(Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for ‘The last of us“Season 2, section 1,” Future Days. “For a spoiler -free analysis, read our Full season 2 -review.)
Joel (Pedro Pascal), always fronting with gruff bravado to mask his incredible sadness, like to keep things simple. When his nephew, Benji (Ezra Agbonkhese), sits in his knee and asks about the maps that Joel looks over, Jackson’s Slacking-off construction driver happy pleases the young boy where he lives. “What is it?” Joel asks and Benji replies: “The fence!” “And what is it inside?” “People!” “And what is out?” “Monsters.”
See? Simple. The fence protects the people because the fence keeps monsters outside.
Except in the whole Season 2 premiere“Future days”, writer and director Craig Mazin Repeatedly clarifies that monsters move in, if not already here. There are stretching, strenuous loops of malicious fungi that live in the city’s pipe. There are the recently developed clicks, called “stalkers”, so furry and patient when chasing their prey. There is an obsessive villain in Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) – the former Firefly introduced at the top of the section, when she swears “Slow”, brutal revenge on Joel – which is now close enough to put Jackson in her cross chairs.
And then there is Joel, who flows between monsters and man. Section 1 starts by repeating the very last scene in season 1. Five years ago, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) is suspicious of Joel’s story about what happened in Salt Lake City. Were there really other immune people who could help scientists find a cure? Was the hospital really attacking by raiders? If not, why would Joel lie? But he lied. His story is a lie, and he lies again when Ellie asks him to swear to its true.
Even when he does, she remains doubtful and reminds us of her reluctant acceptance to start season 2 feels pointed. Sure, it’s been two years since the stage was first broadcast. Maybe Mazin just wanted to remind us of what happened. Perhaps it is a framework for the season as a whole, rather than this specific episode.
But playing the stage also gives up the central, mysterious conflict of the premiere: Ellie is angry with Joel, and no one knows why. Things seem pretty good in Jackson. The city acts as a city, with electricity and food, contracted workers and a municipal council. There is even a New Year’s Eve with live music, drinks and dance.
Ellie has grown From a 14-year-old survivor to a 19-year-old killer. She trains in hand-to-hand battle with men much bigger than her, led by Jesse (Young Mazino from “beef” fame). She practices her long -term shooting with her de facto uncle, Tommy (Gabriel Luna). She protects her patrol assignments, partly because they get closer to the action than any urban tasks would, and partly because they get closer to yours (Isabela Merced), her best friend and full -blown crusher.
Although your recently dumped Jesse-I what is described as an on-way, AV-Gen relationship that is leaning towards staying-is the couple’s flirting definitely one-sided: yours constitute jokes directed directly to Ellie’s humor; Your move in for “random” bodily contact while he helps Ellie to be aligned; You get her to go on New Year’s Eve, ask Ellie to dance and then go in for the kiss when it is clear that her partner does not think there is a shared interest.
For all romantic out there, it is enough to dream that “The Last of Us” season 2 can only continue like this for another six episodes. (Yes, this season is only seven episodes long – consider this as your first warning.) Dina and Ellie are on patrol. Dina and Ellie kill a clicker or two. Dina and Ellie go out, get stoned and fall in the head over holes. But obviously this is not where things are on the way, just as it is not everything that happens in section 1.
Yes, life in Jackson is attractive close to the normal, but monsters knock on the door. Or … are they already here?
Ellie seems to believe it. When Seth (Robert John Burke) chides her and yours for kissing at “a family event”, Joel is quick to beat the drunk and throw him out of the party. But Ellie is not angry with Seth. She’s angry with Joel. “I don’t need your damn help,” she shouts at the man who just wants to help her; The man who then goes back to his porch to fix the played strings on his guitar; The man (or is it monster?) Who saved his life by murdering dozens of innocent people in Salt Lake City.
But does Ellie know about it? The question haunts Joel so much that he can not withstand it. When he goes to control Ellie before the dance, he bounces as soon as it is clear that things are not suddenly not fucking again. When he talks to yours about it at the beginning of the episode, he tries to remove their silent feud, with the help of the advice he has received in therapy. (“I can’t keep up responsible for another’s emotional state.”)
