[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 5. For previous coverage, check out last week’s review.]
“I know.”
Who knew two little phrases may evoke so many questions? From the second Season 2 started, “The Last of Us” has saved audiences at nighttime over how a lot Ellie (Bella Ramsey) is aware of about what Joel (Pedro Pascal) did for her (or, extra precisely, what he did for himself). The opening moments (which revisit the ultimate scene from Season 1) see Ellie asking Joel to “swear” that the story he informed her is true; that what he mentioned occurred with the Fireflies within the Salt Lake City hospital was what actually occurred. He swears, promising her there was no different selection, however the expression on her face doesn’t mirror an individual who’s satisfied; it’s extra like an individual who’s resolved.
Five years after that vow, when Season 2’s story picks up, Joel and Ellie are in a silent feud. He doesn’t know why, and she or he received’t clarify it to him (or anybody), however the implication — led to by Joel’s responsible conscience as a lot as writer/director Craig Mazin’s selection to border their battle because the very very first thing that occurs in Season 2 — is that she’s mad at him for mendacity to her, or hiding one thing from her, or killing dozens of harmless folks to “save her” from giving up her personal life to be able to save the remainder of humanity. We don’t know if that’s why Ellie’s mad. We don’t even know if she is aware of Joel lied to her. But it’s all now we have to go on, and really purposefully so.
Then, Joel dies. Gail (Catherine O’Hara) tries to ask Ellie about their battle, months after her restoration, however Ellie isn’t speaking. She’s nonetheless within the “anger” section of her grief, which implies she’s not prepared to speak about regrets or guilt. She’s not prepared to speak about something, actually. She’s solely prepared for revenge.
In that very same episode, Gail raises one other level about Ellie — she says Ellie is a liar. “There’s a difference between lying and being a liar,” Tommy (Gabriel Luna) says, making an attempt to defend Ellie. But Gail doesn’t soften. “Oh, I know,” she says. “And that one? Liar.” At the time, Gail was calling bullshit on Ellie’s speech to the council, when she plead with the powers that going to Seattle to search out and kill Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) was in everybody’s greatest curiosity. Was Ellie mendacity? Absolutely. Is she a liar? That’s tougher to say.
The similar questions linger after Episode 5, when Ellie claims to already know what Joel did. Is she mendacity or not? Did she actually know what Joel did earlier than Nora (Tati Gabrielle) tells her? Or is she solely saying she knew what he did so she will maintain taking part in the righteous avenger? So she will stick together with her mission to kill Abby? So she will show to herself that nothing will cease her, as a result of nothing is extra vital than getting revenge?
Is Ellie mendacity or is she a liar? Does Ellie lie typically, like youngsters do to keep away from bother or get what they need, or is she a perpetual liar who can’t cease mendacity, even to herself? If it’s the latter, Gail is likely to be proper: Ellie could already be past saving.
Episode 5 provides Ellie loads of causes and alternatives to rethink her plan. At instances, it even looks as if her doubts could overwhelm her resolve. The ending proves it’s too sturdy to disregard — staring dying within the face makes some folks run the opposite means, but it surely has a hardening impact on Ellie, who’s seen it too many instances, with too many family members, to again down over a stranger’s disembowelment or fungal entombment — however getting there could have nonetheless seeded sufficient doubt to save lots of her… ultimately.
Take Ellie and Dina’s first second of hesitation. After Dina (Isabela Merced) charts a “safe” course to the place they assume Abby is hiding, they stumble throughout a mural on the aspect of a constructing. It’s a portrait of a girl with the phrases “Feel Her Love” written beneath. But immediately below which are a pile of lifeless our bodies — all Scars (or “Seraphites,” as they’re labeled within the credit) — with one other message written in graffiti simply above them: “feel this bitch.”
It’s sufficient to make Dina throw up and Ellie rethink the plan. She tells Dina they don’t must maintain going; that it’s loopy to ship a pregnant girl on a mission this harmful; that Dina can return, and Ellie will end the job with out her. That, after all, doesn’t fly with Dina, who shares with Ellie the brutal story of what occurred to her household when she was eight years outdated. Telling the story, remembering her anguish, steels Dina once more, and it reassures Ellie that the 2 of them ought to maintain going.
But the doubt doesn’t disappear. It shifts, backwards and forwards, between two cussed events reluctant to waver — in entrance of one another and to their very own beliefs. After their failed try to chop by way of the large not-so-empty constructing (gee, I’m wondering why the W.L.F. isn’t patrolling in there?), Jesse (Young Mazino) says the brand new plan is to go again to Dina and Ellie’s hideout on the theater, meet up with Tommy, and get the heck out of dodge. “No,” Ellie says, nearly instinctively. This time, it’s Dina whose doubts prevail, if just for an prompt. She appears at Ellie and says her title, wordlessly implying that what Jesse says is smart. It’s too exhausting to get to Abby. Seattle is just too harmful to outlive on their very own.
