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Forbes
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘The Last Of Us' Made One Huge Mistake In Season 2, And It Creates A Major Problem For Season 3
The Last Of Us Much has been made of the casting of Ellie in HBO's adaptation of The Last Of Us. On the one hand, I agree that it's difficult to accept someone who looks as young and small as Bella Ramsey take on the role required of her in Season 2. The video game version of Ellie is, at this point, much older and tougher than she was in the first game. Ramsey looks just as young and tiny as she did in Season 1. Spoilers ahead. On the other hand, I disagree with complaints that Ramsey isn't up to the task from an acting standpoint. When she was at her best this season, she pulled off exactly the emotional range required of her, whether that was during Joel's brutal murder or in gentler moments, like the Museum flashback or her performance of A-ha's Take On Me. I'd go even further and point to Season 1, in which (for the most part) not only was Ramsey excellent throughout, the character of Ellie was presented in a way that lined up pretty perfectly with the video game character she's based on. (To those who mock Bella's appearance on social media, I have nothing but scorn and pity – bullying is for children, yet plenty of adults in this day and age have lost all semblance of decency). Season 2's Ellie fails due to the writing. Some baffling decisions were made that fundamentally alter not only her characterization and arc, but the very nature of the story itself. It appears that the writers were convinced that the game was too dark, that its tone was too bleak for audiences, and so Ellie's character was offered up as the sacrificial lamb in some very puzzling attempt to make her and the story more palatable. In doing so, the show failed at one important mission: To make us start to dislike Ellie but still root for her to succeed. What the show did instead was neuter Ellie's revenge arc, making her unlikable for all the wrong reasons. Instead of seeing her become the monster she needs to become, while still hoping that she tracks down Abby and takes her revenge, we see her as an incompetent, brash, childish character who isn't even particularly invested in revenge to begin with. It's hard to root for someone who doesn't seem to care that much about their own mission to begin with. Even before Joel's death, Ellie was presented as an obnoxious teenager rather than the more hardened version of the character she'd become over the intervening years. Perhaps hoping that more comic relief would endear us to Ellie, the show makes her a wisecracking kid most of the time. In the process, all her skills and intellect are cast aside. She's less clever and less capable than she was at 14 in Season 1. Now it is Dina who must show her the way, urge her on her path of revenge, remind her when to be quiet and what supplies to pack. Jessie chastises her for her selfishness, saves her from tight spots, and prevents her from getting them both killed when she wants to save a Scar child from a pack of Wolves. Time and again, she only narrowly escapes a situation she's put herself in or is rescued. Almost never do we see a competent, self-assured Ellie making hard choices that she has to live with. Even her moments of revenge and violence are dampened. Instead of shooting Owen and then stabbing Mel through the throat with her knife, she shoots the pair of them, killing Mel by mistake. She doesn't even use her knife on the one WLF guard she takes down, choosing to choke hold him instead of the more obvious stabbing kill. And she doesn't kill a dog, I suppose because that might make us dislike her even more. Ellie's violence is always uncertain and, other than Nora, her kills leave her shaken and upset rather than kindling her determination. Sure, we need to see how they impact her, but this version of Ellie seems only regretful and rarely driven except when the writers flip her revenge switch. It's whiplash-inducing from a character standpoint. When Dina reveals she's pregnant, Ellie makes a dad joke instead of getting angry and treating Dina and her pregnancy as a terrible inconvenience. And you might think that would make her more likeable, but instead it makes her seem wishy-washy and uncommitted. It's no wonder that Dina, when she learns of Joel's past, is upset and and shuts down, distancing herself from Ellie and telling her it's time to go home. In the game, Dina is supportive of Ellie when she learns this hard truth. Because it doesn't matter what Joel did. The only thing that matters is getting justice. But with an Ellie so devoid of her own drive and motivation, why should we expect Dina to act any other way? The Last Of Us Season 2 needed to show us the transformation of Ellie from a happy-go-lucky apocalypse survivor to a competent