made a big to-do about Joel\u2019s anxiety<\/a><\/span> (another thing that was mostly just implied in the games), so giving him a therapy sideplot feels like the natural next step in the arc. The old man is visibly uncomfortable in Gail\u2019s home. Initially, this comes off as him being unhappy to be doing some self-work, but it quickly becomes clear why he might feel some type of way in this house specifically. Gail offers him tea or whisky before their session starts, then partakes in the latter herself. It\u2019s her birthday, the first without her husband Eugene in 41 years. Game fans will know Eugene as an ex-Firefly who died of old age shortly before the events of the game, but the show has taken some creative liberties with his history.<\/p>\nGail reveals that Joel shot and killed her husband, and she hates him for it. Surely it must be more complicated than that if he\u2019s sitting in her home right now. All we know is that Joel \u201chad no choice\u201d and that Gail\u2019s issue is less that Joel murdered Eugene than it is his methods. She expresses all this resentment as a means to pull the same kind of raw honesty out of Joel, who she suspects is holding back in their sessions. Probing into the obvious divide between him and Ellie, Gail asks Joel if he hurt her, to which he tearfully shakes his head. Then he stands up and simply says, \u201cI saved her,\u201d before walking out. Stubborn and sure of himself as ever.<\/p>\n
Of all The Last of Us<\/em>\u2019 new additions, I probably feel most conflicted about Gail. O\u2019Hara is a charismatic delight as always, and having someone who isn\u2019t scared to call out Joel Miller is a refreshing dynamic. But when the show\u2019s biggest writing problem is a tendency toward unnaturally expositional dialogue that sounds like it\u2019s coming from a YouTube explainer, having a character whose role is to make people talk about their feelings could easily exacerbate the issue. There\u2019s a danger that, rather than Joel and Ellie simply having a traumatic experience, they\u2019ll have to explain it to Gail like a book report, analyzing their lives like a text. Joel\u2019s vague confession here isn\u2019t that overt, but after seeing some of the earlier scenes in the episode, Gail\u2019s presence already makes me wary.<\/p>\n\n<\/p>\n<\/span><\/p>\n
Image: HBO<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\nA first date to die for<\/strong><\/h2>\nWe then shift over to Ellie\u2019s home, a furnished garage in Joel\u2019s backyard. The space is a nearly perfect recreation of her little hut in The Last of Us Part II<\/em>, complete with Savage Starlight <\/em>posters, retro music tapes, and the tobacco sunburst acoustic guitar with the moth decal on the fretboard. I\u2019ve always loved Ellie\u2019s tiny corner of Jackson because it says so much about her, both in the game and the show. Covered in nerdy paraphernalia from a time she can only dream about, Ellie\u2019s room is a nostalgic time capsule for a life she never got to live. Most of the collectibles and swag she\u2019s gathered over the years are here because she managed to stumble upon them in her and Joel\u2019s journey. Her collection of comics and music was salvaged like any bandage or shiv taped together to help them survive. I don\u2019t doubt that she loves the intergalactic adventures of Dr. Daniela Star, but I also find her attachment to one particular comic fascinating because I wonder if the tastes of kids in this world develop organically or if it\u2019s just about whatever they find when rummaging in dusty drawers and shelves. Ellie\u2019s room is built like a scrapbook, things chosen from whatever she finds lying around, to which she imparts special significance.<\/p>\nThat is all much more apparent in the game, as the show doesn\u2019t linger in Ellie\u2019s home for very long. We do get a cool shot of her doing some gun maintenance, which feels like an homage to Part II<\/em>\u2019s elaborate gun modification animations whenever you upgrade your gear. Then the camera lingers on Ellie\u2019s tattoo, which covers up a chemical burn where her bite mark used to be, but more on that later. Dina shows up and helps Ellie get ready for their patrol before fishing for more info on her and Joel\u2019s little spat. Ellie doesn\u2019t take the bait, though Dina doesn\u2019t strike me as someone to give up that easily.<\/p>\nThe pair collect their horses, including Shimmer, the MVP of The Last of Us Part II <\/em>(if you know, you know), and meet up with Jesse for patrol assignments. There\u2019s palpable tension between the girls and Jesse, who comes off less like a protective older brother to Ellie and more like a jilted, condescending one. Not that those things are mutually exclusive, and perhaps it works better this way considering Ellie\u2019s more young and reckless inclinations in this version of the story. Jesse is a leader in this community, and when you have someone who seems to be jaded toward the very notions of community and responsibility, perhaps it makes more sense for the two of them to be at odds.