The second season of The Last of Us is under way, and this weekend the second episode aired, giving us more backstory and – importantly – setting up the main events from Part 2.
Please be aware of spoilers for The Last of Us, both the game series and the show, below.
There is no beating around the bush with this episode, and after a fairly gentle start to the series we now getting thrown into a fray of infected, revenge, blood, death and heartache.
The episode as a whole was excellent, but I do feel it could have benefited from being a tad longer, or perhaps had an episode before it which would have allowed more time for character development. The second episode’s total run time was less than an hour, with essentially three stories all happening at the same time. Each story is compelling in its own right, but still, each could have used a little more time to breathe.
First, we have Ellie and Jesse on patrol together – a change from the game where it is Ellie and Dina who hole up together during the strom in Eugene’s cannabis farm (which is now in an abandoned store rather than a library).
While this means we as the viewer don’t get to see Dina and Ellie’s romantic relationship develop further as we do in the game, I did love seeing more of Jesse on patrol. Like I said about Isabela Merced last week, Young Mazino is absolutely brilliant at bringing Jesse to life. I immediately knew I could trust his character, and again like I said with Dina, if I was ever in a situation like The Last of Us, he is the kind of person I would want to have by my side. There is a calm strength to him. Jesse also helped to lay some groundwork for the previously confirmed Eugene-focused episode.
The second story of the second episode is the situation at Jackson. After a little teaser last week of those tendrils in the pipes, this week we saw a full on invasion of Jackson by a swarm of infected. In fact, ‘swarm’ may be selling it short. The sheer number of infected that rampaged against Jackson is beyond count. It may not be quite up there with the battle at Helm’s Deep in Two Towers, but my word it is pretty darn close.
As we saw in the first episode, the infected in season two are smarter than those in season one. They are evolving, and becoming quite sneaky with it. In episode two, we learn that the infected are using the bodies of dead infected to hide beneath. And, that is exactly what we witnessed, as infected after infected burst out from beneath the snow to charge down on the community.
What I love about this particular story beat is Tommy, and Gabriel Luna really shines during his time in the spotlight. In fact, I am going to say that the writers replacing Tommy with Dina during that scene (I will get on to it in a moment) so he could play a major role in protecting his family and the residents of Jackson is an inspired change. When Tommy shot at the massive Bloater which managed to breach Jackson’s boundary in order to draw its ire away from Maria, I felt a swell of both pride and fear. In these moments, he wasn’t just Joel’s brother. He was a husband, a father, a protector, and so much more than just a supporting character. It was great to see.
As a slight side note, watching Tommy kill a Jackson resident who had been bitten by an infected during the attack at the end of the episode made my heart ache. I know he had to do it, and I know this won’t have been the first time he has had to do something like this (we already know Joel killed Eugene, presumably because he too was bitten), but even so, this moment really hammered home how harrowing it must be to live in this world.
Now, the third story which takes place during this episode. That of Abby, the former Fireflies and Joel, which all culminated in Joel’s slow and painful death at the hands (and golf club) of Abby.
I read somewhere that Kaitlyn Dever – who plays Abby in The Last of Us season two – buried her mother just days before she filmed her scenes with Pedro Pascal’s Joel. Her acting here is brilliant, and I really felt her heartache when she spoke to Joel about how he killed her father, a defenceless doctor. Perhaps Dever’s personal experiences brought another layer to her performance, which really deserves to be commended.
But, and there is a but, I do wish we had seen more from Abby and her group (Owen, Mel, Nora and Manny) before Joel’s death. The showrunners made a point of making Abby’s intentions to kill Joel known from the very start of the season, but really these characters only have a handful of lines with each other before the second episode’s climax.
When Abby is torturing Joel, she mentions after his massacre of the Fireflies in Salt Lake City she and her group travelled to Seattle, where they trained to become soldiers. While those who have played Part 2 know they are part of the WLF, those new to the show will only know this name from a logo on the group’s bag and a passing comment from Dina before she is knocked out.
As the showrunners wanted us as the viewer to know this group’s intention from the off, I wish they had committed to this earlier reveal even further. I would have loved to have had an episode akin to the Bill and Frank episode in the first series, focusing on Abby and co. We could have seen them arrive in Seattle, and train over those five years to become the military force they are now. It would, I believe, have lent more gravitas to the moment Abby ultimately kills Joel, as we would have spent more time in her shoes, getting to understand her trauma and motivation more fully.
Even though the showrunners don’t seem to want to totally paint Abby as a ‘villain’ or antagonist in the TV series, I don’t feel they have done quite enough to prevent those new to The Last of Us from still feeling this way about her character right now.
Joel’s death didn’t feel sudden – we knew it was coming from the second season’s opening minutes. But, it still felt quicker and less developed than the showrunners perhaps intended. What do you think?
The last couple of things I want to highlight from the second episode.
First, Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal’s acting is again brilliant . When Ellie saw Joel lying on the floor in a beaten and bloody mess, I truly knew that every ounce of her was desperate for him to be ok. Then, when he tried to lift himself up off the floor, something I believe he would only attempt to do for Ellie, my heart shattered. There is love here, and it hurts to see a relationship come to such a bloody and traumatic end.
(It’s also worth also noting that Abby tells Joel she was only 19 when he killed her father, and began her journey of revenge. Ellie is now 19, and she now too is mourning the traumatic and violent loss of a father figure. Mirrors.)
I think the image of Ellie lying on the floor next to Joel, having painfully dragged her injured body to get there, will stay with me for a long, long time. I’m still feeling teary.
Secondly, I love seeing how the showrunners continue to honour the original actors from the games. The song at the end of episode two – Through the Valley, originally by Shawn James – is sung here by Ashley Johnson. Johnson played Ellie in The Last of Us Parts 1 and 2, as well as the DLC Left Behind. She had a cameo in the first season of the show, playing Ellie’s mother.
Johnson also sang a cover of Through the Valley for a trailer for The Last of Us Part 2. You can check it out below.
We still have five more episodes left of The Last of Us season two. What did you think of the second episode?