killer hellbent on revenge, who treats those around her as obstacles when they get in the way, and who mercilessly stalks her quarry. It needed to do that while still making us root for her to succeed, using flashbacks like the museum scene to remind us who she once was and what's been lost. Instead, she bumbles along in a half-assed revenge quest where she's neither ruthless nor competent, just another road-trip with the adults who have to protect and shield her along the way. Fundamentally, this season should have been about Ellie breaking bad. And like that show, it should have given us an Ellie more akin to Walter White than this aimless child. Walter White is exactly what I'm describing: A ruthless, competent monster who, even when he shows his true colors, the audience roots for even against our better judgment. Sure, at a certain point most Breaking Bad fans had turned on Walter, as the horrors of his vanity and ambition left too much ruin in his wake to ignore. That's exactly the path Ellie needed to go down this season (and a few more episodes could have fleshed out this spiral, though only if the writing and direction had allowed the extra space to matter). Alas, we have come to the end of Season 2 and are now poised to watch Abby's arc unfold in Season 3. It is too late to give us the story we needed for Ellie at this point, which is a terrible shame. The show has already done irrevocable damage to Abby's story as well, spelling out her motivations long before we should have known what they were. The biggest problem, however, is that Abby's arc needs to be the mirror opposite of Ellie's. While we were supposed to follow Ellie down a monstrous path, we need to then follow Abby down one of redemption. We need to see the human being behind the monster, and this needs to reflect Ellie's own arc in reverse. With Ellie's story so badly jumbled, I see no clear way the show can achieve this in Season 3. And without these two stories mirroring one another, without these two characters hurtling toward one another, effectively becoming one another, I'm not at all certain how Season 4 can achieve the emotional heights it requires. And that's to say nothing of them moving the final scene of the game up into Season 2, Episode 6. Oh well. Mistakes were made. At least we have the games. Read my Season 2 review here: What say you, dearest readers? Let me know on Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. Also be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me here on this blog. Sign up for my newsletter for more reviews and commentary on entertainment and culture.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘The Last of Us' Reveals Ellie and Dina's Life-Changing Secrets
(Warning: Spoilers ahead.) There is nothing quite like nearly dying to move a relationship to the next level. Sure enough, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Dina (Isabela Merced) become more intimately acquainted after dodging death at human and infected hands in an action-packed The Last of Us. It is a revelation-filled episode that sees both young women revealing secrets—and themselves. Venturing into Seattle opens with a pleasant hangout in the city's now-abandoned gay neighborhood, Capitol Hill. Ellie and Dina have a moment to breathe before horror nips at their ankles—and arm. Ellie finds a guitar in perfect condition and plays an acoustic version of A-ha's 'Take on Me,' moving Dina to tears and showcasing both Ramsey and Merced's range as actors. It serves as a poignant reminder of Joel (Pedro Pascal) and what he taught Ellie, beyond just survival skills. Still, it doesn't take long for the pair to locate the militia that Joel's killer, Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), belongs to. While they don't find Abby, Ellie and Dina have an eye-opening encounter in which they learn they are not the only ones hunting the Washington Liberation Front, also known as the Wolves. What begins as gathering intel descends into a subway ride from hell. After last week's zombie-free outing, The Last of Us goes all out with a sequence that had my heart in my mouth. It begins with Ellie and Dina discovering a gory tableau; several Wolves have been gutted. 'Feel Her Love' is written in blood next to the same symbol worn by the massacred group that Dina and Ellie found on their journey. The duo has stumbled upon a turf war. Oops! Last week, I incorrectly assumed the group known as Seraphites (or Scars) were pacifists, and didn't think it was Abby's militia that did this. It turns out I was very wrong as the Scars have shed a lot of Wolf blood—and vice versa. 