Hey people. Y’all feeling alright after final week’s harrowing episode of The Final of Us? All people have a productive remedy session to speak about your TV peepaw’s dying? Alright, cool, as a result of we’re gonna spend this week’s episode doing extra remedy and leaning more durable into the present’s worst tendencies. Strap in, people. I’m about to start out swinging.
Put up trauma
We open on the bloody aftermath of the battle in Jackson. Corpses, human and contaminated, are scattered throughout the small city. However the physique we linger on didn’t come from the huge conflict; it’s Joel’s. In a somber second, Tommy (Gabriel Luna) involves the morgue to see his huge brother. He begins to wash his arm and sees the damaged watch on his wrist. He provides his brother yet another longing look and tells him to “give Sarah [his] love” earlier than getting again to work.
Final week, I used to be admittedly fairly dismissive of a few of these smaller added moments of grief the present provides to what was in The Final of Us Half II, the sport on which this season is predicated. Ellie crawling to Joel’s physique and cuddling as much as him felt performative to me within the second, and perhaps that was extra me reacting to the present’s broader lack of restraint than to the scene itself. However this scene with Tommy landed for me as a result of we received remarkably little of Tommy’s grief in Half II, and since it wasn’t led as much as by 10 minutes of monologuing and telling me what to really feel. Tommy is chatting with Joel, to not the viewers.
We then see a bustling hospital stuffed with the injured from the battle. Ellie can also be right here after Manny kicked her within the chest and seemingly collapsed considered one of her lungs. She’s respiration weakly by way of a chest tube as she wakes, however instantly begins screaming as she remembers what Abby did to Joel till she’s sedated. Minimize to credit.
We then bounce ahead to a few months later. Issues are warming up, and Jackson has made good progress rebuilding after the battle towards the horde. Ellie, in the meantime, has additionally made good progress and is getting her last check-up with the docs after her accidents. However she has to see yet another particular person earlier than she will go away the hospital: Gail (Catherine O’Hara).
As I mentioned within the episode one recap, Gail is considered one of my least favourite additions within the present, not as a result of O’Hara isn’t fantastic, however as a result of she facilitates among the present’s worst tendencies. Ellie, clearly telling Gail what she thinks she needs to listen to, now unloads about how she misses Joel, laments that the “final time” they spoke was the New 12 months’s dance fiasco, and says that your last moments with somebody shouldn’t outline your life with them. Then when the dialog veers into when Joel supposedly “wronged” her, Ellie says she doesn’t know what he might have meant and needs she might have “let him off the hook” for that, however that she’ll additionally must “let herself off the hook” for not having the ability to take action.
Gail lets Ellie go however appears principally unconvinced by her performative response to her line of questioning. And as quickly as they’re achieved, Ellie’s chipper facade falls away rapidly, and the smile disappears from her face as rapidly as she put it on. The irony of this scene is that Ellie is talking aloud the issues she’s going to ultimately study, even when she doesn’t imagine any of it proper now. She pulls off a convincing sufficient efficiency to go away the ability, however there was nonetheless a part of me that felt suspicious of this alternate after the present has already confirmed it doesn’t belief its viewers to observe alongside. I can’t assist however have a look at this scene and really feel prefer it’s meant to inform viewers what Ellie ought to be feeling moderately than the emotions of fury she does proper now. A therapist accepted all these strains of thought, proper? That’s the one method she’s deemed of sound thoughts to stroll across the residents of Jackson as soon as once more. In a vacuum, the scene is okay and illustrates that Ellie remains to be very a lot wrestling with debilitating anger and doesn’t belief the adults in her life, however once more, each time The Final of Us describes the themes of the supply materials in no unsure phrases, I’m left questioning why showrunner Craig Mazin has made these blunt edits. Does he not think about the viewers to get it, or is he making up for what he perceives as a weak hyperlink within the sport’s writing?
Talking of exhibiting as a substitute of telling, we now get the present’s model of considered one of The Final of Us Half II’s finest sequences: Joel’s dwelling. After Ellie is launched from the hospital, she heads dwelling, and as a substitute of going straight to her shed, she goes to Joel’s huge empty home. Flowers and tributes cowl the white picket fence. They’ve been there for months, however that is the primary time Ellie’s seen them. To Abby, Joel was a assassin. To Ellie, he was an advanced father determine. To the folks of Jackson, he was a beloved member of their group. There are totally different variations of every of us within the minds of everybody we’ve ever met, and the reality is all of us exist someplace within the center. That’s why folks come away from The Final of Us Half II with such contrasting emotions: as a result of all the sport is about that idea.
