The Last Of Us Credit: HBO Last week’s brutal episode of The Last Of Us left many newcomers to the series shocked and dismayed. The same goes for the show’s remaining heroes, who find themselves reeling after not just the infected attack on Jackson, but the gruesome murder of one of the main protagonists of the series. In many ways, the third episode of Season 2 is where the story really kicks off. Spoilers ahead. Note: I’ll discuss changes from the Naughty Dog video game later on in this post. I’ll put an additional spoiler tag ahead of those. Three Months Later Episode 3 begins in the hours following the attack on Jackson, and Abby’s (Kaitlyn Dever) brutal murder of Joel (Pedro Pascal). Tommy (Gabriel Luna) sits next to his brother’s corpse, grieving. Ellie (Bella Ramsey) is being treated in the hospital, having suffered what appears to be not only broken ribs but a punctured lung during the attack. She wakes up to visions of Joel’s death and starts screaming. They have to drug her in order to calm her down. And then, suddenly, it’s three months later. Winter is gone and spring is in full bloom. Ellie is cleared by her doctor, though she has to talk with the therapist, Gail (Catherine O’Hara) before she’s allowed to leave. I remain slightly annoyed with Gail as a character, though this scene is less irksome than her scene with Joel. Gail reveals that Joel told her he “wronged” Ellie, but that this didn’t square with her since he told her “I saved her.” The Last Of Us Credit: HBO Ellie says Joel saved her lots of times, then says, rather cheekily: “I wish I’d been able to let him off the hook for whatever it was he thinks he did. I guess I’m gonna have let myself off the hook for that.” She tells Gail that the altercation at the dance was the last time she ever spoke with Joel. She saw him on the porch the night before he died, and wishes she’d spoken with him then. But, she adds, it’s not the last thing you say to someone that defines your entire relationship. MORE FOR YOU NYT ‘Strands’ Today: Hints, Spangram And Answers For Monday, April 28th ‘Major’ U.S. Dollar Fed Warning Braces Bitcoin For A BlackRock ‘Megaforce’ Price Shock Tesla, Looking To Boost Sales, Has A New Killer Model 3 Lease Gail clears her and she returns to Joel’s house, wandering through the rooms. She finds his wood carvings and a box on the bed with his watch inside. Under some cloth, she also finds Joel’s gun. It’s clear that Tommy left these for her to find. Ellie goes through Joel’s closet, breaking down in tears in a really moving moment. Then Dina (Isabela Merced) shows up, bringing cookies as a peace offering. Apparently she hasn’t told Ellie anything about the attackers these past three months. She didn’t want to upset her during her convalescence. Now, she reveals that she knows most of their names and that they’re part of the WLF, or Washington Liberation Front, which is based in Seattle. They take this information to Tommy, who is conflicted. He wants to go find his brother’s killers, but the town is still being repaired. The Last Of Us Credit: HBO They take the matter before the Jackson Council, where we hear testimony from several of the townsfolk. One says that while she cares about Joel and what happened to him, sending 16 people off to Seattle to search for his killers would leave the town vulnerable to more attackers. Another says that revenge is not the answer. What separates the people of Jackson from their enemies is their capacity to show mercy. He’s right, of course, but sometimes people have to learn that kind of wisdom the hard way. The only one who stands up for Ellie’s cause is Seth (Robert John Burke) the guy who got in Ellie and Dina’s faces at the dance, who Joel knocked to the ground. He chastises the rest of the citizenry for being weak. We don’t let enemies come into our house and kill one of our own and do nothing, he says. They’ll just come back if we do nothing. Ellie is surprised by this. She gives her own speech, which she’s written down because she points out that she usually doesn’t think before she speaks and that’s gotten her in trouble in the past. She says that going after Abby isn’t about revenge. It’s about justice. She asks the Council to support her not for her or for Joel, but for all of them. Justice must be served. It’s a new side of Ellie that I rather like. The Last Of Us Credit: HBO It’s not enough. The Council votes overwhelmingly not to support the mission to find and execute Joel’s killers. So Ellie decides to go out on her own. Dina anticipates this and makes her own plans. She confronts Ellie and tells her that she’s going with her, and that she has a guy who can help them. It’s not Jesse, she says. He’s too much of a rule-follower. So they pack up and head to the gate, where none other than Seth appears. Ellie is still angry at him, but he turns out to be her greatest asset. People are complicated creatures. He brings them a horse, a new and better rifle, and several weeks worth of supplies. Then he helps them sneak out of the compound and on their merry way. They head first to the gravesite, and Ellie says a silent farewell to Joel. It’s quite a stunningly shot scene, with the setting sun casting an orange