Warning: This article contains spoilers for this week’s episode of “The Last of Us,” which is available now to stream on Max.
From the moment that HBO’s “The Last of Us“ was renewed for a second season and beyond, fans of video game sequel The Last of Us Part II knew what was coming. The real question was when in a series that’s made creative departures from its source material and promises more to come. Yet, despite the last episode’s conclusion, it still somehow felt far too soon for the game’s devastating death to arrive in Season 2.
Perhaps it’s because of the narrative departures that the inevitable and pivotal death felt further off in the distance. Or the new evolution in the cordyceps invasion, introducing the Stalker in the Season 2 premiere. More likely, it’s Pedro Pascal’s charismatic portrayal of tough survivor Joel and his effortless chemistry with Bella Ramsey as Joel’s adoptive daughter, Ellie, that makes us ill-prepared to witness the recreation of the game’s most devastating scene. Not when we’ve just barely begun to get acclimated to the mysterious rift between the pair.
The second episode of Season 2 picks up the morning after the premiere’s closing moments, reintroducing Abby (Kaitlyn Dever, No One Will Save You) and her group on the precipice of fulfilling their vengeance quest against Joel. They just have to find a way around Jackson’s fortified walls to do it. Abby’s relentless determination and a burst of clumsiness unwittingly speed up the planning stage when she finds herself caught in the middle of an infected horde just outside of the community. She’s saved by Joel, out on patrol with Dina (Isabela Merced), and uses the opportunity to lure them both back to her group’s makeshift headquarters.
Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO
That’s also about the same time that Jackson discovers the cordyceps in their pipeline. The episode keeps Jackson’s calvary preoccupied with a serious cordyceps problem, with inclement weather compounding the intensity. Wide shots of the sheer volume pursuing a handful of humans on horses lay out the stakes and tension of this chase as Joel, Dina, and Abby flee to safety.
Meanwhile, Jackson has a significant testing of their guarded walls on their hands. It creates an interesting juxtaposition of larger-scale outbreak action against the foreboding intimacy of Abby’s quiet, seething revenge. But Episode Two saves its worst for last, and it’s far more unflinching than it is in the game.
Once Abby picks up the golf club and unleashes the fury she’s clung tightly to, it’s Joel’s screams that carry the weight of what’s happening. Then Abby’s as Joel’s too beaten and bloody to keep up. Her friends, who’d earlier plotted to convince her to let go and return home, look on in solemnity and horror. Naturally, that’s when Ellie arrives.
Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO
Only this time, Ellie isn’t knocked unconscious after witnessing the brutal murder of her surrogate father. A broken golf club to the neck finishes the task, and Abby’s party leaves without another word, ending this pivotal moment on grim finality with a broken Ellie embracing the bloodied pulp of her former dad one final time. The episode closes with a palpable sense of loss and devastation not just for Joel but for all of Jackson; the community won its battle, but it came with a heartbreaking toll. The somber back half of the episode nails its intended emotional annihilation.
Here, it’s Dina that accompanies Joel on his patrol and finds herself, albeit gently, incapacitated by Abby’s group. In the game, it’s Joel’s brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) who witnesses the grim death. The final image of Joel’s body being brought back to Jackson sets up Tommy’s heartbreak next episode, but that he didn’t witness firsthand the brutality of Joel’s demise will alter his trajectory to some extent. It’s also likely to push Dina and Ellie even closer together.
The biggest question coming out of the episode is how the series will continue without its likable antihero. “The Last of Us“ has introduced no shortage of memorable characters, but it’s been led by the unlikely father-daughter duo of Joel and Ellie. The unresolved rift between them should continue to unfold throughout Season 2, with flashbacks offering a way to keep Pedro Pascal on screen in the meantime, but there’s no question the series has just undergone a major shift with one of its main characters no longer part of the equation. It’ll be curious to see how a less immersive medium than video games handles the loss of a central player.
Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO
Both the games and the series do an excellent job of pulling the rug out of viewers/players as they make jarring shifts in perspective. Joel was a seemingly rough but traditional hero type in Season 1, right up until he massacred over a dozen people and squashed hope for humanity’s cure in his fateful choice to rescue Ellie from certain death. His choice, though sympathetic and understandable, came with consequences and marred his heroic tendencies
Abby’s personal vendetta, therefore, is also understandable, though it doesn’t make it easy to watch. Nor does it endear audiences to her, which also presents a fascinating dilemma that the series will have to reconcile from here on out. We never knew Abby pre-vengeance as we do Ellie, which presents fertile ground to explore as Ellie steels herself to follow Abby’s footsteps, which should further complicate the series’ already murky morals.
Still, Joel’s presence will continue to loom large over “The Last of Us“ with his death spurning Ellie on her own quest for vengeance. “He who seeks revenge digs two graves,“ the famous phrase goes, referring to the double-edged sword of vengeance. As “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 2 signals, Ellie’s vow means a lot of bodies will be piling up soon.