One good contact the present provides to this phase is that Ellie has a room in Joel’s home that wasn’t current within the sport. Although the mattress is now not right here and is now within the shed out again, the remainder of the room appears to be like largely untouched. It’s coated in astronaut stickers, previous sketches, and toys. It seems like a childhood bed room, whereas her new area provides off one thing extra like school burnout. The temporary shot we see of the previous room illustrates how a lot Ellie has grown up, however perhaps additionally how Joel in all probability felt left behind. He has this snapshot of a youthful model of his surrogate daughter in his own residence. No surprise he didn’t perceive the rift between them as she grew up.
Then we attain the intestine punch: Joel’s bed room. It’s stuffed with unfinished wooden carving tasks he’ll by no means return to, nevertheless it additionally has a small purple field sitting on the mattress. Inside, Ellie finds the final of Joel’s belongings: his damaged watch from Sarah and his trademark revolver. Ellie solely takes the latter earlier than turning to go away, but in addition takes a second to cease in Joel’s closet and take a whiff of his leather-based jacket. Then she lastly permits herself to cry earlier than this second is interrupted by Dina (Isabela Merced) calling to her from the decrease flooring.
Her good friend brings together with her two issues: cookies and data. She says that, when visiting Ellie within the hospital, she’d hid that she knew most of Abby’s group’s names as a result of the docs informed her to not inform Ellie something which may upset her whereas she was recovering. Ellie is livid as a result of Joel’s killers now have a three-month head begin, however Dina, being the extra level-headed particular person within the room, reminds her that if you wish to discover somebody and you realize the place they’re going to be, it’s best to allow them to get there. Then Dina reminds Ellie that she liked Joel, too. In Half II, Dina went to Seattle as a result of she’s a journey or die, however the present is giving her extra private stakes in seeing justice for Joel as a result of that they had a relationship of their very own. It’s a superb change; a variety of Dina’s characterization—comparable to her relationship together with her household’s Jewish historical past—is misplaced with out the ambient dialogue between her and Ellie within the early sport, so this helps fill out her character extra in a method I appreciated.
Dina runs down what she is aware of, together with the names of a lot of the group and a wolf patch she noticed on their gear with the initials “W.L.F.” She remembers a narrative Eugene informed her earlier than his passing about subsets of civilian militia that had been making an attempt to struggle FEDRA, the federal government company that turned fascist after the cordyceps outbreak, together with one known as the Washington Liberation Entrance. They don’t know what they’re up towards, however hopefully it’s not an excessive amount of for them to deal with.
However moderately than head out instantly, Ellie and Dina go to see Tommy. He’s hesitant as a result of the city remains to be recovering and never in any place to ship out a squad of vengeful troopers. Ellie says Joel would have already been midway to Seattle by now, a declare which Tommy rebuts, saying that he’d solely take that form of threat to avoid wasting somebody he cared about, to not search revenge (I don’t learn about that one, chief). In the event that they’re going to do that, they need to undergo Jackson protocol, which suggests taking it to Maria and the city’s council. Ellie isn’t thrilled, however Tommy says he’ll again her, and lets Dina know that if she holds again data once more, there will probably be penalties. As the women go away, Tommy tells Ellie that they buried the useless after the assault south of city, if she needs to go to. Ellie says she’s going to when she’s on the best way to Seattle. Tommy mentioned in episode one which Ellie and Joel had been the very same particular person, and her confident stubbornness on this second is giving Pedro Pascal. To her, this complete tune and dance is simply one other impediment in the best way of one thing inevitable. She will be able to’t think about another chance.
Literal and metaphorical scars
We’ve spent a variety of time in Jackson these previous few episodes, so this subsequent scene provides us a preview of what to anticipate in Seattle. We open on a lone man strolling by way of a forest sporting a tattered trench coat, sporting a shaved head, and with twin scars throughout his face. He whistles to a gaggle of equally dressed folks elsewhere within the forest, and one of many adults asks a younger lady to translate the that means of the whistles, which had been orders to maintain shifting as there was no hazard current. The group apparently doesn’t know the place they’re headed, however there’s a “motive” for this pilgrimage with no recognized vacation spot. There was a conflict occurring wherever they’re fleeing from, and the prophet they as soon as adopted has been useless for a decade, so she will’t defend them. However they maintain her spirit alive by following her teachings. To do that, they need to maintain themselves protected, which is why they’re armed with hammers and bows. Simply because the lady says she feels protected, one other whistle comes from the lookout, warning the group of incoming hazard. They cover within the forest, and the lady asks if it’s “demons,” to which the person replies that it’s “wolves.” On that ominous notice, the present pops again over to Dina’s sketch of the wolf patch she noticed on Abby’s garments.