'What the f--- is wrong with Seattle?!' Dina says after throwing up a second time—and I start to wonder if she is pregnant. There is zero time to assess the situation before a team of Wolves arrives on the scene. The pair hides, but needs to find a way out of the building and is at a disadvantage because they are unfamiliar with this location. However, they are experienced in escaping difficult situations. When the patrol gives chase, they can't squeeze through the same gap into the subway system as Dina and Ellie. The soldiers know another way, soon lighting the transit tunnels with red flares. It is a good news/bad news situation as one flare lands on a parasitic fungus, immediately attracting a swarm of infected to their location. At first, it sounds like a few are coming their way, but Dina will run out of fingers, toes, and body parts if they wait to do a head count. The Wolves are quickly overwhelmed, leaving Ellie and Dina with the undead. A derailed subway train proves to be a reprieve, but soon the zombies are punching their way through windows. The tight space and sheer volume add to an already edge-of-your-seat sequence. The pair escapes the train, but hits another obstacle that can be a pain even without a horde on your heels: the iron maiden turnstile. Not having a card to swipe through isn't the issue. Instead, the exit hasn't been used in over two decades, and barely moves. To buy Dina some time, Ellie pulls her immunity trick out of the bag. But when the infected bites her arm, Dina has zero idea that Ellie hasn't sacrificed her life. Unlike a flimsy fence, the turnstile keeps the infected at bay. Above ground, an old movie theater offers shelter. Or rather, a place for Dina to shoot an infected Ellie. 'I would die for you, but that's not just what happened,' Ellie says. Ellie's immunity is a closely guarded secret, and no matter how flippant she seemed in the premiere when she was teasing Tommy (Gabriel Luna), Ellie has stuck to this code of silence. However, getting bitten could lead to death by gunshot instead. It is another tense situation, which Ellie tries to defuse by telling Dina to let her go to sleep, and if she turns, then Dina can kill her. Of course, Ellie is confident it won't happen, but Dina looks terrified. When Ellie wakes up later, the bite shows zero sign of infection. One revelation down, another to go. 'I'm pregnant,' says Dina. Honestly, I am shocked at myself for not calling it last week when Dina puked (the tell-tale TV pregnancy trope). Dina kisses Ellie, and all thoughts of babies and bites slip away as they go much further than New Year's Eve (thankfully, there are no homophobes, Wolves, or infected to interrupt). The following morning. Dina looks at the fresh bite and then the tattoo-covered scar. It is open confession season, as Dina admits that thinking she had lost Ellie made her confront the attraction she has long denied. Dina knew Ellie had feelings for her and that Jesse (Young Mazino) wasn't the one. 'No, you like boys,' Dina's mother insisted when her daughter said she was into boys and girls. Dina thinks Ellie is brave for being out, and Ellie jokes that she's 'just obvious.' By the end of the episode, Dina and Ellie are even more united. Ellie wants to raise the baby with Dina (and Jesse), but gives Dina an out in this fight because of her pregnancy. The radio they lifted from one of the dead proves handy as they hear gunshots and recognize the name of one of Abby's team members. Dina insists she will join Ellie on this mission. But who are they facing? Well, for starters, Jeffrey Wright as former FEDRA soldier Isaac. The episode opens with a flashback to 2018, when Isaac killed his FEDRA unit, including Josh Peck (from Drake & Josh), sparing only young soldier Burton. (As a Guilded Age fan, I was thrilled to spot 'Clock Twink' Ben Ahlers with another HBO gig under his belt.) This introduction shows Isaac becoming a Wolf, joining Hanrahan (Alanna Ubach, another HBO mainstay), and he remains a commanding force in the present, giving a tutorial about Mauviel copper pans as an instrument of torture rather than fine dining. The interrogation scene highlights that the Scars are impossible to break, and some Wolves have switched sides. Can Ellie and Dina use this ongoing bloody war to their advantage? All of Ellie and Dina's cards are on the table with no secrets left to tell (other than what Joel did to the Fireflies), and they are more united than ever before. Perhaps the two of them versus an army isn't such bad odds after all.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
For 'The Last of Us' cast, music was a throughline on and off screen
