Well we’re in the thick of it now!
Episode 5 picks up where the last episode ended, with Dina and Ellie continuing their adventure to find the WLF’s in Seattle and things are starting to heat up with day 2. This episode is the third last for season two, as season two has a shorter run with only 7-episodes than the previous seasons 10-episode run.
If you’ve not seen this week’s episode then it’s time to go before we get into spoilers!
SPOILERS – SPOILERS – SPOILERS
The show has really emphasised how terrifying the cordyceps virus really is, and how a disease like this could wreak havoc on the world. The Last of Us series has really given many chilling moments as to how horrifying this virus is, with the opening talk show from the pilot about how unprepared we are for a strong virus to sweep the world, and one of my favourite moments, when a Doctor in the first season told the military the only way to secure it doesn’t destroy the world is by bombing their location. Well they’ve done it again, whilst spores aren’t a new concept for gamers of the series, the opening scene from this episode finally introduces spores to the show and the scene has been my favourite from this season. The horror both characters had when they discovered the virus is now airborne was a chilling discovery that didn’t receive as much depth in the game, because yeah the virus becoming airborne should scare the absolute hell out of everyone!
The emphasis of the evolving disease in this episode was also very much welcome. The scene with Ellie & Dina taking on the stalkers was brilliant. The evolved and intelligent infected were genuinely nightmare fuel, the way they moved and stalked the pair was one my favourite displays of infected in the series. Hordes are frightening, clickers give me PTSD as a game player, but those Stalkers genuinely scare me as intelligent creatures.
Ellie & Dina continue to grow as a couple in this episode, and their growing relationship has been a good point of light in an otherwise darker season. Dina having a personal stake in what happened to Joel is a great addition to the story and allowing her to join Ellie on her quest for revenge feels far more natural than her games counter-part. Again, I know this is far from the first time I’ve said this but there are many points where I feel Ellie should be darker in character more frequently. Ellie is the doorway for the audiences emotions and it seems the audience are far more angry and in-grief than Ellie is at times and I feel disconnected with her at times because of it. That said, we finally did get vengeful and wrathful Ellie with the end of this episode. Her confrontation of Nora and the dialogue they shared was fuelled with the anger and grief I personally wish we’d seen on the surface more of this series. Whilst it did feel like a sharp change in character mood it still felt earned and executed well.
This episode also brings the return of Jesse, and kinda Tommy. Jesse steps in to save Ellie & Dina from the stalkers and mentions that Tommy has joined him in searching for Ellie & Dina (Please show me crash out Tommy and instead turns on revenge quest). The addition of Jesse will offer a good change in character conversation and dynamic in the next few episodes as the questioning of Ellie’s quest will be for sure a topic of conversation when they regroup.
I find myself with the same complaint I’ve had the last few weeks of; how do we wrap this up without it being rushed with only two episodes remaining. With next weeks episodes looking to be the flashback episode of what happened to Joel & Ellie after the Fireflies (which I’m genuinely ecstatic to see, Pedro I’ve missed you) that then only leaves one-episode for us to wrap this season in our current time. I have suspicion where this season will finish in-tangent with the games story it still feels like an awful lot of ground to cover to get there in potentially a single 60 minute episode. But I guess all we can do is see!
Whilst I know I’ve been overly critical of the shows pacing so far this season, I have though for the most part enjoyed it more than I expected. After playing the game I did openly say to my boss after they asked me to do these reviews “don’t make me sit through this depression again man, I can’t be that sad for that long again!”. But despite the pacing concerns for the most part it has been a good addition to the HBO series, one that thankfully doesn’t fill me with so much pure dread as the game did, seriously I didn’t sleep for the three days it took me to play the game, I was just that depressed. Whilst I do find myself criticising Ellie needing to be darker and pushed further to grief for the sake of the story, as a pure show viewer I’m glad that it also hasn’t. With a show being released weekly like this it hasn’t been as much of an emotional toll week to week as the game was. With two episodes left I am confident these next two and last episodes of season two will be solid conclusions to the first part of The Last of Us Part 2.
Monday get here already I need to see Pedro on that guitar, I’ve been listening to Pearl Jam for weeks damn it!