Should you felt that was disorienting, I wouldn’t blame you, however these folks with all their cultish language and archaic weaponry are the Seraphites, a cult in Seattle that’s at conflict with the W.L.F. As we get near the Emerald Metropolis, among the uglier elements of the sequence to unpack will begin to grow to be extra outstanding, because the violence between the Seraphites and W.L.F. is impressed by the continuing conflicts in Palestine and Israel which have solely escalated within the years because the sport got here out. This isn’t me projecting; sequence director Neil Druckmann has mentioned as a lot. The precise specifics of how The Final of Us portrays its fictional conflict, and the way Druckmann’s public pro-Israel response to the continuing real-world battle have justifiably coloured the interpretations and experiences of the sequence for a lot of gamers, are lots to untangle and dissect. It’ll be a while earlier than the present actually dives into this plot thread and we actually must dig into it in these recaps, however I felt it was essential context to deliver up now as we start our journey to Seattle, the place this storyline turns into extra prevalent.
Ellie, in the meantime, is coaching for the upcoming struggle. Jesse is impressed that she’s bounced again so rapidly after being hospitalized, however not impressed sufficient to be forthcoming together with her concerning the upcoming council assembly. Now that he’s on the council, he can’t talk about his or anybody else’s votes, at the same time as Ellie tries to attraction to their friendship. As an indication of excellent religion, he does give Ellie some recommendation, telling her to jot down her ideas down and browse them to everybody within the assembly. Ellie dismissively takes this as an indication that she’s “silly,” however Jesse says it’s as a result of she’s indignant, and her incapacity to take that well-meaning recommendation as such is additional proof of that.
Sadly for Ellie, she has a variety of time to prepare her ideas on the council assembly as a result of her revenge tour will not be the one difficulty on the agenda. Some people got here to speak extra mundane shit like livestock. However when the subject of sending folks to Seattle comes up, Ellie isn’t the primary one to take the stand, it’s a lady who factors out that Jackson misplaced much more those who day than simply Joel. Issues are too fragile proper now, she says, to ship a big group chasing after Abby’s crew. One other man stands up and says that they need to separate themselves from the raiders and murderers by exhibiting mercy. Then, Ellie finds an surprising ally (see what I did there) in Seth, who says that these murderers don’t deserve mercy. The city bigot is the one one to assist vengeance for the person who knocked him on his prejudiced ass the evening earlier than he died. Seth says that they’ll be again to complete the job if Jackson doesn’t ship somebody after them.
When The Final of Us Half II got here out, there have been criticisms that the sport boiled right down to a metatextual scolding about one thing apparent to most civilized folks: violence is dangerous, truly. Revenge is not it. Even Kotaku’s assessment by Riley MacLeod touches on this, with him writing, “Late one evening, I paused the sport and requested myself aloud if the builders thought I used to be silly, in the event that they thought the existence of violence had simply by no means occurred to me earlier than.” I by no means felt this sort of condescension after I performed the sport, largely as a result of I considered revenge as one piece of the puzzle, moderately than the complete factor, however I can’t shake that feeling after I watch the present. I actually felt it on this scene that gave the impression of a podcast of individuals debating the morality of The Final of Us Half II. The present’s heavy-handed dialogue continues to really feel weirdly patronizing, prefer it must be sure to have thought-about each nuance that ought to really feel.
Lastly, Ellie is allowed to talk. She adopted Jesse’s recommendation and wrote her ideas right down to learn. She says she doesn’t need revenge, she needs justice. Then she factors out that in the event that they do nothing, nobody will do something as a result of nobody else is preventing for Jackson. Ellie appeals to the group side Jesse has been hammering into her head, and factors out that whereas the remainder of the world is filled with harmful “strangers,” she needs to know that the folks of Jackson can rely on one another. It is a model of Ellie we’ve seen who could be very jaded towards the thought of group, and it’s unclear if that is her making an attempt to attraction to the sensibilities of the council or if it’s a last-ditch effort to persuade herself that there’s a group for her right here. Whereas Joel might have been a beloved member of Jackson, Ellie has been ostracized by a number of folks on this small city. Her discomfort has been ignored by the adults in her life, her needs have usually been denied to her as a result of they assume they know higher, and but all that’s ever been mentioned to her is that the great of the group comes first. If she’s speculated to be a part of that friendship, why are her wants by no means a precedence? No matter her reasoning, Ellie is aware of now that she will’t rely on Jackson as a result of the council votes towards her proposal. A wave of reduction fills the room, however Ellie silently walks out.
