As we quickly reach the end of the second season of The Last Of Us, I have to continue my fears that the show based on the groundbreaking game series of the same name is balancing on a very precarious beam and that one wring step could send the whole enterprise tumbling into the game over screen of utter mediocrity. The fact that all involved have created a show that stands apart when there’s literally dozens of other stories around that also tell the story of humanity struggling to survive after an apocalypse is impressive, the fact that it’s genuinely affecting almost every week is just short of a miracle – however I’ve been getting a feeling that the second season is stretching the plot of the game out a little too much and is in very real danger of becoming repetitive.
As Ellie continues to hunt down the one behind Joel’s murder the wheels seem to be spinning in place; can the show avoid the pot holes that have scuppered simular titles over the years?
Hiding in Seattle, waiting to make their move onto the WLF base to try and locate the whereabouts of Abby, Ellie and Dina try to put recent revelations to the side (Ellie’s immune, Dina’s pregnant) and focus at the task at hand. Thankfully Dina’s smarts equally match Ellie’s enthusiasm and she figures a way to avoid any patrols by entering a large building that curiously remains unguarded probably due to the fact that it’s populated with Infected. However, while they’re fully prepared for the odd Clicker, when they discover that the place is rotten with the new, smarter breed of Cordyceps (aka. Stalkers) that they encountered before, they soon find themselves overwhelmed.
Luckily for them, they’ve been followed by both Dina’s ex, Jesse and Joel’s brother Tommy who is searching another part of the city, but their rescue is short lived when the ruckus they’ve caused summons the WLF who chase them into a nearby park but then suddenly halt their pursuit. It turns out that in a classic fryingpan/fire scenario, the park is the territory of the Seraphites, a religious order that have renounced technology and are currently embroiled in a turf war with the WLF. After disturbing an execution that sees a WLF member get opened up like a zip lock bag, Dina catches an arrow in the leg for her troubles and the group has to split up.
Fortunately (and I use the term fairly losely), Ellie ends up at Lakehill Hospital, a place that we’ve already established holds Nora, one of Abby’s gang who was complicit in Joel’s death. After confronting her target, Ellie finds that she has to chase Nora before she alerts her fellow “Wolves”, but after the pursuit takes a bad turn for Nora thanks to a basement utterly loaded with Cordyceps spores, Ellie finally takes the first steps of her dark journey towards getting the revenge that she thirsts for.
Some of you may find that my weekly concerns about The Last Of Us being in danger of suddenly backsliding a bit unfounded as the show seems to be firing on all cylinders when it comes to the overall quality of the show and the themes it’s trying to hit. However, while I would agree that the continuing adventures of Ellie and Joel (not so much Joel) has always been deliberately paced by design in order to wring the maximum amount of drama out of an already tense situation, there is a feeling that The Last Of Us is currently stuck in a holding pattern. While I would go so far to declare Feel Her Love a filler episode, it does tend to go over a lot of points that were already established in the previous episode and it’s rare for such a precisely plotted show to double down in stuff we’ve already covered. OK, so maybe it covers it in a slightly different way, butvits still weird that two back to back episodes would each contain Ellie and Dina bonding more;a moment where the latter once again ponders her ability to play music; more vague references to the Seraphites and their practices and a moment where the two girls suddenly find themselves in a dark place surrounded by Infected. Of course, the nature of the story dictates that this will all happen in some form at multiple points throughout a season, but for a show that uses well timed flashbacks and shifts of focus to keep things from getting repetitive, it’s strange that the powers that been would allow two episodes that are so similar to be released on consecutive weeks.
However, the good news is that even though it’s stepping over some recently trodden over ground (probably covered in dodgy looking mushrooms), the episode in of itself is of high quality. We start with a telling, seemingly unrelated, scene detailing some Cordyceps issues that the WLF is having with the basement of their hospital that pays off huge later on and from there it’s the Ellie and Dina show once again. Their chemistry and banter is still on point and it’s still always fun to witness how savvy the latter is when it comes to planning – but the best moment about them this episode is when Isabela Merced gets to deliver a speech that perfectly details why she is so adamant with sticking with this revenge mission. Later on, the moment that sees the two being stalked by… well, Stalkers, is similarly proficient with some truly haunting images being offered up and this new breed of Infected getting some much needed screen time, but even though it’s nail biting stuff and it means that Jesse gets to be reintroduced as a surprising saviour, there’s a sense that the show has sort of forgotten the mission a little bit. I’d agree that to rush straight in and have Ellie immediately start knocking off the members of Abby’s crew would do the show a disservice, but it’s now obvious that with only two episodes left of the season, Ellie’s quest will spill over into the proposed third season which may cause other issues further down the road.
Anyway, when the episode finally gets going and business picks up, all those lingering fears and concerns of mine dispersed into the air like malevolent spores. Ellie achieves the first piece of her revenge puzzle when she catches up with Nora and it’s every bit electric as you’d hope. There’s a chase and a genuinely horrific meeting with what’s lurking in the basement of Lakeview – the squad mentioned at the start of the episode have become living spore dispensers with every laboured breath – but the real meat here is that Ellie finally gets to get her pound of flesh. Ignoring Nora’s explanation about what Joel actually did to reveal that she actually knew all along, she then goes on to prove to her rapidly zombifying victim with her resistance to the deadly shit floating in the air that the legends of the immune girl are true. From there, Nora gets to ride the pain train as she’s battered repeatedly with a metal pipe until she spills the beans and while Ellie has taken lives before, it’s never been this personal and this cold.
A strangely overly familiar episode that trips alarms that the show could be settling into a unwelcome pattern of repetition is ultimately saved by its overall quality and a brutally satisfying ending. If I had to call it, Feel Her Love is a superior entry to the previous installment but is scuppered somewhat by replaying already established points. However, with a massive hint that the next episode is transporting us to flashbackville hanging in the air, fingers crossed that The Last Of Us continues to once again keep us on our toes.
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