#it could also be that both joel and tommy enlisted and joel left sarah in the care of hermom

[1982brucespringsteen]

okay so lots of people have been theorizing that hbo’s joel is a war veteran and that’s why he’s so good with guns, but here’s my counter argument - tommy’s the one who’s actually a vet

the first clue is the bumper sticker in joel and tommy’s truck

it refers to the gulf war, which happened between 1990 and 1991. if sarah’s 14 in 2003 that means she was 1-2 at the time. would joel leave his baby home so young, when he’s shown to have been sarah’s main caretaker and probably only parent? tommy, on the other hand, could’ve been anywhere from 18 to 22 in 1990. he could’ve joined the army while joel stayed home with his baby, working construction and building a stable enough life for his little family

since it’s been stablished that tommy lives at joel’s house and depends on him, we might be inclined to believe that the family car is also joel’s. but the only one who drives it both times is tommy, which would be kinda weird if it wasn’t his car. so i’d guess it’s his car and his sticker on it

second clue is joel and tommy’s first weapons of choice. while joel uses a wrench to defend himself, tommy uses a gun, which he most likely got at the police station where he was detained

after this, we’re shown that tommy is actually pretty good using firearms. he shots the soldier that shoots at joel and sarah, in the head, at night, with a single shot from a relative distance. i’m no gun expert, but i’ll bet that takes training

and that’s why i think tommy’s the army veteran, not joel! i guess we’ll get more info in the next episodes, so we’ll see