It’s now Tommy’s flip to see the city counselor. He tracks Gail down at a tee-ball sport and he or she has her personal theories about Ellie’s speech. Tommy’s fearful that Ellie’s going to do one thing reckless, and Gail asks if he believes Ellie’s phrases on the council assembly. She says that the lady is a “liar.” Tommy says she doesn’t need Ellie to go down the identical path as Joel, who would additionally give you justifications for each violent act he carried out on this desecrated world. Gail asks if Ellie might need discovered this habits from Joel, however says that “nurture” can solely achieve this a lot, and that if violence is who Ellie is, it wasn’t as a result of Joel taught her to be. She additionally says that some folks can’t be saved, and as a lot as Tommy want to change that, it’s in all probability true of Ellie, as nicely.
Alrighty, so I alluded to this dialog in my episode one recap, and I take into account it one of the crucial disappointing in all of season two. The Final of Us showrunner Craig Mazin has talked at size about how he believes Ellie to be a naturally violent particular person, and it exhibits within the sadism she expresses in season one. It is a marked change from how the character was portrayed within the first sport, which confirmed her having no proclivity in direction of violence, only a want to be trusted to hold it out when it was essential. When it grew to become clear that Mazin’s option to make Ellie extra intrinsically violent for the present was made in a misguided try and lean into Ellie’s violent tendencies in season two, I wrote about how the one motive Ellie’s shift in direction of violence in Half II works is as a result of that sport goes out of its strategy to present that she’s not minimize out to inflict the form of violence she discovered from Joel. There are scenes within the sport which have Ellie making an attempt and failing to make use of Joel’s actual interrogation methods, and Druckmann and sport actor Ashley Johnson have spoken in Half II Remastered’s commentary about how the purpose was to indicate how Ellie was very totally different from her surrogate father, and that this violence might have been innate to who he was, however not her.
With out getting too particular about future episodes, I nonetheless discover the present’s suggestion that Ellie’s sadism and anger are simply a part of who she is to be each a misguided change and a basic misunderstanding of the story of The Final of Us Half II. The place some adjustments, like revealing Abby’s motivations early or closely implying that Ellie had some form of reconciliation with Joel, undercut the narrative rigidity of the supply materials however go away character dynamics intact, this shift simply lets Joel off the hook for who Ellie grew as much as be and colours her grief-driven campaign as extra of a tantrum that must be managed moderately than because the actions of girl lashing out at a life that has taken a lot of the issues she’s ever needed from her. Ellie’s arc in these video games is a lot extra advanced than anger points, and I discover the present’s imaginative and prescient of her violence to be so one-dimensional. Violence is a language characters use to precise the whole lot from like to hatred in The Final of Us, and it’s one which the present barely is aware of how one can learn.
Again in her shed, Ellie is doing precisely what Tommy feared: one thing silly. She’s received weapons and provides unfold round her area and is clearly gearing as much as head out by herself. Dina arrives and factors out how an arsenal and canned meals isn’t sufficient to succeed in Seattle and kill Abby. She has no plan, no route, no map; only a switchblade and a dream. Dina’s not right here to speak her out of it, she’s right here to verify she doesn’t get herself killed on the best way. In one other life, Dina could be the one who plans the women’ two-week abroad trip right down to reserving the flights and itinerary, the place Ellie will get to be a passenger princess who simply has to indicate up.
Ellie thanks Dina as she leaves, to which Dina replies that she might have simply requested. Ellie says she didn’t notice that, and if she’s grow to be this jaded towards the group of Jackson, it is smart that she wouldn’t even really feel like she might depend on her finest good friend. However hopefully, Dina’s actions quell any of her fears. As the 2 put together to go away with their horse Shimmer, they’re despatched off by none apart from Seth. He affords Ellie his rifle, some provides, and some phrases of encouragement. Ellie is skeptical the entire time, even scoffing on the notion that revenge for Joel is a collective trigger between the 2 of them. However as they go away, the 2 alternate a silent handshake. Possibly bigots can develop. A radical thought.
