This article contains spoilers for the The Last of Us season two. Please do not read unless you have seen episode one.
Hello, and welcome to the first of our weekly episode recaps for season two of The Last of Us (AKA dispatches from year 25 of the fungal apocalypse).
The story so far
Season one of The Last of Us, adapted from the popular 2013 PlayStation video game, launched in January 2023, so you could be forgiven for being a little hazy on the details. It was mostly set 20 years after the US was shattered by a mutated Cordyceps infection (brain hijacking mushrooms, basically) that transformed humans into zombie-like “clickers”. Scruffy smuggler Joel (Pedro Pascal) was hired by a militia called the Fireflies to transport 14-year-old Ellie (Bella Ramsey) from Boston to Salt Lake City. What made this kid so valuable? She was immune to infection. But when Joel realised the Fireflies were happy to kill Ellie to develop a possible cure, he rescued her. A whole lot of people died in the process but Joel hid that from Ellie while also pretending that others were immune, so it was not just her responsibility to save the world.
Season two opens by reiterating that final scene of Joel swearing to Ellie that he told her the truth about what happened, even if the very long pause before her cautious reply (“OK”) suggests she has some suspicions. But this time round we also get to see the aftermath in Salt Lake City, as five young people gather around the graves of the many, many Fireflies killed by Joel. The angriest among the mourners is Abby – played by Kaitlyn Dever, star of Netflix’s recent Apple Cider Vinegar – who is determined to track Joel down. Owen (Spencer Lord) suggests they set course for Seattle to get help from another militia. But Abby seems obsessed with getting revenge: “When we kill him, we kill him slowly.”
Five years on
After the credits, a considerable time jump. It is now five years later in Jackson, Wyoming – the fortified settlement where Joel previously reunited with his brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) – and things are complicated between our heroes. Joel, a little greyer and with the occasional need for glasses, is diligently fixing up properties to help Jackson house a steady stream of refugees. Ellie, now 19 and with the intricate arm tattoo to prove it, is practising mixed martial arts and sniping while giving her surrogate father the cold shoulder. Is it just teen angst or something deeper? At least she has lost none of her sass, giving town patrol organiser Jesse (Young Mazino) plenty of backchat and emotionally blackmailing Tommy into getting her off boring old gate-watching duty.
Ellie has a devil-may-care equivalent in Dina (Isabela Merced), who also seems to be straining against the strictures of life in a close-knit frontier settlement. But perhaps the most interesting new character is Gail (Catherine O’Hara), a psychotherapist who accepts payment in weed. That the taciturn, self-reliant Joel has sought out a shrink speaks to the intensity of his concern about his broken relationship with Ellie. But his bourbon-fuelled session with Gail throws out another curveball: he apparently shot and killed her husband, Eugene, a year ago. Presumably there were some mitigating circumstances?
Outside the walls
A tooled-up Ellie and Dina head out on horseback for recon patrol. After discovering a bloody bear carcass mauled by clickers they scramble up into the top level of a derelict supermarket to test their sneaking and combat skills. After successfully taking down a clicker, Ellie falls through a rickety floor into the market proper, where – in a supremely tense sequence – she encounters a new kind of infected: one that seems faster, smarter and, crucially, not blind like the mushroom-faced rank-and-file. She manages to take it down but not before being bitten (which confirms, at least, that her immunity has remained intact). At her subsequent debrief in front of Tommy, his no-nonsense wife Maria (Rutina Wesley) and the rest of the town council, Ellie says she felt as if she was being stalked, suggesting a terrifying evolution in humanity’s enemy.
Unhappy new year?
Turns out this has all been taking place on New Year’s Eve 2028, with the townsfolk looking forward to a community cookout and dance. Joel checks in on Ellie, who has moved into the garage. But the joy of seeing our two main characters finally share a proper scene together is undercut by their inability to connect with each other. Instead, Joel notices her acoustic guitar needs new strings and hustles away to take care of it.
Even before we saw her journalling about it, it was clear that Ellie had a crush on Dina. At the shindig, she is scooped on to the dancefloor by her hedonistic friend. “How bad do I smell?” jokes the sweaty Dina, but what starts out as a goofy slow dance turns into a heartfelt kiss. It is a beautiful moment, albeit one ruined by a homophobic old dude who tuts at them. When that disapproval escalates into violence, with Joel charging in, the fallout is messy. “I don’t need your fucking help!” shouts Ellie, in front of the entire town.
If that flare-up left a sour taste, there were other unsettling portents. The roots choking an underground pipe on Joel’s building site seemed to twitch in response to a dropped sparkler – might they connect back to the wider Cordyceps network and attract more infected? But even more ominously, the last scene saw Abby, Owen and others in outdoor gear reach an overlook with a view of Jackson, lights twinkling in the darkness. Looks like 2029 could be full of unpleasant surprises for Ellie and Joel.
Finally, a little housekeeping. As noted in the opening credits, season two is adapted from the 2020 PlayStation sequel The Last of Us Part II, although with only seven episodes it is unlikely to cover the entire story of that sprawling game. If you’ve played through it you probably have an idea of where things are headed. This recap blog will focus on what we’re seeing on-screen, so please don’t spoil things for non-players in the comments.
Notes and observations
If seven episodes feels a little meagre, rest assured there is more Last of Us to come: HBO confirmed last week that there would be a third season.
The song Ellie was listening to while getting ready for patrol was Nirvana’s 1988 debut single Love Buzz (a cover of a song by 1960s Dutch rockers Shocking Blue, who also wrote the amazing Venus).
Two passing mentions of Curtis and Viper this week: in-universe, it’s the trashy 1980s action movie franchise that Joel used to watch with his daughter Sarah, who died in the initial 2003 outbreak.
We’ve seen clickers chomping on humans – and now a poor bear – so turnabout seems like fair play: some of the younger cast members did a mushroom taste test.
One musician in Jackson’s resident party band Brittany and the Jug Boys had a distinctive-looking white beard. That was a fitting cameo from Gustavo Santaolalla, Argentinian composer of the game and TV show’s haunting theme.
What did you think? After all the anticipation, did episode one live up to the hype? What do you make of the new characters? Have your say below, but please avoid spoilers from the game …
