It’s uplifting to see that season 2 of The Last of Us hasn’t lost touch with its emotional core one bit. If anything, the first episode is a reassurance that there are more bold breakthroughs to come within the people we care about. And that’s especially comforting now that Ellie and Joel are in a difficult place in their relationship. It may be an unavoidable phase, but there’s a real problem between the two of them that doesn’t really have anything to do with a teen daughter’s obvious resentment for her parent. They’re not talking about the elephant in the room. And lies get more obvious the longer you sit on them.
Spoiler Alert
Why’s Ellie mad at Joel?
At the end of the previous season, Joel had decided to lie to Ellie about something pretty big. The lie was about something Joe couldn’t avoid doing. So even though he knew that he’d have to bear the burden of that lie for the rest of his life, he didn’t really have a choice when he did what he did. He had to wipe out the Firefly crew who were planning to kill Ellie to extract the vaccine out of her brain. It was one life against the whole world. And Joel might’ve wondered if Ellie would have wanted to sacrifice herself if she knew that it would save the world. She’d hate him if she knew that he killed a whole host of people to save her. A lot must’ve happened over these five years as Joel and Ellie settled into the sanctuary in Jackson, Wyoming. But the state we now find them in doesn’t look too good. It’s obvious that a traditional guy like Joel would get on his 19 year old daughter’s nerves every now and then. But this seems bigger than a hormonal teenager lashing out against her parent figure. Ellie is mad enough to not even exchange more than the necessary words with Joel. And Joel doesn’t seem too keen on talking about the why of it when Dina, Ellie’s friend and a member of the community, asks him about why his daughter is so mad at him. But it’s not that Joel isn’t trying. He’s actually going to therapy.
And however eccentric Gail, this resident psychotherapist that Joel sees may seem on the surface, she actually knows what she’s doing. After all, it isn’t too bad a deal that Joel gets the help he needs to work out his issues in exchange for some homegrown pot. But even Joel and Gail’s dynamic isn’t as simple as it initially seems. And when we find out that Joel had to kill her husband, Eugene, for some reason, and that she’s still overwhelmed with grief and rage, it really makes you wonder how she’s able to handle helping Joel. But Gail’s a professional if ever there was one. Even with a glass of whiskey in her hand (not her first one of the day, by the way), Gail is able to keep her head straight and hear him out. Joel’s pain and confusion is understandable. And a lot of it is just dad stuff really. He even slightly alters the truth about what Dina really said to him. And that’s when he’s just a dad who’s wondering why his kid doesn’t like him when another kid does. But Gail sees through Joel. She knows that no matter how much he grumbles, he’s leaving out a crucial truth. She maybe even expects to anger him into spilling it when she wonders if he’s hurt Ellie somehow. When he gives her a vague answer as to why Ellie is cross with him, he reveals the reason he’s not being the best dad right now. He says that Ellie is mad because he saved her. But while that’s an undeniable fact, that’s not why Ellie is mad at him. And that’s definitely not why Joel lied in the first place. Joel meant the world to Ellie. And to have such a person lie to her must’ve crushed her. The longer Joel holds on to his own part of the anger, the feeling which convinces him that Ellie’s being unfair, the longer it’s going to take for him to do the right thing and apologize.
What type of zombie does Ellie encounter?
Ellie’s growing up. And that means that she’s starting to develop a more well-rounded identity of her own. The rage hasn’t left her. If anything, the freedom to do something with that rage has only allowed it to grow unchecked in Ellie. That’s what she pours into her combat training. But what’s concerning is that this fire inside her also makes her rather reckless. Under Joel’s brother Tommy’s guidance, Ellie’s grown up to be a great shot. What she doesn’t want to accept is that she’s got a lot more to learn. Her teenage arrogance blinds her to her limitations. And that’s why she’s got a reputation for disobeying orders when she goes on patrol. Considering how that puts her and the patrol team in danger, there’s even talk of dismissing her from patrol duties. But Ellie’s got her uncle wrapped around her pinky finger. So Tommy ultimately gives in and lets her go on patrol anyway. There’s no way he actually expects her to abide by the patrol team leader’s rules. Ellie’s not even trying to hide her self-harming tendencies. But that’s not the only reason she screams about having been bitten to mess with Tommy and risk people getting suspicious. Ellie’s done with lies. And that frustrates her enough to make her want to stop lying even when her life depends on it. And ironically, the only thing keeping her safe is her immunity to cordyceps. There’s not an ounce of restraint in her when she hops on her horse and joins the patrol team with Dina. And before you know it, Dina and Ellie go rogue.
