Watch “The Last of Us” season 2, episode 3 Sunday at 9/8c on HBO and Max, right before “The Righteous Gemstones” season 4 and Nathan Fielder’s “The Rehearsal” season 2.

Then in the 1990s and 2000s, the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” creator Joss Whedon was partly responsible for changing the way TV series handle death, with heroes carrying the pain of a loss for multiple episodes — to the point where fans would anxiously wonder whether the show would ever be fun again.