The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 1 Review - The Calm Before The Storm...

HBO's The Last of Us was an incredible achievement for was a very spotty history of video-game-to-TV adaptations. It managed to convey the tense tones of the fungal apocalypse with the heartbreak of our protagonists for those they they loved, and the eventual repairing of those breaks with what they found. Season 2 has just begun, and we're excited to see how this quality can be maintained as they move into the storyline of The Last of Us Part II.

Ahead of the premiere, TechRaptor was lucky enough to watch The Last of Us season 2 Eeisode 1. Keep in mind there will be some spoilers for the episode below as well as The Last of Us Part II.

Season 2 opens with a reminder of the status quo at the end of the first. We see the final exchange between Joel and Ellie, her making him swear that what he said about the Fireflies was true, before we get to see a funeral scene attended by the surviving Fireflies and our introduction to Abby, played by Kaitlyn Dever, and her vendetta against Joel.

"Slowly… [...] When we kill him, we kill him slowly" - Abby

This short opening sequence does a great job of reminding viewers where we were when we left off from season one, while setting up important characters for this next leg of the journey before jumping ahead five years into the future.

A New Life In A Post-Apocalyptic World

The rest of the episode is set largely in the city in Wyoming, catching the viewer up on where everyone is in life, what the current status of relations are, and showing that in this post-apocalyptic world it is possible to live a relatively normal life.

Here we get to see Joel going about as City Planner, working to fix up new houses for settlers who need a place to stay or fixing breakers by hand. 

The largest change in these five years has been the relationship between Joel and Ellie. In season one, the father/daughter dynamic grew when they needed to rely on one another for protection. They still have that father/daughter relationship but with Joel helicoptering (probably a side effect of the horrific way he lost his first daughter) and Ellie coming out of being a teenager and wanting to be seen as an adult she tries to distance herself.

I really enjoyed that even while their scenes together were tense--and who couldn't feel for Pedro Pascal's brooding expressions--that they felt very real and very normal for an otherwise not-normal world.

These 'normal' moments also do some heavy lifting to set up narrative flags, but we know that for there to be a season, there has to be conflict--even if you haven't played the games--so you can feel that these happier moments are being set up to be reflected back upon.

Ellie's rebellion continues on a raid where she and Dina, played by Isabela Merced, take out some clickers in an abandoned building. This character, who was teased in season 1, is Ellie's main love interest for the season and a confidant for her. We don't get to see too much other than their flirty banter, self-assuredness when taking out the infected, and their kiss, but I'm looking forward to seeing more of their relationship develop.

This scene also introduces the plotline of a talking infected. This is only lightly touched on, so I'm intrigued to see where this goes as the season continues.

The Powerful Small Moments

For a TV show about infected mushroom people and the collapse of society, my favorite scene in the episode wasn't about action or stealth but was when Joel went to visit his therapist, Gail played by Catherine O'Hara.

While paying for his session with a massive bag of weed, Joel is offered a drink. Gail, while remaining professional (aside from the drink) laments that this is her "first birthday without [her] husband in 41 years," a statement that makes Joel tense.

O'Hara gives an amazing performance as Gail speaks her mind about how mundane Joel's problems are. She verbalizes her internal monologue of having to say the scary things, otherwise nothing will be done about them, and then an incredible delivery of why she hates Joel, how she's tried to forgive him, but that she also knows that she can't.

Those who have played the game know that the rest of the season is fueled by revenge--the revenge of Abby for the climactic finale of season 1, and then the retaliatory revenge of Ellie. To have a moment in episode one of someone taking the higher road, expressing their hatred and anger at another, and accepting that you can not forgive someone but also not want to retaliate back,is a perfect way to set up just how poorly every decision from here on out will be made.

When Gail then asks Joel to "say the thing you're afraid to say," the camera lingers on Joel as he responds to her questions, unable to answer and reveal that the world could have been healed. Then he stands up and defiantly states, "I saved her," and walks out.

I had chills watching Pascal as Joel, recognizing on his face that he knows what he did was for him, and not for her… and definitely not for the world.

The Last Of Us Season 2 Episode 1 Review | Final Thoughts

There's a lot crammed into this episode. It doesn't exactly go anywhere, aside from knowing Abby's group is nearby. The plot doesn't move forward, but the episode does a great job to show where we are five years later.

We know where Joel and Ellie are at, we know Dina and her relationship with the major cast, and we know the plans and strategies of the settlement. We've been perfectly welcomed back into the world and caught up so that as things begin to go awry, we're ready to worry about our heroes (and villains).

I'm very excited for the continuation of this show. It makes sense that a game that many already described "as a movie" is being so wonderfully adapted for TV, but all of the little details and the stellar performances from the cast really elevate the show to be something not just for those who played the games, but for a wider audience.

The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 1 was reviewed with a copy provided by Warner Brothers Discover and HBO.