I'm thinking every time he called himself her uncle, or her his niece, or referred to her as Joel's kid, that she cringed because she was scared Joel would be upset, and one day he's finally able to weasel the story out of her. The next time she's at school or otherwise occupied, he books it to his brother and absolutely lays into a stunned Joel with something along the lines of "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" and "WHY IS MY NIECE WALKING AROUND CLAIMING NOT TO BE MY NIECE??"

Joel's look of 'oh shit it's queit, where the fuck is my kid?'

This part is SO funny to me. The way he grabs the bat and then looks at her as if to say, "Ok, kiddo. Prepare yourself because Dad's about to un-impale himself, okay?"

Funnily enough, this scene is one of the more intense as far as Joel's brutality goes, in my opinion. As much as the torture scene in Silver Lake really shows the extent Joel will go to protect Ellie and the level of violence he possesses, or when he kills the guard without hesitation with his own hands to protect her, or of course when he massacres a hospital, for me, this scene right here shows the true viciousness of his ruthlessness. The way he practically growls at the man, immediately throwing him against a tree and bashing his own skull against his to protect his kid. There are no meditated acts of violence, just pure determination to desecrate this man by any means necessary, if it means protecting his kid.

I kinda feel like they dealt with it the same way you deal with dropping off a baby at daycare. You get them engaged in an activity, a little hand grasping onto their parent's shirt or knee, and then the parent slowly and silently creeps away.

Joel literally has to stand right next to Ellie, her little body pressed against his, and Tommy has to immerse her in something she likes, like space or dinosaurs, and then Joel can slowly back away. It works like 60% of the time.

Short one-shot I've whipped up :)

Her genuine shock and disgust when she sees that all her friends have little printed pictures of Joel glued to toothpicks and yells out, "IS THAT MY DAD?!?"