glow over the graveyard and the rolling hills. From here, our heroes set off on their adventure, and we’re treated to more gorgeous shots of wide-open fields, distant mountains capped in snow, thundering waterfalls and endless forest. It makes me wish we were on a different kind of journey across the American West, one not so steeped in blood and horrors. Alas, this path leads only toward darkness and death. The Seraphites The Last Of Us Credit: HBO Our first glimpse of the Seraphites, colloquially known as the Scars, is oddly gentle. A man and his daughter walk at the front of a group of travelers, all wearing muted brown cloaks, carrying hammers and packs. The father talks about their prophet, and how she’s been dead ten years, but her spirit lives on inside them. These are a group of Seraphites trying to leave Seattle and the war there behind them. We learn about their system of whistling for “all clear” and for “danger”. And danger comes in the form of the wolves, though we do not see what happens. Later, when Ellie and Dina finally make it to the outskirts of Seattle, they come across a scene of carnage. This group of moderate, peace-loving Scars has been massacred, right down to the little girl. Dina stumbles from the trees, clearly horrified, and throws up. Ellie finds the bodies and stares at them in horror. But they press on, finally coming to the ruins of Seattle, its once-glimmering skyscrapers now moss-covered ruins. And within the city we see that the “small force” Dina anticipated is actually an army. The Last Of Us Credit: HBO Big Changes From The Game (Spoilers) Some of the changes from The Last Of Us Part II here are welcome. I actually really liked the battle for Jackson last week. It leaves the town in a bad state, which gives Jackson’s citizens a very good reason to not go after Joel’s killers. In the game, we didn’t have this attack and Jackson wasn’t rebuilding, so it made less sense that they wouldn’t send people after Abby. On the other hand, this three-month gap is a little weird. In the game, Tommy sets out almost right away to go after Joel’s killers. Ellie, Dina and Jesse (Young Mazino) follow him. Here, at least at this stage of the season, only Ellie and Dina head out on their revenge quest. The implications here are kind of big when it comes to how the rest of the story plays out, since a lot of the upcoming plot is about Ellie, Dina and Jesse following in Tommy’s footsteps. Of course, these aren’t bad changes necessarily, but it’s something that will certainly make this season of TV play out much differently from the game. The Last Of Us Credit: HBO We also don’t see Abby at all, though we get a brief moment with her buddy Manny (Danny Ramirez). I’m curious if we’ll see Abby much at all this season, or if the show will take the same approach as the game, giving us mostly Ellie’s perspective in Season 2 before switching to Abby’s perspective in Season 3. The humanizing of the Seraphites was also a nice touch, though it comes at the expense of the WLF, who we already despise thanks to Abby. Still, the game’s factions feel a bit cartoonish at times. The Scars and the Wolves just sound like goofy factions from The Walking Dead. Humanizing them is important. Finally, I wonder if Ellie telling Gail that she didn’t speak to Joel on the porch is just a headfake. In the game, we know that the two did, in fact, have a very important conversation that night. This is either a really big departure from the game, or they’re just saving that conversation for later. I’m leaning towards the latter explanation. The Last Of Us Credit: HBO This was a bit of calm both before and after the storm. Last week’s episode was so intense, we kind of needed a slower, less violent moment. And we know they’re headed to the belly of the beast. Seattle not only has warring factions, but lots of infected to contend with. This might be the last time we see our heroes have a bit of fun before things go bad. Ellie and Dina had some nice moments this episode, playing alphabet games on the horse or talking inside the tent. I like their dynamic. I also thought Bella Ramsey did a good job this episode. I like her Ellie a lot more when she’s not just angry and obnoxious all the time. I thought her scene by Joel’s grave was quite moving, even without her saying a single word. Her leaving coffee beans at his grave was a really nice touch. Remember how grossed out she was by him drinking coffee in the first season? I think that grave scene was an improvement over the game in a lot of ways. Just a really beautiful moment that kind of harkens back to the very beginning of the game, when Joel and Tommy ride back to Jackson and the sun-dappled fields. Shows this dark need moments of beauty, and this episode provided those in spades. The Last Of Us Credit: HBO The Last Of Us Part II Credit: Sony What did you think? Let me know on Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. Also be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me here on this blog. Sign up for my newsletter for more reviews and commentary on entertainment and culture. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. 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