<\/p>\nJoining Ellie and Dina on this horse ride is Kat, another character who is only mentioned in Ellie\u2019s diary entries in Part II<\/em> as her first girlfriend in Jackson. That history remains true in the show, with Dina playfully telling Ellie she should take Kat to the town\u2019s New Year\u2019s dance. She\u2019s \u201cthe other one\u201d in Jackson, meaning that yeah, the queer community in this settlement is pretty small, and there seems to be some taboo around it. We\u2019ll unpack this more as the season goes on, but I do feel for Ellie in this moment, being essentially paired off with the one other young lesbian in town just because there\u2019s no one else. Every queer person has a story of a well-meaning friend telling you they have someone they think you should meet and it just happens to be the only other gay person in their orbit. It probably feels even worse when the person saying this to you is a friend you\u2019re obviously crushing on. Dina catches on that Ellie\u2019s got the hots for someone else and offers to go with her as friends, revealing that she and Jesse have broken up (again, for now). Shoot your shot, Ellie.<\/p>\nThe patrol then stumbles upon a gnarly crime-scene-like spectacle of infected corpses strewn around outside an abandoned supermarket, but hey, you should see the other guy. A bear\u2019s remains are at the center of all the carnage, and its guts are hanging out of its body. The grisly (sorry) sight doesn\u2019t deter the two lovebirds as they head into the old grocery store to take out whatever infected stragglers may be lurking within. Despite their flirtatious unseriousness, Dina and Ellie are more than capable of fucking up a group of infected. Merced and Ramsey are fun together as they joke around even in dire circumstances. The actual fight scene between the two and the infected stragglers is full of some cute nods to the games, like Ellie using a glass bottle to distract one of the beasts and then jumping on its back and frantically stabbing it, similar to her stealthy finishing move from Part I<\/em>. Which, again, also illustrates that Ramsey sure doesn\u2019t feel like the older Ellie of Part II<\/em>. But it is what it is.<\/p>\nAfter taking out one clicker, Ellie falls through the floor to a lower level, and while she thinks she\u2019s alone, it\u2019s only because the infected down here is smart enough to hide. These stalkers are another kind of infected alongside the runners and clickers everyone\u2019s used to. They can sneak, hide, and strategize in a way most infected can\u2019t. Seeing the stalker successfully outsmart and outrun Ellie is pretty terrifying. Bill once said in Part I<\/em> that infected were easy to deal with because they were predictable, and now Ellie\u2019s finding out that might not be true any longer.<\/p>\n\n<\/p>\n<\/span><\/p>\n
Image: HBO<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\nEllie gets bit in the scrap but hides it from Dina because that\u2019s easier than explaining the whole immunity thing. Speaking of difficult things, Ellie does have to explain this new infected to Tommy, Maria, and the rest of a Jackson council. Scene for scene, the Last of Us<\/em> show spends more time in Jackson than Part II<\/em> does, so it makes sense that HBO would take this opportunity to delve into the inner workings of how the settlement operates. We knew Maria calls the shots, but it\u2019s nice to know big decisions are made by a committee. There are some hints of division, though, with some suspecting the cluster of infected found in and around the grocery store could indicate a larger infected horde on its way, while others remain skeptical.<\/p>\nWe then get a scene that delves into part of Ellie\u2019s life I hadn\u2019t considered before, and is one of the more interesting moments in the episode that were created just for the show. In order to keep her immunity secret, Ellie has to cut herself further to make the bite mark less apparent, then stitching it like any other wound. She doesn\u2019t go to a medical professional, instead sanitizing her switchblade and making do. Given that the show has changed how the infection works to no longer be airborne, I was curious how season two would handle illustrating Ellie\u2019s immunity, and how she maintains the lie was an interesting bit of specificity that answered a question I hadn\u2019t previously thought about.<\/p>\n