Throughout HBO's post-apocalyptic series 'The Last of Us,' music plays a role in setting the mood for moments big and small, heartfelt and heart-wrenching. It's not unlike the video game, which was hailed for its original soundtrack by Gustavo Santaolalla (who is also a composer on the show), and for the pop music covers that helped to elevate the narrative. In the most recent episode of Season 2 of 'The Last of Us,' titled 'The Price,' there's a callback to a scene from the game that fans have been waiting for: Joel (Pedro Pascal) performs a stripped down version of Pearl Jam's 'Future Days' for Ellie (Bella Ramsey). The song captures the themes of loss and losing yourself, but also of moving forward together. And it's not the only instance of a pop song showcasing characters' emotions — in 'Day One,' the fourth episode of Season 2, Ellie performs an acoustic cover of A-ha's 'Take on Me' as Dina (Isabela Merced) walks in and gently persuades her to continue playing the tender rendition. It's another adaptation from the video game that signals the kindling of the relationship between Ellie and Dina. 'Bella is playing the guitar in the scene where Ellie plays the guitar and sings 'Take on Me' to Dina. That's Bella. No tricks,' said Craig Mazin, co-creator of 'The Last of Us,' in an interview earlier this year. For Neil Druckmann, co-creator of the series and the video game franchise, he knew that when Ramsey was cast, the actor's musical abilities would be an asset for future installments. 'I remember seeing a video of them playing and singing and talking to Craig and being like, 'Oh, they're ready to go for if we get to Season 2,'' he said. Ramsey, however, isn't alone in their musical abilities. Over the course of the season in interviews with the cast and creators of the series, it became clear that music was a shared passion that bonded them on and off screen. Here, we collect some of their thoughts on music and performing together. For Bella Ramsey, music has been another creative outlet that brings them joy. In an interview before the launch of Season 2, Ramsey would only tease the possibility of Ellie picking up a guitar like in the game, but did share that making music is something they were doing 'quietly at the moment.' Read more: Bella Ramsey is embracing the difficult parts of Ellie and 'The Last of Us' 'Up until recently, I've been very embarrassed by music and not very confident in it at all, my own music,' Ramsey told The Times. But 'through the producers that I've been working with [and] an amazing music manager, Tom, I feel really excited about it now.' While Ramsey isn't quite sure when they'll be releasing any of their own music — they headed directly into production of an indie film following 'The Last of Us' press tour — they said that when they do, it will 'probably [be] in a sneaky way.' 'Making music has sort of given me the same feelings of like joy and satisfaction that being on set gives me,' Ramsey said. If you follow Gabriel Luna on Instagram, many of the stories and posts he's published over the course of the second season have featured him performing on red carpets or with his castmates, jamming during down time on the set of the show. (While in London for one of the show's premieres, he "bought a guitar because my hands were just itching.") In an interview tied to the third episode, he spoke about the mutual admiration between the actors in the cast: "There's real love there, even among the people who are onscreen nemeses, mortal enemies. I think that's what makes it safe to hate each other, to seek each other's demise [onscreen].' Read more: Gabriel Luna on Tommy's goodbye to Joel in 'The Last of Us' and its double meaning That love is evident in those jam sessions, which have included covers of the Cranberries and Radiohead. But a video featuring him strumming a guitar with his young castmate Ezra Agbonkhese, who plays Tommy's son Benjamin, is one of the sweetest. Agbonkhese and Luna duet to 'Off Road Racing Truck' by Twenty Trucks, which you guessed it, is about racing trucks. According to Young Mazino, guitars were a lifesaver on the set of 'The Last of Us.' 'We all brought a guitar without even telling each other so there was always a guitar on set,' Mazino told The Times in advance of the show's fifth episode. 'Bella, Isabella, Gabriel … Somebody would be playing some tune or a song, and if we knew it, we join in [or] we learn it.' Read more: 'The Last of Us' star Young Mazino on Jesse, the show's 'gentle monster' The world of the series is plenty bleak with the ever present threat of the fungal infection that turns human hosts into ravenous, zombie-like creatures. In Season 2, Mazino's character Jesse had to track his closest friends, who are on a quest for vengeance, into a war zone. He explained that everybody's love of music and 'trad[ing] songs like Pokémon' helped provide some needed levity during marathon shooting days where things tended to get heavy. 'Isabella and Bella would randomly break out into an a cappella somewhere,' Mazino said. 'I could just hear their angelic voices in the mix while I'm brooding in a corner getting ready.' Sign up for Screen Gab, a free newsletter about the TV and movies everyone's talking about from the L.A. Times. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
For ‘The Last of Us' cast, music was a throughline on and off screen
