It’s a storytelling trope as old as storytelling itself, but the notion to follow up an epic or tragic twist in the tale with a period of calm is something that’s especially prevalent in TV and it doesn’t get much more epic and tragic than what The Last Of Us nailed us with last week. While gamers were forewarned and forearmed about the fate of Joel in the original The Last Of Us game, the rest of us had to be whacked across the face with an emotional 2×4 and gutshot by the shocking turn of events that saw this Pedro Pascal (aka. this generation’s most beloved murdering surrogate father) meet his maker at the hands of Kaitlyn Dever’s vengeful Abby.
Of course, that’s not all we got as the season gave us a zombie/human battle that rivaled the likes of Game Of Thrones in its prime, but like I just said, the bigger the event, the quieter and slower the response.
However, while many a show in the past has fumbled it’s momentum by confusing stepping on the the brakes instead of easing off the throttle, The Last Of Us has already made its name by being primarily focus on the loss felt in the aftermath of tragedy. Let’s see if it can do it again…
Three months have past since Joel lost his life to Abby’s vengeance and in that time, Jackson has had its healing to do after being rocked by a rampaging horde of infected that emerged from out of the snow. But the snow has melted, the dead mourned and buried and after months of healing from her ordeal, Ellie finally gets to leave the hospital where she’s been convalescing. Of course, a quick visit with boozy psychotherapist Gail reveals that Ellie no more over Joel’s murder than we are and burns for justice over her slain patriarch, however, as she has no idea who these people were or where they were headed, her vengeance has to be put on hold.
However, it’s not on hold for long as her best “friend” Dina (who was present for the murder) confesses that she has vital information about the former Fireflies responsible which includes their names, who they’re affiliated with and where they were headed: Seattle.
However, Ellie is about to find out that democracy is a tough wall to climb when you want to get revenge in a post apocalyptic landscape three months after a devastating attack and despite Joel’s brother, Tommy, being on the counsel, the motion to send 16 people out to bring the killers to justice is denied. Of course, Ellie’s never been particularly beholden to anything even remotely resembling the ruled and she plans to head out to Seattle on her own if necessary to find Abby and take her down. Thankfully, Dina is at hand to not only join her, but plan a little smarter thanks to a more level head, but as the two sneak out of Jackson to hook up with their date with destiny, what awaits them in Seattle may be far bigger than what either of them had bargained for.
There was always a risk involved that the second Joel bit the dust, there would be a sense that The Last Of Us could lose its focus a bit because even though the show is primarily without loss, a lot of its identity came from the central father/daughter relationship – without that, where does the show go from here without the danger of stumbling into just another revenge-quest story? Well, just as Game Of Thones managed to do just fine after Sean Bean lost his noggin, The Last Of Us offers up an episode that skims over the more immediate, raw reactions to the loss of a loved one and instead zips ahead three months to a place where the emotional scabs have only just started to form. With the initial rage long since burnt out and the numbing aftermath lifted, we find a strangely pragmatic Ellie discharged from the hospital a lot more rational than she went in. But even though she’s not immediately locking and loading and heading out for a rip-roaring rampage of revenge, it’s obvious that her mind is set on one thing and one thing only: murder.
While it instinctually first feels like The Path has missed a trick by not letting all of its actors cut loose with their best wailing and ranting thanks to that time hop, it actually ends up doing something far more intriguing than simply letting Bella Ramsey go off on one for 50-something minutes. For a start, we get an Ellie who has, on the surface, returned to her argumentative, authority hating ways, but who has already decided that no matter what happens, she’s going to get her pound of flesh.
However, she’s matured enough (only just, mind) to go through the proper channels first in order to try a get what she wants and the main bulk of the episode sees the majority of the cast helping and advising her in some way as they deal with the aftermath in their own way.
Catherine O’Hara’s Gail tries to probe about Joel’s past, primarily about his secret slaughtering of the Fireflies, Jesse gives good advice about how to best put across her point at the town meeting by writing down what she feels rather than just yelling and even Tommy agrees to help if the townsfolk give them the thumbs up to go ahead. Obviously they do not, so we then shift to Ellie getting a different kind of help and this is where we discover the core relationship that’s going to drive the show in the absence of Pedro Pascal.
We’d already gotten a good dose of the Ellie/Dina double act in the precious two episodes, but now that it’s the central pairing, it’s a tremendous relief that the chemistry between Ramsey and the incredibly endering Isabela Merced is ramped up with a great scene where she admits that she’s been holding back valuable information until Ellie was healthier. Where most scenes like this would quickly descend into showy histrionics that could conceivably slow everything down, The Last Of Us instead immediately building momentum as Dina supports her friend. In fact, Merced’s Dina might actually be the most refreshing character in recent zombie apocalypse history as she repeatedly cuts through needless bullshit to get Ellie where they both eventually need to be – on a horse heading towards Seattle.
On the way we get a few stops. Formally repentant homophobe, Seth, tries to make amends by both passionately demanding that Jackson goes after Joel’s killers and then later providing a horse for the girls to ride, but on the other hand we also take a slight sidetrack to follow a religious order travelling through the area before something awful befalls them. While there’s no real reason to get alarmed, I can’t help but worry that this is pretty much the first time The Last Of Us has pulled anything that feels like it’s come from a later season of The Walking Dead that soon swamped it’s initial concept with endless human settlers each more outlandish than the last. Whether it becomes a bigger deal, or is merely just a way to show that a mysterious, murderous force is operating in the area, we’ll see, but fingers crossed, eh?
Swapping out a gargantuan battle sequence and a major death for a measured catching of breath was always going to be a tough sell for the more impatient people who have forgotten what the show is actually about, but The Last Of Us’ third episode of its second season takes what could have been an over-emotional slog and instead turns in something that’s surprisingly light on its feet. However, even the most hard hearted zombie fan is going to feel a pang when we get the sight of Ellie visiting Joel’s grave for the first time during magic hour and that’s what it’s all about.
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