New episodes of season 2 of The Last of Usare premiering on HBO every Sunday night, and Ars' Kyle Orland (who's played the games) and Andrew Cunningham (who hasn't)will be talking about them here every Monday morning.
While these recaps don't delve into every single plot point of the episode, there are obviouslyheavy spoilerscontained within, so go watch the episode first if you want to go in fresh.Kyle: I'd like to personally welcome Andrew and everyone else who didn't play The Last of Us Part 2 to the summer of 2020, when the gaming world was rocked by the most shocking video game character permadeath this side of Final Fantasy VII.Before we get into how they changed Joel's pivotal death scene for the TV show, and why I think it doesn't work quite as well here, I'd love to hear more about what was going through your head both as it was happening and after.Andrew: This should, if nothing else, reinforce my bona fides as someone who has not the faintest idea what is coming.My main reaction is "Boy, Kyle just let me say a whole bunch of things last week even though clearly he knew this was what was going to happen!" I thought we were watching the opening to a second season of a TV show in the first episode, the establishment of a new status quo that we would then explore over the course of the next few episodes.
But we were, instead, playing the tutorial level of a second video game, right before everything blows up.I was pretty astonished by what the show did to Joel.
Not just because I didn't see it coming! But because it leaves the show without one of the two nuanced and well-developed characters we spent all of last season building up.
I don't, uh, love it, as a storytelling decision.
Probably the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Credit: HBO Probably the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Credit: HBO Kyle: I will say it was hard not even alluding to what was coming last week, but it was also kind of fun just letting you have your last "Sweet Summer Child" moments in the sun.
I also felt that Joel's sudden absence hurt the remainder of the game, though based on the storytelling beats we've seen and/or missed so far, I wouldn't be shocked if we have some flashbacks...Back in 2020, I actually had the shocking moment spoiled by some pretty major leaks that I ended up covering as a journalist weeks before I was able to review the game myself.Aside from that, though, the show kind of dampens the impact of "The Moment" by making Abby's motivations crystal clear for 1.5 episodes leading up to it.
In the game, you actually play as a mostly blank-slate Abby for a few brief scenes before being rescued by Joel.
After that, the shocking turnaround plays out as a quick gut punch during a cutscene that has a lot less Abby-monologuing than the show did.The game doesn't fill in the details about the "why" of it all for the audience until much later, which makes the whole thing that much more impactful.
But maybe the showrunners figured that since the game already exists, it would be hard to keep the audience off balance like that for weeks when they could just look up what was going on...Andrew: The monologuing was off-putting, honestly, and gets to the heart of what I'm concerned about.
I'll refrain from speculating a ton about a game whose plot it would take me about 30 seconds to look up and read, but I'm not particularly excited to watch Ellie chase down this generically angst-ridden fresh-faced former Firefly? Does the show now need to be carried by a bunch of the Jackson Hole characters we just met? None of these possibilities are as interesting to me as watching Joel and an adult Ellie deal with their issues.
Ellie will probably be just fine after all this, right? Credit: HBO Ellie will probably be just fine after all this, right? Credit: HBO Kyle: Yeah, I don't think it's spoiling much to say that Joel and Ellie's relationship carried the first game, and now it's obvious that Ellie's hunt for revenge is going to attempt to carry the second.
It's a rough shift that I don't think did the second game any favors, personally.The game goes to a lot of trouble to literally put you in Abby's shoes and eventually tries to try to make her own revenge saga feel a little more earned.
Here, I feel like the show is being a bit more blunt about selling you her backstory at the front end and attempting to "justify" her brutal turn toward Joel somewhat in advance.I wondered if you found yourself sympathizing at all with her character at this point.Andrew: Obviously what Joel did to the Fireflies is awful, maybe unforgiveable.
Beyond the lie to Ellie, there's a strong possibility that he deprived humanity of a cure for the disease causing the very-much-ongoing apocalypse.But, like, no! I don't sympathize with Abby! Not only is she driven solely by this bland Inigo Montoya thing, but she sadistically tortures someone who just saved her stupid life, brutalizing Joel so much that it drives her also-supposedly-revenge-driven Firefly friends to tears.
If I'm supposed to sympathize with her, the show did pretty much everything possible to make sure I don't.On paper, what Joel did is probably way worse, but we've also been primed by a whole season of TV (and by the charm of Pedro Pascal) to try and understand why he did what he did.
None of this is really happening with Abby.Kyle: Yeah, "supposed to sympathize with her" is a bit too strong, perhaps, especially at this point in the narrative.
But I do think the show is trying to make her actions at least feel partially justified or understandable? It will be interesting to see how the show handles turning her into a more fleshed out character, because at this point, her revenge quest feels a bit mustache-twirling to me.Backing up a bit, this episode also featured a huge set-piece zombie horde battle that ruins the brief calm we enjoyed in Jackson Hole.
The scene played out so much like a video game mission that I had to go back and make sure I hadn't forgotten about some major Jackson Hole firefight in the game.
But no, this is a pure creation of the show.I think the whole thing worked pretty well both as a reminder of the precarity of the vestiges of human civilization and an excuse for some flashy special effects.
I also thought for a second that they were actually going to kill off Tommy so the show had its own totally unexpected death, even for people who had played the game.
That couple of minutes with the flamethrower was actually tense for me! Mmmmm...
roasted mushrooms...
Credit: HBO Mmmmm...
roasted mushrooms...
Credit: HBO Andrew: Maybe Abby will become more fleshed-out, and maybe she won't.
But she's started by making the exact same mistake as Joel: leaving witnesses.I did enjoy the zombie battle a lot.
The liquid churn of the snow as a million guys burst out from under it: creepy! Good on the show and HBO for figuring out a way to do a snowy zombie horde fight without making it feel too reminiscent of Game of Thrones.I will, again, refrain from speculating overmuch about where the Jackson Hole storyline goes since I'm not even sure at this point how much time will be spent on the aftermath and rebuilding (if there is rebuilding rather than further societal collapse).
I did find myself wondering during the flamethrower scene whether roasted mushroom guy smelled appetizing or whether people in this world can even bring themselves to enjoy mushrooms on a pizza or in an omelette.Kyle: I bet eating a normal mushroom in The Last of Us universe is akin to eating a hallucinogenic mushroom in the real world.
A little bit of a dangerous taboo for iconoclastic rulebreakers to show they're open-minded.Andrew: We've established that I have no idea what is going to happen next, but we do have dangling threads here to deal with next week.
How do the residents of Jackson Hole deal with the fungus in their pipes? How many people try to talk Ellie out of her revenge tour before she goes off and does it anyway? How are the Smart Zombies we met last week going to come back and cause problems? How many more Abby flashbacks will I need to sit through?But above all, I'm really curious to know what the show is going to do to keep game-players like yourself on your toes.Kyle: Last season we got the surprising "Nick Offerman's life of love among the zombies" story as the third episode, and I wouldn't mind a similar out of nowhere left turn to wash out Joel's death this time around.
I'm not saying that has to take the form of what would be a stunning, unexpected, and completely illogical return of Offerman's Bill character.
But if that is what the show decides to do, I would not complain.dc5bda983204b081f625d1c0e3d85d9c