The highly anticipated second season of HBO’sThe Last of Ushas just aired its season finale, and the reactions from fans of both the show and the video game it’s based on have been strong. The first season of the acclaimed show was almost universally beloved among gamers and show watchers. Led by an emotionally charged, nuanced performance from Pedro Pascal, the first season was can’t-miss television. The chemistry between Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie in their makeshift father-daughter relationship was palpable. The storytelling was also top-notch, leaving gamers and non-gamers completely emotionally invested in the show.
The Last Of Us
Unfortunately, the second season of the apocalyptic showhas not lived up to the high expectationsthat the inaugural season set. It takes place five years after the events of season 1, with Joel and a now 19-year-old Ellie living in the infected-free town of Jackson, Wyoming. It starts with Joel and Ellie at odds with each other, with no explanation why Ellie is so mad at Joel. It can be inferred that Ellie had lingering suspicions about what happened in Salt Lake City five years prior, but there’s no confirmation of this until much later in the season. The inciting incident of season 2 happens in episode two, when Joel is brutally beaten to death in front of Ellie. After this devastating murder, the rest of the season starts to fall apart.
There are plenty of great moments in the season, such as the porch scene, but not enough of them to display the same storytelling quality of the first season. Besides the Joel-shaped hole in the season after episode 2, the characterization of certain characters and writing felt like they were operating on a different level than the first season. The performances from the entire cast were devoted as always, but the problems with the second season have nothing to do with the acting. It’s the storytelling itself. The creative decisions the showrunners and writers made.
Many elements of this season felt off in comparison to the first season, so let’s discuss 6 things aboutThe Last of Usseason 2 that don’t sit right.
5Ellie & Dina Consistently Needing To Be Rescued
After Ellie returns to the home she shared with Joel after three months in the hospital, she and Dina (Isabela Merced) decide they are going to travel to Seattle in hopes of finding Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) and her crew to enact revenge on Joel. The dynamic between the two women is made to seem like Dina is the brains and Ellie is the muscles. However, this dynamic is stressed to the point that it seems Ellie isn’t a smart person and couldn’t possibly figure anything out without Dina’s assistance.
This is made worse by having both Ellie and Dina rescued by either Jesse (Young Mazino) or Tommy (Gabriel Luna) consistently throughout the season. If Ellie is supposed to be the tough one and Dina is supposed to be the smart one, then why do they always need to be saved? Ellie is made to look somehow less competent than she was in the first season, when she was only 14 years old. Bella Ramsey has done an excellent job with what she was given to work with. Unfortunately, it wasn’t much. It’s not just that Ellie and Dina are consistently rescued when facing danger; it’s that they are consistently rescued by two men. It reads that the showrunners don’t believe that two women are capable of completing this journey, so instead, they become damsels in distress. The version of Ellie in the video game is hellbent on revenge and becomes a killing machine, so we know that she could be that in the show.
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4The Mischaracterization of Ellie
Part of the reason it seems like Ellie is incompetent or has no survival skills in this season is the way the writers have characterized her. There is seemingly no character growth between 14-year-old Ellie in season one to 19-year-old Ellie in season two. Yes, Bella Ramsey has a youthful appearance, but it’s not just that. She has the exact same personality and way of thinking that she did in the first season. She’s still making silly jokes in serious moments and being overly sarcastic with everyone. That’s not to say that Ellie shouldn’t be sarcastic or make jokes at all, but she should have learned by now when it is the right time to behave like that. Especially during this period in her life, when her father figure was beaten to death in front of her, and the girl she loves is pregnant.
After five years of living in the resourceful community of Jackson and under Joel’s care, Ellie should have also exhibited refined survival skills throughout the season. There were even a few moments of her training with Jesse, so we know that she has skills in combat at the bare minimum. This is a person who spent months on a cross-country journey through post-apocalyptic America with a hardened survivor. That alone was an enormous lesson in survival for her at a very young age. Somehow, Ellie showed more emotional maturity in the first season than this one. She still comes across like an immature little girl who doesn’t understand the gravity of her situation, which is a disservice to the character.
3Ellie’s Inconsistent Rage
Ellie’s mischaracterization leads to one of the biggest problems with her character this season: her inconsistent rage. In the second game, Ellie is blinded by her all-consuming rage to seek vengeance on Abby for killing Joel. It became her only motivation and caused her to lose sight of who she was as she became a ruthless killing machine. Even without having that context from the game, Ellie in the show had the same blueprint as game Ellie to becoming consumed by the need for revenge. She was forced to watch the man she considered her father violently murdered in front of her with no explanation. Joel was the only person she ever had in her entire life who was always there for her. He was her family. Yet, Ellie didn’t spend the entirety of the season angry at the world for taking Joel from her.
