Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey return as Joel and Ellie in HBO’s hit series. Here’s our The Last Of Us season 2 episode 1 review.
The Last Of Us season 1 felt like a small miracle. At first glance, it seemed that HBO’s video game adaptation would have no chance to recreate or adapt such a perfect game, yet we were served a beautifully written, acted and directed TV show that managed to find its own feet while staying true to the story many of us fell in love with.
Season 2 of The Last Of Us begins adapting The Last Of Us Part II, a game released in 2020 to both critical acclaim and controversy. We don’t know how much of the game this season will cover – creators Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin have already said they need more than one to adapt such a massive game – so we’re heading to the second season somewhat blindly, which only adds to the intrigue.
Episode 1, titled Future Days, takes us back to Jackson, Wyoming, where Joel’s brother Tommy and his wife Maria have created a safe haven for survivors. There’s almost a normalcy to living in Jackson; they have shops, a diner and you get to live in a house with a mailbox. Not to mention, there’s a huge wall separating the town from the outside where infected still occasionally roam.
Our heroes Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) have settled there, but it’s immediately clear that their relationship has become strained. The first season ended with Joel “rescuing” Ellie from the militia group Fireflies who were looking to use Ellie’s immunity to the cordyceps fungus that has been turning people into mindless monsters to create a potential cure. Joel lied to Ellie, telling her there was no cure, but the two have now somewhat drifted apart as the series picks up five years after the first season.
If you’re a fan of The Last Of Us Part II, there are a few diversions here. Firstly, Catherine O’Hara’s character Gail largely replaces Tommy at the beginning of the game, as Joel tells him what really happened in Salt Lake City. On one hand, if you’re familiar with the game, you might miss that original interaction between the two brothers, but O’Hara is certainly a great addition to the already impressive cast.
The scene is also a wonderful showcase of Pascal’s acting abilities, not that there was any doubt over him being able to bring Joel’s complex emotions to the screen. Gail and Joel’s session gives us another glimpse into the season’s themes; Joel firmly believes he saved Ellie, but he’s also robbed her of a chance to make a real difference in the world, even if that cost her her life.
We also meet Kaitlyn Dever’s Abby right at the beginning of the episode. Abby and her crew have buried the Fireflies Joel has slaughtered and swear revenge. The scene smartly prompts us to ask if Joel is a villain in The Last Of Us rather than the righteous hero. “We didn’t save anybody,” Abby growls as the group debate whether to go after Joel or not after trying to save survivors of the hospital massacre. Joel might have saved Ellie, but it came at a terrible cost and in someone else’s story, Joel is a monster – one worse than any infected.
Episode 1 sets season 2 up as a thematically complex, hugely intriguing season. It seems that Mazin and Druckmann are a little more open to changing things up this time around, so hopefully The Last Of Us season 2 will offer a new, surprising experience for gamers and new-comers alike.
The Last Of Us debuts new episodes each Monday on Sky and NOW.