And hell yes, Joel comes to therapy! With that said, the tension in seeing a tense, emotionally stunned, half older man (after the time of time, Joel is now 61 years) sit down to better understand that his feelings are dampened by the fact that he has been lie In every session. It is obvious that he has hoped to discover any other random issue that Ellie is cursed; One he could actually compensate for, instead of his darkest, most disgusting secret.
Fortunately, Gail (Catherine O’Hara) has not. It turns out, not only is weed-smoking, whiskey-lovely psychotherapist sick of Joel’s “boring” quoted questions, she is also crazy about him because Joel … killed her husband? Although it has not yet reviewed the wound, it was still fresh (which it is, since this is Gail’s first birthday but Eugene, and she has not even moved her boots from the entrance mat), it would be a major obstacle to even the most psychologically sound of us to get over. But Gail is trying. To her huge credit, she faces her anger by expressing how she feels. “You can’t heal anything unless you are brave enough to say it out loud,” she says, as both advice to herself and to Joel.
Joel cannot follow his leadership. In a scene intended to be played at any time Pascal’s name is turned around award circles, Joel’s eyes become a burning window for his soul. “Say what you’re afraid to say,” Gail tells him, and Joel’s expression bursts, ever so little, desperate to accept the invitation.
“Did you do something for her?” Gail says, and Joel must have the smallest nods.
“Have you hurt her?” Gail says, and Joel quickly shakes her head and controls her away from all conventional assumptions.
“What did you do then? What did you do?” Gail says, and Joel’s lips ever share so easily. His face points. A tear barely avoids its right eye. And then, as if he has already relived the moment in question and came to the same, gloomy decision, Joel’s expression cures. His eyes get dark and he gets up. The man who was there a moment ago is gone, and the monster has returned. “I saved her,” he says, less for Gail than for himself.
After Season 1 finalI wrote that Joel became the villain. His actions have the form of heroism – a father who does what it takes to save his child – but in that scenario they are selfish, destroying and tragic. Ellie told Joel that she was willing to die to save others. He refused to let her. It would hurt too much. Specifically it would hurt Joel too much. Now, with the emergence of Abby and the waste in his relationship with Ellie, we can see how his choice continues to create damage, like a fungus that is entirely and spreads over everything he touches.
So is Joel a monster? Even writing the words “villain” and “monsters” sounds too hard for a man who has shown so much vulnerability when he tries to grow as a human being, and in a show so uninterested in painting people in pure white or pitch. Still, “The Last of Us” makes its own case. When Joel stands up to leave his office, he says to his nephew, “You continue to shoot these monsters.” And Benji, bless his young soul, takes dead goals against Joel – and fires.
Rating: A-
“The Last of Us” Season 2 releases new episodes on Sundays at 21 o’clock at HBO and max.
Streak
• For as much as the Pedro Pascal Stal Show this week, section 1 is undoubtedly more focused on Ellie – and for a moment stands out: When she dances with your she tells her “friend” that every guy in the room stares at her. “Maybe they’re jealous of you,” counts yours. “No reason to be,” says Ellie. “I’m not a threat.” And then you take a beat. She sees Ellie’s death in her eye and breaks from their playful spoil. “Oh Ellie,” says yours. “I think they should be terrified of you.”
Right now, Dina Ellie tells me she is a threat to these men because your likes her – as she Like herLike her. But the emphasis that Mazin puts on the moment seems to go beyond their first kiss. Should the men in Jackson be terrified for Ellie? Is it because she is so ruthless on the patrols? Is it because she is immune? Is it because she is with Joel, who is the reason why Abby & Co. have called? It’s hard to say yet, but it’s really not just because Ellie stole Dina’s heart.
• “Will you just continue like this, every session? (…) I’ve done so long to know when someone leaves something. (…) and you want me to validate it? No. Fuck None. ”Oh man, I love Gail.
• “What do you call a grizzly rib? Bear-b-que.” With the power of the word game, Dina Ellie Forever won.