There weremoments when her rage was displayed, but it was inconsistentthroughout each episode. Throughout the short journey from Jackson to Seattle, it seemed like Ellie had forgotten why she and Dina were even on the road to begin with. That sentiment continued once they arrived in Seattle and started looking for the Washington Liberation Front (WLF) to find Abby. It almost seemed like it was a task Ellie was meant to do and not a revenge mission. Dina seemed more committed to enacting revenge on Abby, especially when she told Ellie how she got revenge on the people who killed her family. It wasn’t until after that moment that it seemed to fully click with Ellie why she was out there in the first place. Much of the time before that conversation with Dina was filled with Ellie making her typical jokes and trekking through the city without a clear purpose.
When Ellie finally has the chance to sneak inside the WLF headquarters, we slowly see the rage she displayed when Joel was murdered come back to life. This is mostly shown when she confronts Nora (Tati Gabrielle) in the hospital and corners her in an infected area that has been sealed off. She reveals that she knows exactly what Joel did to Abby’s dad back in SLC. She brutally beats Nora with a metal rod, ultimately leaving her alone as she becomes infected by the spores in the air. Ellie finally displayed the rage-filled violence she was capable of in that scene, yet when she had her next confrontation with other WLF members, she was unsure if she should go after them or not.
Owen (Spencer Lord) pulls a gun on her at the abandoned Seattle aquarium, and Ellie instinctively shoots him first, resulting in the bullet that goes through Owen hitting Mel (Ariela Barer) in the neck. This upsets Ellie, and she is made to feel worse when Mel reveals she’s pregnant and begs Ellie to cut her baby out of her. It’s understandable that Ellie would feel emotional after taking two lives, but she’s supposed to be on a revenge mission. She was already unsure about her actions before she shot Owen. It would have been more aligned with her character if she felt guilt later on after completing her mission.
2Little to No Backstory on the WLFs vs. Seraphites
Jeffrey Wright as Isaac Dixon interrogating a Serephite in The Last of Us Season 2.
The apparent war between the WLFs and the religious cult known as the Seraphites was introduced shortly after Joel’s death. The Seraphites, a.k.a the Scars, are a primitive group who reject pre-pandemic technology and worship a woman they refer to as a prophet. They get their nickname from the facial scarring, which is symbolic of their faith in the prophet, who believes the cordyceps infection was a divine punishment for humanity’s sins. The WLF took control of Seattle after wiping out FEDRA in the city.
We are introduced to both the WLF and Seraphites early on in the season. Other than the information above, we aren’t given much else about their impending war or why we should care about either of them. Abby became a member of the WLF after her father was murdered, but that’s the only connection the audience has with them. It’s also clear that this isn’t a good versus evil situation, as both the WLF and the Seraphites are violent groups who believe they are in the right. The WLFs capture and torture Scars, while they gut and hang WLFs.
The sentiment that humanity is lost aligns with the theme of the never-ending cycle of violence, but again, we don’t interact with either group enough to truly be invested. What happened between the groups that caused this vicious war?Why is WLF leader Isaac (Jeffery Wright)seemingly infatuated with Abby? Clearly, these questions are meant to be answered in season 3, but it would have been more beneficial for the audience to have learned at least some of this information during the second season.
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1The Order of Events
The chronology of this season has significantly affected the impact of the story. It’s a combination of the flashback placements, the time jump between seasons, and the timing of important moments that could have been done differently. The order of events in season 2 has had a hand in creating many of the problems listed in this article. Mainly, the decision to tell the audience in the first episode why Abby was coming after Joel lessened the impact of his death.It was still heartbreaking,but many viewers knew it was coming because of that. If her intentions were revealed after she killed Joel, it would have been more shocking and upsetting. The three-month gap between Joel’s death and Ellie’s quest also made it seem like his death was insignificant to the residents of Jackson.
The flashback episode covering the five-year gap between seasons isn’t just one of the best episodes of the season, but one of the best episodes of the entire show. It beautifully showed how much Ellie and Joel meant to each other while showing the slow deterioration of their relationship. However, it interrupted the apex of Ellie’s mission in Seattle. That episode may have been better placed after episode two, and the porch scene specifically might have been more impactful at the end of the season.
Where the season ended was also a bit odd and extremely frustrating. Plenty of shows have ended seasons on massive cliffhangers likeTLOU, but knowing that it will likely be two years before season 3 sees the light of day is beyond frustrating. The whole point of the season was for Ellie to confront Abby, and it cuts to black just as that’s happening and gunshots are fired. It wasn’t a bad season of television, but it didn’t feel on par with season 1.