However earlier than we head out, Ellie has yet another place she must go. She and Dina cease at a graveyard simply south of Jackson and discover one marked “Joel Miller, beloved brother and father.” Ellie unwraps some espresso beans and spreads them over the soil, lingers for a second, then silently turns to go away. I’m glad the present shows some restraint right here, as a result of it might not have shocked me if Ellie had voiced the whole lot she ever needed to say to Joel, as that’s usually the present’s M.O. As an alternative, we received an understated second with a cute nod to Joel’s espresso fixation. It’s good.
Washington sure
We skip ahead a bit as Dina and Ellie play video games to move the time on horseback. Dina asks Ellie about her first kill. She says she gained’t speak concerning the first one (we don’t must relive Riley’s tragic destiny), however she does inform her about her and Joel’s time in Kansas Metropolis. Dina says she’s sorry Ellie needed to undergo that, which surprises our funky little lesbian. “I shoot a man and you’re feeling sorry for me?” “I’m simply loyal like that,” Dina replies.
The pair’s journey is placed on maintain as a storm passes over them. That’s how you realize they’re getting nearer to Seattle. They arrange a tent, and it’s clear that Ellie is uncertain what to do with all this closeness. Simply as the women are about to get some shuteye, Dina turns the lantern on and says she needs to speak about New 12 months’s Eve and their huge kiss. , earlier than Seth ruined it. Ellie appears to have stopped studying into it as a result of they had been each intoxicated, however Dina needs to know the way Ellie would fee it. Ellie isn’t seeking to play alongside, and when Dina reminds the room that she’s “not” homosexual, Ellie lastly provides her a quantity: six. Dina doesn’t imagine this score, however when Ellie tells her she will return to Jesse if she needs one thing higher, Dina reveals she already did. That’s seemingly resolved that difficulty.
By this level in Half II, Dina and Ellie had been established as girlfriends, and all of the romantic rigidity was gone in favor of two ladies attending to know one another on this new context. I’m okay with the present taking a unique strategy to this, as a variety of the connection constructing between Ellie and Dina is misplaced after we can’t spend hours wandering round Seattle and chatting. Introducing Dina and establishing their relationship as rapidly as the sport does in all probability wouldn’t work for TV, so changing it with some “will they/gained’t they” awkwardness might be the correct name. A number of followers had been upset that this meant the most effective scenes between the 2 in Jackson, which concerned passing weed forwards and backwards amongst different actions, went out the window. However we’re making up for some misplaced floor on this scene, so I’m prepared to see the place this goes and weigh in later.
Dina asks if Jesse appears unhappy to Ellie, and he or she replies with out hesitation that he does, although neither of them is bound why. Dina thinks perhaps that’s simply who he’s. At the very least, she hopes so. As a result of if it’s not, then perhaps she makes him really feel that method. Earlier than the 2 drift off to sleep, Dina tells Ellie she “wasn’t that excessive” once they kissed. Lady, you’ve received some choices to make.
The 2 get again on the highway within the morning, and are nearly 10 miles out of Seattle once they come throughout the aftermath of some form of battle. Our bodies of the Seraphite crew from earlier within the episode are scattered throughout the path, and as Dina investigates additional, she runs again to Ellie to puke within the bushes. Ellie goes to see what elicited such a response and finds their our bodies decomposing. Dina apologizes for her illness, pinning it on the odor. Ellie guesses from the caliber of the assorted bullet casings on the scene that this might need been Abby’s crew. Now they’ve one more reason to really feel vindicated in coming all this fashion.
Then we lastly attain Seattle. From a distance, you’d don’t know there’s a conflict occurring right here. Dina says there may not be that many wolves for them to take care of, to which Ellie says there are about to be “an entire lot much less.” Dina asks if that was a cool motion film line from the Curtis & Viper films Joel liked a lot. Ellie says that one was all her; she was simply making an attempt to sound like a badass. “You don’t must strive,” Dina whispers in her ear. Girlypop, don’t play like this whenever you’ve received a person ready for you again dwelling. (Do it. Give in to the homosexual ideas.)
Spaking of wolves, we see the primary signal of life from Abby’s crew. Manny (Danny Ramirez) is conserving watch from the stays of the House Needle, and by chance doesn’t see the Jackson girlies as he provides the all-clear for a W.L.F. crew to maneuver by way of town. Whereas Ellie and Dina could also be anticipating a small group of closely armed bandits, the group Manny clears to maneuver by way of town is sporting tanks, military-grade weapons and armor, and is shifting like a well-trained unit. Ellie’s rage might have introduced her this far, however she’s gonna want much more than that to struggle her method by way of Seattle to Abby.
New episodes of The Final of Us premiere on Sundays at 9 p.m. Japanese on Max.