Throughout HBO's post-apocalyptic series 'The Last of Us,' music plays a role in setting the mood for moments big and small, heartfelt and heart-wrenching. It's not unlike the video game, which was hailed for its original soundtrack by Gustavo Santaolalla (who is also a composer on the show), and for the pop music covers that helped to elevate the narrative. In the most recent episode of Season 2 of 'The Last of Us,' titled 'The Price,' there's a callback to a scene from the game that fans have been waiting for: Joel (Pedro Pascal) performs a stripped down version of Pearl Jam's 'Future Days' for Ellie (Bella Ramsey). The song captures the themes of loss and losing yourself, but also of moving forward together. And it's not the only instance of a pop song showcasing characters' emotions — in 'Day One,' the fourth episode of Season 2, Ellie performs an acoustic cover of A-ha's 'Take on Me' as Dina (Isabela Merced) walks in and gently persuades her to continue playing the tender rendition. It's another adaptation from the video game that signals the kindling of the relationship between Ellie and Dina. 'Bella is playing the guitar in the scene where Ellie plays the guitar and sings 'Take on Me' to Dina. That's Bella. No tricks,' said Craig Mazin, co-creator of 'The Last of Us,' in an interview earlier this year. For Neil Druckmann, co-creator of the series and the video game franchise, he knew that when Ramsey was cast, the actor's musical abilities would be an asset for future installments. 'I remember seeing a video of them playing and singing and talking to Craig and being like, 'Oh, they're ready to go for if we get to Season 2,'' he said. Ramsey, however, isn't alone in their musical abilities. Over the course of the season in interviews with the cast and creators of the series, it became clear that music was a shared passion that bonded them on and off screen. Here, we collect some of their thoughts on music and performing together. For Bella Ramsey, music has been another creative outlet that brings them joy. In an interview before the launch of Season 2, Ramsey would only tease the possibility of Ellie picking up a guitar like in the game, but did share that making music is something they were doing 'quietly at the moment.' 'Up until recently, I've been very embarrassed by music and not very confident in it at all, my own music,' Ramsey told The Times. But 'through the producers that I've been working with [and] an amazing music manager, Tom, I feel really excited about it now.' While Ramsey isn't quite sure when they'll be releasing any of their own music — they headed directly into production of an indie film following 'The Last of Us' press tour — they said that when they do, it will 'probably [be] in a sneaky way.' 'Making music has sort of given me the same feelings of like joy and satisfaction that being on set gives me,' Ramsey said. If you follow Gabriel Luna on Instagram, many of the stories and posts he's published over the course of the second season have featured him performing on red carpets or with his castmates, jamming during down time on the set of the show. (While in London for one of the show's premieres, he 'bought a guitar because my hands were just itching.') In an interview tied to the third episode, he spoke about the mutual admiration between the actors in the cast: 'There's real love there, even among the people who are onscreen nemeses, mortal enemies. I think that's what makes it safe to hate each other, to seek each other's demise [onscreen].' That love is evident in those jam sessions, which have included covers of the Cranberries and Radiohead. But a video featuring him strumming a guitar with his young castmate Ezra Agbonkhese, who plays Tommy's son Benjamin, is one of the sweetest. Agbonkhese and Luna duet to 'Off Road Racing Truck' by Twenty Trucks, which you guessed it, is about racing trucks. According to Young Mazino, guitars were a lifesaver on the set of 'The Last of Us.' 'We all brought a guitar without even telling each other so there was always a guitar on set,' Mazino told The Times in advance of the show's fifth episode. 'Bella, Isabella, Gabriel … Somebody would be playing some tune or a song, and if we knew it, we join in [or] we learn it.' The world of the series is plenty bleak with the ever present threat of the fungal infection that turns human hosts into ravenous, zombie-like creatures. In Season 2, Mazino's character Jesse had to track his closest friends, who are on a quest for vengeance, into a war zone. He explained that everybody's love of music and 'trad[ing] songs like Pokémon' helped provide some needed levity during marathon shooting days where things tended to get heavy. 'Isabella and Bella would randomly break out into an a cappella somewhere,' Mazino said. 'I could just hear their angelic voices in the mix while I'm brooding in a corner getting ready.'
