As we continue to exist in the cold, loveless hell that is a world without Pedro Pascal’s Joel, The Last Of Us takes some time out from its steady recipe of grief porn in order to tread on some uneasily familiar ground. The main thing that’s kept this show feeling head and mushroomed shoulders above its peers is that even though this is a show that deals with the aftermath of an extremely zombie-like infection, its never abandoned its primary goal of putting the emotions and feelings of its human cast at the forefront of everything.
As a result, a massive battle episode still ended with a major death that felt incredibly personal and incredibly moving flashback episodes have shown us entire relationships from beginning to end to create some truly landmark television.
However, with the fourth episode of the second season, we find that The Last Of Us seems to be encroaching on territory usually covered by The Walking Dead, that other zombie series that’s been wildly fluctuating in quality for the best part of ten years. Can Ellie and Dina get close to their goal while not invoking the more overfamiliar elements of “that other show”?
Ellie and Dina have made it to Seattle in their pursuit of Abby, the woman who murdered Joel, but as they survey what still remains of the city, they can’t help but notice the skeletal remains of an old battle between the forces of both FEDRA and the WLF. Helping us understand it a little better is a flashback to 2018 which introduces us to Issac, the current leader of the WLF (or wolves) when he was still a member of FEDRA’s fascist army. After listening to some troops tells a typically cruel story about FEDRA’s thuggish ways, he happily gives them all up to be fragged when he switches sides to the WLF, bringing a new recruit with him.
However, back in the present, Dina once again uses her superior common sense to stop Ellie making some silly survival errors and instead they wait for nightfall as the latter enthralls the former even more with some guitar skills she was taught by Joel.
However, when night does finally fall and the two girls continue their mission, both Ellie and Dina soon realise that they’ve walked into the middle of a war that’s currently raging between the WLF and the religious sect we were introduced to last episode named the Seraphites. It seems that relations between the two factions have soured immensely and when the WLF isn’t machine gunning groups of Seraphites in the forest, the scarred sect have been stringing up their victims with their insides on the outside for all to see.
Escaping from the situation they’ve found themselves in, Ellie and Dina flee into the subway system beneath the city only to find out that the tunnels are heavily filled with Infected – but evennif they escape, both girls have secrets to reveal to each other that might change their relationship forever.
The thing with television shows that put out a message that everyone deserves to live no matter what, is that there’s always a section of the audience that simply is unwilling to accept different things. This was apparent when the season one episode that dealt with the relationship between two men was treated in some areas with derision despite it being one of the most touching episodes of horror television I’ve ever seen. I feel that Day One might come under similar fire as it chooses to take Ellie and Dina’s relationship to the next logical level while bringing up some pertinent LGBT+ issues, which is a shame because the episode once again is carried on the backs of Bella Ramsey and Isabela Merced. After a casual, throwaway line that carries devastatingly tragic implications (neither Ellie or Dina have a clue what the pride flag is, just showing how the world has stalled in the face of near extinction), we later find that the pair give in to the carnal urges that’s been building for a while as they make love after a near death experience. However, after a fairly full on love scene, we find that Dina is pregnant with Jesse’s child and that Ellie is ecstatic that’s she’s “going to be a daddy”. While this is something everyone is going to have to unpack as the season plays this out (both within and outside the show) it’s going to be interesting to see how Ellie treats her friend-turned-lover now – especially as Dina has discovered her secret of being immune to the Cordyceps virus in the most upsetting way.
It does feel a little like the episode drops in an incredibly tense, subterranean run-in with the infected to try to soften the blow of so much queer representation to the exact people who will immediately rush onto the Internet to complain, but as it stands, both are handled well and it’s not like The Last Of Us hasn’t dealt extensively with same sex relationships before.
No, if you want to be concerned about anything, be concerned about the fact that the show is now starting to explore different human settlements and ideals starting to clash, which is one of the main reasons The Walking Dead dropped off so dramatically. While it’s an incredibly pertinent storyline to persue and it deals with a military force squaring up to a more religious order with murky beginnings, I’m legitimately worried that The Last Of Us might get too stuck on this much in the same way TWD sidelined it’s zombies to concentrate more on repetitive storylines involving more and more settlements falling to Rick Grimes and Co. and I’d hate to see the same thing happening here.
Still, despite my fears about the future of the plotting or certain people getting angry about the central relationships, The Last Of Us still manages to deliver the goods as always. The performances between Ramsay and Merced are still top notch as their chemistry now fuels the entire series and a moment where Ellie takes a moment to play “Take On Me” by A-Ha on a guitar while framed by overgrowth as Dina looks on with wonder in her eyes is genuinely sweet. However, we also get introduced to Jeffrey Wight’s Issac who may well become the series major antagonist (after Abby, of course) and after the opening flashback that sees him sacrifice his thuggish troops in order to leave the tyrannical FEDRA, later we get a shocking scene where he tortures a Seraphite prisoner by burning him with hot cooking implements which seems to go against his earlier, yet equally brutal, mindset.
As The Last Of Us complicates the playing field and strengthens the bond between the central duo even more, it still manages to bring the quality its always given us and at least it still remembers to keep the Infected an ever present threat. But until I see exactly where this WLF/Seraphite storyline is going, my biggest fear isn’t mushroom headed marauders or tiresome online complaints of a woke agenda – its that The Last Of Us is going to lose its edge the same way The Walking Dead did; a fact made even more alarming when you consider that the season premier of Dead City season 2 was released on the exact same day.
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