarah planning to fix his broken watch for a present.
The show then follows Sarah's day, with her going to school and then traveling to a watchmaker's shop to fix the watch in question. The watch is fixed and Sarah presents it to Joel stating that he never would have gotten it fixed for himself. However, after the outbreak of the Cordyceps infection and the time jump to 2023, Joel's watch is broken again with a smashed watch face. This has big implications for Joel's character, played perfectly by Pedro Pascal, and ties into both the past and future of The Last of Us.
Why Joel's Watch Is Still Broken In 2023
Joel's watch still being broken in 2023 shows how he has dealt with the trauma of the events of 2003. As the watch is so heavily tied to Sarah, due to how much Joel appreciated her getting it fixed for him, it serves as a metaphor. The watch still being broken indicates how broken Joel himself is over Sarah's death over 20 years after it happened. Joel wearing the broken watch represents the broken, cold person he has become in the years since the outbreak, and fixing it would mean reminding himself of both his life with Sarah before the Cordyceps infection decimated mankind, and her traumatizing death.
Joel's Watch Foreshadows His And Ellie's Relationship
The second overt mention of Joel's watch comes in the 2023 timeline of The Last of Us episode 1. After Joel and Tess agree to smuggle Ellie outside the Boston quarantine zone, Joel and Ellie return to his apartment to rest while Tess scouts their way out of the QZ. Just before sleeping, Ellie says to Joel "Your watch is broken." This causes Joel to fall asleep to the nightmarish sounds of Sarah's death, something that is shown multiple times in the 2023 section of The Last of Us episode 1.
Having Ellie point this out foreshadows the eventual bond between Joel and Ellie. As the watch is so intrinsically linked to Joel's relationship with Sarah, Ellie pointing it out sets up the fact that, eventually, Joel will come to see Ellie as a daughter and overcome the trauma caused by Sarah's death. While Joel never fixes the watch - at least as shown in The Last of Us time jump in the sequel game - Joel eventually becomes much more open and vulnerable with Ellie and speaks more plainly about his relationship with Sarah, two things notably missing from Joel's current characterization in 2023 in The Last of Us episode 1.
New episodes of The Last of Us release every Sunday on HBO.