Elle
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Elle
Pedro Pascal Returns to 'The Last of Us' and Makes an Important Revelation About Joel and Ellie
Spoilers below. After all the brutality we've witnessed on The Last of Us these past few episodes—the turf war between the WLF and Seraphites, disembowelments and cruel beatings, attacks from infected stalkers—we needed a little tenderness. And who better to give it to us than Pedro Pascal? Season 2, episode 6 unfolds through a series of flashbacks, tracing Pascal's Joel from his childhood to his final days with Ellie, marking a welcome and heartfelt return for the lead actor. Many have been feeling withdrawal since Abby beat Joel to death before our eyes and Ellie's, and although Bella Ramsey has been carrying on with Isabel Merced (Dina), there's an unspeakable comfort in seeing Pascal again, specifically at Ramsey's side. Their reunion is bittersweet, shadowed by the knowledge that it won't last. The first flashback takes us all the way back to 1983, during Joel's adolescent years in Austin, Texas. He and Tommy are about to be in trouble when their dad gets home. Tommy was caught trying to buy weed, and Joel stood up for him and got into a fight. The cops were called. Their father, a police officer, of course has already heard about it. Tommy is afraid he'll get belted, and again Joel stands up for his brother, sending him away to talk to their dad first when he arrives. But instead of getting violent, Mr. Miller gets Joel a beer from the fridge and the two have an honest conversation. Joel asks why he hits Tommy, and his father responds with a story. When he was young, Joel's grandfather once punished him by hitting him so hard he broke his jaw; there was so much blood that Joel's grandmother thought he was dead. Mr. Miller knew his own father loved him, but he was too tough, so when he became a parent, he tried to do 'a little better than my father did.' He hopes Joel does the same. 'You'll know when its your turn. I hope you do a little better than me.' What follows is Joel doing his best when his time comes. The next flashback takes place decades later, a few months after Joel and Ellie have arrived in Jackson. He trades Seth a bag of legos for Seth's grandkids in exchange for a cake for Ellie's birthday, along with a bone. At home, Joel grinds the latter into a sleek saddle for a custom guitar he's making with his bare hands—turns out Joel is a master carpenter. He even carves a moth into the neck of the guitar. He works wearing his watch, the same one his father was wearing in the previous scene. When the instrument is complete, Tommy barges in with Ellie, who is drugged out on painkillers because she had just burned her arm on a burning pot. (She was trying to cover up the bite marks on her skin, she's tired of not wearing short sleeves again.) Joel embraces her rather than snaps at her. Okay, gentle parenting! Here, we get a bit of Joel and Ellie's life in Jackson together. (Did you catch the A-ha 'Take on Me' cassette on the counter?) He unveils Seth's cake for her, and although her name is spelled wrong ('Happy 15th birthday Eli'), she doesn't wait to devour a handful of it. He gives her a guitar as a gift and she eggs him on to sing, then he serenades her with Pearl Jam's 'Future Days' in a low, rough voice. (This is the song Ellie couldn't bring herself to sing in a previous episode.) The following year, they're on a playful walk through the woods together as Joel is leading Ellie to secret surprise. He tries to talk to her about 'the birds and the bees'—a classic parental milestone—before they reach their destination: a museum. There's a T-rex statue and a planetarium and a spaceship. Ellie is ecstatic and Joel is pleased. He knows he did well. But when Ellie turns 17, something shifts. Joel comes home early with a cake to find Ellie in her room fooling around with a girl, getting a tattoo, and smoking weed. The teenage angst is settling in, and a distance is forming between them. Joel rushes to judge Ellie for 'experimenting' with girls; she decides to move into the garage. Joel catches the moth drawings that Ellie's been sketching from her dreams. He thinks it's a metaphor for this period of change in her life, but Gail says it's a symbol of death. A later sketch shows what Ellie really thinks it means: 'You have a greater purpose.' Fast-forward two years, 19-year-old Ellie is in her room rehearsing some questions for Joel. A lot of time has passed since their escape from Salt Lake City, but doubts still linger in her mind. Were