So far, Dina didn’t seem like the kind of person Ellie would be tight with. But when you see her crack a pun and make Ellie giggle, that’s when you really notice the unavoidable spark between the two. And then there’s the factor that Dina shares Ellie’s thrill-seeking energy. When they come across a mostly-eaten bear and defy their leader’s orders to jump into a very dangerous situation, you can see that they’re more than capable of handling themselves. They’ve practically made a game out of killing zombies. But what you’ve got to remember is that Dina’s not immune. Seeking zombies out to feel the kick of killing them is a wildly risky game for Dina. Considering Ellie’s masked her scar with a tattoo, I don’t think she’s told Dina that she’s immune. And that’s not necessarily an unfair lie considering Ellie’s life will be in further danger if people get to know that she is the potential key to the cure. It’s got to give Dina a good scare to see Ellie fall through the floor. There’s no way she can make that jump, so she has to go around and find another way. A lot could happen in that time. A clicker or a runner would’ve been a piece of cake for Ellie. But the thing that’s down there with her seems far more terrifying. The zombie that Ellie has a run in with is nothing like the ones we’ve seen so far. This one’s stealthy. It quietly crawls closer to Ellie as though it knows how to hide from her. And then, it shows a clear sign of intelligence by taking cover and launching an unexpected attack on Ellie. She does get the better of the zombie and kills it. But Ellie’s understandably worried about the fact that she’s just encountered a zombie who could think and plan. That bite wouldn’t kill her. If anything, it will give us a bone chilling glimpse of Ellie’s pain tolerance when she goes back home, grabs a knife, and cuts around the bite. The council may hope that the smart zombie was a one-off thing. But the zombie majorly resembles the variant The Last of Us universe knows as the stalker. So we’re bound to run into them more often now that Ellie’s seen and killed one. And that’s not gonna make life any easier for the community.
Who is Abby and why is she after Joel?
An aspect of survival that apocalypse thrillers never really talk about is the amount of work that it takes to survive. In the kind of community Tommy and his wife have built, it takes a lot of work to keep things running. In the five years that have passed in between, they’ve taken a lot of people in. And as the unofficial foreman of the place, it’s been a lot of work for Joel to maintain the idea that they’re living, not just surviving. He’s toiled to give people the quality of life that a human being deserves. And now, it’s gotten kind of impossible for him to take on even more. An exhausted man is of no use to anyone. So Joel’s looking at a lot of hard decisions again. He’s only being reasonable when he reminds Tommy’s wife, Maria, that they’re at capacity, that they’ve really got to start turning people away when they come to their door. But it’s also very natural for Maria to feel uncomfortable with the idea of pushing helpless people into the maw of death. None of them would’ve survived if it wasn’t for the community. Maria feels the same empathy for the people who might turn up at their door. But as the one thinking clearly, however cruel that thought might be, Joel isn’t wrong to say that it won’t help anyone to exhaust themselves of their resources. He also seems to be making an effort to mend things with Ellie when he picks up her guitar for a tuning. Ellie doesn’t live with Joel at the moment. In her own little world, she still holds on to the spark that makes her who she is. Dina’s pun making it into her journal is a clear declaration of Ellie’s affection for her. But Ellie doesn’t think she has a shot with Dina. For starters, Dina has this long-drawn on-and-off thing going on with a guy, so Ellie probably doesn’t even think that Dina might like women too. And then there’s the fact that Ellie’s got major self-worth issues. Something that makes her feel invisible in the crowd. So even when Dina’s clearly hitting on her at their little community celebration, Ellie fails to take the hint. Luckily, Dina’s more confident with her expressions of love. And when the heartwarming sight of two kids falling in love bothers a wildly homophobic Seth, Joel chimes in with a much necessary temper. But it’s still a long way to a happy father-daughter relationship between Joel and Ellie. She’s really holding on to her anger. So I doubt that she’ll be ready to hear Joel out anytime soon. I just hope that he’s ready when she is.
Moreover, things are about to get a lot more difficult for them. It was already a bad situation when that pipe burst and Joel’s plate got heavier. And then a kid drops a sparkler near the broken pipe, and I think that makes the cordyceps move in the pipe. The deadly fungus has found its way into the community. If it’s not taken care of, clickers might turn up within the community. All things considered, it couldn’t have been a worse time for this season’s antagonist to creep up close to Joel. We met Abby for the first time in the opening scene of episode 1 of The Last of Us. Mourning the deaths of the fireflies slayed by Joel, Abby urged her comrades to seek revenge on the man responsible. She must’ve lost someone very important to her in the massacre. And she didn’t seem like the kind of person who’d drop her mission. For five long years, Abby and her vengeful group of Fireflies have been searching for Joel. Abby dreams of a slow, painful death for the man who butchered her friends. Joel better watch his back. He doesn’t even know that people are out for his blood.