But earlier than they will hash it out, the hazard catches as much as them. Dina will get shot within the leg, and Ellie splits from the trio. She leads to the Seattle hospital, the place she surprises Nora (as she tends to injured sufferers, no much less) after which chases her into the contaminated basement. There, she will get a style of vengeance for what the wolves did to Joel.
“Don’t you know what he did?” Nora says, earlier than Ellie begins beating her (presumably to dying) with a pipe. “He killed every person in that hospital, including the only fucking person alive that could make a cure from you. That was Abby’s father. And Joel, Joel shot him in the head. That’s what he did.”
“I know,” Ellie says.
Did she? Did she actually? What does it imply if she did? If she didn’t? If she knew and sought vengeance anyway, would possibly that assist her see the cycle of violence she’s persevering with? If she didn’t know and she or he’s mendacity to Nora, is there nonetheless an opportunity Ellie wakes as much as what she’s doing? If studying what Joel did wasn’t sufficient to shake her convictions, what may?
Before Joel died, when Ellie was on the point of go on patrol with Jesse, she informed him, “My shit with Joel is complicated. I know that. From the outside, it probably looks really bad. It has been really bad. But I’m still me, he’s still Joel […] and nothing’s ever going to change that. Ever.”
Whether or not Ellie knew then what she definitely is aware of now, the very fact stays: Something wants to alter in Ellie’s relationship with Joel. If it’s not this, then… what?
Grade: A-
“The Last of Us” releases new episodes Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.
Stray Tendrils
• Episode 5’s closing tease — a momentary flashback to when Ellie was nonetheless residing with Joel (earlier than she moved into the storage, so earlier than the occasions within the Season 2 premiere) — implies there’s nonetheless one thing to be realized from Joel and Ellie’s time collectively. We’ll discover out extra in Episode 6, however for now, I gotta say, it felt actually good to see Joel once more. Even for a second, even in flashback, I welled up.
• Last week’s opening scene launched Isaac (Jeffrey Wright). This week’s opening scene spent extra time with the wolves, and it positive looks as if Season 2 is threading of their story as extra than simply an evidence of what Ellie and Dina are up in opposition to.
Hanrahan (Alanna Ubach) questions Sgt. Park (Hettienne Park) about what went down together with her unit within the hospital basement. Turns out, the decrease ranges have been the place the primary contaminated sufferers have been introduced for therapy again in 2003. Now, it’s grown right into a hotbed of unprecedented cordyceps exercise. Sgt. Park says issues appeared tremendous on the primary ground, though the vacancy was its personal eerie warning. But when she despatched her greatest staff to clear the second ground, Leon — Park’s son — by no means got here again. (It appears secure to imagine the second physique Ellie finds down there afterward, an Asian man connected to a wall of fungus, is Leon.)
“He said it’s in the air,” Park tells Hanrahan, by the use of explaining why they sealed off the exits and left helpful troopers to die. Hanrahan commends her for bravery and fast pondering, however the true message of the scene — moreover the terrifying evolution of the cordyceps an infection — is that Sgt. Park did what Joel couldn’t: She let her little one die to guard the remainder of humanity. Maybe it makes a distinction that Leon was older than Ellie. Maybe it makes a distinction that there was no precise approach to save him. Or possibly none of that issues, relating to selecting the anonymous lots over your individual family members.
•“Why because I’m stupid?”
“That’s not the word I would use.”
“What word would you use?”
“Non-school oriented.”
– Dina’s bought jokes!
• “Haunted and empty.”
“Aw, just like us.”
– Dina’s bought jokes! (Though this one was a groaner.)
• Horror sequels typically have a tough time upping the ante relating to their scary monsters, however I gotta say, the “smart” contaminated in Season 2 are messed up. The means they sort of dance round within the distance, ready for who is aware of what earlier than they assault, is deranged. Their pace and ferocity is simply as rabid as their extra senseless brethren, and their warehouse assault this episode is shot so properly, it looks like they’re roaring in from each path. (Kudos to Emmy-winning episode director Stephen Williams.)
• Another savvy directorial design: framing Jesse’s heroic entrance. Not solely does all hope appear misplaced by the point Jesse blasts the primary contaminated off of Ellie, however there’s zero indication as to who may probably have proven as much as save them. Is it a wolf, killing off the contaminated clickeres earlier than interrogating the uninfected intruders? Is it somebody from Jackson with miraculously good timing? Is it… Joel?
No, after all it’s not Joel, however don’t blame your self for pondering it is likely to be, if just for a second. He is, in spite of everything, the hero we’ve come to count on will save the day. Keeping Jesse at a distance, his face and different distinguishing options out of body, permits the viewer to recollect when Joel was capable of come to Ellie’s assist, and seeing Jesse’s entrance from her vantage level gives a bit of pang of grief-tinged nostalgia. Not solely are we hoping in opposition to hope for Joel’s return, however so is she. Has one way or the other, someway, her hero returned? No. Of course not. But Jesse could be the hero she wants, if not the one she desires.
• “Hey kiddo.” 😭
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