there really raiders at the hospital? Were there other immune people? How did they make it out alive? Joel interrupts her rehearsal with some long-awaited good news: He's taking her on her first patrol of Jackson. They start with an easy route, but Joel gets alerted via radio that an infected was spotted outside of town, and the civilians need backup. One of them is Eugene, Gail's husband. We already know that he dies, and that Joel is involved…we can probably guess what's going to happen next. When Joel and Ellie get to Eugene, he's already been bitten, but he thinks he still has enough time to say goodbye to Gail. Ellie sympathizes with him. She tests his cognition and reasons that he has an hour left before he turns full zombie. That's enough time to get back to the Jackson gates and bring Gail out for a final farewell. Joel acquiesces, telling Ellie to grab their horses, and promises he'll meet her there with Eugene. But he doesn't. Instead, Joel leads Eugene to a dead end at the lake and holds him at gunpoint. He ignores Eugene's pleas to see Gail again ('I need her last words for me!' he cries), but Joel convinces him that if you really loves someone, you can always see their face. Eugene's expression softens. 'I see her,' he says. You don't hear Joel's gun go off, but you do see a flock of birds flying out of the trees, startled by the sound. Ellie arrives with the horses to find Eugene shot dead on the ground. Her trust in Joel is completely broken. She's silent on the ride back home. When Tommy brings Gail to Eugene's remains, Joel tells her a lie about how Eugene decided to end his own life after getting bit. But Ellie can't hold in the truth, telling Gail that her husband begged to see her and Joel ultimately shot him in the head. Gail is disgusted, Joel is shocked, and Ellie is hurt. 'You swore,' she tells Joel, her voice breaking. Thus explains why Ellie and Joel are on such rocky terms when season 2 begins, which is nine months after Eugene's death. Not only is Ellie in her angsty teen years—she feels betrayed by her partner in crime and father figure, the person she trusts most. Joel is aware of his mistake too, so when we're back at that New Year's Eve scene and he sees Ellie dancing with Dina, he tries to do right by them. 'Family helps each other out if you need it,' his sister-in-law Maria tells him. We watch from Joel's point of view in the party as Seth hurls a homophobic slur at Ellie and Dina. Joel rushes to push him to the ground to save Ellie, the girl he's saved so many times before. But she growls at Joel; she doesn't need his help. Next, we get another replay of season 2, episode 1, as Joel returns home to play guitar (the one he made for Ellie) on his porch. Ellie arrives home and pauses to look at him, then retreats back to the garage. That's how we think the night ended for these two, but in this flashback we learn there was more to it: Ellie returns to the porch to talk to Joel. He tries to be a supportive dad (he's really trying!) 'Dina, is she your girlfriend now?' he asks Ellie, later adding, 'She'd be lucky to have you.' It's a sweet gesture, but Ellie is still hesitant to trust Joel again. Now is the time to ask those questions she rehearsed, and if Joel lies, 'we're done' for good, Ellie says. Were there other raiders in Salt Lake City? Were there other immune people? Joel shakes his head silently, tearing up. Could they have made a cure? He nods. Ellie's eyes well up with tears (the performances by Ramsey and Pascal are Emmy-worthy here, as if they weren't already). 'My life would've fucking mattered, but you took that from me,' she scolds him. She says he did all that because he's selfish, but he corrects her: 'Because I love you.' She might not be able to understand it now, just like he didn't when he was her age, but he knows she will one day. When she's older and decides to have children of her own, 'I hope you do better than me,' Joel says, echoing his own father's words. It's starting to make sense to Ellie. 'I don't think I can forgive you for this,' she says. 'But I would like to try.' It seems like they left on better terms than we thought. This scene offered a sense of closure both for the characters and the viewers, as we return to the present timeline without Joel. We know now that his teachings are alive with Ellie, who, let's not forget, is about to become a parent (or co-parent). After Dina revealed her pregnancy to her, Ellie said, 'I'm going to be a dad!' The sweet response wasn't just a joke—it was a full-circle moment generations in the making.
